职业生涯可以被定义为一个人在一个职业或者一系列职业中的进步。然而，职业生涯不仅仅是一份任务，工作或者职业，它还可以包括你在生活中的取得的进步，你在业余生活领域的成长和发展。
A career can be defined as a person's progress within an occupation or series of occupations. However, a career is more than just a job, or working, or your occupation. It also includes your progress through life, your growth and development in vocational and avocational areas of life.
许多人认为一定有一个最适合自己的职业，但有很多选项可能都是好的选择。秘诀就是发现那些最有可能让你获得成功和使你感到愉悦的职业。作为一名大学生，无论你的职业是会计，戏剧艺术，或环境科学，任何职业都需要具备通用的职业技能。这些技能包括阅读，写作，计算，批判性思考，有效的沟通能力。通常情况下，这些技能在通识教育中得到发展和强化。这些技能，加上有效的职业规划技巧，以及在不断变化环境中的应变能力，将帮助你克服在你工作生活中的重重艰阻。
Many of us think that there is only one occupation that is best suited for us, but there are really several that may be good choices. The secret is to identify those occupations in which you have a high probability for success and happiness. As a college student, whether your career goals are accounting, theatre arts, or environmental sciences, there are general skills which will be required regardless of the career you pursue. These skills include the ability to read, write, compute, think critically, and communicate in an effective manner. For the most part, these skills are developed and/or sharpened in general education courses. These skills, along with effective career planning techniques, and the ability to cope with ambiguity in a changing environment, will enable you to overcome obstacles throughout your work life.
如何选择职业？
决定你最初的职业生涯可能会给你带来压力和不明朗的前景。许多人对于职业决策的看法为复杂甚至神秘的，只是因为他们倾向于专注于结果而忽视决策和规划的过程。成功的职业决策基于当前准确的信息。如今，关于职业的信息丰富并且易于访问。虽然这令人兴奋并且可能会有帮助，但它也可能具有压迫性。尽管如此，从大量可用的数据和文献中可以看出一个主要事实： 有效的职业规划会涉及一个人的一生。全面的职业规划会强调充分了解您的独特属性、特定职业领域以及您生活优先事项的重要性。Deciding on your initial career may present a stressful and frightening prospect. Many tend to perceive career decision-making as complex or even mysterious, only because they tend to concentrate on the outcome and overlook the decision-making and planning process. Successful career decisions are based on current and accurate information. Today, career information is abundant and easily accessible. While this is exciting and potentially helpful, it can also be overwhelming. Nevertheless, one major fact emerges from the mass of data and literature available:effective career planning is a process that involves the total person. Comprehensive career planning stresses the importance of knowing enough about your unique attributes, about specific career fields, and about your life priorities.
职业生涯规划会贯穿一个人整个职业生涯。在社会中，你的职业将影响你的生活方式、自我概念、收入、声望、朋友的选择和居住地。职业规划将会是人生规划中的一个重要组成部分。它会受到许多因素的影响，但相对来说，它侧重于工作任务和工作环境。
Career planning is an inpidual activity that occurs throughout a person's working lifetime. In American society, the career that you enter will influence your entire lifestyle, self-concept, income, prestige, choice of friends and living location. Career planning is indeed a subcomponent of life planning. It is influenced by many of the same factors, but it focuses attention on work tasks and work environments.
职业规划过程具有持续性的特点。由于它不是按时间顺序排列的，因此只有准备好时，才能进入到下一步流程中。职业规划过程也具有循环性，任何人任何时候都可以改变职业，但需要其再次重复该职业规划过程。据统计，大部分劳动人员在35岁至45岁间自己的职业生涯会有三到四个大的变化。由于人类是复杂的，我们每个人都有独特的抱负、目标、发展潜力和局限性。尽管我们可以遵循相同的流程，但职业规划的结果必须个性化。
The career planning process is ongoing and sequential. Since it is fluid rather than chronological, you move to the next step only when you are ready to do so, and you may move back and forth between steps at any given time. The career planning process is also cyclic. When career change is desired anytime during your work life, you may repeat the process once again. Data from statistics indicates that the majority of members of the labor force will make three to four major changes in their career during their 35 to 45 years of working. Because human beings are complex, each of us has unique aspirations, goals, potential for development, and limitations. Although we can follow the same process, career planning outcomes must be inpidualized.
