Located inside the Campus Center Building at
3536 Butte Campus Drive, Oroville, CA 95965
Office: (530) 895-2340 Fax (530) 895-2530
Semester hours: M-F, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Summer hours: M-Th, 7 a.m. - 5 p.m.

What Career Life Planning Can Do For You

For the majority of people, work will be a primary life activity. In educational institutions career planning prepares people for work by helping individuals connect their academic preparation to the work world.

Research suggests that the average person changes careers five to seven times during their working life—and that half of these changes will not be by choice. Being able to successfully enter and maintain work depends on knowing what one can do with the training and skills one has. How and where individuals work and the occupations they pursue are often dependent on their career planning skills.

Individuals need career planning knowledge and skills in an increasingly complex work world. There are two general categories of career planning knowledge—self and work. Self-knowledge draws from many fields, such as psychology, sociology, economics, history, political science, and business. Self-knowledge includes knowing one’s interest, aptitudes, values, lifestyle preferences, and personality characteristics. Work knowledge includes career, labor market, and educational knowledge. Career knowledge looks at such factor as job titles, duties, responsibilities, and licensing requirements. Labor market knowledge looks at how technology impacts job duties, political events affect public spending, and economic changes alter worker supply and demand. Educational knowledge requires understanding what degrees are required for various careers and knowing what careers can be pursued with different types of training. Career planning competence is the ability to analyze and integrate knowledge of self, work, and education make decisions, set goals and lay out the implement plans.

The goal of career planning instruction is to increase career planning knowledge and achieve career planning skill competence. The goal of career resource management is to insure the available career materials and resources are accurate and current. Career planning helps people move from school to work, work to work, and work to school.