2 FIRST YEAR-Explore Possibilities: Career Coaching
FIRST YEAR-Explore Possibilities: CAREER COACHING
Your first year is all about exploring–learning about yourself and how that impacts what you want to study academically and career options down the line. Additionally, coaching can help you make campus connections to help get you plugged in. Your career coach is a wonderful resource, but you need to make the appointment, as they are not mandatory or prescheduled for you. Meetings can happen virtually or in-person. All appointments are scheduled through Handshake, which is IU’s career services software system.
SEE STEPS BELOW ON HOW TO:
- Find your career coach
- Make an appointment
- What to expect in an appointment
WHO IS MY CAREER COACH? Every student at IU has access to a career coach. Each school has a specialized career center with coaches available to meet with students for drop-in or scheduled appointments. If you are a pre-major or exploratory student in University Division, the Career Development Center is where you will begin.
HOW TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT:
- Create your Handshake account.
- On the internet, go to Career Development Center home webpage
- Click on the “Student Login” button in the top right corner of the page
- Once you complete the profile, you can make an appointment to meet with your career coach.
- If you are in University Division, choose “Career Development Center”
- If you are a direct admit, choose your particular school
- Click on the coach’s name that is listed
- Select an appointment date/time that suits you best
- Choose if you want to meet virtually or in-person
- Congrats, you have scheduled your appointment!
WHAT TO EXPECT IN AN APPOINTMENT?
Coaching sessions are free and generally last 30-45 minutes at a time that works best for you. You don’t have to prepare anything in advance – your trained career coach will spend time talking and listening to you to learn about your goals and get you started designing your college path.
WONDERING WHAT TO TALK ABOUT?
Here are a few ideas for topics to discuss with your career coach in the meeting:
- Identify options for your major/minor (find clarity)
- Consider your values, interests, personality and skills and how this relates to your career goals
- Research careers/industries
- Begin to develop a professional toolkit (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn)
- How to find a part-time job (or work study job)
- Involvement on campus/how to join a club or organization
Remember, it is most important in your first year to EXPLORE!
Make an appointment with your career coach if you are not sure of your career direction. Your career coach can help you to complete self-assessments. These assessments will help you with your career direction. You will look at the relationship between your interests, values, personality, skills, aptitudes and various career fields.
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- In your conversations with your career coach you will discuss these questions:
- What are you good at?
- What do you enjoy?
- What’s your purpose?
- What matters to you?
- What activities do you like?
- What activities do you dislike?
- In your conversations with your career coach you will discuss these questions: