Mapping Your Future with My Career Profile (MCP)
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Building the Best Foundation for Launching Your New Life Mapping Your Future with My Career Profile (MCP) This TUTORIAL explains how your career planning and decision making are related to other aspects of your life. It takes about 10 minutes to read. Topics covered are: Why Career and College Planning is Necessary, Who Is Responsible For Your Career Decisions, Self Assessment, Your Life Plan, The Life-Career Rainbow, etc. and My Career Profile (MCP) Services. Why Career Planning is Necessary In today's rapidly changing world, new career paths are unfolding, traditional ones are being changed and shifts are taking place in skills and educational requirements. These changes are a result of new technology, changes in organizational design and the trend towards global business operations. With all these changes, you might ask what is the point of a career plan? The point is to develop a set of goals, strategy and options based on your interests, values and skills. Once you have a plan, you are equipped to self-manage your career and take advantages of changes in the economy and job market rather than become a victim of change. Who is Responsible for Your Career? Your career is totally your responsibility. It is up to you to do the planning, take actions, and reap the benefits. However, you can get help. For example, if you are a student, your career and college counselor can advise you with respect to: a career planning strategy, information sources, how to get around obstacles, and how to prepare and organize your college and continuing education seeking activities. Keep in mind however, throughout your life, you are the one who must communicate your career goals to others and you must produce the results that support your goals. It’s up to you to control and navigate your own destiny. CareerCurriculumPlanning.doc Page 1 of 9 6/29/2009
Building the Best Foundation for Launching Your New Life
The Importance of Self-Assessment
Understanding yourself is a critical aspect of career and educational exploration and
planning. The more you know about your career related interests, your values, skills
personality type and preferences, the more likely you will be able to identify career
fields, study and training programs and educational settings that are compatible with
your personal attributes. MCP will help you develop an accurate self-assessment
profile for your career and educational exploration and planning by measuring the
following personal attributes:
• Your interests, which are a reflection of the kinds of work related activities and
tasks you most enjoy performing.
• Your values, which are a reflection of the personal needs or wants you wish to
satisfy through your work and your career.
• Your skills, which are a reflection of your abilities, talents, and the types of
things you easily learn and perform well.
• Your Personality, a reflection of how you react to certain situations and people,
how you make decisions, how you organize information an how you go about
solving problems.
The Big Picture: Your Life Plan
It is a good idea to plan your career based on the big picture, that is, your life plan.
You must ask yourself, what kind of life do I want to lead? As you can imagine, your
career decisions will dramatically impact your lifestyle. Your occupation will
determine: where you live, your income, how much time you spend at home, your
work hours, your travels, job security, your choice of work associates and friends,
and how you spend your leisure time.
Questions you need to ask yourself about your life plan are:
What principles am I committed to as a person? family, security, prestige,
accomplishments, etc.?
What kinds of experiences do I want in my life? travel, adventure, cultural, etc.?
CareerCurriculumPlanning.doc Page 2 of 9 6/29/2009Building the Best Foundation for Launching Your New Life What personal talents do I want to develop? music, art, language, communication, intellectual etc.? How do you like to spend your leisure time? community services, recreation and sports, travel, etc. Finally, you must ask yourself whether the occupational goals and educational avenues you are considering will be supportive of your life plan and the different life roles you have or will have besides being a worker and a wage earner. Roles You Play In Your Life Your career reaches beyond your role as a worker and wage earner in your chosen occupation. That’s because, throughout your entire life, your role as a worker will be interconnected with other roles you play, that is, as a student or trainee learning new skills, as a homemaker along with the potential accompanying roles as a spouse and parent, as a leisurite and recreationist spending your free time in activities you most enjoy, and as a community citizen possibly participating in voluntary service work or in politics. Although you could be involved in all these roles simultaneously, most persons are primarily involved with two or three roles at a given point in time. Which roles you are focusing on depends upon your age and life stage. For example, if you are in high school or college your principal roles may be as a student and a leisurite or recreationist. If you are at the peak of your career your principle roles may be as worker and homemaker. Whatever your age and life stage, decisions and actions you take regarding your work and occupation will automatically have an impact on these other roles. For example, your choice of a specific occupation will determine your earnings, which in turn affects how much you can afford to spend for rent or a home mortgage in your homemaker’s role, and also how much free time you will have available to spend on your hobbies in your role as a leisurite and recreationist. The point is that throughout your whole life you will play a combination of work, leisure, study, homemaking and citizen roles that are intermixed. At any time during a single day, or a week, or a month you may be simultaneously involved in two or more of these roles. It stands to reason, therefore, that when you make decisions CareerCurriculumPlanning.doc Page 3 of 9 6/29/2009
