Choosing a career path can be overwhelming. These decisions have a way of revealing our fears and testing our convictions in ways that others do not. Underlying these choices are some of the BIG questions. How can I find meaning and satisfaction in my life? What engages, excites, and connects me to the world? How do I define happiness? Success? Be assured that you are not alone in struggling with these questions, nor are they unique to college students. Most adults continue to work on these questions since the answers often change over time. Listed below are a few resources to help you along in the journey. Remember, we're here to walk down the path with you! Come in and meet with a counselor who can help you to more fully assess your values, skills, and talents, introduce you to different careers, and help address some of these larger questions.
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MORE HELPFUL RESOURCES IN FACS
Individual
Counseling
Stop in or give us a call to set up a time to meet one-on-one with one of
our counselors. We would be thrilled to talk with you about making career
choices (We're career counselors - we love this stuff!).
Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong Interest Inventory® is a great career assessment tool for individuals seeking guidance and direction on major and/or career exploration, decision
making and planning. It is free to Beloit College studentsand alumni. The assessment allows you to reflect on your interests and skills, and learn about possible career, educational and leisure option compatibilities based on your
personal characteristics. The SII includes online questionnaires regarding your interests and skills, which take approximately 45-60 minutes to complete. They can be completed in FACS or from any computer with Internet access. The SII assessment also requires at least one 60-minute follow up session with a full-time career counselor in FACS. In the follow up session you will receive a copy of your
SII results, go through a comprehensive interpretation of those results, and discuss needs, options and next steps in your career planning process.
Because FACS does incur a cost in offering the Strong Interest Inventory®, we ask that only those who are sincere about their major/career exploration, decision making and planning complete the SII. Those wanting to take personal assessments for fun may want to try the other online free mini-assessments listed below.
Click here for full instructions to complete the SII online questionnaire.
Externships
It is a paradox that only by engaging in work can we truly discover what
type of work is most satisfying and meaningful. It is why we continue to
emphasize the importance of experiential learning. If you cannot commit
the time to an internship, this is the next best thing. An externship is
the opportunity to shadow someone on the job. Only by actually seeing or
experiencing what someone does firsthand will you get a real sense of what
is involved. We have many community and alumni connections and can help you get set up with
a practicing professional.
The Beloit Career Network
This is another opportunity for you to talk with
practicing professionals. Whether you're looking for career information,
externships, internships, or summer housing, this is a great place to start.
The Network is a group of alumni and friends of the College who have already
agreed to mentor you on these matters. Come in to request a list of career
mentors in your target career or geographic region or go to the Beloit
Career Network section of our site to request one on-line. Prior to making the contacts, we encourage you to talk with a career counselor in FACS and review our Networking Guide to learn about professional etiquette, networking best practices and strategies.
Internships
Learning by doing is a critical piece in making career decisions. Take a
look at the Internship
section of our site for a complete description of our programs.
FACS Library
We have hundreds of books, many designed specifically to help you research
various careers, industries, and options in your major field of study. From
describing a typical day on the job to outlook and salary data, these books
can be very helpful.
Our Annual Alumni Survey
You can check out what Beloit alums are doing one year after graduation
(and get ideas!) by going to the Faculty
& Staff section of our site and looking at our annual report.
RESEARCHING
CAREERS ONLINE, "WHAT CAN I DO WITH A MAJOR IN...?"
The
Internet contains some outstanding resources for researching specific careers
including industry profiles, job descriptions, outlook, salary, career options
with specific majors, and much more. We recommend the following sites:
What Can I Do With a Major In....?
http://www.beloit.edu/facs/majors/default.php
One of our on-line subscriptions, this page contains a list of majors with
corresponding career fields for each. It also includes ideas for typical
employers, things you can do to prepare before graduating, and a list of
related links to professional associations and job search sites.
Departmental
Websites at Beloit College
http://www.beloit.edu/academics/fields/
Before you leap off campus, be sure to check out your major/minor departmental
website for great resources.
JobWeb
http://www.jobweb.com/
Maintained by the premier career development organization in the U.S.,
the National Association of Colleges and Employers, this site is a treasure
trove of career-related assistance including articles, advice, and related
links.
