career path essay

Career Essay

Career essay generator.

How do you see yourself 5 or 10 years from now? That question kicks start your imagination and make you visualize yourself in your future career. Maybe you are thinking about it now, but you are likely confused about expressing it in words. Unlike other essay writing , writing your career essay is exciting because you are writing about yourself, your plans, passion, and aspiration. Learn how to make your career essay impressive by reading this article.

10+ Career Essay Examples

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What Is a Career Essay?

A career essay is a text people write to detail their goals or plans for the future. In this essay, people talk about the career they want in the future and the things they have achieved so far. People often ask you to write a career essay when you send an application letter for a scholarship or submit your resume for a job.

How To Write a Rousing Career Essay

You should write your career essay seriously because it might be a deciding factor for your future. That said, in writing your essay, there are a lot of things to consider and a process you need to follow. Your end goal in writing your essay is to convince people that you are determined to walk the talk and make the things you wrote in your descriptive essay to reality.

1. Devise an Engrossing Title

The first thing to think about when writing an essay is coming up with an attention-grabbing title. When people read your essay, they pay the most attention to your title. Also, another benefit of coming up with your title first is that it will serve as a guide for you for the whole essay. 

2. Introduce With a Hook

After devising a title, deliver the next blow with an introduction that piques their curiosity. To do that, begin your essay with a hook. Your hook can be a quote, a question, or you can even provide a statistic. If your introduction is good enough, it will secure the engagement of your readers.

3. Organize Your Ideas

Writing an essay is like taking your readers for a ride. You need to set the vibe and organize the flow of your thoughts. Don’t start too strong it might make the rest of your essay bland. You need to properly build up the development of excitement and make sure the order of your ideas makes sense. 

4. Polish Your Essay

Finalize your essay by proofreading it. When people talk about their passion, they tend to talk too much and include several unnecessary things. Make sure not to do that. Omit all the details that don’t contribute to the overall impact of your reflective essay. Also, don’t forget to review your text for grammatical errors. 

Why is career planning important?

People hustle every day to reach their dream careers. Having a target career gives you a direction and sets your path. Planning your career is essential because being indecisive about it might negatively impact your life. Not having a fixed goal is like not having an end destination. Preparing for it would also make your career action plan achievable.

What is a career genogram?

A career genogram traces back an individual’s family tree and examines the career timeline they pursued. The scope of this genogram reaches the grandparents, extended family, and even the person’s close friends. This graphic representation is helpful when a person has a hard time deciding about his or her career development plan .

What is career assessment?

Career assessment is the process of identifying what career would work best for you. Most assessments are in the form of a questionnaire . It includes questions about your interests, your skills, your hobbies, and your strengths. These are some examples of questions that would help assess your future career. The result of your career assessment might give you ideas on what path to take.

The moment people read your career essay, they often rate how likely you are to succeed. Show them a piece of your mind that would erase all their doubts about your success. They say manifesting works wonders, so manifest the future that you want best by composing a rousing career essay. 

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Career Goals Essay For Scholarships (With Examples)

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Scholarship programs often want you to write a career goals essay to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll apply your education to a specific career path. This helps show a scholarship committee why you’re seeking funds for the next step on the path toward your success.

Answering “what are your career goals” effectively can help increase your odds of impressing landing a scholarship opportunity. If you’re a prospective student applying for scholarships, this article will provide tips on how to write a career goals essay, along with essays on career goals examples to help you get an idea of what scholarship committees are looking for.

Key Takeaways:

When you’re writing a career goals essay, make sure to write about the goals that are relevant to the scholarship.

Be honest and use your own voice to stand out in your scholarship essay.

Go into detail about how the scholarship will help you achieve your goals.

What is a career goals essay?

Why scholarship essays ask about career goals, example career goals essay prompts, career goals essay examples, tips for writing a scholarship essay about career goals, what to write in a career goals essay if your goals have changed, career goals essay for a scholarship faq.

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A career goals essay is a personal written explanation that discusses your background, why you’re interested in participating in the program, and what career you’d like this degree to lead into. A scholarship essay functions to explain why you want to achieve your professional goals and how you intend to get there.

In almost every application process, a portion asks the candidate to answer an essay question. When applying to an educational program, like an MBA, the essay prompt usually relates to your career goals .

Scholarship essays ask about career goals to assess your enthusiasm for the program, learn more about how the scholarship will help you, and ensure that you’ve considered how the program will help you achieve your goals for the future:

Assess your enthusiasm. Passion is important for scholarship administrators, and if you’re able to articulate your enthusiasm for a specific career path , it will show that you’re determined to meet the requirements to reach that goal. The most specific and well-thought-out your essay is, the easier it will be for a reader to understand your devotion and commitment to the program and the field it will allow you to enter.

Learn how the scholarship will help you. Having a firm grasp of your career goals is great, but it’s equally important that you express exactly how the specific program relates to those goals. This shows that you’ve researched the merits of the program and understand exactly how it fits into your professional goals.

Show you’ve considered your future. This goes along with the first two points — show that you know how to set goals and consider the path toward achieving those goals, and you’ll have an easier time convincing the reader that you’ll know how to set goals while participating in the program. They’ll see that you know how to prioritize education because you have a clear vision for navigating your career path.

While some scholarships might come right out and simply ask, “What are your career goals?” most will rework the question into something different that still accomplishes the same goal.

Below are some examples of career goals essay prompts that a scholarship program could pose to its applicants:

Discuss your career goals. Many scholarships prefer the most direct approach when giving an essay prompt to their applicants. This type of question gives the candidate a lot of wiggle room to discuss their passions, motivations, and career goals.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years ? This question is often used as a prompt for a career goals essay because it gives the applicant a timeline to describe their aspirations. It forces them to be realistic about where their career will be and how they will accomplish this within the next ten years.

How will this scholarship contribute to your professional success? A scholarship committee wants to be sure that the money they’re giving will contribute to a student’s overall professional success. This question asks about the applicant’s game plan in the long-term and evaluates how this program is going to assist in their future.

What is your dream job ? Since a dream job is often categorized as a person’s career goals, this is a common question phrasing in scholarship essays. Asking about a candidate’s dream job answers whether this program aligns with the student’s long-term career goals.

What matters most to you and why? Sometimes, a scholarship essay prompt won’t ask about your career or future at all. Instead, they’ll ask a question like this that assesses your motivations , values, and character.

Use these examples of career goals essays for scholarships to help write your own. Pay special attention to how they’re organized, rather than the content, to inspire your own career goals essay:

Career goals essay example 1 – Discuss your career goals

When I was six years old, I was riding bikes with my older sister around our neighborhood. She had just taught me how to ride, and I was excited to have to freedom to explore with her. When she was rounding a particularly difficult bend to see around, a car happened to be coming along at the same time. It struck her. That bike ride changed our lives forever. Over the next year, I went with my sister every Tuesday and Thursday to her physical therapist ’s appointments to help her regain walking strength. Watching her physical therapist patiently assist my sister back to becoming herself awoken something in me. A passion for helping others in the same way eventually turned into a career goal of becoming a physical therapist myself. I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in exercise science. After graduating in 2019, I knew that the next step for me was to attend a graduate program in physical therapy. I was accepted to Lassell University Master of Science in Rehabilitation Services. This presented me with my latest goal along my career path, and I’m eagerly waiting to start. This scholarship would help me afford the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Lassell University class of 2023, allowing me to continue working towards my ultimate career goal of becoming a physical therapist and helping others to become themselves again.

Career goals essay example 2 – Where do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years, I will have been successfully running my own construction business for about five years. I’m currently a second-year student at the University of Texas, pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. I decided to get my MBA because I knew it would be a positive asset toward my long-term career goal of owning a construction business. In my high school years, I worked as a construction apprentice for a local business. I loved many aspects of the business, such as building something from nothing. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this work into my long-term career, but I didn’t want to work as an apprentice . This led me to pursue business. In ten years and with the help of this scholarship, I will have graduated with my MBA almost a decade prior . After graduation, I plan to take a business administration internship with a carpentry business to help myself get a footing in the field. After about two years of this, I will have started my own construction business.

Career goals essay example 3 – What matters most to you and why?

The people I surround myself with matter most to me. Whether it be my relatives, friends, or professional acquaintances, I always care the most about the happiness of the people around me. Making the people around me happy matters the most to me because I truly because we find our happiness through others. I believe that this drive to make a positive impression on the people around me is what drove me towards a career as a nurse . I always thought of hospitals as places where people need someone to support them and make their day a little happier. I wanted to be one of those who spend their careers positively impacting people in need. This scholarship will enable me to finally afford nursing school and go after my dream job full force.

Career goals essay example 4 – What are your short- and long-term career goals, and how will earning this degree contribute to achieving those goals? Please provide a minimum of 200 words.

My short-term career goals involve working directly with underprivileged young people to increase the literacy rate in my community. As a student of an underfunded and understaffed school, I’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact early literacy education makes on long-term achievement. It broke my heart to see my peers embarrassed at their struggle with reading at an advanced age, and this shame added another dimension to their lack of opportunity. Being a literacy educator for young people would allow me to serve this community directly to show them not only the necessity of strong written communication skills, but the joy of reading for pleasure. This program focuses specifically on early literacy, and would provide me a direct route to a career in serving the community I hope to serve. As for long-term career goals, I hope to one day create a program where socioeconomically parents can bring their children for literacy education, not only to increase their ability to navigate the world of language, but also to instill confidence and joy in the written word. What drew me to this program was that it also has administrative, legal, and business dimensions that would set me on the path toward achieving this goal.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for writing a career goals scholarship essay:

Write about goals relevant to the scholarship. Although you may have many different kinds of goals for your personal and professional future, a scholarship essay only discusses objectives that are relevant to the program you’re applying for.

