College Student Career Planning

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College Student Career Planning Orientation
2
Career Planning Dilemma

• The Stakes Have Never Been Higher
• The Tools are Available
• The Challenge is to Inform Motivate

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Higher Stakes It Is A Different World

• Internet
• Outsourcing
• Global Marketplace
• No Safety Net

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Higher Stakes It Is A Different World

• Internet
• Consumers have more information about product
• pricing, quality, availability, etc. than ever
  before.
• Increases consumer power to demand low cost/
• high quality products, efficiency and speed.
• Only those companies that meet these higher
• consumer expectations will survive.
• Companies require the best people and processes.
• Increasingly competitive workplace.

5
Higher Stakes It Is A Different World

• Outsourcing
• Companies no longer perform all functions.
• Functions such as manufacturing, product
• design, payroll, software development,
• customer service, engineering, etc. are
• being outsourced to other firms
• (frequently in China, India, etc.)

6
Higher Stakes It Is A Different World

• Global Marketplace/Workplace
• Fewer trade barriers.
• More global/multi-national companies
• Falling communication cost has made the
• world much smaller.
• Our young people must compete in a
• global workplace.

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Retire Early? Consider These Challenges

1. Few employers offer traditional defined benefit
   company pensions and the number is shrinking. In
   a March, 2005 Survey by Bureau of Labor
   Statistics only 22 of workers in private
   industry had access to Defined Benefit
   retirement programs.
2. Social Securitys future is uncertain.
3. Life expectancy continues to rise (49 yrs. in
   1900 vs. 75 yrs. in 1990). You may live to be 90
   or 100 years old.
4. Recently many household costs (i.e., housing,
   electricity, insurance, gas, health care) have
   risen much faster than family incomes.
5. Major obligations (e.g., kids college, parent
   care) place additional strain on financial
   resources and may limit savings.

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Retire Early? Consider These Challenges
6. Future investment returns are generally
expected to be much lower than the levels
experienced in the recent past. Average returns
for U.S. stocks exceeded 15 in the 1980s
1990s. Future estimates vary, buy many
analysts think average annual returns of 6-8 are
more likely. 7. To be confident of not
running out of money, youll likely need about
300,000 in appreciating assets (i.e., stocks,
bonds, real estate) for every 10,000 per year
you need to spend in retirement.
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Career Decision Determines

• How you spend most of your "awake" hours for the
  next 40 years?
• Your opportunities for personal satisfaction and
  growth?
• Your ability to meet your family's needs
  (e.g. housing, medical, college)?
• Your ability to eventually retire with the
  financial resources to enjoy it?

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Lifetime Value of Education
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Hours Invested
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Awake Hours
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How Much Income Do I Need?
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How Much Will A House Cost?
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Think About It
People Often Invest More Time Planning Their
Vacation Than Planning Their Career.
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Why Motivating Youth is Difficult

• Easy to procrastinate.
• Parents fell into their jobs.
• Too scary to think about.
• Too busy. No more homework!
• Dont know where to begin.
• Dont see the value.

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Result Poor Choices, Waste and Frustration

• My son just graduated from college. He doesnt
  have a clue what he wants to do. Maybe
  forensics. Maybe art.
• My daughter is a sophomore in college and she
  hates her major (accounting). She is changing
  majors, but doesnt know what to choose. That
  means at least one more year of college that we
  cannot afford.
• Now that I have a college degree, I need to
  think about a career. I majored in Marketing,
  but Im not sure thats what I want to do.
• I hate my major, but switching involves two
  more years of college. My parents would kill me.
  Ill gut it out. Maybe Ill learn to like it.
• I wish I had known four years ago what I know
  now. I would have taken career and college
  planning more seriously. My major was easy and
  fun, but now I cannot get a decent job.

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Typical Resources Used to Pick a Career

1. TV gt There is a big difference between TV drama
   and real life. 
2. Friends gt Theyll know what sounds cool, but
   unless they have proactively used the career
   /college tools available, they are probably not a
   knowledgeable source of information.
3. Lifes Interactions gt OK, you have used the
   services of Dentists, Pharmacists, Teachers, etc.
   but Do you really know what it is like to do
   their job?
4. Parent gt A great source, if your parents
   career happens to be the right one out of
   several hundred possibilities for you.

