Career & Major Decisions
Are you confused about your choices?
Perhaps you simply do not know where to start in order to narrow it all down.
Let’s break it down step-by-step
Assessments
Who are You?
It’s important when planning the best path, for you to know who you are. You need to know your interests, abilities, and values.
Here are a few choices of assessments to get you started
Research
What are the Choices?
Here are a few places to research career information
What are the Choices at WSU?
Exploration
Hands-On & Getting More Specific
It is highly recommended to first-hand knowledge of a career prior to choosing it. Go talk to a professional in your field of interest! Check out what a typical day is like in a job shadow or try out the field in an internship. Help out as an officer in a club as it relates to your interests. Below are some resources to get you started:
- Informational Interviews are a great way to find out first-hand knowledge about a given career path.
- Job shadows can let you experience what the job is like by following a professional on a typical work day.
- Internships are crucial to add experience to your resume and one of the best ways to explore your actual interest in a career field.
- Clubs, volunteerism, and community service are a great ways to “dip your toes” into the field and make a difference to your community at the same time. Keep in mind that most organizations will need someone with an interest in what they do, but ALL will need someone with business savvy in order to operate.
- Carson College organizations
- A Few Local Resources
- Palouse Discovery Center
- Habitat for Humanity
- Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute
- Parks & Recrecreation
- United Way
- American Red Cross of Whitman County
- YMCA
- Other Resources
- Idealist
- Great Nonprofits: a database of nonprofits all over the country
Goal Setting
Plan for the Future
Good goals include a process of understanding interests and what is important to you, and then putting that into practice through a serious of steps.
- Self-understanding is very important in the overall goal setting phase of making a decision. If you do not know your interests and what you excel at doing, how will you know what fits you? See the “assessment” area for links to various assessment tools that can help you in sorting interests, abilities and work values.
- Research and exploration are also important. Do a serious look into the field of interest to find out what it is really about and how it might fit you.
- The next step is to define and refine your goals. What do you want? Good goals will be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
- Take action! Start working on some process goals (the little goals) that will help you to achieve your long-term outcome goals. For example: Go talk to your academic advisor about how to reach your education goals!
For more assistance in forming your career goals or determining the major that best fits you, contact the career advisors at the Carson Center for Student Success.
Career advisors will not tell you what to do—however, they will gladly assist you on the journey to discovering your career path.