Career and Majors Exploration
Choosing a career can be based on a lot of factors. However, in the best of circumstances
it is based on what is best for you. Career exploration should take a lot of things
into consideration: your personality, personal values and ethics, your likes and dislikes,
and your skills and abilities. Each job can be classified based on these personal
attributes.
Career exploration inventory programs, like O*NET, ask you questions about yourself
and offer potential jobs that match up with your answers. Be sure to be honest with
the answers you give to get the best results.
In an ideal world, you would totally base your career decision on theses personal
factors. In reality other factors such as where you live, access to education, the
economy, etc. play major roles. So, the best you can do is make sure you are aware
of the characteristics of potential jobs so that you go into your education program
well informed as to what you will do when you actually get on the job. This can be
done by using information resources such as O*NET and the America's Career Info Network
to explore job characteristics, salaries, trends, and outlooks in the job market.
When you have identified potential careers, ask people, who do the job, what it is
actually like. Even see if you can job shadow someone on the job for a day.
No test can be 100% accurate in giving you information about careers that match well
with you. No exploration of careers can show you what it will actually be like to
do a job. So, do the research and exploration so that you are at least well informed
to support the decisions you make.
Remember that the CATS staff is here to assist for every step of the process. Contact
us whenever you have a question or need our help.
O*NET
The O*NET Interest Profiler can help you find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work. You can find out what you like to do.
The O*NET Interest Profiler helps you decide what kinds of careers you might want to explore.
O*NET Interest Profiler at My Next Move
Career and Majors Exploration Links
My Next Move: O*NET Interest Profiler
Occupational Network Online (O*Net Online)
America's Career Information Network (America's Career Info Net)