Building the Best Foundation for Launching Your New Life about your career and your work, you should take into consideration the affect of these decisions on your roles. Navigating Life’s Changing Currents Here is how to take the ‘Big Picture’ into consideration when making career and education plans: First, whenever you are making a decision about your choice of an occupation or job, think about which of your options will most likely provide you with self- fulfillment in all your roles, not only in the present, but in the future. Second, periodically dust off your career plans, take stock of yourself and what’s happening in your life, and then make adjustments in your career as needed. Such adjustments are natural for reasons such as changes in your career field which require you to learn new skills, or changes in your personal interests or values, or unexpected changes in your social or family situations. It takes a certain amount of ‘adaptability’ to make career adjustments in such a way that you are not simply reacting to some crisis, but are being proactive or forward-looking. This means you have to find a balance between mapping out specific career plans with clear objectives, and exploring and keeping an open mind about your present and future options and opportunities. This is becoming increasingly important in these times of shifts and changes in the job market, technology, and the job skills required. Keep in mind, you may find it necessary to explore and consider your career options in any stage of your career, especially during the periods when you enter a new life stage or become engaged in a new role in your life. The Life-Career Rainbow Refer to the Life-Career Rainbow Chart below, to get a better picture of the kind of Roles you may play at various Ages and Stages of your career and life. The two outer arcs of the Rainbow show you the Stages you move through during your career and life, and your approximate age in each of these Stages. The lower arcs of the Rainbow show you the different Roles you may engage in while in different Stages and Ages of your career and life. You can see a detailed description of the stages you move through during your lifetime under the title “Life Stages” of this Tutorial. CareerCurriculumPlanning.doc Page 4 of 9 6/29/2009
Building the Best Foundation for Launching Your New Life Life Stages Growth Stage (to about Age 14): This stage, starting with childhood and extending through adolescence is the period when you develop a self-understanding. Through contact with key persons in your family, neighborhood and school, your interests are shaped and you become aware of your abilities and talents. It is during this stage that you develop a Self-Concept, or an understanding of the ways you differ from other persons, as well as the ways you are similar to other persons. Exploration Stage (About Age 14 to 24): During this stage you try out different roles in school, in your social interactions, in your recreational activities, and in part time jobs or volunteer work. In the earlier part of this stage, you make tentative decisions about occupational fields that appeal to you based upon your interests, values, and abilities. During the latter part of this stage, you try out specific occupations through full time beginning jobs. Exploration, however, occurs in all life stages, especially during the period just before and after entering a new role in life or when you enter a new life stage. CareerCurriculumPlanning.doc Page 5 of 9 6/29/2009
Building the Best Foundation for Launching Your New Life
Establishment Stage (About Age 25 to 44): During the earlier part of this stage,
you may still be shifting around in some different jobs and positions, but the
emphasis will be on establishing yourself in a niche, or some area of specialization in
your chosen field. Your objective in this stage is to achieve stability, security and to
advance to new levels of responsibility within your occupation.
Maintenance Stage (About Age 45 to 64): In this stage you might find yourself
with a dilemma. The question is whether to work harder in an attempt to reach some
new goals or gains, or to relax somewhat and enjoy the benefits of what you have
achieved in your present position and level of responsibility. During this stage, the
idea of retirement tends to become real.
Disengagement (About Age 65 and on): During this stage, you generally start
shifting from full-time to part-time work. Those persons who are working for an
organization usually think about going into business for themselves in some type of
self-employment. In fact, your hobbies and leisure activities which were previously
limited by your job might now become income producing, as well as providing you
with a source of self-fulfillment.
Getting Ready For Career Counseling
After you have used the MCP Career and Educational Planning System, it is a good
idea to meet with your career and college advisor.
Be prepared to summarize and ask questions concerning:
• Your career related interests, values, personality and abilities.
• Your present occupational, educational and college goals and plans.
• The colleges to which you wish to apply, the reason for your choices and the
major areas of study you would pursue.
• Concerns or obstacles that are interfering with your career and college decision
making.
• Your life plan, life style desires and your strategy to achieve your goals.
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In turn, your career and college advisor can give you ideas and information to help
you:
• Check the reality of your career and college plans.