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Better Resources to Pick a Career

• Free on-line resources
• To clarify your interest/fit with various careers
• To compare your personal skills/strengths against
  those required by various careers
• To determine which careers offer the most
  opportunity
• To develop your list of careers for consideration
• To learn about the nature of work, education
  requirements, job outlook, earnings, etc.

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Better Resources to Pick a Career

• Talk to People in Careers of Interest
• Parents Friends
• Friends Parents
• Acquaintances from Lifes Interactions (e.g.
  teachers, dentists, store managers)
• Career Day Presenters
• Volunteering, Internships, Job Shadowing

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Suggestions Before Starting

• Don't select a career based solely on .
• Do pick a career for which jobs are available
  with income levels adequate to meet your family's
  financial needs.
• Don't expect a quick, easy answer.  The career
  planning process requires time and effort. 
  Invest the time to identify/evaluate careers that
  "fit" your needs, interests and abilities.
• Do use a variety of tools and talk to several
  people in each career of interest.
• Don't get discouraged or discredit the process
  when some obviously unacceptable careers appear
  on a list generated by an interest assessment
  tool (they will).  Career planning is not a
  precise science.  Reason and judgment must be
  applied.

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Suggestions Before Starting

• Do think about the process as a way to
  significantly improve
• your odds (with no guarantee) of
  selecting a great career.  The
• following table is my rough estimate of how
  your odds for
• choosing a great or "perfect" career
  improve by making an
• informed decision.
•  
•                                        
  Random            Gut               Informed
•                                     
  Decision          Feel               
  Decision  
•         Perfect Career          
  1                   5                    20
•         Great Career            
  4                 20                    50
•         Acceptable Career    60               50
                      20
•         Terrible Career         35             
  25                    10
•  
•     For example, I estimate that your probability
  of selecting a "perfect career is about
• 1 if you make a random decision vs. 20 if
  you make an informed decision.

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Career Planning Process
Your Interests (e.g., people, math, science)
Your Strengths (e.g., creativity, leadership,
writing)
Your Needs (e.g., income, growth, personal
fulfillment)
Identify Career Possibilities
Occupational Outlook Summaries
CareerOneStop Job Summaries Videos
Networking, Internships, Job Shadowing,
Volunteering
Evaluate/Select a Career
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Career Planning Process

1. Get motivated
2. Self Analysis
3. Develop a list of jobs to consider
4. Get on-line information for evaluation
5. Evaluate job options
6. Prepare a job comparison summary
7. Talk to people in occupations of strong interest.
8. Choose the right industry and company.

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Web Site Tool Demo

• www.collegecareerlifeplanning.com
• Career Planning Tools
• Self-assessment
• Identify Careers Prospects
• Retrieve Required Information
• Evaluate Careers
• Company/Industry Information
• Evaluate Companies/Industries
• Job Basics

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BUILDING NET WORTH
Key Determinants
Factors Impacting

• Career Chosen
• Industry/Company Chosen
• Career Success, Promotions, etc.
• Single or Dual Income Family

How much you make
Your income taxes

• Mix Ordinary Income vs. Capital Gain
• City State Income Tax Rate
• Tax Shelters (e.g. Mortgage interest,
  depreciation)

• Buy what you need vs. what you want
• Pay full price vs. shop for bargains/discounts
• Disciplined savings vs. Heavy Credit Card debt
• Purchases Increase (e.g. House) or Decrease
• (e.g. boat, car, clothes) in value over time.

How you spend/save

• Educated Investing vs. Gambling (Roll the Dice)
• Mix Conservative vs. Aggressive Investments
• Diversification Stocks, Real Estate, CD, Bonds
• Tax Ordinary Income vs. Capital Gain

Investment Returns
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The Door is Open. Will You Enter?

• Invest time to review/use the tools
• to make informed decisions.
• Tell others who might benefit (friends,
• cousins, neighbors, siblings)
• Your Future Depends On It