6.2. Career and Major Exploration

A job: yes, it’s something you would like to have, especially if you want to pay your bills. A job lets you enjoy a minimal level of financial security. A job requires you to show up and do what is required of you; in exchange, you get paid. A career involves holding jobs, but it is more a means of achieving personal fulfillment. In a career, your jobs follow a sequence that leads to increasing mastery, professional development, and personal and financial satisfaction. A career requires planning, knowledge, and skills. If it is to be a fulfilling career, it requires that you bring into play your full set of analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills to make informed decisions that will affect your life in both the short term and the long term.

What Do You Want to Do When You “Grow Up”?

The Department of Labor defines 840 occupations in its Standard Occupation Classification system—and new occupations are being created at an ever-faster rate. Just ten years ago, would anyone imagine the job of a social media marketing specialist? How about the concept of a competitive chef? As new careers develop and old careers morph into almost unrecognizable versions of their original, it’s OK if you can’t pinpoint exactly what occupation or career will be your lifetime passion. However, it is important to define as best you can what field you will want to develop your career in, because that will help dictate your major and your course selections.

The process of career exploration can be a lot of fun, as it allows you to discover a world of possibilities. Even those students who have a clear idea of what they want to do should go through this process because they will discover new options as backups and occasionally a new direction even more attractive than their original choice. The career exploration process involves four phases.

Phase A: Who Am I?

Getting to know who you are—who you really are—is the first step. Be careful to base your self-discovery on what you think, not what Auntie Ethel always said about you or the hopes that Dad had for you to join in the family business. This is all about you.

You are a unique individual with a distinct combination of likes, dislikes, personality traits, values, and skills. But you are not so different that you can’t be identified with certain personality types, and those types may help you narrow your career choices. Visit your campus career office. They will likely be able to offer you a variety of assessments to define your personality type, interests and values and how they relate to possible career options for you.

Many of these tests are based on the career theory developed by Dr. John Holland. Holland defined six categories of people based on personality, interests, and skills:

1. Realistic (R). These people describe themselves as honest, loyal, and practical. They are doers more than thinkers. They have strong mechanical, motor, and athletic abilities; like the outdoors; and prefer working with machines, tools, plants, and animals.
2. Investigative (I). These people love problem solving and analytical skills. They are intellectually stimulated and often mathematically or scientifically inclined; like to observe, learn, and evaluate; prefer working alone; and are reserved.
3. Artistic (A). These people are the “free spirits.” They are creative, emotional, intuitive, and idealistic; have a flair for communicating ideas; dislike structure and prefer working independently; and like to sing, write, act, paint, and think creatively. They are like the investigative type but are interested in the artistic and aesthetic aspects of things more than the scientific.
4. Social (S). These are “people” people. They are friendly and outgoing; love to help others, make a difference, or both; have strong verbal and personal skills and teaching abilities; and are less likely to engage in intellectual or physical activity.
5. Enterprising (E). These people are confident, assertive risk takers. They are sociable; enjoy speaking and leadership; like to persuade rather than guide; like to use their influence; have strong interpersonal skills; and are status conscious.
6. Conventional (C). These people are dependable, detail oriented, disciplined, precise, persistent, and practical; value order; and are good at clerical and numerical tasks. They work well with people and data, so they are good organizers, schedulers, and project managers.

Activity 6.2: What’s My Type?

Using the descriptions above, choose the three types that most closely describe you and list them in order in the following table. Most people are combinations of two or sometimes three types. Then list the specific words or attributes that made you think you fit in that type of description.

	Occupational type	Words and attributes that closely describe me
Primary type (the one I identify with most closely)
Secondary type
Tertiary type

Note: Your Holland occupational code is made up of the initials of the types you selected, in order.

Once you have determined your occupational type, you can begin to explore what types of careers might be best suited to you. The above exercise is a rough beginning to find your occupational type, but you should still seek out more detailed results through your career office or exploring the Alamo College Career Coach website. (https://alamo.emsicc.com/?radius=10%20miles&region=San%20Antonio. .

You can also learn more about your personality type and how this relates to career choices by taking the Jung Typology Test. (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp).

Phase B: What’s Out There?

Since many career guidance tests are based on Holland’s work, let’s take a closer look at what careers are matched with the different types. Holland studied people who were successful and happy in many occupations and matched their occupations to their occupational type, creating a description of the types of occupations that are best suited to each occupational type. Just as many individuals are more than one personality type, many jobs show a strong correlation to more than one occupational type.

Table 12.1 Occupational Options by Type

	Ideal Environments	Sample Occupations
Realistic	Structured Clear lines of authority Work with things and tools Casual dress Focus on tangible results or well-thought out goals	Contractor Emergency medical technician (EMT) Mechanic Military career Packaging engineer
Investigative	Nonstructured Research oriented Intellectual Work with ideas and data	Pharmacist Lab technician Nanotechnologist Geologist College professor
Artistic	Nonstructured Creative Rewards unconventional and aesthetic approaches Creation of products and ideas	Advertising career Architect Animator Musician Journalist
Social	Collaborative Collegial Work with people and on people-related problems/issues Work as a team or community	Teacher Geriatric counselor Correctional officer Coach Nurse
Enterprising	Typical business environment Results oriented Driven Work with people and data Entrepreneurial Power focused	Sales manager Banker Lawyer Business owner Restaurant manager
Conventional	Orderly Clear rules and policies Consistent processes Work with systems to manipulate and organize data Control and handling of money	Auditor Insurance underwriter Bank teller Office manager Database manager

Activity 6.3: Matching Careers to Your Occupational Type

Look back at your Occupational Type from Activity 6.2. Take the first letter from each type to create your code (ex. SEC). Now open O-Net Online (https://www.onetonline.org/). In the Occupation Search box, type in your code and enter to see a list of matching careers. You can click on each career to get detailed information. Now answer the following:

1. How many careers are listed?

2. What is one career that has a bright outlook?

3. What is one career that sounds interesting but you hadn’t considered before?

In addition to O-Net, you can find extensive information about career options at the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/). For each occupation, these sites list the type of work, the work environment, the skills and education required, and the job outlook for that occupation. These are truly rich resources that you should get to know.

