CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS

• Keep in touch with your instructors. Consider keeping in touch with the instructor of this course and with others. Later in college you may need to ask them to write letters of reference for you as you seek employment or admission to graduate school. When an instructor becomes part of your larger support group, it is a form of networking.
• Be responsible for planning your own career. No one else is going to do it for you, but plenty of people on your campus are willing to help you. Think seriously about your major. You eventually have to get a degree in something, and you want to feel confident and comfortable about the major that you select. Use the insights into yourself that you have gotten from this course, as motivation now and in the future.
• Enhance your employability by getting different kinds of work and travel experience during college. You can get different experiences while taking classes, but better yet, consider maintaining your momentum during the summer. Continuous enrollment is a good thing. See your adviser and career center to learn about experiences that your college offers: volunteer or service learning, study abroad, internships and co-ops, employment on campus, and student projects and research.
• Understand the nature of the new economy that you will be entering. It is global, unstable, innovative, without boundaries, customized, ever-changing, and social.
• Learn which of your characteristics could and should affect your career choices. Strive to define your interests, skills, aptitudes, personality, life goals, and work values. Talk them through with a career counselor. It’s a normal thing for college students to do.
• Get professional help from your career center. When writing your résumé and cover letters, learning and practicing interview skills, and much more, advisers can help you. For example, you can learn how your personality characteristics have been shown to have affinity with particular career fields.
• Make a commitment to yourself. You may think that you are not ready for a high level of commitment yet because too many things are still uncertain about your major and your future life. That’s perfectly natural. But at the very least, we urge you to make a commitment to return to college next term and next year to get as much as you can out of this often unpredictable but life-changing experience.