Spokane Standard

University of Phoenix issued the following announcement.

Balancing work and school with other obligations often limits your time and ability to meaningfully assess where you are in relation to future career plans.

Wherever you are in your career journey, you can benefit from exploring how professional paths align with your strengths, interests and values. Sometimes simply taking the time to reflect on who you are now and where you have been can help define where you are going next.

University of Phoenix is here to help by offering on-demand access to tools and resources to support career preparation and readiness at all points in the career development cycle. This includes a self-service career assessment and a library of resources to help users recognize strengths and interests to help pinpoint a career path or to guide seasoned professionals who are looking to upskill or switch direction.

Michael Low, product manager of the University’s career services team, said the resources are part of encouraging career readiness and preparation conversations from enrollment through retirement.

“We think of career development and change as a circular growth process rather than a linear one,” Low said. “At any point in time, someone could be assessing what’s next, upskilling for a new or current role, actively seeking a job, or reacting to a change in their environment. The University wants to provide access to support services at all of those points.”

Assess your career outlook

University of Phoenix’s self-service Career Explorer is one of many resources and tools available to help students and alumni find a potential career fit in the University’s on-demand PhoenixLink™ career portal. The career self-assessment tool can help guide you through the process of better understanding yourself and narrow a field of vast options.

The Career Explorer further refines the list of potential career matches based on other criteria, including the outlook for job growth within an industry based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The 60-question survey is based on a model developed by psychologist John Holland. It keys in on six personality traits — realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional — to determine potential matches from an ever-growing database of more than 900 career options.

Some examples of questions that may appear on the assessment include:

● Would you enjoy building kitchen cabinets?

● Does developing a new medicine interest you?

● Are you interested in playing a musical instrument, developing an exercise routine or buying and selling stocks?

John Bevell, UOPX senior product manager, said the assessment serves as a jumping-off point for discussion with a career advisor. After you take the assessment, you can interpret results to see which pathways you might consider based on identified traits.

“The career assessment tool can help guide individuals through the process of better understanding themselves and narrow a field of vast options,” Bevell said.

Explore a library of career resources

Whether you need help refining a resume, are seeking last-minute tips for an interview or are exploring occupations or programs, the Career Resources Library is populated with a number of options, including visual and downloadable formats.

For guidance on preparing or polishing a resumé, for instance, you can watch a 10-minute webinar walking viewers step-by-step through a review process. Or for tips on getting noticed on LinkedIn, a list of Frequently Asked Questions may have the answer.

Low said the career services pathways on PhoenixLink are a more structured way of navigating the information in the library. Visitors can select from a list of subpopulations to include resources specific to their needs.

“The library can serve the University’s students and alumni as a first stop for a variety of resources that will evolve and update to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of fields and industries in a self-service format,” he said.

For example, one pathway is refined for military-affiliated students transitioning to civilian life. The additional tools and resources offer insights on choosing a post-military career, how their training applies to their academic journey, how to list experiences on a resume and tips on effective networking.

The library also gives users access to Vault1, a special external subscription-based service through PhoenixLink. Vault provides in-depth career guides, complete with organization and company research, additional training opportunities and day-in-the-life videos and blogs to virtually explore a career field.

Low said these tools are designed to serve as ongoing support and encouragement to help you always look toward the future in relation to your career.

“We know our students and alumni are busy, and we are always looking for ways to support them,” Low said. “The Career Resources Library and Career Explorer assessment provides access to reliable tools and resources that apply to them wherever they are in their career and whenever they need them.”

Original source can be found here.