Achieving Your Career B.E.S.T.
Achieving Your Career B.E.S.T. is an approach that you can use to direct your future by taking ownership to proactively manage your career trajectory, engineer your future by reflecting on your experiences, making connections, identifying themes, and design new ways of using your skills. This model focuses on four elements:
BASICS: These are the essentials, the foundation
EXPLORATION: Understand what you bring and what you want
STRATEGIES: Develop a plan of action and strategies to achieve your goals
TRANSITIONS: The world is always changing, so learn techniques to keep up to date
4 Elements to Achieving Your Career B.E.S.T.!
The first step in Achieving Your Career B.E.S.T. is to understand yourself and what you want from your professional life. This includes learning about and reflecting on your:
- Style preferences
- Knowledge, skills and abilities
- Interests, values, strengths and passions
- Experiences, accomplishments and successes
Gain understanding about your preferences and interests by using any of the many inventory tools such as Myers-Briggs or Strong. Another great tool is FOCUS2Career - this free, online inventory can help you:
- Analyze your career planning status
- Assess your interests, skills, work values, and style preferences
- Discover and explore occupations, career paths, and education programs compatible with your personal attributes
- Map out your career and educational goals, action plans, personal development and training needs
As you go through the inventory, we suggest you go with your first thoughts, and don't overanalyze your responses - there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. To try it out, login to Focus2Career (access code: goblue)
Learn more on the Exploring Majors and Careers page or join the Talent Gateway and explore the Career B.E.S.T. eLearning blocks. And don't forget to speak with a career coach, academic advisor, or faculty, staff and alumni to help you clarify your career goals!
What types of majors or career fields would be a good fit with you and your uniqueness? This is a big part of what college is about, and Career Services is here to help you figure things out! We also have some tools and tips to help you:
- What Can I Do With This Major? Helps you consider just that! Use this tool to read about career fields, types of potential employers, and strategies to enhance your career options for each major.
- My Next Move by O*Net Online: This interactive tool for job seekers and students is a way to learn more about their career options. It has tasks, skills, salary information, and more for over 900 different careers. Users can find careers through keyword search; by browsing industries that employ different types of workers; or through the O*NET Interest Profiler, a tool that offers personalized career suggestions based on a person's interests and level of work experience.
- Connect with others: Use LinkedIn, Talent Gateway alumni networking nights and other events and tools to have informal, informational conversations with employers and alumni. Find out what they do and see if it might fit you! Who knows, you may end up with a job shadowing or internship opportunity, or even a mentor!
- Career Guides by Major: These guides are produced by the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Career Center, and highlight the skills and abilities that fit that major.
- Research companies and organizations that interest you.
- Test drive careers by student employment, internships, or co-ops: The best way to see if something fits is to try it on! Use Career Connections to look for opportunities, or connect with the internship/co-op office for your college.
Learn more on the Exploring Majors and Careers and Internship & Job Prep pages or join the Talent Gateway and explore the Career B.E.S.T. eLearning blocks. You can also set up a time to speak with a career coach to discuss your ideas and options.
Once you've reflected what makes you unique and explored career options, it's time to determine your career goals and then initiate some strategies to help you achieve them. Base your goals on your strengths, experience, and ideal work environment - remember, this can be short term, such as your first job after college, or longer term. Also remember to consider what experience you already have - academic project work, work experience - but also experience that you'd like to gain. Strategies may include:
- Developing a career action plan that identifies various steps you want to take that will lead you to those goals. This plan may include learning more through informational interviews, job shadowing or an internship, speaking with academic and career advisors, etc. (hint: use the S.M.A.R.T. technique shown in the video below)
- Exploring the major map associated with your field and identifying experiences that may help you get where you want to go.
- Practicing your interviewing techniques using Big Interview or asking a Career Services staff person to conduct a mock interview with you and provide feedback.(hint: check out the STAR method for interviewing in the video below)
- Investing in your soft skills by joining the Talent Gateway. Completing challenges helps you reflect on the connections among your academic, personal and professional goals, and exploring the eLearning blocks such as the Career B.E.S.T. or Experiential Learning can also help. and earning the (M)Talent distinction is a great way to stand out to employers!
- Creating a resume and keep it up to-date. Learn more about resumes in the video below and on the Writing a Resume page.
- Assess your online presence to ensure you're putting your best foot forward with potential employers.
- Attend a career (or majors) fair - be sure to have your elevator pitch ready!
Learn more on the Internship & Job Prep page or set up a time to speak with a career coach to discuss your ideas and options or to learn more.
Making the transition from college to the work force takes planning, and you'll transition from job to job during your career. Understanding market trends and what employers are looking for is helpful at any stage of your career. Figuring out how to connect your college experiences to the skills and knowledge needed in the workplace is an important aspect of making an interview become a job offer. Here are some tips to consider:
- Learn to speak in employer's terms: how do you translate the work you've done with a student org or classroom project to something that will resonate with employers?
- Soft skills are as important as hard skills: the Talent Gateway, Toastmasters, student orgs, and other college involvements are great ways to develop these skills.
- Use social media to follow leaders in the industries you're interested in and learn what the "pain points" are in that field.
- Start searching early: don't wait until your last semester to start researching companies and job opportunities - research shows that starting your 6-12 months before you're ready is the way to go.
- Research salary and mobility trends: use the tools on the Data, Trends & Transitions page to learn more about what's happening in the fields you're interested in.
Learn more on the Data, Trends & Transitions page or join the Talent Gateway and explore the Career B.E.S.T. eLearning blocks. You can also set up a time to speak with a career coach to discuss your ideas and options.