Be honest. Applying for a scholarship is stressful because the applicant’s education is usually reliant on receiving these funds in one way or another. Even though it’s tempting to exaggerate your skills or pretend you’re more passionate about something than you are to make yourself a more competitive applicant, it’s a bad move.

Use your own, unique voice. The essay portion of a scholarship application is your chance to stand out by using your voice. Nobody else, regardless of their academic or professional achievements, is you. Make this clear in your career goals scholarship essay by keeping your unique written voice engrained in the words you produce.

Be specific. A big reason that scholarship committees ask applicants to write a career goals essay is to determine how prepared they are in planning their long-term professional goals. They aren’t interested in providing a scholarship to students who aren’t going to follow through with their career plans.

Explain long and short-term goals . Even if the essay prompt asks you to describe where you see yourself in ten years, you still need to tell them the steps leading towards this picture of success.

Include the short-term goals that add up to your larger career objectives in your essay response. Explain how accomplishing the smaller goals gives you an advantage when tackling long-term ones.

Explain how the program and scholarship will help you. Before writing your career goals essay, consider how this program and scholarship will help you in your career. The answer to this question is essential.

Follow the essay formatting guidelines. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget this step when your essay is finally flowing and when you’re scrambling to get it submitted on time.

Check, double-check , and triple-check the essay guidelines for content, word count, and formatting requirements. If you miss any of these steps, your essay may be immediately disqualified no matter how good it or the rest of your application is.

Many times career goals essays are written by students who have already completed at least some college or are applying to a post-graduate program and need more money to continue.

There’s a good chance that your career goals have changed since you started or graduated college. For example, say you wanted to be an engineer , so you got your undergraduate degree in engineering but realized you didn’t like it after working in the industry for a few years.

You decided that nursing would be more up your alley, and now you’re applying for a scholarship for a nursing program. While this isn’t unusual, it can make it more difficult to write a career goals essay since your past work doesn’t necessarily match your future goals.

In this case, you’ll simply need to explain why you changed your career path and why this next one is the best choice for you. Share your decision-making process to show that you haven’t taken the switch lightly, and talk about what you’ve already done to try to pursue this path.

How do you write a career goal for a scholarship essay?

You write a career goal for a scholarship essay by sharing your passion, explaining both your long- and short-term goals, and relating your goals to the scholarship.

Explain why you want to pursue the career you’re pursuing, where you hope to be in the future and how you plan to get there, and how the scholarship will help you do this.

How do you describe your career goals in an essay?

You describe your career goals in an essay by explaining what you want to do in your career, why you decided on this career path, and what you’ve done so far to make that a reality.

You can usually work these factors into any prompt you receive, so think through them before you start writing so that you can use them as an outline of sorts.

What are career goals examples?

Examples of career goals include:

Working as a grant writer for a nonprofit organization.

Becoming a department manager and eventually an executive in your field.

Owning your own plumbing company.

Caring for underserved communities as a nurse practitioner .

What are some goals for success?

Some goals for success include growing in your role, building your network, and finding joy in the job. Most careers don’t just happen overnight and require you to set the right milestones that work best for you. Not everyone will have the same goals for success.

How do you start a career goals essay for a scholarship?

You can start a career goals essay for a scholarship by directly answering the prompt. Most scholarship prompts include a word count of between 200 and 500 words, so it’s essential that you immediately respond to the prompt. Attention-grabbing sentences and narratives can be helpful for setting the scene, but an efficient and direct answer will show a clarity of mind that helps enhance the quality of your answer.

BLS – Career planning for high schoolers

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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How to Write an Awesome Essay About Your Career Goals

• Before you begin, ask yourself a few key questions like:
• What are my short-term and long-term career goals?
• Where do I see myself in ten years?
• What events in my life have led me to have these goals?
• What major will help me reach my goals?
• What skills do I need to reach my goals?
• What impact do I want to have on society?

Career Goals Essay Template

Need more inspiration.

After you brainstorm the responses to these questions, look for common themes, or pick out the most interesting stories. You can build your main essay “thesis” or idea around this.

Once you’ve got the main idea, create an outline to put your ideas into essay format. This will give you a general idea of structure.

You can use the career essays template below to give you some ideas. But remember that some rules are meant to be broken, so don’t be afraid to be innovative and think outside the box!

Also, when you’re done, head over to Going Merry to apply for the Career Goals scholarship essay bundle (one essay, one application, multiple scholarships!). You might as well make that essay count. Sign up for Going Merry to apply for scholarships more efficiently.

Here’s a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown:

Paragraph 1 : Establish the main theme of what you’re going to talk about. It should also grab the reader’s attention. For example, instead of starting your essay with something generic (e.g. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a zoologist), get creative with it! Try something like My greatest memory as a young girl was going to the zoo for the first time or While most kids play house or school, I always wanted to play zookeeper.

Paragraph 2 : Elaborate on what inspired your career goals. Perhaps it was a relative, a TV show, or simply an experience that you had. Remember that old writing adage, “Show, don’t tell.” In other words, try to demonstrate your interest with story or description. 

Paragraph 3 : Discuss your short-term career goals and your intended major. How will your intended major help you reach these goals? What skills do you need to learn to reach them? At the end of the paragraph, try discussing how your short-term goals can help you achieve your long-term goals.

Paragraph 4 : Focus on your long-term goals and the impact that you hope to have on society. If you’re not sure what your long-term goals are, don’t sweat it; they’ll probably change anyways. You can instead focus on the difference you’d like to make overall. And don’t worry too much about the size of the impact…remember that just doing what you’re truly passionate about has a massive impact on those around you.

The last paragraph is your conclusion. You can use this paragraph to summarize what you discussed in the previous few paragraphs. If you want to be even more creative, try ending your essay with a question for your readers or a new insight. Good luck!

And now that you’re ready with that essay, put it to good use! You can recycle that same essay, when applying for the Career Goals Scholarship Bundle. We’ve joined together multiple scholarships (all requesting essays on career goals), into just ONE simple application! See more info here , or just sign up to get going.

Check out examples from other students just like you. Here are links to some great career goal essay examples:

• Example 1  
• Example 2  
• Example 3  

Or maybe you’re looking for help with an academic goals essay — we’ve got you covered there too.

Also, check out this helpful list of the 10 most common scholarship essay topics !

Sign up for Going Merry today, and upload your career goal essay right to your profile. It’s that easy!

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February 29, 2024

• Writing Your Career Goals Essay

Check out all the blog posts in this series:

• Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay
• Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose
• Revise and Polish Your Application Essays

Your career goals essay demands a laser-like focus. A personal statement, by contrast, allows for some flexibility in its content, though you can – and often should – discuss your career goals. But a career goals essay has a particular and packed agenda. In fact, the prompt for a career goals essay could actually include multiple questions, and in such cases, you want to make sure you address each of them.

For example, in 2022, Kellogg asked applicants to its one-year program to respond to the following prompt: “Please discuss your post-MBA career goal, the current experience you will leverage to support the transition, and the Kellogg 1Y opportunities that will help you reach this goal.” 

This prompt has three parts: (1) What do you want to do post-MBA ? (2) Why is the 1Y program appropriate for you? And (3) what experience has so far prepared you to succeed in your target role? 

So, always pay close attention to your target school’s prompt to ensure that you answer all the questions within its “single” question. 

Three elements of a successful career goals essay

In addition to having a distinct theme , your career goals essay should achieve the following:

• Highlight specific career achievements. Choose from your most notable or defining experiences. These could be related to your work, community involvement, or extracurricular activities. The experiences you select should showcase your leadership skills , creative thinking, collaborative abilities, and personal reflections about what you learned or gained.
• Explain why your experiences and influences make your career goal a logical and wise choice.
• Demonstrate why you are suited to a particular field as a result of your education, experience, abilities, and enthusiasm. Ideally, the material you choose to include will also allow you to prove your knowledge about industry trends and suggest how your abilities and strengths can help you contribute to that field.

It’s a very tall order to achieve all this.

Putting these elements together to create your goals essay

Let’s take a look at a sample MBA Goals Essay and see how these three key elements are incorporated.  

You should be able to easily recognize why the writer’s opening is attention-getting for all the right reasons. The writer introduces herself as the supremely busy executive she visualizes becoming in the future. She trades large amounts of stock, rushes off to a Zoom conference, hurries downstairs, flags down a taxi, then hops on a plane. As she describes this whirlwind of activity, we can practically feel her heart pumping.

After establishing her voice and personality in this opening, she offers context for her MBA goal. Notice that in writing about her work as an accountant for a major firm, she provides relevant details, including how many years she has been in the field, her bilingualism, and her specialty area as an auditor. This information is her springboard to explain why she is pursuing an MBA: she’s bursting out of her limited role as an accountant. Her eyes and ambition are set on a larger playing field as an international investment manager.

Write an essay, not a list or CV

Outstanding career goals essays are not lists of an applicant’s roles and achievements. Instead, they have a narrative flow and arc that convey the candidate’s palpable excitement about their career choice. This writer’s enthusiastic, dreamy first paragraph achieves this, and she returns to that image at the end, where she paints her idealized (if frantically busy) future. She also proves her seriousness by noting that she registered for the CFA exam.

Connect your career goals to your reasons for choosing a particular program

Many essay questions, especially those for MBA programs , will ask why you have chosen the school you’re applying to. Be prepared to respond knowledgeably and enthusiastically. And the only way to become knowledgeable – and enthusiastic – is by visiting campus in-person or virtually, attending student recruitment meetings, participating in forums, reading student blogs, watching videos of students speaking about their experiences, communicating directly with students and/or recent alumni, and otherwise doing your homework. As part of your research, make sure you have familiarized yourself with the courses and specializations that are relevant to your goals.

Summary Tips

• Focus on answering each and every question asked in a career goals essay prompt. Often, there is more than one.
• Highlight specific achievements vividly and in a way that shows that your career choice is logical for you.
• Do the research so you can write about why the school is a good fit for you and do so with genuine enthusiasm.