• Help you narrow down your college choice by examining your talents, capabilities
and accomplishments and family resources.
• Pinpoint your educational and experience needs and recommend sources for
satisfying these personal development needs.
• Formulate strategies and action plans to achieve your career and college
education objectives and how to cope with obstacles.
MCP System Resources
The MCP System guides you through interactive process enabling you to:
• Self-Assess your career related interests, values, skills, and personality type.
• Broaden your career horizon and discover career fields matching your personal
attributes.
• Decide which career field and major areas of study are best for you.
• Search for colleges and universities that support your career goals and personal
needs.
Why Use the MCP System To Plan Your Career?
The Career Dimensions MCP System is designed for students like you---students
who are in the process of making decisions about their future career goals,
education, and college choice. Right now you are probably asking these types of
questions: “What career field is best for me?” “In college, what major area of study
should I pursue?” “What college or university should I attend?” The MCP system will
help you answer these questions based on your personal attributes, aspirations,
needs and preferences. Remember, your career is totally your responsibility. It is up
to you to do the planning, take actions, self-mange your career and reap the
benefits.
Consequence of Not Having a Career Plan
If you choose your college before deciding upon your career goals, you may end-up
in a college that doesn’t offer the major area of study you need when you finally
choose a career field. If you wind up in a college or university that doesn’t support
your career goals, you may have to transfer to another college. If you don’t transfer,
you will have to customize a study program that hopefully supports your career
goals. In any case, such changes usually result in extra semesters or years in college
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and extra college costs. You can avoid these problems with good advance planning
with The MCP System.
How to Get Started With MCP
• Use MCP on the Internet on any PC or MAC computer anywhere, anytime of the
day.
• Obtain a Student User Name and a Password from Campus Pathway.
• Login to MCP with your User Name and Password on the Campus Pathway
website for MCP (http://www.careerdimension.com/register/campuspathway.cfm).
• MCP always saves your results. You can reuse MCP as often as you like. You can
change your mind about earlier choices and explore new options.
• Summary reports of your results are always available.
• Use MCP for an hour to explore, think about the results, make comparisons,
discuss your ideas with others.
• Come back for a period of time each week as you build your knowledge of the
possible career paths and the college curriculums best suited to prepare yourself
for success.
Overview of MCP for Students
The Career Dimensions’ MCP Career, Education & College Planning System is
designed for use by high school students. MCP is internet based, interactive and
provides valid and reliable research-based career planning services as follows:
Self-Assessment: You, the student, begin by assessing your interests, values, skills
and personality through a series of reliable and valid self assessment instruments.
Career Exploration: Next, you explore occupations that match your self-
assessments. The extensive MCP database includes detailed information on 1200+
different occupations and the educational paths that can lead to those careers. This
exploratory process helps you broaden your career horizons. Additional tools then
enable you to narrow down your options, make decisions about your career and
education goals and summarize your results.
College Search: Next , you search for colleges and universities that provide the
major areas of study you need to achieve your career goals and will satisfy your
personal preferences and needs such as location, type of college, size, type of
students, SAT/ACT scores, cost, sports, activities, etc.
Portfolio: The dynamic online portfolio builder automatically summarizes your
personal assessment results, your career goals, education plans, and choice of
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preferred colleges. It also consolidates and summarizes your personal achievements
and accomplishments.
Job Search for Internships enables you to search for Internships and temporary
job that can help you develop the skills and experiences you need to achieve your
career and educational objectives.
MCP contains the most comprehensive occupational and educational information
database available and meets the highest level of standards established by the
Association for Computer-Based Systems for Career Information (ACSCI). MCP
utilizes standards and criteria established by the National Career Development
Association and the U.S Department of Labor.
How To Access and Use MCP
MCP is user friendly and will guide you through the career and college planning
process.
• Get your Student User Name and Password from Campus Pathway.
• Login and use MCP at:
http://www.careerdimension.com/register/campuspathway.cfm by typing in your User
Name and Password.
• Use MCP on the Internet on any PC or MAC computer anywhere, anytime of
the day.
• MCP always saves your results. You can use and reuse MCP as often as you
like, change your mind about earlier choices, explore and play the “what if?”
game
• Summary reports of your results are always available.
Campus Pathway LLC
1999 S. Bascom Avenue
Suite 700
Campbell, CA 95008
408-879-2388 Office
408-608-1979 Fax
www.mycampuspathway.com
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