What it Means to be Career Ready

The Lyon College Career Services Center commitment to our students is to help them develop the skills to excel wherever life takes them – graduate school or a future care.
According to NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers), career readiness is defined as:

“Career readiness is a foundation from which to demonstrate requisite core competencies that broadly prepare the college educated for success in the workplace and lifelong career management.

For new college graduates, career readiness is key to ensuring successful entrance into the workforce. Career readiness is the foundation upon which a successful career is launched. Career readiness is, quite simply, the new career currency.

For higher education, career readiness provides a framework for addressing career-related goals and outcomes of curricular and extracurricular activities, regardless of the student’s field of study. For employers, career readiness plays an important role in sourcing talent, providing a means of identifying key skills and abilities across all job functions; similarly, career readiness offers employers a framework for developing talent through internship and other experiential education programs”.

There are Eight Career Readiness Competencies

Career and Self-Development

Proactively develop oneself and one’s career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one’s organization.

Communication

Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.

Critical Thinking

Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.

Equity & Inclusion

Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism.

Leadership

Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.

Professionalism

Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.

Teamwork

Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.

Technology

Understand and leverage technologies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals.

Want to learn how to build your career readiness competencies?

Schedule a meeting with the Career Services Center

You can also take our BUS 208 – Career Professionalism Course.

Majors

This spreadsheet details the majors offered by Lyon College during the 2022-23 academic year. It also details some of the career options these majors compliment, and the appropriate faculty you can reach out to!

Lyon College Majors

Graduate and Professional School Preparation

Lyon College has traditionally been an excellent launchpad for students looking to become:

• Doctors
• Physical Therapists
• Lawyers 
• Researchers
• Dentists
• Professors
• Veterinarians
• Ministers
• Chiropractors
• Advanced Studies

The Lyon College Career Services Center can help you plan, prepare, and succeed in whatever professional career path you want to take.

Along with your faculty advisor, the Career Services Center will provide you with the resources and guidance to successfully transition from undergraduate to graduate student.

Planning Process

Junior Year

• Working with your Faculty Advisor, create a list of potential post-graduate career programs that interest you.
• Create a list of what requirements are needed to get accepted to the graduate program of your choice. Some of the more common graduate exams are:
  • GMAT: Graduate Management Admission Test
  • GRE: Graduate Record Exam through the Educational Testing Service (ETS)
  • LSAT: Law School Admission Test through the Law School Admission Council
  • MCAT: Medical College Admissions Test
  • DAT: Dental Admission Test
• Sign up for a high-quality test prep service. Some resource partners we recommend are:
  • Kaplan Test Preparation Services
  • Study Guide Zone: GRE Test Secrets
  • Peterson's Grad School Search Tool
  • Gradschools.com
  • Peterson's Comprehensive Guide to College Information
  • Graduate School Guide
• Request letters of recomendation
• Start preparing documents needed (e.g. transcripts, resume/cv, and personal statements)
• Take your required graduate exam during the school year or summer break
• Research and attend any information meetings about your graduate program of interest
  • For example - Check out Handshake to see if there are any scheduled events

Focus 2 Career

FOCUS 2 CAREER is a reliable, intuitive career & education decision making model to help students choose majors, explore occupations, and make informed career decisions.

The platform provides the following tools:

How to Setup Your FOCUS2 Account and Log In:

You will need the access code to register. The access code: (goscots)

New Users

Step 1: Create your account by linking to the Lyon College FOCUS2 registration page.

Step 2: Enter the access code goscots (you can create your unique password after registering).

Step 3: Complete your registration by creating an account.

Step 4: After creating an account, the system will prompt you to begin the assessment.

Returning Users

Step 1: Log in

Step 2: Enter your username and password

Step 3: After you log in FOCUS2, you will be led to your Dashboard

Step 4: If you forget your username and/or password, go to FOCUS2 forgot password page to have this information automatically sent to your email.

Using FOCUS2

FOCUS2 is designed to walk you through the beginning steps of your career planning process. You can review any parts of the system at any stage in your process.

My Career Planning Readiness

This self-assessment will help begin to think about where you presently are in planning your career – are you just starting out or are you getting serious about what you want to do in the future?

My Academic Stengths

Use this self-assessment tool to help you identify your academic strengths. You can then build upon these strengths to begin finding a major and career path that is right for you. 

Am I Career Ready?

This assessment will walk you through eight proven career-readiness competencies to further help you refine your vision on what you want to do with your future.

Focus 2 also has five self-assessment to help you gain a more holistic view of your interests, personality, and values.

• Work Interest: will identifiy occupations and tasks you enjoy most
• Personality: matches your personality type to compatible occupations
• Skills: identify occupations that match your profile
• Values: indentify occupations that are compatible with your work values
• Leisure Interest: identify occupations that provide opportunities and activities compatible with your leisure preference

Explore the Possibilities

You can then begin to use all of the insights from the Focus 2 assessments to being to explore:

• What can I do with a major offered at Lyon College
• Explore any Area of Study
• Explore any Occupation
• Explore Occupation by Job Family
• Compare 2 Occupations Side by Side

Understanding Your FOCUS2 Results

The Career Service Center encourages every Lyon student to take the Focus 2 assessments. The assessments will give you valuable insights about yourself, even if you know what major and career path you want to take

Once you complete FOCUS2 assessment, it is highly recommended that we recommend scheduling an appointment with the Career Services Center to discuss the results.

Please contact Patrick Lynch (patrick.lynch@lyon.edu) to set up an appointment.