In the next post in this series , we’ll explain how to take all this advice and apply it to create an exemplary first draft.

Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application. Check out our full catalog of application services . Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She is also the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools . Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related resources:

• The Winning Ingredients of a Dynamic MBA Goals Essay , a free guide
• Grad School Personal Statement Examples
• Focus on Fit , podcast Episode 162

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What Is a Career Goals Essay?

An opportunity to expand, what to avoid in a career goals essay, final thoughts, how to write a career goals essay.

Updated January 15, 2024

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As the name suggests, a career goals essay is a personal document that outlines your professional plans.

It describes your educational and work history, and your ambitions for the future.

A career goals essay is generally used in three situations:

• When applying to a school or college
• When applying for a scholarship to fund education
• When applying for a new job

It allows the reader to better understand your personality and fully appreciate why you are making the application.

Career goals essays help admissions staff and hiring managers to select the ideal candidates for a position.

What Should a Career Goals Essay Contain?

A little backstory.

This essay is an opportunity for you to allow your personality and experiences to shine, so avoid generic statements.

The document should be personal and concisely describe your life experiences.

You should explain why you have chosen this career path.

If there was a pivotal moment in your life that led you to this application, be sure to highlight it.

Outline Your Goals

The main focus of the essay should be your goals for the future.

Readers want to see that you are ambitious and driven, with a genuine passion for the role or course you are applying for.

These career goals should be split into your short-term goals (looking over the next one to three years) and your long-term goals (which might look as far as 10 years into the future).

Show How This Application Will Help You Reach Your Goals

Critically, your career goals essay must show how this degree or job will help you achieve your goals .

If your long-term goal is to become a veterinary surgeon, studying a veterinary medicine program will obviously be essential.

However, your goal may be more nuanced than that. For example, you might want to become an expert in a particular piece of technology or software. Your application must show how your success in this role will enable you to become an industry leader.

This will also emphasize to the reader that you have done your research and understand the skills required for that particular sector.

You will have likely submitted a CV and covering letter at other points throughout the application process.

Remember, your career goals essay should complement these documents rather than repeat them.

This letter allows you to expand on the points mentioned in the earlier documents, aligning your previous experience with your goals for the future.

If you are writing a career goals essay as part of an application for a new job, be sure to refer back to the job description and person specification.

These documents highlight the exact type of individual the employer is searching for, so be sure your career goals essay matches the content in them.

Most career goals essays will be submitted via email, so an appropriate title is essential.

‘The Career Goals of [Name]’ isn’t a title that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Don’t forget, whether you are applying to a school or an employer, the reader will have the job of sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of applications .

Where candidates have very similar experiences and education, their creativity and personality will be used to make the final decision.

Example titles:

How a Digital Marketing Degree Will Allow Me to Support Sustainable Businesses

How My Next Role in Nursing Will Help Me Help Others

An Introduction

Your introduction should set the theme for the essay, and crucially, outline your why .

Many candidates find the introduction the most challenging part of the essay to write. Therefore, it often makes the most sense to write it last.

Your introduction should be an honest and personable account of why you have chosen this field of study.

Starting with a generic opening paragraph will not inspire or motivate your reader. Stay away from phrases such as “I have wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a little girl.”

This sentence tells the reader very little about your current aspirations.

It can also damage your integrity, as we all know most small children dream of being a movie star or astronaut before the job of lawyer ever springs to mind.

Example introduction:

Most individuals in the US are lucky enough to never need the law to protect them. However, many fail to see how the intricate details of the constitution support their life every day. I have a particular fascination with criminal law after being introduced to the field by a family friend. The monumental impact a lawyer can have on the life and welfare of an individual truly astounded me, and I have spent the years since investigating the effects of the American legal system. This is why I have tailored my education so far to prepare me for a legal career. I work every day on developing my research and analytical ability, and now feel ready to dedicate myself fully to the legal field.

School-Specific Content

Admissions staff, tutors and hiring managers want to know that their applicants have done their research.

You can show them that you have done yours by adding a small paragraph straight after your introduction showing why you chose this school to study at or this company to work for.

First example of school-specific content:

[Insert company name] has an incredible global reputation, with clients in every continent. I can see that staff retention rates are incredibly high, indicating strong career opportunities and the prospect of continuous development. The company values show that diversity and integrity are of the utmost importance, and I would love the opportunity to work for an organization whose principles align with my own.

Second example of school-specific content:

[Insert school name] is well known for producing the highest caliber of graduates, with an excellent global reputation. The school leaderboards show that the grades from [insert school name] ranked within the top five in the country for the past 10 years. I would be proud to associate myself with an establishment that holds itself in such high regard and am thrilled at the prospect of learning alongside the best.

Your Long-term Vision

Remember, it is crucial you show why and how you are actively working towards these goals. For example, merely stating, 'My long-term goal is to become a lawyer with my own practice’ is worthless.

The reader wants to see how this goal aligns with your personality and why you have chosen this route.

The goals set out in this essay should be precise and meaningful .

Example of long-term vision:

Law is an area of study that affects us all. The law protects us, and I am fascinated by its impact on both an individual and global scale. Of course, I want to graduate with a top-class degree, but I am also passionate about the connections and network I will build along the way. My goal is to open my own practice one day, specializing in family law. At the moment, I volunteer in my local practice, gaining experience and building a network that will help me later in my career. I believe the combination of world-class education and hands-on legal experience will help me to achieve this ambitious long-term goal.

Your Short-term Vision

Next, it is crucial to discuss your short-term goals .

If you're applying to school, your short-term goals will explain what you aim to achieve throughout the degree or program.

For a job application, these goals will outline your targets for your first year in the role.

Example of short-term vision:

In the short term, my goal is to build a network in the legal sector. I have already begun doing this through my weekly volunteering role. However, this degree will undoubtedly allow me to meet a much broader spectrum of people. I am excited to curate this network with a range of legal specialists, from students at the start of their careers to tutors with many years of experience in the industry.

The Conclusion

As with any essay, your conclusion should summarize what you have discussed throughout.

You should not throw in any new ideas, subjects or theories at this point. Otherwise, it indicates to the reader that you have not cohesively written the essay.

Your conclusion should be about the same length as the introduction, mentioning your final goals and the name of the establishment you are applying to.

You must outline again why you want to work for this company or study at this school. Using a statistic or fact will show that you have conducted thorough research.

Example conclusion:

I am immensely excited to begin my experience with [insert school name]. Ultimately, this education will allow me to fulfill my dreams of becoming a lawyer and one day opening my own practice. I will bring hard work, determination and enthusiasm to the law school, never forgetting why I began this journey.

Vague or Weak Statements

Every sentence in your essay should be specific to you.

For example, statements such as ‘I want to study medicine because it will allow me to get a good job’ does not show the reader that you are passionate or enthusiastic about this position.

Discussing Financial Remuneration

Whether the essay is aimed at a prospective employer or a college admissions office, they want to see why you want the position personally.

Someone solely focused on the financial rewards will likely not have longevity in the career.

Controversial Topics

Of course, there will be times where politics and current affairs are relevant to the discussion.

However, showing a one-sided argument that doesn’t align with the readers can alienate your application before you even begin.

A career goals essay is an opportunity for your personality to shine through. It isn’t a test of who has the best grades or the most experience , but a chance to show how this job or degree can change your life.

Although the reader is excited to hear about your goals, they are more interested in how this role links to your ambitions.

Be sure to constantly reflect upon how obtaining a place on this course, or securing the job role, is intrinsically linked to your goals.

A word limit is often applied to career goal essays. Where there is no limit, be sure to write no more than 1,000 words.

This piece should be concise and to the point, showing the reader you can effectively convey your thoughts and ideas.

You might also be interested in these other Wikijob articles:

Or explore the Jobs & Careers / Career Planning sections.

• Applying For Scholarships

Writing Tips for a Career Goals Essay (2023)

Jennifer Finetti Mar 1, 2023

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For your college scholarship essay, you may be asked about your career goals. The scholarship committee wants to see how investing in your education will help your career. Do you have a definitive plan? Will a college education fit into that plan? These are the answers they want to see.

In this guide, we will provide some scholarship essay examples about career goals to jumpstart your essay writing.

Writing tips for career goals scholarship essays

Here are some quick tips for writing career goal scholarship essays:

• Write about career goals that tie into the scholarship. This doesn’t mean you have to lie about your career goals to make them fit. Find a way to relate them to the scholarship committee or other elements of the scholarship.
• Be precise about your career goals. Avoid vague statements that suggest you do not have a plan. Judges like to see determination because it shows they’re making a worthy educational investment.
• Discuss how your education will help you achieve your career goals. The scholarship will assist with your education. Show a connection between the two so they can see why you deserve this scholarship.
• If you mention multiple goals, indicate which one you feel most strongly about. Longer essays may allow you to mention a backup plan, but the committee needs to see where your focus lies.
• Avoid cliché statements. Describe how your specific talents, experiences, and degree pursuits will help you succeed.
• Point out solutions, not problems. You may mention struggles you’ve had in the past, but pinpoint how you will learn from them. Moreover, show how those struggles led to your career goals.
• Organize your thoughts in a fluid manner. This will most likely be in chronological order, starting with your degree and progressing through your career growth.
• Write, revise, rest, revise. This goes for any essay writing. Write the first draft from start to finish. Then read through it and edit any grammar or flow errors. Take a break, preferably overnight, and then re-read your content with fresh eyes.

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Example 1: Scholarship essay about career goals (100 words)

In a 100-word scholarship essay, you need to quickly make your point. There is not enough room for a lengthy intro or backstory. Use concise, comprehensive statements to deliver the most information in the fewest words.

I’m a sophomore at Texas Tech University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Companion Animal Science. After graduation, I hope to attend Texas A&M to become a veterinarian serving rescue organizations and animal shelters. I was born and raised in the south, where it is common for people to abandon animals in rural areas. Those animals then go into a rescue – emaciated, frightened, and confused. I want to work with rescues to provide affordable veterinary medicine to the animals they save. This scholarship would help me continue my education and potentially save thousands of abandoned animals in the future.

