Career
Exploration
As you face a career or academic major decision, remember to be ACTIVE in the process. You are in charge and only you can determine what will be the best career path for yourself. A good career match will involve exploring both internal (your interests, abilities and values) and external factors (job market outlook and salary). Most of us take the wealth of information we already have for granted. Part of career exploration is making explicit those things you already know. That is, being able to articulate who you are and what you have to offer. This process doesn't have to be a drudge, it can be very energizing, after all, who can be more fascinating than you!
Get Career help from Counseling and Psychological Services by:
- Using DISCOVER, a computer-assisted educational planning and career development program which is located in Counseling and Psychological Services. Click here to log in to Discover. If you do not have a Discover username, contact Counseling and Psychological Services at 308-3171 to obtain one.
- Exploring occupations using the career links below to find job descriptions, job market outlook and salary information.
- Participating in a Career Direction Seminar which is five sessions long, helping you though each aspect of career exploration, with the opportunity to articulate your options and formulate an action plan for yourself.
- Meeting with counselors to assist you in exploring how your unique values, interests, and abilities relate to potential careers and/or college majors. Please feel free to talk with a counselor about any of the information you gather from searching the web or the results from of your DISCOVER assessments.
Career
Resources
| Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) information:
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Exploring
Occupations
Occupation Outlook Handbook. On this easy-to-use site from the United States Department of Labor, find detailed job descriptions, working conditions, information on job outlook and salary information on specific occupations.
O*NET (Dictionary of Occupational Titles) : The O*NET database includes information on skills, abilities, knowledge, work activities, and interests associated with over 950 occupations.
America's Career InfoNet. Find wages and employment trends, occupational requirements, state by state labor market conditions, millions of employer contacts nationwide, and the most extensive career resource library online.
Researching Majors: Following are sites to research majors. Many have useful national links for professional associations of each field.
- What can I do with this major?
- What to do with a degree in...
- SCSU Career Major Site
- Careers for your Major
- Major Exploration Sheets
- Major Resource Kits
Career Resources for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
Career Resources for the Visually Impaired.
Career Information for Differently Abled Persons.
Career Advice from "The Headhunter"
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities: This site will allow you to search Minnesota State Colleges and Universities for the academic program of interest to you!
Minnesota WorkForce Center: This site has information on job market outlook and trends for the state of Minnesota. Current job openings are also listed.
Peterson's Guide to Colleges, Distance Learning, Study Abroad: This site gives you extensive information on on different colleges throughout the United States.
United States College & University Bulletins: This site lists home pages of universities in the U.S.
Minnesota's efolio: Minnesota's electronic portfolio web site! This online tool allows you to create and showcase your personal accomplishments on a web page, accessible (with or without the option of using a password) to those using the internet. This is currently free of charge to residents and undergraduate and graduate students in Minnesota.
Exceptional career guides from Rice University. These guides provide valuable information on correspondence and cover letters, job interviews, resume writing, preparing for graduate school, promoting a liberal arts degree and more.
Discover
-- Career Computer Program
DISCOVER is a computer-based career planning program which can help you learn more about yourself and find occupations that may be right for you. You will greatly improve your chances at making successful career decisions if you approach such decisions in a systematic way, using a planful decision-making process. Click here to log in to Discover. The DISCOVER system assists you with:
- measuring your interests, abilities, experiences and values through career interest inventories
- developing a list of occupations you should explore
- identifying majors related to these occupations
- gathering extensive information about over 500 occupations
- identifying schools that have the program you want, from a listing of more than 7000
- and job search information
DISCOVER will not tell you what you should do or give you easy answers for your career decisions. After you use DISCOVER, please discuss the results with a Counseling and Psychological Services staff member.
Career
Direction Seminars
During this 5 session seminar, we use three informal assessments: interests, values and personality characteristics. The focus is on interactive discussion and will cover the following areas:
- Learning more about your interests, abilities and skills, using them to navigate to different careers/majors.
- Understanding more about your personality and how it may fit with workers in various occupations.
- Clarifying your roadblocks to making a decision about your major/career direction.
- Exploring innovative ways to network and learn more about specific occupations.
- Looking at the future trends in the job market.
- Mapping out the next steps in pursuing the future you have dreamed about.
These seminars are offered at a variety of times throughout each semester.
