Career Readiness

Career and self-development means you proactively develop yourself and your career by:

• learning personally and professionally.
• being aware of your strengths and weaknesses.
• navigating career opportunities.
• networking to build relationships inside and outside your organization.

Communication is the ability to clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with people inside and outside of an organization.

You’ll need to be able to listen attentively and purposefully despite distractions.

You’ll also be able to verbally discuss and create reliable, succinct, and easy-to-follow professional documents. This includes every step: planning, researching, writing, editing, proofreading, and even designing documents.

Critical thinking is the ability to identify and respond to needs based on knowing situational context and logically analyzing relevant information.

It’s evaluating your own and others’ assumptions on a topic or situation. It’s also analyzing issues from multiple perspectives to address problems and solutions.

Equity and inclusion is the ability to demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills needed to equitable engage and include people from different cultures and backgrounds.

It also means to engage in anti-oppressive practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism and inequity.

Leadership competency means you recognize–and capitalize–on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.

An effective leader can organize, prioritize, and delegate work. You’ll need good interpersonal skills to coach others toward success.

Leadership requires empathic skills to guide and motivate a team. It’s also the ability to assess and manage your emotions and the emotions of others.

Professionalism is the ability to demonstrate personal accountability.

Having professionalism also means you:

• know that work environments differ greatly.
• understand and demonstrate effective work habits.
• act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.

Teamwork is the ability to closely work together with others to achieve the same outcome.

Building and maintaining collaborative relationships in your workplace is important to work effectively toward common goals.

Teamwork is also crucial for appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.

Technology competency is when you understand and leverage technologies ethically to:

• enhance efficiencies.
• complete tasks.
• accomplish goals.

You’ll also be able to effectively adapt to new and emerging technologies.