NCSU CALS Career Services - Student - Majors & Careers

Choosing a career path can be difficult.  With so many options, how do you find a career that is right for you?  There is a method to help you in the decision-making process.  We recommend you follow the steps listed below: 

Self Assessment

The first step in choosing a major or career is figuring out who you are.  What do you like and dislike?  What is important to you?  What are you good at?  Even though these questions seem simple, sometimes students have a hard time answering them.  Below are some tools, including career tests, that may help you with this step of the process.  Remember, that like many things in college, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.  If you choose to take a career assessment, you may find it helpful to meet with a Career Advisor to review your results and talk about what they mean.
 Related Resources:
  • Choices: This free online program has a Career Interest assessment that you can take and a Values card sort that you can take and get career suggestions based on your answers.  It also provides information on occupations and corresponding college majors.  You must have a unity ID & password to access the program.
  • The Career Key: Another free online assessment that matches possible careers to your interests
  • Kiersey Temperment Sorter: This test will give you information about your personality that may be helpful in choosing a career
  • SIGI 3: A free online assessment that will lead you through the entire decision making process
  • Decision Making Handout

Explore Your Options:

Once you know a little about yourself, you can start to explore different options.  As you learn about the different majors and careers that are open to you think about the information you learned about in the Self Assessment step.  How do you match up with what is needed for different jobs?  Below are some links that will help you learn about different majors and careers.  Start making a list of all the options you want to consider. Don't leave anything out!

Related Resources:
Making A Decision

Narrow Your Options
Now that you have explored all the possibilities, it is time to come up with a list of careers that you want to seriously consider.  Usually,  3-5 is a good manageable number.  Once you have selected your top choices it is time to move on.  If you have trouble with narrowing your options, it may be helpful to make an appointment with a Career Advisor or Peer Counselor.
Try It Out
The best way to learn about a career is to get some hands on experience.  Reading about something is one thing, but actually doing it can be quite another.  Job shadowing for a couple of days or doing a summer internship will help you learn what a job is really like and give you the experience and contacts that you need as you get closer to graduation.

 Related Resources:
Choose!

Now that you have tried a few things out it is time to pick something.  However, your journey hasn't ended - it is has really just begun!  Be sure to take advantage of some of our other resources that will help you achieve your goals!  If you decide that you don't really like any of the things you tested, that's ok.  Just go back to your list of possibilities and pick some new ones to try out.  This may feel frustrating, but it is better to know now that you don't like a career rather than later.