Who Should Use FOCUS?

• Are you an undecided major at HCCC? Are you confused about the different career options in your field?
• Do you need information about specific careers related to your major? Do you want to make a detailed comparison of statistics (e.g., salary, growth, etc.) for different occupations?
• Curious about the type of jobs that utilize your Associate’s degree? Are you considering a four-year school, a job offer, professional school, or internship?

If you answered yes to the any of the above questions, you will benefit from using FOCUS!

What is FOCUS?

FOCUS is a career and educational planning tool designed to provide you with a means for career exploration. It contains a comprehensive occupational database closely related to the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Its user-friendly format allows access to the inventories from any computer with an internet connection and the entire battery of tests can be completed all at once or progressively over time. 

There are seven tests, each taking approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete. These assist you in making realistic decisions about your goals and career choices. 

• Your Current Career Planning Status identifies where you are in your career planning process and offers you personalized suggestions on how to best use FOCUS for your individual career development
• Your Interests and Work Values is a two-part test which assesses the kind of work activities, work values, and areas in which you report your strongest skills.  Based on your answers, FOCUS will summarize and generate a personal profile to be used when exploring different occupations.
• Your Education and Training requires you to identify various training programs of interest. Here, you are also asked to describe your skills.  FOCUS looks at various occupations pursued by people with similar educational interests and creates a list of occupations to be considered based on major area of study, training program, and strongest skills.  You will benefit from the fact that this test allows you to analyze and compare critical features of different occupations.
• Your Personality and Life Values section creates a profile based on answers to questions related to your personality and life values.  FOCUS then creates a list of occupations that are compatible with your personality and life values profiles.
• Your Leisure Time Preferences takes a look at the kinds of activities, such as hobbies and recreations, you enjoy and produces a leisure activities profile with related occupations.
• Your Current or Future Skills assesses your current skills and creates a detailed report on your proficiencies and areas for current development.
• Your Personal Development Needs requires you to answer questions about your career plans and personal development needs with the goal of identifying the experiences and training needed to achieve occupational and educational objectives.  FOCUS then summarizes your answers and provides you with personalized feedback.

Other Features of FOCUS:

Career Search   You can research information such as job responsibilities, earnings, educational requirements, job opening outlook, amount of travel, and skills demands for any occupation.  In addition, FOCUS allows you to make side-by-side comparisons of details for any two occupations at the same time.

Career Toolbox With this feature, you can review all progress made toward career planning using FOCUS.  As you work through each assessment, you will have the opportunity to flag any career as a potential goal and are given the option to save occupations of interest for future exploration.  Using the Career Toolbox, you can return to review previously completed test results and print personal reports. 

Resources Using the provided links, you are encouraged to print the FOCUS Workbook/Portfolio after using FOCUS to help you consolidate your career planning ideas and concerns.  You can also find web links to other career planning resources, such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
   Getting Started
All HCCC students and alumni have access to the FOCUS system.  Simply go to the HCCC web site,  click on the FOCUS link and follow the steps below:

1.   Next, highlight ‘Career and Transfer Services’ and click on FOCUS.
2. To enter FOCUS for the first time, click on ‘Creating a New Account.’  You can obtain the HCCC key code by calling (201) 360-4184 or by stopping by the Career & Transfer Services office located on the 2nd Floor, 70 Sip Avenue. Select the year you intend to graduate from the drop-down menu.
3. Please note when creating a user name you are required to use your first initial followed by your last name. Choose a password that is easy for you to remember.

You are now ready to begin your career assessment journey!