Career Road Map Journey #1: Who Am I?
The first part of your journey involves defining who you are and what you want to do.
You Will…
- Complete a Self Assessment which aligns your values, interests and preferences with job families.
- Conduct research on academic majors and the types of employment opportunities that may be obtained
- Examine occupational projections of in-demand jobs for the 21st century.
Career and Self-Assessment
MyNext Move is a web-based interactive tool for job seekers, students and other career explorers to learn more about their career options. You can use My Next Move to:
- Explore over 900 different careers and see important information including skills, tasks, salaries and employment outlook on easy-to-read career reports.
- Find careers through a keyword search; by browsing industries; or through the O*NET Interest Profiler, a tool that offers customized career suggestions based on a person’s interests and level of education and work experience.
- See how your interests align with academic majors at Purdue Northwest. Career Interests & Academic Majors PNW shows the PNW majors that match your code results.
Access to My Next Move & the O*Net Interest Inventory is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.
SkillScan, MBTI, STRONG Interest Inventory, Self-Directed Search
- The SkillScan allows you to identify your transferable skills, as well as knowledge essential to targeting appropriate career options, college majors, and training programs.
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator provides insight on how you perceive things, reach conclusions and make decisions and how those all may play into your career path.
- The Strong Interest Inventory provides insight on your interests based off of six different career themes that were part of a theory developed by Dr. John Holland.
- Self-Directed Search (SDS) is a Holland-based inventory that asks questions about an individual’s aspirations, activities, competencies, interests and other self-estimates.
Academic Majors, Career Interests and Occupations
Start by accessing What Can I Do With This Major?, a resource that will provide you with a comprehensive list of the types of occupational opportunities that could be sought based on an academic major.
Vault Provides in-depth intelligence on what it is really like to work in an industry, company or profession and how to position yourself to land that job.
- Career, Industry and Company Guides – Access to hundreds of digital career guides, industry guides and full-length profiles of leading companies.
- Company Profiles – View rankings and reviews on industry reputation, career advancement, quality of life, salary and benefits, interview process and more.
- Internship Database – Find thousands of new jobs and internship programs, requirements, sample interview questions, how to apply and more.
- Vault Job Board – Search thousands of new jobs and internships posted daily, sign up for alerts based on your criteria, complete a profile and be seen by top employers and recruiters.
Search using keywords listed in the occupational research you performed on the O*NET Interest Profiler and What Can I Do With This Major? Try searching occupations to get a better idea of what industries hire the professionals that interest you.
- What are the entry level qualifications for your position of interest?
- Does the position require someone to obtain certifications, a professional degree, a license and additional studies beyond a bachelor’s degree?
- How much direct experience does the employer require?
- What special skills are employers seeking?
- What are names of employers that hire people in your area of interest? Are they local or geographically designated to one area
- Is there anything that is changing about the employment opportunities in your field of interest?
- Research industries, companies and occupations that match your interests.
- While exploring academic majors that you find interesting, get to know faculty from those programs.
- Evaluate your work values and current skill levels.
- Get to know counselors, career counselors and career service personnel and staff.
- Take on a part-time job, or an on-campus job. To learn more about on-campus opportunities, go to the On Campus Student Employment webpage.
- Talk to professionals in jobs that interest you about doing a job shadow, or ask them to have a career chat about what they do.
- Start a draft résumé to build upon throughout school.
- Begin seeking leadership roles through campus clubs, organizations and volunteer work.
- Attend a job fair on campus and talk to employers – find out what they look for in a candidate.
- Take advantage of on campus recruitment to network with employers.
- Save the research you have conducted, keep it in a file folder, portfolio or someplace safe.
- Be sure to compare your O*Net Interest Profiler results or Strong Interest Inventory results to the Majors at PNW to see what academic majors may best align with your interest code.
- Putting together a two-year academic plan based on what you have learned in your research.
- Meet with your Academic Advisor to ensure you are on track with your academic plan.
- Does your career choice align with Occupational Outlook Projections?