All posts by Carroll Crowson

Session 2

At the end of the first session, your career counselor will give you some instructions on how to take the online assessments you will review in your second session. The assessments should take no more than 20-30 minutes each and are to be completed at least two days before your second career counseling appointment. Once you have completed the assessments, you don’t have to do a thing before arriving to your appointment, because your career counselor will have all the results ready to review when you arrive at his or her office.

The two assessments we use at Baylor in career counseling are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and the Strong Interest Inventory®. The MBTI® looks at your personality preferences and how you prefer to respond to life. The Strong Interest Inventory® measures your interests and compares your interests with people of your same gender in a variety of career fields, so you can see with which areas you share more similar interests. Through the assessment interpretation process, you and your counselor will develop a list of majors and careers that interest you. Once you have reviewed both assessments, your career counselor will show you websites to use as research tools to further explore your major and career options. You will use these tools between your second and third session to narrow your list, so that when you return for your third appointment, you will have five or fewer careers or majors that you want to focus on. In the next post, we will discuss what happens in that third appointment.

Session 1

 

We thought we would spend this first week of blog life sharing with you the career counseling process we use at Baylor.  We have found this three session model to be useful and effective in helping students discern options for their future paths in life.  The entire process takes about a month to complete, so it might be helpful to keep that in mind when scheduling your appointments.

The first session involves meeting with your career counselor for the first time and discussing YOU!  Your counselor will ask you a variety of questions about a variety of things, from your interests to information about previous work experiences.  Now, don’t worry about having all of the answers during that first session.  You will receive an email prior to your first appointment that lists the questions you are likely to be asked in your first session, so you can prepare ahead of time.  Even if you can’t remember or think of an answer during your session, it’s okay.  The questions you are asked are things that will be helpful for you to continue to process as you go throughout your day.  Who knows, you may have a revelation when you are out walking your dog or ordering your favorite coffee drink at Common Grounds!

You never know when inspiration will strike, so it is our hope that you will continue to mull over some of these questions to get to the heart of who you are and what you want out of life, so you can make sure your career and major options fit with those goals and dreams.  It’s also helpful to talk to family, friends, and anyone that you feel has good insight into who you are to gain more ideas.  Once you uncover this info about yourself, you may have an easier time narrowing down the types of classes and types of work you feel will be right for you.  It’s also okay if you feel lost or confused about which path to step on next.  That’s what we are here for – to help guide you on your journey – and it is a journey.  If it were a simple process, we would have bowls of fortune cookies all over our offices that you could choose from—maybe even some of those chocolate dipped ones with sprinkles!  It’s a journey, but it is a worthy one.  We look forward to helping you each step of the way.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official Baylor Career Counseling blog.  We’re glad you have stopped by and hope that, over time, you will find resources and useful information that will help guide you on your path at Baylor and beyond.  Our hope for this blog is to share information about different majors we offer on campus as well as details about a wide variety of careers.  If you have any specific requests for information regarding a particular major or career, please leave a comment and we will try to give information on requested majors and careers first.  We also will try to give current information about events happening at Baylor that may be particularly pertinent to major and career exploration.

This week, we will begin by detailing what the office of Career Counseling does and who we serve.  We use an individualized, three-session process to help students discover majors and career paths.  The students who are most helped by attending career counseling sessions are those who are unsure of their major; considering changing their major; sure of their major, but unsure about career options with their chosen major; and those who would like a bit more confirmation regarding their current path.  We also can help students who are interested in exploring graduate school subject options.  I hope you find your time you spend reading the blog well spent.  Thanks again for stopping by!