Word count: 99

Example 2: Scholarship essay about career goals (250 words)

With a 250-word scholarship essay, you have a little more room to discuss the details of your career goals. You can explain situations from your past that inspired your career pursuits. You could use one paragraph to talk about your short-term goals and another to talk about your long-term goals. Just make sure the big picture ties into the scholarship.

My name is Patrick Holden and I am a freshman at the University of Michigan, majoring in English and minoring in linguistics. I plan to become an English teacher, but this wasn’t always what I had in mind.  When thinking about my future, I always saw myself in some sort of corporate office, perhaps as an executive assistant or a loan officer at a bank. My father works in the finance office for a car dealership and my mother works at a call center. I assumed I would follow a similar, albeit boring, path in life. In my junior year of high school, everything changed. My English teacher inspired me in ways I could have never imagined. She got me to love writing, literature, etymology, and everything about the English language. She made me want to be a better student in all of my classes, and she helped me see the value of education. I decided then that I wanted to inspire other students just as she did for me. My parents are unfortunately not able to contribute much toward my college expenses. I have earned a tuition scholarship based on my ACT score, but I still need additional funding for books and supplies. English majors have particularly high book costs because we have to purchase multiple books for each class. With the help of this scholarship, I could afford to continue my degree and become an English teacher.

Word count: 240

Example 3: Scholarship essay about career goals (500 words)

With 500 words or more to play around with, you have plenty of space to talk about your career goals. Maintain the same theme throughout the scholarship essay. Each paragraph should connect to the next, and they should all work together to describe your career plan. Avoid making disconnected statements for the sake of word count. In the end, the scholarship committee should have a clear view of your educational plans and professional aspirations.

Internet marketing has gone from an optional method of advertisement to a vital step in business outreach. Even small businesses in remote towns look to the internet to attract customers and spread the word about their services. I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing with an emphasis on Digital Marketing. With this training, I will be able to enter a profession that will only grow year by year. When I was younger, I found print advertisements to be fascinating. I loved reading the newspaper with my father just to see the full-page ads in between stories. When I got older though, those ads became less appealing because they were not adaptive. They seemed dated, static and ill-fit for changes in society. That’s when I discovered internet marketing. It was still in its infancy when I was in middle school, but by the time I graduated high school, it had become a staple in business development. I loved the way internet marketers had to constantly adjust to fit Google’s algorithms, new mobile devices, and new audiences. I knew this was the career for me. Originally, I planned to focus solely on business marketing because there were not many digital marketing degrees available. Over the last two years though, several schools throughout the country have developed internet marketing courses that explain fundamental methods of search engine optimization, website analytics, and more. These are the foundations I will build my career around. The best part about internet marketing is that there is always something new to learn. I can use my creative mind and exploratory nature to try new advertising methods that help businesses succeed. Every time they do well, I do well. This is the kind of job fulfillment most people can only dream of, but my educational plan and job prospects will allow me to achieve it. I have picked up some freelance jobs online to supplement my studies and help pay for my education. It is difficult to maintain a steady stream of income in freelance because I spend so much time on my school work. This scholarship could offset some of the costs and reduce my workload as a whole. While I will still work throughout the semester and full-time in the summers, having extra financial aid would greatly reduce my stress in college. I look forward to a future where I can use my marketing skills to help business owners achieve their career goals. I plan to spend the first few years after graduation working for a successful, long-standing digital marketing company. After I have enough on-the-job training to feel confident in my abilities, I will open my own internet marketing company in Chicago, where my family lives. I have a clear picture of where I will be in the next 10 years, and I know this degree is going to help me get there.

Word count: 481

• Scholarship Essay

Jennifer Finetti

As a parent who recently helped her own kids embark on their college journeys, Jennifer approaches the transition from high school to college from a unique perspective. She truly enjoys engaging with students – helping them to build the confidence, knowledge, and insight needed to pursue their educational and career goals, while also empowering them with the strategies and skills needed to access scholarships and financial aid that can help limit college costs. She understands the importance of ensuring access to the edtech tools and resources that can make this process easier and more equitable - this drive to support underserved populations is what drew her to ScholarshipOwl. Jennifer has coached students from around the world, as well as in-person with local students in her own community. Her areas of focus include career exploration, major selection, college search and selection, college application assistance, financial aid and scholarship consultation, essay review and feedback, and more. She works with students who are at the top of their class, as well as those who are struggling. She firmly believes that all students, regardless of their circumstances, can succeed if they stay focused and work hard in school. Jennifer earned her MA in Counseling Psychology from National University, and her BA in Psychology from University of California, Santa Cruz.

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Essay on Choosing a Career

Students are often asked to write an essay on Choosing a Career in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Choosing a Career

Introduction.

Choosing a career is a significant decision in life. It sets the course of our future, shaping our experiences and lifestyle.

Importance of Choosing a Career

The career we choose influences our satisfaction in life. It determines our work-life balance, income, and personal growth.

Factors to Consider

When choosing a career, consider your interests, skills, and values. Also, consider job market trends and opportunities in your desired field.

Seek Guidance

Seek advice from career counselors, teachers, and professionals in your area of interest to make an informed decision.

Also check:

250 Words Essay on Choosing a Career

Choosing a career is one of the most pivotal decisions in a person’s life. It’s a process that involves careful evaluation of one’s interests, skills, and future aspirations. The decision not only shapes one’s professional journey but also influences personal growth and happiness.

Identifying Interests and Skills

The first step in choosing a career is identifying one’s interests and skills. This involves introspection and self-assessment to understand what truly motivates us. Are we inclined towards artistic pursuits, scientific explorations, or business strategies? Equally important is to identify our skills. Are we good at problem-solving, creative thinking, or interpersonal communication? The intersection of interests and skills often points towards suitable career paths.

Research and Exploration

Once interests and skills are identified, it’s time to research potential careers. This involves understanding the nature of the job, required qualifications, and growth prospects. Networking with professionals in the field, attending career fairs, and internships can provide valuable insights.

Future Aspirations

The next step is to align the chosen career with future aspirations. Do we want a high-paying job, or do we prioritize work-life balance? Do we aspire to be leaders or specialists in our field? These aspirations can guide us in making an informed career choice.

500 Words Essay on Choosing a Career

Choosing a career is a crucial decision that significantly influences an individual’s life. It is a process that requires careful thought, self-reflection, and understanding of one’s interests, skills, and values. The choice made can lead to a fulfilling life, filled with satisfaction and growth, or it can lead to a life of dissatisfaction and regret if made hastily or under pressure.

Understanding Yourself

The first step towards choosing a career is understanding oneself. It is essential to know your interests, strengths, weaknesses, values, and personality traits. This self-awareness can be achieved through introspection, personality tests, and career counseling. Understanding your skills and aptitudes can help you identify careers that align with your abilities and interests.

Exploring Career Options

Assessing career fit.

After exploring various career options, it’s time to assess which ones are the best fit for you. This assessment should consider factors such as job satisfaction, work-life balance, salary, job security, and opportunities for growth. It can also be helpful to consider the future job market trends and the potential impact of technological advancements on your chosen field.

Making an Informed Decision

The final step in choosing a career is making an informed decision. This decision should be based on a careful evaluation of your self-understanding, exploration of career options, and assessment of career fit. It’s also important to remember that a career choice is not a life sentence. The world of work is dynamic, and it’s okay to change your career path as you grow and evolve.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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• Essay Database >
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• Essay on Finance

Example Of Essay On My Career Path

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Finance , Path , Students , Market , Career , Trade , Choice , University

Published: 11/19/2021

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It goes without saying that to choose the right career path is, probably, one of the most difficult and fateful decisions, one has to take in his or her life. The difficulty is that nobody will give you any instructions or a guidebook on how to choose the right career path without any curves. It is a decision that a person has to make himself or herself. To choose the right career path, it’s important to understand what is your cup of tea and what’s not. Not many people can boast of the fact that they knew what they would be doing since childhood or when choosing a university. As far as I am concerned, at the moment, I'm doing Dean's Scholarship at Drexel University, Philadelphia PA, with Finance as major. As you can understand, I don’t belong to this minority group of lucky people either. So, how did I get involved into the finance area? In college my major was electrical engineering and this choice definitely wasn't based on a well-reasoned decision. I simply was good at Math and Physics and at that very moment, I didn't know what to do in my life and applying to a college with engineering as major seemed to me very attractive. Of course, I went on different co-ops but, unexpectedly, it turned out that engineering pace is too slow for me. At the same time, I started investing the money I earned. By and by I started to feel a great interest in economy and investing. I had CNBC app on my smartphone to have a quick access to latest financial information or breaking business mood in a real-time mode, to keep track with the stock market on regular basis. I felt so passionate about asset classes and their correlation. It's always fascinated me, how oil drop has such an impact on the global market, for instance. Having understood my interests and in what professional area I would like to develop myself, I took an opportunity to get employed as Market Services Analyst at PJM Interconnection. My activities among others were mostly related to reporting, e.g. I created reports on variance analysis and financial key performance indicators to be used by senior leadership in evaluating PJM's 12-months strategic plans and projects. Afterwards, for a certain period, I had some duties at Drexel University Endowment Fund and parallelly was CEO and Co-founder of Srockjock LLC, Philadelphia PA. StockJock (www.stockjock.co) was a fantasy stock market game. It was awarded as the first winner of Philadelphia Startup Weekend Competition. My responsibilities were related to financial budget preparation, forecasting revenue and expenses as well as fund-raising. More creative component of my activities included planning and implementation of marketing projects, brand expansion and social media engagement, company's future expansions and one more vitally important task was to establish long-term strategic partnerships and plan for the company’s future expansion. After this, I took up the vacancy of Summer Financial Analyst at Barclays Investment Bank where I completed a rotational internship with Financial Planning & Analytics (FB&A) and Equity Derivatives Product Control. Within this short internship I had a wide range of responsiblities, like Support budget, forecasting, and headcount processes for Global Credit Products trading and sales Within FB&A like conducted detail weekly commentary and summary about the movement of the Global Market and gave training presentations on various topics, such as different strategies in Options Trading, risks in Correlation Trading, etc. This how looks my career path as of now. It's obvious that's not an easy one and consists of numerous steps. But it doesn't matter how difficult these steps are, as I'm sure today that I'm on the right path where I can achieve success.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Career — The Importance of the Process of Choosing a Career Path

The Importance of The Process of Choosing a Career Path

• Categories: Career

About this sample

Words: 1386 |

Updated: 27 November, 2023

Words: 1386 | Page: 1 | 7 min read

Table of contents

Choosing a career: essay outline, choosing a career: essay example.

