Career Exploration
Get to know yourself!
A few questions we hear around the college office a lot, from all students alike, are...
- What should I major in when I get to college?
- Which career path should I pursue?
These are fantastic questions to be asking yourself and to start thinking about, especially at an early stage in high school. Our answer to questions like these, as the title of this page suggests, is get to know yourself!That might sound a little strange at first, but let's elaborate.
Think about your answers to these questions...
- Which subject in school do I enjoy learning about and engaging in the most?
- Which class(es) do I consistently excel in?
- What hobbies or extracurricular activities am I passionate about?
- Do I love working in groups or depending on myself to get things done?
- Do I enjoy writing essays and/or doing more creative-oriented projects for class?
Your answers to these questions can give you a small insight as to what field you might want to enter and which career you would like to grow into professionally.
To narrow down a career and major, check out the resources below!
- The O*Net Interest Profiler survey will ask questions about what specific activities you enjoy participating in and calculate an interest index in various categories based on your answers. Using your interest index, O*Net Online will match you with specific occupations and careers.
- Through the ACT Profile, students can access a comprehensive Major & Career Maps designed to provide a more precise and technical insight as to what career path they should take based on their answers to the Inventory surveys available on your ACT Profile...
- Create your ACT Profile by clicking on the ACT Profile logo to the right.
- Login to your newly created ACT Profile account.
- Navigate to the "My Plans" tab and click on "Inventories".
- From here, you can complete the interest, ability, and values inventories to get matched with a specific major on your personalized Major Map, and an occupation on your personalized Career Map.
Further explore your Career!
- Learn about a career by the numbers and check out the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website! They provide up-to-date data and statistics about every career in the United States, including salary trends by location and potential job outlook 10 years from now.
- Learn about your career's Job Qualifications, Salary or expected pay (National, State Averages), Detailed responsibilities and job descriptions, Future outlook of job growth, Local Job Listings, and Level of education needed by using O*net's Occupational search!
Starting College
If your still unsure as to what specific career or major you want to pursue in college when you first start, not all is lost! Depending on which and what kind of school you attend, you don't officially declare your major until the end of your 2nd year of college or after you complete 60 credits worth of classes.
- Keep an Open Mind! - Try taking classes that you think sound interesting or you've never even heard about before. You might just find your hidden passion.
- Gauge Your interest in... - Try taking classes in a major or area of study that you're on the fence about or thinking about pursuing and see how you like it. Get information about a specific major from the department office.
- Variety is Key - Take a good variety of classes your first year in college, spanning all general areas of study (Math, Science, English, Social Sciences, etc.) so you can get ahead on any prerequisite courses you might need later on for your major, and required courses you need to fulfill to graduate.
- Talk to Your Professors & Academic Departments - Who better to know about different careers and fields of study than your professors and faculty at your school! Explore your options and start a conversation with the right people.
Bottom line, most importantly, find a job or career that you love!
Hopefully the resources on this page can point you in the right direction. You may just surprise yourself at what you might find out about yourself.