Guidelines to Help You Choose a Career / Major

Making a career or major decision often involves a variety of factors including; self-understanding, career/major knowledge and information, decision-making, goal setting skills, and preparation and experience in your field.

• If you are a Yavapai College student you can access a computerized career planning program called Career Cruising . In this program you can create and save a file of your career results and information. Log in with your Yavapai College Username and Password (student ID#).

Step 1: Self-Understanding (recognizing your "Big Five")

Recognizing your "Big Five"

1. Interests: What do you enjoy doing? What excites you?
2. Skills: What do you excel at? What attributes do you want to develop?
3. Values: What is important to you? What job qualities will you desire?
4. Attitudes: What will maximize your motivation and productivity?
5. Personality: What personal qualities will fit into your desired career path?

Links to help you answer the "Big Five"

• The Career Key: - The "Career Key" tests your skills, values, interests and personality and then identifies your "Holland" interest type. You then can check out related jobs that will link you to career information from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
• University of Waterloo, Canada - The "Self-Assessment" module includes a step-step series of exercises and checklists for helping determine personality, attitudes, skills, achievements, values, interests, knowledge and learning styles.

Step 1 Self-Understanding Summary

As you completed the above exercises you probably now have several careers/majors that you'd like to know more about. This takes us to Step 2...

Step 2: Gathering Information (knowing what's out there)

Majors: What majors fit me? How can I develop myself through a particular major? What careers can I do with a major?

Careers: What opportunities exist in this field? What are the jobs like? What’s the salary range, job outlook, educational requirements, and skills needed?

• What can I do with a major in...? - This site links 56 popular majors to occupational areas, common national employers, and strategies for students to increase success in the field. Additional internet links are provided for each major.
• Exploring Occupations - An alphabetical listing of over 200 occupations that provides you with links to information and associations related to that field.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH:) - Browse this government publication for information on the 200 most popular occupations in the U.S. Each occupational description provides information on job opportunities, duties, salaries, outlook, educational requirements, and links to additional information.
• America 's Career InfoNet - A section of America's Job Bank network. Information on hundreds of occupations identifying transferable skills, industry employment trends, and salary and benefit reports. The career Resource Library is searchable by keyword from the homepage. Also check out the new Career-One-Stop gateway.
• U.S.Dept. of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics - This home site for the Bureau of Labor Statistics is brimming full of useful links to data on U.S., State, and Regional information on employment, salary and benefits, inflation and consumer spending info., industry employment projections, economic forecasts and much more.
• Occupational Outlook Quarterly (OOQ) - This quarterly government publication provides articles on selected career and occupational topics. Check out the index section to find information on occupations, industry trends, job outlooks, career transition issues, education and training job requirements and timely occupational projections.
• Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) - The 4th edition of the huge index of job titles/descriptions. Every description from abalone diver to zoo veterinarian!
• O*Net Online - A broad database of information on skills, abilities, knowledge, work activities, and interests associated with over 950 occupations. Search by keyword or code and see what occupations are similar to yours and which ones use the skills you already have.
• AZ Depart. of Economic Security - The Arizona Workforce Connection provides a wealth of labor market information about working in Arizona

Step 2 Gathering Information Summary

As you gathered information on your careers and majors of interest, you probably narrowed down your list considerably, this takes us to Step 3...

Step 3: Experience Your Field & Decision Making

(Getting involved to develop your career)

Careers are developed not found. Therefore your decision on a career is more of a process than an act. This last step involves sorting through your information, connecting with other people in your fields of interest, and experiencing some aspects of the career so that you can make a decision on what your career foundation will be.

Included in this process is actual experience in your field. You may want to consider setting up an Informational Interview with someone who is already working in your career area.

Sometimes an informational interview may be supplemented by arranging a job shadow experience. Gaining career knowledge can also be accomplished through volunteering.

Internships have been very valuable for many students seeking career –related experiences. Summer and part-time jobs are also great sources of career learning.

Check out the YC Student Employment Services site for assistance in the job area.