Your dream job doesn’t have to be a dream! If you decide you want to work in a specific field, all it takes is a plan and determination. Your academic career plan will serve as a map to get you from CCV into your job. Each semester, you’ll have opportunities to refine your plan and make progress towards your end goal. Each step along the way, you’ll have the support of your instructors, CCV staff, and our Career Services team to ensure your plan is solid and taking you in the right direction.

What Does An Academic Career Plan Look Like?

0-15 Credits:

• Connect with Career Services.
• Begin exploring careers: 
  • identify your interests, skills, and values 
  • find out what you can do with your major
  • research careers for job growth, salary, and educational requirements
• Work with your academic advisor to create a degree plan and to identify the sequence of courses that best meets your career and educational goals.
• Conduct informational interviews and engage in job shadowing to learn more about career fields.
• Apply for CCV work-study if you are a financial aid student.
• Activate your Handshake account to begin networking with employers, receiving job alerts, and exploring local job opportunities.
• Determine your career readiness by taking the "Am I Career Ready" assessment on Focus2 and watching the Career Ready videos below. 

15-30 Credits:

• Develop your resume and plan to update it each semester to reflect the new skills and experiences acquired.
• Continue exploring career options with Career Services.
• Continue improving your career readiness using the suggestions from Focus2 identified above.
• Develop your capacity for leadership by participating in CCV’s LEAD program.
• Begin building professional connections.
• Cultivate references in your field of study.
• Search for potential schools you may want to transfer to after CCV.

30-45 Credits:

• Engage in an experiential learning experience such as an internship, Professional Field Experience, or a service-learning course.
• Seek out experiential learning opportunities that will strengthen specific skills needed for a particular career field.
• Consider enrolling in a study abroad course to gain experience outside of the country.
• Continue to refine your resume, adding newly acquired professional skills and experiences.
• Start to look at local and regional job postings to see what types of opportunities may be available.

Before Professional Field Experience or an Internship:

• Compile a list of possible field placement locations in your community. Identify contact information for each organization. See the Internships page for ideas.
• Create a draft statement of learning goals for your field placement based on the program outcomes for your degree, which can be found in our catalog.
• Review your resume and make any needed modifications.
• Register for your internship course or PFE and complete any pre-class assignments.