Stage 1: Inquiry and Awareness 

Think back to your family vacations growing up and how you hated it when your parents would drag you to things like national monuments and museums when you just wanted to go to the beach? Well, that is what the Inquiry and Awareness stage resembles. It’s that trip that seems too long and not too interesting, until you think about it later on and realize it was good for you after all.

Inquiry and awareness involves discovering what makes you- you! You need to become aware of what you value personally and professionally. For example, are you attracted to nursing as a profession because you value helping others and enjoy the challenges involved with working in medicine? Helping others and enjoying challenges are values. By becoming aware of your values, you can come that much closer to forming possible career choices. You may ask, "How does my value of having lots of money or of being a working mother influence my major or career choices?" Well, if you value having money then you may want to rule out professions that do not pay as well as others (i.e., social work, teaching). However, you should consider how a "money making" profession places extreme demands on time and energy leaving little room for anything else. See your values as they affect you holistically (your entire person) rather than just professionally.

Also involved in this stage is the process of becoming more involved and engaged in the world around you. This may manifest in your finding extracurricular activities to become involved in, establishing relationships with professors, going to workshops or studying resources about majors, careers and the university. All of these activities can help highlight your skills and their development. Learning new skills and cultivating current ones are important in your self-assessment. If your math skills are terrible, should you be thinking more seriously about changing your major from accounting? Career Development Center has many workshops, resources and other opportunities to help you through this process. Self-assessment can be tough. An objective voice of a career counselor can help put self-assessment into perspective. Remember, we spend, on average, 50% of our lives at WORK. If you do not become knowledgeable on what makes you happy and fulfilled, you can count on 50% of your life being unsatisfactory.