Career Development, Planning & Exploration Process
Career Development Process
Career development is an important and exciting journey for each student. We view a student’s career development journey as a progression of experiences inside and outside the classroom, empowering decisions regarding who they are, who they want to be, and what careers might best suit their personal and professional goals.
- What are your hobbies, favorite classes, and interests?
- What comes naturally to you?
- What are the problems you would like to solve?
- What is important to you?
- What extracurricular activities do you enjoy? What have you learned about yourself from participating in them?
- What would others say you are good at?
- What ideas or topics spark your curiosity?
- What impact do you want to make on the world?
- Take personality & interest inventories
- My Next Move provides a comprehensive exploration tool on various careers and industries. It also has the O*NET Interest Profiler which can help you find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work through a free online assessment.
- Work Values Matcher Assessment identifies your work values of a job or work environment. Work values can change from career to career, from employer to employer and from one job to another. Every person has different preferences when it comes to the workplace. Some people value independence, while others prefer a close relationship with colleagues. Some like to feel busy throughout the day, while others prefer to set their own pace. Assessment provided by careeronestop.org
- Skills Matcher Assessment - Your skills describe what you are good at, whether due to formal training, previous work experience, or other activities. Work-related skills include categories such as sales, data analysis, teaching, operating equipment, caring for patients, writing code, management, speaking a foreign language, and many more. Knowing, and being able to describe your skills allows you to write a clearer, more persuasive resume, and answer important questions at job interviews such as What can you do for my organization? and What problems can you solve? Assessment provided by careeronestop.org
- Meet with your student coach to explore and discuss different majors and their requirements.
- Zippia is a job research site with career pathway information organized by major, industry, and job roles. It includes a free career explore tool along with salary statistics and real-time job and internship postings.
- O*NET OnLine is the primary source of occupational information in the U.S. that ties to the occupations in the Strong Interest Inventory®. Users can search its database of nearly 1,000 occupations to learn about their training and education requirements, job duties, salary information, career outlook, and more.
- Conduct informational interviews to gather in-depth information about career fields, positions of interest, and industry trends directly from industry professionals.
- CareerOneStop hosts a career video library of professionals speaking about their day-in-the-life and offering tips on how to break into various industries.
- Occupational Outlook Handbook The official occupational handbook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists career information for hundreds of occupations, such as typical job duties, education and training required, salaries, and job outlook.
- My Plan - For both students and career seekers, this site helps you to research careers, watch videos about a variety of professions, and explore college majors.
- Job shadow - Read interviews from real people who share their experiences about their jobs. Hundreds of job titles to explore.
- Reach out to recruiters on Handshake and practice networking
- Use the LinkedIn to find and connect with Bellevue University alumni by where they work, where they live, what they do, what they studied, and more.
- CareerOneStop hosts a career video library of professionals speaking about their day-in-the-life and offering tips on how to break into various industries.
- View the Event Calendar in Handshake for Employer events, Career Fairs, and workshop opportunities. Attend regularly to develop career readiness skills
- View our How to Write Resumes and Cover Letters for examples of resumes from various industries, tips on writing cover letters, a list of action verbs, instructions on how to compose result based bullets, and a sample reference sheet.
- Create your own personal brand online and bring the world to your door with our guidance on creating a LinkedIn profile.
- Schedule an appointment on Handshake to ask basic career questions, explore career resources, or get a quick critique on your resume or cover letter.
- Resume Worded is an AI-driven platform offering students essential resources to assist with resume creation. Resume Worded instantly provides tailored constructive feedback on your resume and Resume Optimizer enables you to create a resume targeted toward a specific job description.
- Get your resume reviewed by Career Services.
- Schedule a Mock Interview on Handshake to learn how to sell yourself and sharpen your interview skills with a Career Coach.
- Handshake is Bellevue University’s online job platform containing internship and job postings, a calendar of workshops and recruitment events, as well as additional resources.
- Participate in a Micro-internships. They are offered by companies in all kinds of shapes and sizes – from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. Assignments go across all departments, including sales, marketing, technology, human resources, and finance.
- Attend Career Center sponsored events including Career Fairs (hosted in Fall & Spring) and other opportunities offered by school-based career centers.
- Complete a micro- internship or internship.
- Forage offers free, very-short virtual work experiences, which are online programs designed and delivered by leading companies. Each virtual work experience contains a series of resources and tasks designed to simulate the real-world experience of starting a career. Forage experiences are 6-8 hours long and help students be better prepared for the workplace by providing the opportunity to gain the relevant skills and experience to be successful in their career journey. Students do not need to apply and there is no cost involved.
- Volunteer in the community to gain leadership, communication, and social awareness skills.
- Leverage platforms like LinkedIn and ensure you make connections with faculty, visiting employers, and BU Alumni.
- Professional Associations related to industry are a great source for making new connections.
*For additional resources to guide you through your Career Development Process, please review the Job Prep Menu of our website:
https://www.bellevue.edu/student-support/career-services/career-services
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