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.