The first step in choosing a satisfying career begins with self-exploration. Self-exploration is the process of identifying your interests, skills, personality type, and values. To begin this process of self-evaluation, you must consider your own opinions and perspectives.
Defining Your Interests
Start by asking yourself a few questions:
- What activities am I drawn to?
- What topics do I like to read about? To study?
- What do I enjoy doing in my free time?
Push yourself by taking a course that's interesting to you. You can also try joining a club or student organization to explore your interests.
Defining Your Skills and Strengths
A skill is something that you are good at doing or a characteristic where you excel in performance. Skills can be cognitive strengths, such as creative problem solving and analysis, or can be physical such as communication and time-management. Identifying you're skills and strengths can help you narrow down potential career options. Those who use their skills and strengths in the workplace, report six times higher satisfaction with their careers!
Define Your Values and Beliefs
Values are defined by what one judges as important in life, and often fall into two types: work values and lifestyle values. Work values are associated with job success and satisfaction, such as:
- Prestige
- Job security
- Creativity in the workplace
- Working with like-minded people
- Making a difference in the world
- Earning a large salary
On the other hand, lifestyle values are considered in a broader comprehensive sense, such as:
- Having time with family
- Ability to work from home
- Leisure time
- Geographic location
Determining your core values and beliefs will help you realize what you want in a satisfying career.
FOCUS 2
FOCUS 2 guides users through a reliable, intuitive career and education decision making model to help them choose a college, select a major, explore occupations, make informed career decisions and take action in their career development. Login and use Focus 2
Explore potential majors and the careers they can lead to with our extensive What Can I Do With This Major? webpage. Newcomb-Tulane College students have the opportunity to pursue programs and degrees in over 70 subject areas offered by five undergraduate schools. This platform features 100 major profiles with information on common career paths, types of employers that hire in the field, and strategies to maximize opportunities. Links to professional associations, occupational outlook information, and job search resources are included.
O*NET is the nation's primary source of occupational information. This database is available to the public, free of cost, and is continually updated by surveying a broad range of workers from each occupation.
O*NET:
- Allows you to search industries and discover new occupations
- Shows which jobs have a bright outlook
- Provides skills and interest assessments
- Provides work values descriptors and required educational credentials
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and provides more than 300 occupational profiles including information on what workers do; work environments; education, training, and other qualifications; pay; job outlook; information on state and area data; similar occupations; and more.
Buzzfile identifies career areas/sectors and information on employers related to academic interests and majors.
Glassdoor provides information on specific employers such as employer reviews, ratings, salary reports, and even past interview questions.
Once you have determined your interest, connect with our career services team to secure experiences that can help you confirm your decision. We can help assist you in:
- Arrange informational interviews and job shadowing opportunities to learn from professionals in your intended career field.
- Develop a standout profile in Handshake to search for internships and part-time jobs in the industries you are interested in.
- Identify student organizations, volunteer opportunities, on-campus jobs in Handshake, that will help you develop the transferrable skills necessary to succeed in your chosen field.