• Importance of choosing a career path
• Need for early career decisions as students
• Influence of parents and personal strengths
• Consideration of personality, learning preferences, and work environment
• Career path helps set professional objectives
• Long-term goals provide focus and direction
• Role in guiding students in decision-making
• Ensuring positive decisions for the future
• Comparison of video game editing and geneticist careers
• Skills, knowledge, and education requirements for each
• Job tasks and skills required
• Educational background and job growth prospects
• Similarities between the two careers
• Differences between video game editing and geneticist careers
• Personal preference for video game editing as a career
• Summary of the research and decision-making process

Works Cited

• Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Multimedia Artists and Animators. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/multimedia-artists-and-animators.htm
• Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technologists-and-technicians.htm
• CareerOneStop. (n.d.). Explore Careers. U.S. Department of Labor.
• Myers-Briggs Foundation. (n.d.). MBTI Basics. https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
• ONET Online. (n.d.). Occupational Information Network. National Center for ONET Development.
• Ruffinengo, F., & Brondino, M. (2017). Assessing the role of personality traits in career decision-making difficulties among Italian high school students. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 248.

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Integrating Values Into Your Career

By  Laura N. Schram

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While in graduate school, I participated in a learning community of graduate student teaching consultants at my campus’s teaching center. We consulted with graduate student peers across the campus on their teaching and engaged in dialogue about our consulting practices. Our group’s facilitator and mentor -- Mary Wright , now director of the Sheridan Center of Teaching and Learning at Brown University -- designed a range of professional development activities for us to grow as reflective teachers.

One of her activities, designed as a process to help us uncover our teaching philosophies, was transformational for my career development. We brought our draft teaching philosophy statements to one of our learning community meetings, but rather than exchanging them to share feedback, we began with a generative interviewing exercise Wright created. It involved partnering with a colleague and taking turns playing the role of interviewer.

My interviewer asked me several questions that solicited storytelling about my teaching -- for example, she asked me to share a memory of my favorite student -- and she then actively listened to my responses and took careful notes. After the interview concluded, she spent several minutes processing and responding to a series of prompts that required her to integrate my answers and analyze what she as an interviewer heard about me as a teacher. One of those prompts asked my interviewer to tell me what I enjoy most about teaching, and she informed me that I was most energized by the one-on-one interactions with my students. She asserted that I most appreciate coaching, advocating, mentoring and watching an individual student’s long-term growth.

I was shocked to hear that -- I had not at all articulated it in my teaching philosophy. But her insight resonated very deeply with me. As I imagined the contexts in which I most frequently was supporting and advocating for others, I realized that I engaged in coaching in my teaching center work, significantly more than my disciplinary teaching. That sparked the beginning of my serious pursuit of educational development as a career path.

Why was that such a pivotal moment for me? Because my interviewer had uncovered a core professional value of which I was not conscious.

In my work at the University of Michigan, I now coordinate our Rackham Program in Public Scholarship and help students explore diverse career options. As I was, the students with whom I work are strongly motivated by their core values. And I expect that if you are someone pursuing a doctoral degree, you selected your field of graduate study because your scholarship aligned not just with your academic interests but also with some fundamental personal values or intellectual commitments that you hold.

What Do I Mean by Values?

I studied political psychology as a graduate student, so when I refer to values, I do not mean the Merriam-Webster definition of “relative worth, utility or importance,” but rather the way that social psychologist Daphna Oyserman defines them in her chapter “Values, psychological perspectives” in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences , as “internalized cognitive structures that guide choices by evoking a sense of basic principles of right and wrong (e.g., moral values), a sense of priorities (e.g., personal achievement vs. group good) and that create a willingness to make meaning and see patterns (e.g., trust vs. distrust).”

Values are your priorities that guide your choices and help you to make meaning of your experiences; your core value is the thing or things you see as your mission in life. Sylvia Gale , director of University of Richmond’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement and founding director of Imagining America’s Publicly Active Graduate Education Initiative , advises you to identify your core value by asking yourself what your “central commitment” is or “the thing that you are for .” As I will describe below, she has developed a deep reflection activity that starts with your identifying what you stand for and then mapping how that is central to your professional roles.

Much of the conversation -- and even my own advice -- about career exploration focuses on skills and the importance of identifying your own skills. However, as professionals, we often don’t take the time to step back and think about our values and how they connect to our skills and play a role in our professional lives. Integrating your values into the center of your career exploration process can help you to crystallize the roles that most align with not just your skills but also with what motivates you at a deeper level.

For example, in my most recent career shift, I was invited to take on a new role that involves advocating for doctoral students interested in a range of career options. I had not even been looking for a new opportunity, as I was deeply satisfied in my work as an educational developer supporting faculty members and graduate students. At that time, I articulated my core value as coaching others in their teaching. Yet I was drawn to this role supporting doctoral students exploring multiple careers particularly because, as a doctoral student myself, I had not found adequate resources to explore careers beyond the traditional faculty path. I began interrogating my core values and how they connected to my skills. Did I like consulting and coaching about teaching? Or would I enjoy consulting and coaching about career development just as much? Did I have other commitments to which this role was drawing me?

For example, after participating in our teaching center’s organizational change effort to place value on teaching on a research university campus , did I want to now apply my skills to rethinking how we prepare doctoral students for their career possibilities? The questions that ultimately guided my decision about which role I wanted to pursue weren’t simply focused on my skills -- they were focused on how my skills connected to deeper commitments.

Gaining Clarity on Values

In any career exploration or job search, I suggest reflection before, during and after new professional experiences. Reflection on experiences plays an integral role in helping you to gain clarity on your goals, values and next steps. If you are currently engaged in career exploration, spending some time reflecting on your values can transform your process and change what you decide to do.

First, you want to discover your core value(s), about which you may already have a strong sense or -- as in my case as a midcareer graduate student -- you may not have full clarity. While reflection on powerful questions can help with affirming your values, it is difficult to surface unconscious values on your own. Generative interviewing is a good activity for affirming or revealing your values in conversation with a colleague. Melissa Peet describes generative interviewing in her 2010 article “The Integrative Knowledge Portfolio Process: A Program Guide for Educating Reflective Practitioners and Lifelong Learners” as a process of discovery that happens through “a series of guided questions and prompts that support people in telling detailed stories about their experiences.”

Although you may not be trained in the formal method of generative interviewing, you can take insights from the generative interviewing framework and use its technique of asking powerful questions and telling stories to help you identify your core professional values. Take a colleague who is also interested in their own professional development to coffee, and conduct the following interview process with each other. Your colleague should play the role of interviewer and ask these questions:

• What was your proudest moment professionally?
• What led you to pursue your scholarly interest(s)?
• What was a pivotal moment for you as a professional?
• Who is a mentor to you, and what is one example of when this person transformed or shaped you professionally?

Your partner should actively listen and take notes. After you’ve shared your stories, give your partner time to process, synthesize and look for themes in your responses to these four powerful questions. Then, your colleague should share a value affirmation with you, mirroring back to you a response to this statement: your professional commitment is _____________. They should use examples from your stories as evidence to illustrate how they integrated your responses to identify your core value(s). Then swap roles and interview your partner so they can also benefit from the process.

Whether you engage in generative interviewing or not, if you have a clear sense of your core value(s), Gale has designed a second transformative reflection exercise that begins with focusing on your “central commitment.” This exercise is designed to map and connect your central commitment with the various roles, activities and projects in which you engage, and her chapter in Collaborative Futures: Critical Reflections on Publicly Active Graduate Education outlines each reflection step of this exercise carefully.

You begin with placing what you stand for/your central commitment at the center of a large, blank piece of paper. Around this central commitment, you place your current professional roles, then the roles you hope to take on and finally those that don’t connect to your central commitment. For each of these, you use some visual way to distinguish them from one another -- whether that is a different color or different types of lines or shapes. Then you engage in identifying priorities and connections, as well as pressures and disconnections.

The University of Michigan has employed Gale’s activity in several professional development programs. Students find it incredibly transformative in helping them to see the associations and gaps between their professional work and their core values. One student even said that, several years after he did the exercise, he keeps the drawing he created pinned on his wall as a reminder of his central commitments and the types of professional roles he would like to pursue. As I noted earlier, values help to guide your choices and make meaning of patterns, and this student found the drawing he created was a constant visual reminder of what he prioritizes and how he makes meaning across his varied projects.

If you are seeking an in-depth, holistic reflection exercise to assess how you integrate your values, skills and professional activities, I encourage you to set aside an hour to invest in Gale’s powerful activity. Her chapter is a wonderful narrative about her professional development as a publicly engaged scholar and the process by which she came to design this activity.

Career Exploration as a Value-Driven Process

Identifying and placing your core value(s) at the center of your career exploration process can help you to make more meaningful connections between your skills and career interests. The two reflection activities described above are designed to help you gain clarity on your distinct professional values. They are transformative because knowing what you stand for as a professional can help you to make meaning of how your many professional pursuits are integrated, to prioritize your work and to make decisions about what professional opportunities you want to pursue.