Phase C: What Factors Might Affect My Choice?

You may now have a list of careers you want to explore. But there are other factors you will need to take into consideration as well. It is important to use your creative thinking skills to come up with alternative “right” answers to factors that may present an obstacle to pursuing the right career.

• Timing. How much time must I invest before I start making money in this career? Will I need to spend additional time in school? Is there a certification process that requires a specific amount of experience? If so, can I afford to wait?
• Finances. Will this career provide me with the kind of income I need in the short term and the security I’ll want in the longer term? What investment will I need to make to be successful in this field (education, tools, franchise fees, etc.)?
• Location. Does this career require me to relocate? Is the ideal location for this career somewhere I would like to live? Is it somewhere my family would like to live?
• Family/personal. How will this career affect my personal and family life? Do friends and family members who know me well feel strongly (for or against) about this career choice? How important is their input?

Phase D: Where Do I Go from Here?

It may seem odd to be thinking about life after school. But you will soon be making decisions about your future, and regardless of the direction you may choose, there is a lot you can do while still in college. You will need to focus your studies by choosing a major. You should find opportunities to explore the careers that interest you. You can ensure that you are building the right kind of experience on which to base a successful career. These steps will make your dreams come to life and make them achievable.

Start by developing a relationship with the counselors in the career office. All too often students engage these counselors only near the end of their college days, when the pressure is just on getting a job—any job—after having completed a degree. But these counselors can be of great help in matching your interests to a career and in ensuring you are gathering the right kind of experience to put you at the top of the recruiting heap.

Keep in mind that deciding on and pursuing a career is an ongoing process. The more you learn about yourself and the career options that best suit you, the more you will need to fine-tune your career plan. Don’t be afraid to consider new ideas, but don’t make changes without careful consideration. Career planning is exciting: learning about yourself and about career opportunities, and considering the factors that can affect your decision, should be a core part of your thoughts while in college.

Choosing Your Major

Choosing a college major can have a big impact on your career choices, especially if you are following a technical or vocational program of study. After all, it’s hard to become a pharmacist if you study computer networking. But students often get too anxious about choosing a major or program of studies. Certainly, many two-year students have a very clear idea of what they are studying and the job they expect to land after completing their degree, and you probably feel confident enough in your choice of program of study to make the investment for tuition in that program. But there is no need to panic over your choice of major or program of studies:

• Your choice of major or program will be important only for your first job after college; most people change careers (not just jobs, but careers) five times or more in their lifetime, so there is no possible major that will cover that level of flexibility.
• Many majors and programs share foundation courses with other majors, so you can usually change your major without having wasted your time in courses that will be unrelated to your new major. Chances are that if you change your major, it will be to something similar, especially if you have completed an occupational interest survey as recommended earlier in this chapter.
• Most students change their major at least once, and many will change majors two or three times before they graduate.
• If a change in major does cause a delay in completing your degree, it may be a good investment of time to follow a career path you are truly happy with.

While these thoughts might remove some of the stress of making the choice, there is no doubt that it is not always easy to make your choice. The following tips may make it a little easier…and perhaps fun!

• Follow your dreams. Your first instinct in choosing a field of study is probably based on your dreams and life experience. Make sure you base your choice on your own dreams and interests and not those of a parent, spouse, or friend.
• Make it fun. What do you like to do for fun? What kinds of magazines do you read? What Web sites are bookmarked on your computer? What kinds of volunteer work have you done? What do the answers to these questions tell you about the kind of career you would enjoy?
• Build on your skills. A good choice of a program of study is not based exclusively on your likes; it should also consider your skills. What courses did you “ace” in high school? Consider also courses that you found challenging in which you learned a lot (it’s hard to keep a level of determination to tackle a tough subject if you don’t enjoy it). What do these courses tell you about what you are skilled at studying?
• Ask around. Find people who are following the courses of studies you are considering. Ask them what they like and dislike about their majors. If you can find recent graduates with that major, ask them about the value of their major.

The Transfer Ticket

Are you in a two-year program or community college? Perhaps you decided to attend your college to save some money or to be able to explore a career before committing to a four-year program. Now you may find that a bachelor’s degree is worth pursuing because it appears to be a requirement for the kind of career you want or because you will be able to boost your income opportunities. If you are thinking about transferring to a four-year program, be sure to follow these steps:

1. Find out about the transfer program at your college. Most two-year colleges have a program designed to make sure you have the right kind of general education courses, electives, and courses related to your major so that you can transfer seamlessly into a junior year at a four-year institution.
2. Make sure your credits are transferable. Each four-year college or university has its own policies about what kind of credits it accepts. If you are considering one or two four-year colleges, find out about their transfer policies as you lay out your plan of studies. These policies are typically described in the college catalogs. Read them carefully to ensure you can transfer most, if not all, of your credits.
3. Talk to your advisor. Now. If you haven’t met with your advisor to discuss your ideas about transferring, do so soon. Your advisor will be a great help in formulating a plan of studies that meets your requirements for your Associate degree and maximizes your transferable credits.

References

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor: Standard Occupational Classification User Guide 2010, http://www.bls.gov/soc/soc_2010_user_guide.pdf (accessed July 13, 2010).

This is a derivative of COLLEGE SUCCESS by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution, which was originally released and is used under CC BY-NC-SA. This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..