Occupational
Outlook Handbook (OOH)
http://www.bls.gov/oco/
The OOH is the federal government's outstanding on-line database on career
guidance including descriptions for just about every career you can think
of, employment outlook, salary and more.
O*Net
http://online.onetcenter.org/
Another government site similar to the OOH but with descriptions of hundreds
of more jobs (sacrifices depth for breadth). This is the on-line version
of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), a career standard. Both
the DOT and OOH are available in hard copy form in our library.
CareerOneStop
http://www.acinet.org/acinet/default.htm
This site contains both research and self-assessment information. When arriving
at their homepage, click on Explore Careers.
CareerZone
http://www.nycareerzone.org/index.jsp
If you have a newer model PC or Mac, this site is fun to visit just for
the flash effects. If you don't, you can still access great information
on hundreds of career fields categorized by broad occupational cluster
or by Holland Code. For more information on your Holland Code and how
to figure out what yours is, see the Self Directed Search and Career Key
sites listed below.
The
Princeton Review
http://www.princetonreview.com/
These sites include information careers, what you can do with various majors, and lists related majors for each major.
Oswego
State University of New York Career Services
http://www.oswego.edu/student/career/careersin/index.html
The career center maintains a series of "career folders" providing
you with descriptions of possible career paths categorized by major.
Northern
Illinois University's Major Web-Links
http://www.niu.edu/careerservices/weblinks/index.html
The authors of this site have gathered data from many of the sites we have
listed here and put them all together to provide you with occupational information
on hundreds of careers categorized by major.
Bank of America Career Services Center at the University of Delaware
http://www.udel.edu/CSC/mrk.html
Major Resource Kits link academic majors to career alternatives by providing
information on career paths, sample job titles, and links to professional
associations.
Wall Street Journal's JobStar Central
http://jobstar.org/tools/career/index.cfm
Lots of great info categorized by major and industry.
Prentice
Hall's Student Success Page
http://www.prenhall.com/success/MajorExp/index.html
Contains good information on choosing a major in terms of what you can expect
for coursework, career directions etc.
What
Color is Your Parachute - online at Job Hunters Bible.com
http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/counseling/
Richard Nelson Bolles, the author of this annually updated best selling
book on career choice and job search, offers on-line assistance for those
in the self-assessment and career research phases of planning.
Mind
Tools
http://www.mindtools.com
A Beloit alum recommends this site for the decision making techniques described
here. This can be very helpful when choosing a major or career direction.
It contains other good information on job search, managing time, stress
etc.
We've found some fun and interesting free tools online to help you better understand your skills, values, and personality style relative to the world of work. We advise that you do not rely solely on such instruments to make choices about a major or a career path. While they can reveal a great deal about oneself, there are many more factors to consider. Try to also look beyond the temptation to view them as "pigeon holing." They describe broad personality traits and types; not specific, literal characteristics.
We highly encourage you to follow up with a FACS career counselor after taking any of the online assessments below, to go through a more comprehensive assessment and interpretation.
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter
http://www.keirsey.com
This personality inventory identifies four temperament types: Guardian,
Artisan, Idealist, and Rational. Don't confuse this instrument with the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). While both are derived from Carl Jung's
theory of personality, this instrument uses a very different classification
system, reducing the 16 MBTI types down to just four.
Transferable
Skills Survey
http://www.d.umn.edu/student/loon/car/self/career_transfer_survey.html
A quick tool from the University of Minnesota-Duluth to help identify skills.
Career Key
http://www.careerkey.com
A free site assessing values, skills, and interests using John Holland's theory of career choice.
Includes lists of jobs according to Holland's theme and much more.
Type
Logic
http://www.typelogic.com/
More descriptions of the 16 Myers-Briggs types.
University
of Tennessee - Knoxville, Career Services Office
http://career.utk.edu/students/holland.asp
This is a another great site to visit if you know your Holland Code as it
gives a list of majors and occupations by code type. These careers are then
linked to the OOH so you can get day to day descriptions of various jobs.
Note: before paying to find out your Holland Code on-line, set up a time
to meet with a counselor in FACS and we can assess this for free.