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presented by Career Services, ITCC Lafayette
Introduction
Many current and prospective students ask, "Will I be able to get a job after I get my degree?" Or they ask about the salaries they can expect in their chosen careers. However, no one can accurately predict the future job market. There are no guarantees that they will find a job at a certain salary, or even find a job at all. These questions should be asked before selecting a career path. This guide is a starting point, not an ending point, in a search for a new career. Many factors affect your chances of finding a job with your new degree. The "extras" you can offer a potential employer are very important. You may acquire excellent technical skills for a career; however, without the appropriate interpersonal and professional skills, it may be difficult to find a job. For example, you may be proficient with computer word processing software, know legal terminology, and type 80 words per minute. However, you may have difficulty acquiring a legal secretary job if you don't know how to dress and speak professionally. These personal traits that affect your job search can be learned and should not be barriers to your success. There are other factors that may affect your success in finding a job. Local, state, and national economies, changes in technology, retiring workers, and how local employers value your Ivy Tech degree are factors that you cannot control. The demands for services or goods that affect a particular career greatly impact the demand for employees. For example, most labor market experts agree that people with high tech computer skills will be in great demand for many years. Therefore, you may assume that there will always be jobs in the computer field. But before you jump into a computer specialty, you should ask a few additional questions.
Investigating Careers
When you decide it is time to buy a new or used car, you probably read information on various models, visit dealerships, test drive cars, and ask a lot of questions. A career choice is a major decision, much more important than purchasing a car. You should seek answers to your questions and choose wisely. In this section are suggestions for sources to find answers to your questions.
Using this Guide
This guide is a starting point. If you are interested in a healthcare career, read the data on the projected number of jobs available, and look at the recent graduate statistics. If the projections are not good and the average salary is not enough to support your family, perhaps you will want to think about a different career. However, if the data seems to reflect a growing career field and adequate salaries, it may be good to investigate the career further. Keep in mind that job projection data re not accurate predictions, just good guesses about the future. Also keep in mind that some career fields may be growing, but they may be growing for workers with more than a two-year degree. You will need to investigate those career fields further to find out what education level is necessary to obtain a job. The graduate statistics reflect actual data for past graduates. They are not necessarily a prediction of the future. A particular career field that has strong employment and generous salaries today does not mean that it will continue to grow. For more help in interpreting the data, feel free to visit the Career Services office in Ivy Hall Room 1145, or call 765-269-5120 or 800-669-4882 to schedule an appointment.
