Many students think of careers as a one-time decision – you might be one of them. But in reality finding your career path is an on-going process. As you respond to changes in your life, as jobs change and new jobs are developed, the “right” career for you will change as well. It is common for workers today to change jobs and careers frequently – up to 25 times in a lifetime!
Making good career decisions is all about learning. First learn about yourself. The more you know about yourself, the better decisions you can make. To help you get a complete picture, you need to consider your interests; skills and abilities; passions and values.
Activities
These short on-line questionnaires can get you started exploring your interests and how they relate to careers.
- CIS (Career Information System)
- CIS (the Career Information System) tells you about wages, education requirements and job duties for nearly 500 occupations. Students can use Illinois Schools and Financial Aid Sort functions.
- EPICS (Exploring Pathways in Career Success)
- EPICS is an interest explorer, which is an interactive tool that will help you to identify your interests and then to relate those interests to UIUC majors.
- Career Zone
- Select "Assess Yourself" from the top, choose your major interest areas, then click on the link that appears and view corresponding jobs related to your specific interests.
Assessment Inventories and Workshops
To Help You Explore Your Interests
- Career Counselors
- Make an appointment to talk with a Career Counselor for guidance in identifying your interests and to explore majors and occupations related to those interests.
- Assessment Inventories
- Assessment Inventories are specialized tools to help you better understand yourself so you can make better career decisions. These assessments are taken at the recommendation of a career counselor who is familiar with your career situation. This counselor will discuss the assessment results with you. If you are interested in taking an inventory, your first step is to schedule an appointment with a career counselor.
- Newly Revised Strong Interest Inventory(SII) and Skills Confidence Inventory
- Provides information about your career interests and how these interests compare to the interests of people in a variety of occupations. In addition, the Skills Confidence inventory measures your level of confidence in performing skills related to your interests.
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI)
- Provides a picture of your personality type by identifying personality preferences
- Finding a Major that Fits
- This workshop will teach you how to identify your interests, connect them to possible majors, and use demonstrate web based resources to explore majors. Workshops are offered several times during the Fall & Spring Semester, see our Workshop Registration Form for dates and time
