The Center for Career & Professional Development believes in the value of self-assessment as a means through which students can seek clarity in career goals and aspirations while also learning a little bit more about themselves as individuals and members of a team. We currently offer Focus2 as an assessment tool that is available to current RPI Students at no charge.
Focus2
The Focus2 is a new, state-of-the-art tool that assesses the career interests of individuals and compares them to the interest profiles of various career fields. You are encouraged to set up an appointment with a CCPD career counselor to take an inventory (or all!) to begin to learn more about yourself, how you work on a team, and how you perceive the world around you.
Students often underestimate the role values play in an individual’s degree of happiness and satisfaction in the workplace. Incorporating your values in any position, whether part- or full-time, is essential to achieving the greatest sense of fulfillment in both your personal and professional lives. If you don’t appreciate the fact that a company asks that you remove your nose ring before your first day on the job, this probably isn’t the company for you! Remember— when it comes to job searching and the interview process, you are looking for the best fit for both the company and for yourself.
Following self-assessment and values clarification, there are a few more steps to choosing a major. You may have a better idea of which direction you would like to head, but there may still be too many choices to pick from! Talking to professors, faculty advisors, mentors, Rensselaer alumni and your fellow students is often the preferred method to learn more about academic majors and courses.
But remember...only you can decide what major is right for you; don’t expect your advisor or a career counselor to make the decision for you.
Have fun reading course descriptions within academic departments, and track patterns in keywords that always seem to stand out. For example, do you always tend to look for courses that have programming in the description? Or perhaps you look for courses that allow your creativity to flow and that seem “fun?”
College is a great time to experiment, to take risks and indulge individual interests that you may have been forced to ignore in high school. Take the time to explore majors of interest before declaring your major sophomore year.
There are a few different ways to begin to narrow potential occupations. First, one of the best ways to learn more about specific career paths is to talk to people in those careers. This is what we call informational interviewing, allowing the student to “interview” a professional (typically a Rensselaer alumnus/alumna or employer) to gather information on different job descriptions, related education and training, and relevant career advancement.
Second, pursuing a summer job, internship, or co-op is highly recommended for those students seeking to gain work experience while learning more about the world of work. Often the best way to identify fields of interest is by ruling out occupations that aren’t appealing. Sometimes what an occupation appears to be on paper or on a TV show (think CSI, ER) is not always what it seems … this is where you come in!
Taking time to research and explore occupational titles and career paths can be exciting.
There are great online resources to investigate specific career fields:
- Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) -U.S. Department of Labor
- O*Net Online -O*NET OnLine has detailed descriptions of the world of work for use by job seekers, students, researchers, and more!
- Sloan Career Cornerstone Center (for science and engineering disciplines)
Reading, talking and doing are three key words to keep in mind when spending time thinking about both major and career options. And don’t forget to speak with a CCPD career counselor along the way … we are here to help!
