The Career Fitness Program: Exercising Your Options (11th Edition)

Book Preface

The Career Fitness Program: Exercising Your Options.
We are immensely gratified by the positive feedback from the field, which tells us that we are contributing to the quality of life for the thousands of students who use our book. We say use our book rather than read our book because the process of career planning is action oriented. We have balanced the text with a variety of exercises incorporated into each chapter to encourage you to “get into the process” and allow it to unfold in the many unexpected ways that careers take shape. We are committed to the process of career planning, which is part science and part art, part logic and part intuition, part inspiration and part perspiration. We recognize the critical role of the teacher/counselor/coach in this process as the voice of experience, reassurance, validation, and wisdom. Just as a personal trainer keeps a well-intentioned exerciser on track, the instructor keeps students moving forward in a process that tends to be circuitous rather than linear and straightforward.

Our book is a comprehensive and current compendium of the best art and science in the field of career planning. This eleventh edition incorporates the use of the electronic medium into every aspect of the planning process without implying that the Internet is the only tool in the process. In fact, the book’s emphasis on the importance of human relations skills sets it apart. This combination of high tech and high touch will help you integrate the best of both worlds to maximize the impact of your career-planning efforts.

New to This Edition

This revision introduces digital resources available in the MSSL as an integrated part of the text. It integrates the mindset and practice of planned happenstance, as outlined in the work of Psychologist John Krumboltz, and the tenants of positive psychology as well as the benefits and practice of focus as presented in Daniel Goleman’s latest book of the same title throughout the text.
User-friendly, easy to read, and appropriate for all learners, it provides three teaching and learning career handles (choice, change, and confirmation) that help students find their career “fit.” Career Choice follows the standard sequence of career search and decision-making issues–Personal Assessment, World of Work, and Job Search.
■■ Streamlined chapters and integrated online content to increase the relevancy and impact of the material on student learning outcomes.
■■ The year 2015 and beyond is explored in discussions, charts, graphs, and projections to help students project and prepare for where and how they might fit into the workplace, particularly the impact of the Global economy and entrepreneurial internet-based careers.
■■ Addresses “the new job market” including creating your own business, temp jobs, freelancing, creating blogs and tips for searching for a job while unemployed.
■■ A section on multiple-intelligence concepts shows learners yet another dimension of “why” it is necessary to be flexible in choosing a career.
■■ Feature content updated with critical thinking questions to make the boxed information more relevant and applicable to learners’ lives.
■■ Student Learning Outcomes. The objectives are tied to chapter topics and directly emphasize having learners experience a shift in understanding, focus, and ease of evaluation and assessment.
■■ Tips From the Pros feature. Anchors concepts and discussion with real world street smarts.
■■ Facts and Figures. Puts numbers behind topics at hand, in order to give context and set up additional reflection and discussion
■■ Real Stories. Offers situational case studies that learners can relate to, and think through the pros and cons of the situation and creatively come up with suggestions/ solutions.
■■ Success Strategies. Provides specific suggestions for how to apply information being presented.
■■ Exercising Your Options end-of-chapter feature. Elicits specific action steps from the learner, and is now included within the title-specific MyStudentSuccessLab.
■■ Career Fitness Portfolio. Learners record their answers at the end of each chapter to reflect on what they are learning.
■■ Decision-making questions. These questions have been added to strengthen decisionmaking skills for every “Fact and Figures”, “Success Strategies” and “Real Stories”.
■■ Offers a four-color workbook format that is ideal for use in class or as a reference guide.
■■ Discussions on the value of the liberal arts majors, undecided major, re-entry, and career-track students alike give further direction, understanding, and reassurance on how the skills acquired in college are transferrable to the world of work.