College is a time of major growth and development. A lot is happening all at once and oftentimes there isn’t time to take a step back and reflect on ways in which you’ve changed and grown. If you’re feeling lost with regards to what you want your future to look like, who you are, and how you should prioritize your time and energy, consider completing one or more of the following activities this summer to identify where you are and where you might like to go.
1. Define your workview and lifeview and reflect on how they are integrated (or not).
In Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, authors Dave Evans and Bill Burnett prompt readers to create personal manifestos on work and life through aworkview/lifeview reflection?. Defining for yourself what work and life mean is a helpful exercise in identifying your values and motivations and building your own personal compass.
2. Identify your skills, interests, and values with the Focus 2 portal.
Step 1: Access the Boston College Focus 2 portal. Enter the access code “Eagles” and complete the brief registration form.
Step 2: Complete the following self-assessments within the Focus 2 platform: “My Academic Strengths” ,”Work Interest Assessment”, “Personality Assessment”, “Values Assessment”, and “Skills Assessment”
Step 3: Once you’ve completed all the self-assessments, click the “Combine the Results” button. Select different assessment results (Work Interest, Skills, Personality, Values) to uncover potential occupations that could be of interest to you.
Step 4: Explore, rate, and save the occupations. The Focus 2 platform should be an ongoing resource to explore majors and occupations as well as update and review results.
3. Articulate specific experiences you’ve had that have helped you develop the skills employers are seeking the most with the career readiness worksheet.
Have you ever sat down to create an inventory of formative experiences that you’ve had? If you haven’t, I highly recommend that you do so. This worksheet allows you to do just this. Thinking through specific experiences where you’ve developed skills is important so that you know for yourself what you’re skilled at and you can articulate your skills to others like professionals and employers.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. It’s crucial to take time to learn about yourself so that you can move forward confidently knowing who you are. Career Center staff are here for you all summer long. If you’d like to debrief any of the above activities in an individual coaching session, feel free to schedule an appointment with a coach via Handshake.
Boston College Career Center Blog 
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