What Principles of Business Taught Me - Career Planning

What is Principles of Business? As I mentioned in my college & career decision-making journey post, Principles of Business is a class I took last semester, and the title is pretty self-explanatory. The course just introduced students like myself to the basics of entrepreneurship and things such as coming up with an idea for a business, marketing and advertising, etc.

At first, I didn't think a business class would be of much assistance to me in my career journey. As good as owning a business sounds, it isn't what I'm personally interested in on the forefront. However, I thought it would be an asset because I wanted to learn more about entrepreneurship to see if it was something I would consider. Indeed, I did learn about entrepreneurship, but this class helped me with something greater.

Now, even though it is a business class, we studied a whole chapter on the career planning process, which actually gave me the inspiration for this website.

Now, keep in mind that this isn't just figuring out the career you want for yourself. That's only the first step. No, this is career-planning, the steps to take once you figure that out. It may seem premature, but your future self will thank me for this information, as I am thanking my teacher.

The Career-Planning Process

1. Personal Assessment

~ Hello? Aptitude tests!! I've been promoting aptitude tests for a reason! It is literally part of personal assessment, especially if you're not exactly sure what you wanna do. In this step, you determine your talents, interests, and abilities. Some people just know what they're good at and what they're interested in off the top of their head, but if you're not sure do not hesitate to take an aptitude test. This will give you career options based on your skills and interests and can help you make a career decision. This part is essential! Because, well, obviously you need a career option to begin career planning.

2. Determine the kind of position you want to apply for

~ This step is important because there are many different factors to consider when applying for a position. You don't just up and apply for the first available position!! You need to consider the salary, scheduling, promotion, basically all the factors that are important to you. This is mainly determined by your values—whether you're seeking longevity, comfort, or just the financial aspect, it is important to look into positions for these things.

3. Application process

~ This part was actually super cool because my teacher showed us how to do a cover letter, which is a letter requesting a company for an interview, and we even did mock resumes. This taught me the importance of selling myself as a candidate for a job position and it definitely put my writing skills to the test. It also kind of made me think about all of my awards and accomplishments over the past few years which is important to highlight in a resume or application.

4. Interview process

~ I probably had too much fun with this part. We had to do "mock interviews" where we were basically given some questions and had to answer them in a video. There were questions like "What's your favorite subject?" "What's your least favorite subject?" "The last book you read?", things like that. This was a good exercise for interview practice, obviously, but also self-awareness, as it helped me to get to know myself more on an educational level. I linked my interview below in case you wanted to see.

https://flipgrid.com/84417e27

So the rest of the steps beyond the ones above ^^ are obviously job acceptance and then developing your career from there. From there, we learned about career success behaviors and developing workplace relationships, which are all very important, but I just wanted to touch on the career planning process. Shoutout to Coach Ross for this class, this elective has been more instrumental in helping me plan and prepare for my future than any other class.