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Essay on Career for Students and Children

500+ words essay on career.

Career is a very important thing in one’s life. Whatever career path you choose to follow, it will impact your life greatly. Your career will define your status in a society in addition to your lifestyle. In other words, your career will determine your social circle and relationships.

Therefore, it is extremely important to choose the correct career path . From a very young age, we aspire to be something or the other. While someone aims to be a doctor, some wish to become a painter. Our career choices depend on a lot of things. Thus, it is important to consider all factors before choosing a career path.

How to Choose your Career?

You must consider a number of factors before deciding on your career. Each factor plays a significant role in your choice. Firstly, always assess yourself thoroughly. You must understand your area of interest to choose a career. For instance, someone who dances well can surely become a doctor, but his interest will always be in dance. Thus, ensure that you have the caliber to perform well in the field you choose. This will come from your area of interest itself.

After that, you look for the opportunities available as per your area of interest. Now that you are aware of what you like and dislike, you can easily look for occupations matching your passion. Make a list of the occupations you can get into following your interests. Furthermore, shorten the list you have prepared. You must do so as per what suits you best. Consult with your seniors and parents to make informed decisions.

Most importantly, acquire the skills for the career option you are interested in. Ensure you earn the qualifications and degrees for it. Try taking training programs to enhance your skills. This will give you an upper hand in knowing whether you are correct in choosing the specific career plan. Furthermore, create an impressive resume which can help you get the right opportunities.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Achieve your Career Goal?

There are steps you need to take before achieving your career goal. As they say, success doesn’t come overnight. You must work along the way to accomplish your goals. There is always hope if you have the will. Firstly, create profiles on different job portals to attract the employer’s attention. When you maintain your profile well, you will be able to get good career opportunities.

Moreover, always maintain your network. Build a solid network and create sources in the field. This way you can update yourself with the latest happenings in the industry. In addition, try to attend the related seminars and workshops that happen related to your career choice. You will meet influential people of the same field who can broaden your thinking.

In short, always remember to stay determined. You can easily achieve your career goal if you set your mind to it. In other words, people usually distract themselves easily. You must not do so and focus on your career path to achieve your goals efficiently.

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Analyzing the Career Stats of Jameis Winston: a Comprehensive Review

This essay about Jameis Winston’s NFL career highlights his talent, challenges, and growth. From his promising start at Florida State to his ups and downs with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and his resurgence with the New Orleans Saints, Winston’s path is marked by statistical achievements and personal evolution. It examines his strengths, struggles with turnovers, and his commitment to improvement both on and off the field, portraying his determination to succeed in professional sports.

How it works

Jameis Winston’s NFL odyssey is a captivating tale of talent, trials, and triumphs, defined by statistical achievements and personal evolution. From his standout collegiate career at Florida State University to his journey through the professional ranks, Winston’s path has been a narrative rich in both promise and perseverance.

Drafted as the top overall pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2015, Winston entered the league with sky-high expectations. His rookie season showcased flashes of brilliance, including over 4,000 passing yards and 22 touchdowns, yet it also unveiled a susceptibility to interceptions—a theme that would shadow him through the early stages of his NFL tenure.

Despite these challenges, Winston’s grit and dedication were evident, earning him respect within the locker room and from fans alike.

In subsequent seasons, Winston grappled with injuries and off-field issues that tested his resolve and interrupted his development. Nevertheless, he continued to demonstrate glimpses of greatness, setting franchise records and exhibiting a knack for performing under pressure. His resilience emerged as a hallmark of his career, as he navigated setbacks with a steadfast commitment to improvement.

The conclusion of his tenure with the Buccaneers in 2019 marked a turning point for Winston, as he sought a fresh start with the New Orleans Saints. Under the mentorship of future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees and the guidance of head coach Sean Payton, Winston embraced a new role, patiently waiting for an opportunity to showcase his growth and maturity. That opportunity arrived in 2021 when he seized the starting quarterback position and delivered a memorable performance, throwing five touchdowns in a single game—a testament to his development and readiness.

A closer examination of Winston’s career statistics underscores his strengths as a quarterback with a strong arm and a knack for making impactful plays downfield. His completion percentage and passing yards reflect his ability to move the ball effectively, while his touchdown-to-interception ratio underscores the dual nature of his talent and the challenges he has faced. Turnovers have been a recurring theme throughout his career, yet Winston’s determination to learn and evolve continues to shape his trajectory.

Beyond the numbers, Winston’s influence extends beyond the gridiron into the community, where he has leveraged his platform to support charitable causes and inspire youth through education and mentorship initiatives. His commitment to making a positive impact off the field highlights his character and leadership qualities, earning him admiration beyond his athletic achievements.

Looking ahead, Winston’s future in the NFL remains an intriguing storyline, with ongoing discussions about his potential as a long-term starter and his ability to lead a team to postseason success. As he continues to refine his skills and adapt to new challenges, Winston’s journey serves as a testament to the unpredictable nature of professional sports and the resilience required to succeed at the highest level.

In conclusion, Jameis Winston’s NFL career is a compelling narrative of growth, determination, and the pursuit of excellence amidst adversity. From his collegiate accolades to the trials and triumphs of his professional journey, Winston’s story encapsulates the complexities and rewards of pursuing greatness in one of the world’s most demanding sports. As he continues to forge his path forward, one thing remains certain—Winston’s unwavering passion for the game and his commitment to continuous improvement will undoubtedly leave an indelible mark on the NFL and inspire future generations of athletes.

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Make Your Career Path Bulletproof

Americans change jobs every four years. build a future you can take with you..

Posted June 20, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• What Is a Career
• Find a career counsellor near me
• In the past, companies supported their employees' career paths over decades.
• People now change jobs frequently, so managing your professional development is critical.
• Having a strategy and network is critical to building a career path you can control.

For many years, the average employee spent the majority of their career with one employer. They could expect full healthcare benefits for themselves and their families, a couple of weeks of paid vacation—and, most importantly—job security. People joined a company out of high school or college and, in many cases, remained with that company until they retired. The social contract between employer and employee was mostly a two-way street: The employee was loyal to the business, and the company provided stability long-term. For employees, that meant the traditional commitment of showing up at the workplace on time, being as productive as possible, and working to fulfill the company mission. For employers, that meant giving their team members both long-term job security as well as professional development and promotion. The job itself created the career path.

Today, that social contract has been broken by both sides: Companies rarely offer pensions, and they no longer invest in employees’ careers with the mindset that the relationship will last 20, 30, or even 40 years. Meanwhile, employees see each job as an opportunity to find the next opportunity. That’s not wrong; it’s today’s business reality. But it can become incredibly nerve-wracking. How do you plan your career path while navigating through multiple employers?

You can build confidence in your career path even if job security is a thing of the past. Here’s how.

Build a network. While gaining experience will help you get better jobs and increase your pay, building a network is key to your long-term career prospects. After all, you can’t improve your skills if you can’t get hired, and your network will always remain one of your strongest resources for finding jobs. Whether you’re a recent grad relying on an alumni group or an experienced professional using a headhunter firm, you will find that you need a network to help you find job opportunities, connect with mentors, and even provide future employees for your own team. Think of your network as your long-term employer: the source of professional development and new opportunities.

Keep learning. Early in your career, you’ll want to keep expanding your know-how naturally, just in order to do your job well and feel confident. But it’s key to keep learning as you get more experienced. That might be additional formal education or learning online. It could even include informal interactions with your network. But the point is that you’ll feel more confident about your career path if you keep challenging yourself, learn about new trends, and understand where the conversation is headed. You don’t need to try to be an expert in every new concept. But you want to build an attitude that makes you less afraid of new ideas. When you’re young, it feels like everything that’s new is easy to adapt to your habits or mindset. Eventually, you build habits and preferences and find them harder to abandon. Change gets harder—not because your mind can’t learn new things as you get older but because we resist change generally. The longer something has worked well for us, the harder it becomes to abandon it.

Become self-aware (it’s not all about you). Job changes are more common than they used to be, but our emotional reaction to change hasn’t evolved as fast as the market has. The social contract that used to exist between employers and employees aligned with our basic instinct for stability. Humans find safety in routine. Losing your job, or even proactively deciding to leave, is inherently stressful . It’s a change of livelihood, social life , daily habits, and even our identity . Thirty or forty years ago, we only changed jobs once or twice in our lifetime. But now, the average length of time at any one job is about four years , according to the Department of Labor. That’s as many as 10 jobs over the course of a 40-year career. And yet, we must detach as much as possible from feeling a personal judgment when it happens. Economies ebb and flow, and companies go through reductions in force (RIFs) in order to survive until the next uptick. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or even a poor performer. You simply were not essential to that company at that moment. As difficult as it is, long-term career planning in today’s age means planning not to have job security. So, being resilient will be incredibly important.

The most important aspect of protecting your career path for the long term is to have a plan.

The famous quote from Alice in Wonderland is a useful guide: “If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.” You need to know where you want to go. You don’t have to understand how you’re going to get there fully, but you do need to plan (and tweak as you go). It’s a bit like one long road trip. You’re headed out of Boston to San Diego. There’s a lot of different ways to make that trek. But you have to decide, at least, that you want to be somewhere in Southern California. People make big changes in their career path: starting as an actor, deciding to go into sales, and leaving to start their own coffee bar. San Diego, to use the road trip metaphor, isn’t the job title; it’s the destination. Do you want to be in a position where your passion is profitable? Do you want your job to be something you leave behind each evening to focus on priorities like family and friends? Do you want to afford a certain type of lifestyle, or is freedom and flexibility more important? The earlier you know what a career means to you, the better you can build a career path that gets you where you want to go.

Robert Kovach, Ph.D., has spent his entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams, and their companies.

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Career Paths for Federal Program and Project Management Guide

Resources for.

