This text combines practical and immediately applicable skills and critical-thinking strategies with an emphasis on self-discovery, self-management, and self-assessment. Chapters are presented as a continuous narrative to help students make the transition to college-level reading and work. A new chapter, Building Career Skills, includes information on decision-making as it relates to career preparation, and an emphasis on the skills most valued by employers.

• Revised Thinking Ahead About Career exercises encourage students to apply the concepts they learn in each chapter to real-life situations.
• The Comprehensive Skill Finder (or Confidence Index) provides a 4-point scale to help students discover which of their skills need further development. Plus workplace skills are marked with an asterisk to indicate a related article on the Career Resource Center Web site.