Career Counseling
Individual career counseling is available to all current full-time students and to recent graduates of Holy Cross. It provides opportunities to explore career planning issues in depth. As in personal counseling, career counseling takes into account a broad range of developmental issues.
A liberal arts education is viewed as an excellent foundation for success in a wide range of careers, yet, it does not channel a student toward any specific occupational area. For that reason opportunities for self-assessment and career exploration are crucial to the career planning process for students enrolled at Holy Cross.
Because career decision making occurs within the context of total psychological development, it is tied to successful completion of the normal developmental tasks of the college years. The specific competencies needed for an effective job search are also essential for personal growth: self-assessment, risk taking, initiative, communicating effectively, and assuming responsibility for one's own actions.
The career counseling provided by the Career Planning Center is based upon a three stage model of career development. The first stage, self-assessment, provides students with an opportunity to assess their interests, abilities, values, and talents and to begin to reflect upon the ways in which these factors relate to career choice. The second stage, exploration, involves learning about various career fields and evaluating their desirability and feasibility. The final stage, implementation, involves students taking the steps necessary (i.e. writing cover letters and resumes, applying to graduate schools) in order to reach their identified career objectives.
For some individuals decisions regarding career choice are straightforward and resolved with minimal emotional distress. For others the career counseling process becomes more involved and focuses on identifying and resolving internal conflicts and confusion related to career issues. In most cases the career counseling process involves a graduated series of assignments designed to facilitate a student's progress toward his or her career goals.