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• HR Professionals

Understanding the Career Path

A career path is a progression of positions in one or more occupational series. As illustrated on Figure 1: Typical Career Paths for Program and Project Management , each level of the Program and Project Manager career paths is comprised of entry and exit points. The solid lines represent typical career movement, while the dotted lines are representative of non-typical career patterns. The career paths also depict the various lateral movements that occur within each career stage because of the interconnectedness between program and project management. Double-sided arrows signify movement both in and out of a certain level, while single-sided arrows indicate movement in only one direction.

Individuals at all levels commonly transfer into Federal Program and Project Management from the military; however, individuals in Program and Project Management positions rarely leave their positions to serve in the military. Please note the specific GS occupations vary greatly and may depend on the types of program/projects being managed which require job-specific subject matter expertise. OPM’s Program Management Improvement Accountability Act – Program and Project Managers Workforce Survey data indicated over 150 job series in which Federal employees perform Program/Project Management work. The job series included in the following career paths reflect the greatest reported job series from this survey (see Appendix C for a detailed list of the designated title for each series).

Typical Career Paths for Federal Program and Project Management

This graphic shows a high-level overview of how individuals commonly progress through the Federal Program and Project Management career stages. Solid arrows represent the most common career advancement; dotted arrows represent equally viable, but less common advancements. Double sided arrows signify movement both in and out of a certain level, while single-sided arrows indicate movement in only one direction. The career path also depicts the various lateral movements that occur within each career stage because of the interconnectedness between program and project management. The job series that are included in the following career paths reflect the most frequently reported job series from OPM’s P/PM Workforce Survey (see Appendix C for a detailed list of the designated title for each job series). Expand the levels below for more information.

Federal Job Series: 0201, 0301, 0340, 0343, 0801, 0808, 0905, 1101, 1102, 1301, 2210

Job series may be determined by the types of programs or projects being managed (e.g., engineering, IT, acquisitions, etc.) that require specific subject matter knowledge.

Mid/Full Performance-Level (GS 9-11)

At the Mid/Full-Performance Level, it is most common for individuals to enter and exit this career stage from General Schedule occupations specific to the types of projects they manage or functional project management role and private sector organizations. It is also common for individuals to enter this career stage from non-profit organizations, state/local government, colleges/universities, the military, and Federal internship programs. However, it is uncommon for individuals to exit this career stage to these categories.

Common Roles:

• Project Manager
• Functional Project Management Role
• Business Function, General/Business Analyst
• Program Manager

It is common for an individual in the Functional Project Management role and the Business Function, General/Business Analyst role to move to Project Manager.

Expert-Level (GS 12-13)

At the Expert-Level, It is most common for individuals to enter and exit this career stage from General Schedule occupations, private sector organizations, state/local government, and non-profit organizations.

• GS-13 may be supervisory

It is common for a Project Manager to move into the Program Manager role; however, it is uncommon for a Program Manager to move into the Project Manager role.

Senior-Level (GS 14-15)

At the Senior-Level, it is most common for individuals to enter and exit this career stage from General Schedule occupations, academia, private sector organizations, state/local government or be a reemployed annuitant. In addition, it is common for individuals to enter this level from non-profit organizations and the military, but uncommon to leave for these categories. Senior-Level individuals also exit Federal Program and Project Management in pursuit of non-Federal program and project management opportunities.

• Senior-Expert Project Manager
• Senior-Expert Program Manager
• Supervisory Program/Project Manager

It is common for a Senior Expert Project Manager to move into the Senior Expert Program Manager role or the Supervisory Program/Project Manager role. It is uncommon for a Senior Expert Program Manager to move to the Senior Expert Project Manager role. In addition, it is common for individuals to move in or out between the Senior Expert Program Manager and the Supervisory Program/Project Manager roles.

More From Forbes

Harvard business school announces 3 new application essays.

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Harvard Business School.

Harvard Business School announced a surprising departure from its single, open-ended application essay to three short essays with specific prompts. The HBS website sums up the kind of applicant the school is seeking: “We are looking for future leaders who are passionate about business, leadership, and growth.”

The prompts for the class that will begin in fall 2025 instruct applicants to address each topic in turn.

• Business-Minded Essay : Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
• Leadership-Focused Essay : What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
• Growth-Oriented Essay : Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

The prompts ask applicants to go beyond simply asserting their allegiance to the ideals of business, leadership and growth. Each of the three questions asks for evidence: “experiences,” “experiences” and “an example,” respectively.

The prompts do not expect a straightforward list of what happened in the past. Rather, they encourage reflection on how these experiences affected present realities and future goals.

Applicants are asked to reflect on past, present and future as an ongoing process of becoming who they are now and who they wish to become. Even the “Business-Minded Essay” is about past choices and future impact; it also assumes you “plan to serve.” The “Leadership-Focused Essay” does not ask applicants to recite a list of titles, but to discuss who they are and how they relate to others; not what title they aspire to, but “what kind of leader you wish to become.”

Perhaps the most surprising essay prompt is No. 3, which asks about curiosity. It opens the door for applicants to discuss a more personal aspect of their candidacies. The prompt asks not about end result, but about the process of change. Once again, the emphasis is on “growth.”

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

In short, the prompts ask about person and process.

How The 3 New Prompts Differ From Last Year’s Single Question

This year’s prompts give applicants more direction than the previous open-ended instruction, which was: “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?”

Applicants may find it easier to follow these more detailed instructions and to stay on topic. They no longer need to face an open question and a blank page.

Another aid is the shorter word limit. The essay on being business-minded has a limit of 300 words, and the essays on leadership and growth through curiosity are limited to 250 words each.

A third difference is the specific inquiry about business. Last year’s prompt allowed candidates to choose anything they thought would be important for HBS to consider. Some applicants struggled to decide whether to focus on business or something beyond work. While the “Business-Minded Essay” is still personal, it does ask applicants to reflect on their careers.

One might also speculate that the new, more directive prompts makes it easier for the admissions committee to compare essays across applications, while still leaving room for considerable variation in how applicants choose to address the essay prompts.

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Fall Career and Internship Fair September 18, 2024 @ 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Kohl Center Register on Handshake (starting August 26)

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Here’s a preview of just a few positions currently available on Handshake . Note that the date shown is  not the application due date, but is the date the position was posted!

Engineering Geologist (JC - 428446) 7/12/24 at State Water Resources Control Board

Senior water resource control engineer (jc - 425282) 7/29/24 at state water resources control board, supervising engineering geologist (jc - 435379) 7/18/24 at state water resources control board, environmental scientist (jc - 420859) 7/10/24 at state water resources control board.

What does it mean to work in fields such as Environmental Planning/Conservation, Sustainability, Resource Management, Remediation/Compliance, Quality Assurance/Control, or Wildlife Management/Care? Read more below about each of these areas and how your L&S degree can lead you to a career in these fields.

Looking for more? Check out our more resources to explore.

• Environmental Careers
• Environmental Policy & Urban Planning
• Sustainability & Green Jobs
• Agriculture & Forestry
• Biological Technician
• Wildlife Careers
• Clean Energy

Environmental careers help to improve the environment in some way – directly and indirectly. Examples could be helping to reduce pollution, remediating or reversing human impact on the planet, or educating, inspiring, motivating, and persuading people or companies to take greener, more sustainable actions.

To learn more, check out resources on these pages: UW-Madison Environmental Science Careers Page  and The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

Environmental Consulting

The Environmental Policy field centers around the alternation of public policy and social institutions that influence the way we manage the environment and our natural resources. By researching scientific data and current legislation Environmental Policy makers create new laws and legal standards that will better serve shifting environmental demands.

Environmental & Urban Planning careers create programs that use land more efficiently with minimal damage to the surrounding environment. They often focus on the use of natural resources and attempt to predict any risks or problems that may arise, and then create plans to combat these risks. Urban planners help to direct a city’s or town’s development. The profession of urban planning is involved in improving the life and health quality of not just what is traditionally thought of as “urban” spaces, but of all spaces in which human beings live.

Though the words “sustainability” and “green” often invoke the idea of environmental scientists, this narrow view does not accurately represent the diversity of the field. While these scientific careers are certainly part of the industry, there are many other options for those seeking a Sustainability job or Green profession. In fact, many Sustainability careers are often focused on helping organizations and companies run more efficiently, thereby increasing their profits, pleasing their customer base, and creating a sense of well being among the community.

To learn more check out resources at the UW-Madison Office of Sustainability Jobs & Internships .

Careers in Agriculture and Forestry make up one of the largest industries and sources of long-term employment in the country, providing jobs for millions of Americans. These careers supply us with a multitude of food products and alternative energies, among many other important resources for sustaining our country and contribution to the world economy. In addition, these careers – particularly those associated with Forestry – conserve our natural resources and assure we have bountiful supplies of land to utilize in the future. Many of the careers in the Agriculture and Forestry industry are considered “Green Careers,” meaning that the careers are involved in preserving or protecting our environmental resources.

To learn more, check out resources at these pages:

Wildlife & Fisheries Job Board

Forestry & Natural Resources

AgCareers.com

A biological technician has many duties that support conservationists and environmental scientists in their research. These include maintaining the laboratory to create a clean space to conduct tests and experiments. In some positions, they also must gather and prepare samples for analysis as well as document and interpret their findings.

Professionals in wildlife management and care address national and international issues that affect the current and future status of wildlife throughout the world. A career in this field requires extensive preparation and long hours of hard work to acquire knowledge and skills for competitive positions that often require higher education degrees.

To learn more about careers in this area, check out these resources:

National Wildlife Federation

Association of Zoos & Aquariums

The Wildlife Society Jobs

Learn about career paths and resources to explore the different ways you can build your experience in the clean energy industry. The Wisconsin Energy Institute is a campus hub for programming and education committed to promoting sustainable energy practices.

