Career and Counseling Assessment

How Career Services Can Help You?

The Career Center offers a variety of services targeted at helping all Mount students and alumni to obtain the experience, skills and resources they need to take charge of their career.
Our staff can assist you with deciding on a career direction or with making a career transition. Through individual sessions, workshops, and by using appropriate assessments, we can teach individuals techniques for self assessment, researching, prioritizing and goal setting. Career Services can also assist with the process of researching information on graduate schools.
To meet with a career counselor, or to schedule a phone consultation, contact us by calling 310-954-4070. We also can provide hundreds of advice documents via email on everything from sample resumes, cover letters, interview tips and how to launch a pro-active job search.

Career Services also offers assessment tests to help students and alumni focus on where to start their research. Plus look at our career related website list for other free online career assessments. Our Career Success timeline can also help you stay on track.

The 6 Stages of Career Success

Stage 1
Career Exploration- Using assessments like those found in, books and websites to explore fields further so you can then better utilize the guidance from our career staff. This stage helps to make you aware of possibilities, position titles, skills, educational requirements, and personal attributes needed to be successful in various fields. Gathering this information helps career counselors make suggestions for majors, jobs, and careers that would fit in with your interests and skills. The goal here is to come up with a few options to share with a career counselor. Anyone of the career center staff can help you with these matters.
Stage 2
Field Research- This stage is useful in deciding between different fields to pursue. What better way to see to explore career options then to meet with someone working in the field. It entails meeting with people in different positions or industries that you are interested in, and asking them questions about their job. This also is the first step in starting to build a professional network. Pick up a packet in the Career Center on Field Research and Informational Interviews.
Stage 3
Decision Making-After you have looked at your options by doing career exploration and field research, it is time to make a decision and set some goals. The decision is useful when launching a job search and putting effort and time (which is usually limited) into one area at a time.
Stage 4
Building Your Credentials and your Resume- This stage is ongoing and the more you build your credentials, the better the resume becomes. A great resume leads to interviews and offers. The best ways to build your credentials and knowledge are:

By doing Internships.
Taking classes and attending seminars.
Reading books, journals, & magazines.
Joining professional associations or clubs on campus.

Upload your resume at www.mountcareernetwork.com so employers can view it.
Stage 5
Preparing For Your Job Search- This stage requires researching companies and organizations you want to work for and establish if your friends, family, or career services department have any leads there. Learn to write calling scripts and develop tactics for approaching employers other than looking at advertisements which seldom bring quick results. You will also need to get organized by starting a job search binder where all your activities are logged and new information is kept. In addition it is crucial to educate yourself regarding interviewing and salary negotiations before you meet employers. You have to stand out! It will take most new graduates 3-10 month to find a job so start early. For a graduate level student it may take longer.
Stage 6
Launching a Job Search- Ready? There are many activities involved in launching your job search. Writing a targeted resume is important in showing employers what you have that relates to their needs. Set aside the time to make calls, write cover letters and thank you letters, conduct interviews and research. Be creative with the approaches you use and remember to ask your self "Will this help me to stand out from my competition." Lastly, consistently update your resume with any new skills, knowledge, and/or experience.

For assistance call (310) 954-4070