Wright State University Career Services Address: 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, Ohio, 45435-0001; phone: 937-775-2556; email: career_services@wright.edu  
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review the career development process
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Exploring Careers: 1st and 2nd year of college.
  General Information     the step by step process     tools for the task     evaluate academic majors     generate options     Rewards Parents Can Offer for a Job Well Done  

Generate Realistic Options

The career explorer must be realistic. The career path is an upward climb. What does the intended career demand and what are the explorer's limits? Does the journey on a particular career path present obstacles the explorer is uwilling or unable to overcome? Will the explorer's expectations be met at the peak? Is the explorer proceeding with all the best knowledge available? These are questions every good explorer must answer, then act accordingly.

Job Shadowing

The career explorer benefits by interviewing experienced professionals in the intended field. The career explorer - your student - may visit the professional's work site, following in their footsteps for a day or longer. Direct exposure to the profession provides primary material for evaluation of the job and career. After job shadowing experiences, students may conclude that a job is or is not suitable for them.  To facilitate this valuable decision-making experience, Career Services manages a database of alumni willing to mentor students in this manner. Encourage your student to seek out a job shadowing experience.

Recruiting Trends

What career fields are growing?  Where will there be future openings? Which career fields are shrinking and suffering layoffs?  This is important information for any career explorer.  Your student is considering fields based on the potential for employment at graduation.  Understanding the potential for future growth and decline is one important component.  Looking only at numbers and "hot" career fields gives an incomplete picture. 

Consider recruiting trends and the "hot" jobs from just five years ago.  Trend reports included the following statements:

"An insatiable appetite for technical graduates persists."
"A moderate to strong labor market which will expand hiring by six percent to ten percent."
"All sectors will be hiring."
"The college labor market is entering its fourth year of frenzied activity."
"Retail and financial services report the highest levels of confidence in the economy."
"Factors influencing the year's demand: unfilled needs from last year, retirements, skill replacement, turnover, and labor substitution."

Five college years later the current Recruiting Trends report (Michigan State University, 2004), is quite different:

"Engineering - another rough year."
"Two key factors are shaping the labor market:  productivity demands and skill requirements."
"The economy has finally begun to generate enough jobs to push the college labor market forward."
"The expanding knowledge economy, and the continued strength of retail services have pushed expansion."
"Hiring opportunities expected to grow for all degrees and majors. For many employers they simply cannot afford not to hire new talent after three and a half years of limited, spot hiring."
"At the bachelor's level, companies hiring business graduates are only expanding by one percent."
"Engineers will experience a modest expansion across all degrees. Computer science will witness the first expansion in several years."
"The biggest winners may well be from humanities, communication, and social sciences because of the increase in sales, retail, and educational service positions."
"Focal points for employer hiring this year is on the three 'I's:  Integrity, Initiative, Innovation. "

Trends and numbers are an unpredictable factor in career planning.  Additional factors, within the student's control, lend to student success. Students create greater opportunities in a constantly changing environment by capitalizing on their interests, skills, and personal style. A solid understanding of self leads to suitable career choices. 

©2004 - 2008 Wright State University
This page was last updated Thursday, 15-May-2008 16:20:16 EDT.
Questions or comments?
Email career_services@wright.edu

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