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Class helps students clear up career fog

By Alisa Hill
Staff Writer

“In a lifetime, individuals spend more time researching what type of car to buy than they spend researching their career path,” said Francyenne Maynard, director of career services at North Lake College. Armed with this knowledge, Maynard has made it her personal mission to teach a career exploration/planning class offered at NLC.

Maynard has a master’s in student personal services and a bachelor’s in psychology. In five years of teaching the class, she has seen a range of career decision errors. Some decide a career based on what their income will be and if they wear a business suit and carry a briefcase. This doesn’t take into account their talents, skills and makeup.

Sometimes the decision is made just because students think the major sounds good. These students enroll in classes for the major only to find portions of the job they are not adept at performing, nor desire to develop the skill. As an example, Maynard pointed out many go into law wanting to take on cases and be in the courtroom, only to realize a good deal of the job description is research.

Career exploration/planning, course number CREX 1309, “is an experiential, hands-on learning class that I believe is fun to take and teach,” said Maynard. “It is an excellent comprehensive tool to choose a career,” which only takes one semester and the cost of the tuition and book.

The first portion of the semester focuses on choosing an individualized career/major that correlates to the student’s values, skills and talents. The career major is determined by various inventories like the Myers-Briggs, COPS (Career Occupational Preference System), Holland, Kuder Occupational Interests and Strong’s Interest Inventory.

The second half of the semester is spent researching the major to determine the job market, salary, environment, future outlook of the career, pros and cons of the field, aspects of the job and ways to break into the field such as internships, etc.

There are additional components of the class, such as learning to effectively conduct a job search, network, interview and prepare resumes. With the inventory results in hand there is an underlying self-confidence achieved by learning who you are-and the improved self-esteem presents itself in the workplace with a new focus and vitality.

Maynard said one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching the class is having students who previously were floundering and undirected changed as a result of the class. They become focused and return just a few years later ready to graduate, able to declare and pursue a major.

Taking this course gives concrete evidence about which field a student is best suited for, which helps when others, such as parents, try to pressure students into a field. Maynard encourages students to call or stop by the NLC Career Center for more information.