Environment, Sustainability & Conservation FAQs

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What specific skills and experiences should a resume include for Environment, Sustainability & Conservation?

A simple, well-organized resume is a great place to start. Generally, staying away from fancy graphics and the free templates online will help you to rework and add to your resume as you continue to gain experience, allowing you to adapt content over time. Depending on your experience, here are examples of different content to include to tailor your resume when applying to jobs and internships.

Tips to Tailor Your Resume: 

• Examples: Ecology of Fishes, Limnology, Environmental Toxicology, Entomology, Museum Studies
• Excel (proficient), ArcGIS (proficient), and Premiere Pro (familiar)
• Land navigation (highly proficient), mapping, topography, and lab/field research
• Communicate well with landowners, cross-culturally, and publicly
• Coordinate outreach efforts, organize and plan community events, lead group activities
• Examples: Research, Conservation, Outdoors, Environmental, Wildlife Care

Ready to get started on your resume? Check out the SuccessWorks resume page, and set up an appointment with a Peer Advisor or Graduate Intern for feedback on your draft! 

Where can I find jobs and internships in this career area?

It depends on the type of jobs and internships that interest you! The community newsletter highlights relevant opportunities as they’re posted, and this handout provides you with examples of local organizations where students are known to volunteer, work, and intern locally and across the U.S. Handshake is also a good site to check out, because it has information about career fairs and employer events as well as job and internship postings. I recommend adding the Handshake widget to your MyUW homepage to easily access the site. And of course, there’s the student job board for UW-Madison where you’ll find research, on campus, and Madison based opportunities. Finally, you will find environment specific job boards under the More Resources to Explore section at the bottom of this page . See the Build Your Experience & Skills menu to get started! 

Larger job boards (LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.) are always an option, too. While they can be overwhelming they do give you suggestions in the job search window of other titles to search. This can be helpful in creating a keyword list to help narrow your search. For the time being, I recommend you start with more focused search resources like the ones included above.

Can I get an environmental job without a graduate degree?

Potentially! To get started as an undergrad, consider searching for research opportunities (on campus or summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) and field based study abroad programs (like  CEIBA  or  School for Field Studies  programs). Also, field based programs in the US like  WRFI  may be more accessible than study abroad programs in the upcoming year.

When you graduate, environmental work often requires specific experience, education, and specialized training. Depending on skills you have developed in college, you may qualify for various technician, specialist, and consulting roles. In addition, depending on the type of work you are willing and able to do, you can begin through gap year programs, internships, limited term and part-time jobs.  Environmental email job boards  are a good resource to sign up for to get a better sense of what types of jobs are available.

Are there well-paid career paths in this field?

While most people who go into environmental related career paths aren’t looking to get rich, environmental jobs span all work sectors, including finance, policy, law, business, real estate, government, and non-profit. Figuring out the different work environments will help you better understand which paths you might want to pursue.

Do I have to go to veterinary school to work with wildlife animals?

You first want to learn the different ways in which you can work with animals. For example, you may become a zoologist or wildlife biologist working in different paths in conservation management and wildlife rehabilitation where getting a master’s degree and the appropriate certifications and permits will allow you to work in state and federal government positions. Some paths will require further education, especially work with more of a research focus. Figuring out the types of animals you want to work with will also help determine the necessary level of education. If you don’t know what you’re interested in yet, do something, anything to narrow down your interests.

Can I work in sustainability & business if I don't have a business background?

Trying out multiple related opportunities during college is just as important as doing the same once you’ve graduated. When you’ve gained more job experience and tried out different functional areas to build your skills, then figuring out the next right step for working in sustainability will help you be prepared to follow a path that works for who you are and what you want to do. Here is a  good article  to read more about this process. Learn about  local initiatives and resources happening here in Wisconsin.

When should I make an advising appointment with Brenda?

If you’re just getting started with your resume or cover letter, the Resume and Cover Letters page has all you need to put together a solid draft! Then, our Peer Advisors and Graduate Interns can help you make sure your application materials are ready to submit and highlight all of your relevant skills and experience at an Express Advising Appointment !

If you know you’re interested in environmental careers and are looking for ways to gain experience, check out the resources on this page . On these pages, you’ll find examples of different career paths related to conservation, ecological restoration and consulting, renewable energy, environmental outreach and education, environmental policy and urban planning, sustainability and business + more.

If you have in-depth questions about figuring out when and if you should attend graduate school, how to gain relevant experience and build specific skills to become qualified for jobs, or are feeling lost and want help getting a better sense of your options within this Career Community, then that’s a great time to meet with Brenda, the Career and Internship Specialist for Environment, Natural Resources & Wildlife! Brenda and other Specialists can help you with mock interviews, honing your application strategy, negotiating a job offer, and discussing that transition from college to career or graduate school. Make an appointment with Brenda here.

Environmental Resume Sample

Natural Resources Resume Sample

Zoologist Resume Sample

Graduate school.

If I want to work in sustainability and green jobs, conservation and natural resource management and wildlife, do I need to go to graduate school or receive further training or certification? If yes, what is the right program(s) for me? Does it make sense to do a Ph.D. or a professional master’s program? Talk to your career & internship specialist, your academic advisor, and faculty members to learn more and to find out about different programs, here are a few resources to get you started:

• The Top PhD Resource on the Web More
• Sustainability Degrees More
• Biodiversity and Conservation graduate programs More
• GradReady More
• Conservation Job Board Network More
• Guide to Graduate School & Gap Years Canvas Module More

Before You Apply

Outline To Essay

More resources to explore.

Learn about work environments and functions, f ind out requirements for education and training, and d iscover professional organizations.

Conservation Biology Majors : When Aldo Leopold and Norman Fassett, a former UW Botany professor, first initiated the major in the 1940s, they intended for the major to prepare individuals for careers as game wardens, ranger naturalists, and museum workers. As the major evolved,  career opportunities evolved as well. Conservation Biology alumni have worked both domestically and internationally in many different industries.

Build Your Experience & Skills

Use these sites to search for Internships, Volunteer, Part-time/Full-time jobs. Learn position requirements and qualifications to find out what skills and experiences you need for jobs of interest. In addition, search specific state, federal, and private organization websites for other job listings.

Career Exploration Guide and Resource Workbook – use these resources to navigate exploration and job searching and learn about organization samples, by industry

Handshake : Find opportunities specifically for UW students and recent grads.

UW-Madison Environmental Science Careers Page  – several resources including  local, state, and national environmental organization lists and opportunities

The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

UW-Madison Office of Sustainability Jobs & Internships

Wisconsin Energy Institute – career exploration and job search resources

National Wildlife Federation – environmental career path resources

Indeed.com  A job search site listing positions at the national level.

LinkedIn:  Search human services, mental health.

Idealist.org:  Non-profit jobs and internships.

Glassdoor:  Search by job title or company.

Wisc.jobs:  Find jobs in the State of Wisconsin.

Professional Development, Licensing & Training

A good way to further explore career interests is by checking out professional associations’ career and education resources. You can also learn about relevant events and conferences to attend, which is a great way to meet people in the field and make connections.

• National Association of Environmental Professionals
• International Society of Sustainability Professionals
• Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
• Conservation Certification Resources

Identify Job Skills & Functions, Salaries & More

ONET OnLine:  O*NET OnLine has detailed descriptions of the world of work for use by job seekers, workforce development and HR professionals, students, researchers, and more!

Occupational Outlook Handbook:  The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations.

CareerOneStop:  A source for career exploration, training & jobs. Sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

On-Campus Resources

Center for Leadership and Involvement

UW-Madison Student Job Center

International Internship Program

Morgridge Center for Public Service

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Supporting Educators & Students

Teaching & learning.

As part of its broad-based teaching mission, the AHA develops and shares resources for educators and students. From regional teaching conferences and online programs to pathbreaking research projects, AHA initiatives foster a community grounded in our shared commitment to understanding the past. We support and convene people who share a love of history and historical thinking.

Resources for Educators & Students

K–12 Education

The AHA strives to ensure that every K–12 student has access to high quality history instruction. We create resources for the classroom, advise on state and federal policy, and advocate for the vital importance of history in public education.

Undergraduate Education

Teaching and learning are at the foundation of the AHA’s mission to promote historical thinking in public life. What do students learn in undergraduate history courses? How and why are history majors so successful in a variety of careers?

Graduate Education

Many historians will pursue graduate training at some stage in their career. To meet the needs of both students and graduate programs, the AHA creates resources, provides platforms, and convenes conversations about student success from application to completion.

For Academic Departments

History department chairs are on the front lines of the discipline, defending historians’ work and supporting their professional lives at all stages of their academic careers. The AHA strives to strengthen this work and provide resources and opportunities that make chairs’ work easier and valued. The AHA provides resources and hosts a variety of events and opportunities to benefit department chairs and build community, including webinars, sessions at the annual meeting, and an in-person workshop.

Current Events in Historical Context

Essential, carefully researched resources by historians providing context for conversations about current events.

Regional Conferences on Introductory History Courses

What do students learn in introductory history courses? How can historical thinking support student learning and success across the curriculum? Our regional conferences endeavor to strengthen the community of practice focused on introductory history courses, both in secondary and higher education.

Standards & Guidelines

June 10, 2024

Guidelines for Academic Tenure-Track Job Offers in History

June 9, 2024

Statement on Age Discrimination

Aha historical collections.

The AHA has made primary sources available for research purposes, along with AHA archival reports and documents.

Vetted Resources

Vetted Resources compiles in a central location materials and tools that have been professionally vetted by historians, offering instructors access to high-quality materials that meet professional standards

AHA Resource Library

June 20, 2024

16 Months to Sumter: Newspaper Editorials on the Path to Secession

June 16, 2024

The History of Racism and Racist Violence: International Contexts and Comparisons

The history of racism and racist violence: monuments and museums, join the aha.

The AHA brings together historians from all specializations and all work contexts, embracing the breadth and variety of activity in history today.