Explore Majors and Careers

Before You Choose Or Change A Major

Choosing or changing a major is a big step and can easily feel overwhelming. Make an appointment with a counselor to talk about your situation, get help thinking it through, and get a start on your way.

Know Yourself: What Do You Really Want?

Self-assessment is a check-in with yourself to clarify who you are and what you want. You’ll look at your

• Values: what do you want from your career? What is satisfying and important to you? Is advancing to the top on your agenda? Do you want your work to inspire you?


• Interests: what do you enjoy studying and doing? What are you drawn to naturally? What do you want to know more and more about?


• Personality: What kind of work environment and conditions best fit you? Do you like lots of contact with others? Quiet? Are you detail oriented or a big picture person?


• Skills: what skills do you want to use in your work? Many skills you have are transferable – they are used in many possible settings in different configurations. Others are knowledge or content skills – ones you learn in courses or ones used in a particular field. Others are adaptive – your attributes – like your persistence or your creativity.

Knowing your Values, Interests, Personality and Skills (VIPS, for short) helps you begin to define what you want.

Self-Assessment Resources Available At Career Services

Career Services offers these formal assessments

• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)


• The Strong Interest Inventory and the Campbell Interests and Skills Survey


• SkillScan


• and many other informal exercises to help you identify criteria that are important to you in your search for a major or career.

You yourself are your most important resource for self-reflection.

Most people, no matter what age or stage, need help if they are not sure of their direction. Make an appointment with a Career Services counselor to talk about what kind of self-assessment plan would work best for you.

The Riley Guide has an excellent section on self-assessment and links to other assessment tools.

Discover Possibilities Or Options

The next step? Generate some options that fit the values, interests, personality and skills you clarified in self-assessment to find possible majors or career fields or specific jobs. Many assessments include suggestions of possibilities. Brainstorm to add others to your list.

• What really engages and interests you again and again


• When you were a child, what did you say you wanted to do when you grew up?


• What would your friends and family say they think you’d enjoy?


• What are your deepest dreams – even if they’re wild and crazy?


• What do you get lost in - when you do it, what makes you forget what time it is?


• What do you like to read about or talk about?


• What classes have you wanted more of? Less of?

Be wary of following up just on what you are already good at – identify a broad range of possible future careers and speculate – you can learn to be good at something new!

Use what you DON’T like to help you refine your ideas of what you DO like.

Research Career Fields: Find Out About Your Options

• Research to discover what fits you well and appeals to you


• Research to learn the practical aspects of a career – can you earn a living doing it?
  
  • What is a typical career path? What do you need to get into your field?
  
  
  • What kind of income can you make? At first? Later on?
  
  
  • Where are jobs in this field? Everywhere, or focused in particular geographic areas or industries?
  
  
  • What is demand like in this field? Are there likely to more or fewer jobs in 5 or 10 years?
  
  
  • Read some job postings for real jobs. Sound interesting? Deadly? Don’t know what they’re talking about?
  
  
  • What fields does your major or experience naturally connect to?
  
  

Connect Majors And Careers

Want to know what careers your major leads to? Try

• HuskyCareerLink Check on Experience channels


• Vault Amazing and in-depth guides for careers, especially strong in business careers


• Vocational Biographies: Read career success stories of 1001 real people.
        (username: NE Univ; password: RAZDE)


• Wetfeet


• Convert your Major to a Career


• The Riley Guide


• RoadTripNation A refreshing alternative look at exploring careers


• Professional Associations Directory

Making Decisions About Your Major Or Your Career

How do you usually make decisions?

• Do you make a list of pros and cons?


• Go with your gut?


• Use a combination of these?
  

Do you go it alone? Or talk with friends, family, colleagues, a professor or advisor?

What successful decisions have you already made in your life? How did you make them? Can you use the same method to help you with your career decision?

Consult a Career Services counselor to help you move forward if you get stuck trying to make a decision or set goals.