Career Guidance – Focus
Simply put, your future is the result of making choices: where to live, whether to marry, have kids, etc. Two choices that are particularly important in your college years are what to major in and your long-term career goals. Focus is one way of exploring these two choices. What is Focus and what can it do for me? Focus is provided by WVU Career Services Center as a free, self-paced, online career and education planning tool for use by our currently enrolled students, incoming freshman and alumni. It can help you to select, change or verify your major, as well as exploring different occupations that might be of interest to you. To access it, you will need to enter an access code, which is “mountaineer”. What types of results can I expect? Focus helps you to organize information about your interests, leisure activities, values, skills, and personality. This information can then be used to identify which occupations match your results in only one area or in a combination of two to five areas. (1.) Helps you to explore, on a basic level, how ready you are to make this decision. (2.) Provides information on various occupations, including which WVU major(s) would be appropriate for those occupations. (3.) Allows you to save different occupations and majors, as well as your comments about them, in a convenient location. (4.) Includes links provided by WVU& Career Services Center that might be of interest to you. What if Focus is helpful, but just isn’t enough for me to be comfortable with my decision? You may wish to speak with a career counselor to help you explore this decision in different ways. Call our office at 304-293-2221 to talk to and/or set up an appointment. Other more in-depth exploration tools are available, such as Strong Interest Inventory, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire, Work Values Sort, etc. Some of these require the payment of a small fee and all require meeting with a career counselor. How long does Focus take to complete? Most people take about 45 minutes for their initial run through. The different parts can be taken multiple times to explore what would happen if you changed some of your answers. Your results can be saved so that you can compare your results across time. How do I get started? You can click on the Focus link from this page or go to your MIX account. If you are first-time user, you will need to register by clicking “click here” in the upper right corner of the box. You will be asked to enter “Your Access Code,” which is “mountaineer” for WVU. Complete the information on the registration page. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Trina Cole or Sue Hodgson, PhD at 304-293-2221.
You may call the Career Services Center (304-293-2221) to schedule an appointment with a Career Services’ Career Counselor for interpretation of your printed Focus results.
