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Using Focus 2 for Career Exploration

 

Career Exploration and Focus 2

Majors within the School of Social Ecology are interdisciplinary, meaning they prepare you for a wide range of fields, from urban planning and law to mental health and environmental policy. While having options is a strength, it can also sometimes make it difficult to pinpoint a specific career path.

Focus 2 is a great self-guided career planning system offered by the Division of Career Pathways to help you navigate these options. Whether you are still declaring your major or are already a Senior looking for specific job titles, this tool can help you find compatible career paths based on your personality, interests, and values.

Getting Started

Identify a Major and Career – UConn Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills

Access Focus 2 Here

Once logged in, you will see a dashboard. You do not need to take every assessment immediately. We recommend starting with these three to get the most relevant data:

  1. Work Interest Assessment
    • Identifies your "Holland Code." This will likely be a combination of three letters (e.g., "SIE" - Social, Investigative, Enterprising)
  2. Values Assessment
    • Helps you prioritize what matters to you in a workplace
  3. Personality Assessment
    • Analyzes how you make decisions and interact with others

Combining Your Results

Looking at the individual assessment results can sometimes result in a list of jobs that is too broad. To get a more tailored list of recommendations, you can use the Combine Assessments feature on the dashboard.

This feature allows you to merge the results of all of your completed assessments and matches you with the most compatible occupations.

The Career Readiness Tool

Focus 2 includes a tool called "Am I Career Ready?" This is a self-assessment that rates your proficiency in the core competencies employers look for, such as Critical Thinking, Communication, and Leadership.

You can use this tool to identify areas that you might need improvement in. Additionally, you can plan your Field Study placement to target the gaps you want to focus on. For instance, if you score low on "Professionalism/Work Ethic," you might want to look for a Field Study in a corporate or government office rather than a remote research role.

Using the "What Can I Do With This Major?" Feature

If you aren't getting the results you are looking for through the assessments or want occupations that are directly related to your major, you can use the "What Can I Do With this Major?" feature found at the bottom of your Focus 2 Dashboard.

Focus 2 will give you a list of occupations specific to that degree, giving you estimates of salaries and job outlooks for each position.

Connecting Focus 2 to Your Field Study

Once you have identified some potential career paths in Focus 2, the next step is gaining relevant experience. We have created specific Career Guides for each major (Criminology, Urban Studies & Environmental Science and Policy, and Psychology) to help you make this connection.

How to use these resources together:

  1. Identify your career goals
    • Use Focus 2 to find specific occupation titles that interest you
  2. Open the Career Guide
  3. Find the match
    • Look up similar occupations in our guide. We have curated a list of Field Study sites that are specifically recommended for gaining experience in that career.

Need Help?

It's normal to be confused by your results. Feel free to bring a PDF of your results to a career advising appointment, and we can help walk you through them.

Make an appointment here