Finding a major and career fit for you can be tough. For all the pressure high school likes to push on you to know everyone you want out of life by age seventeen, many college students still find themselves without a sense of direction. Even students who start out thinking they know exactly where they want to go can end up questioning themselves a year later.
Hokies, I’m here to tell you that it’s okay. You’re not alone in feeling this. Even I, who had the rare insight of knowing
what she wanted to do since middle school, have questioned if I really am where
I’m supposed to be.
The great news is your school is here to support you and
help you find your way.
So how can you start this self-finding journey?
The best start would be in some personality assessment. If you’re trying to find a career that fits
you, after all, you should learn more about yourself first!
Start with collegescope. After registering with the website, you’ll
want to take the “Do What You Are” test.
In this test, you will answer a series of questions that places you in
one of sixteen Myer-Brigg personality types.
Hold the phone, you say.
This sounds like something thirteen year old girls do in their spare
time, and then post on their facebook wall for all their friends to see.
Yes, I was a little skeptical of it at first as well. However, the results you get from this test
are incredible. Once the test places you
in one of the personality types, it not only gives a small description of that
personality type (which for me was surprisingly accurate), but then went into
detail about various strengths and weaknesses people in that particular
personality type might have, what to look for to get the most satisfying
college experience, and potential careers that fit the personality well.
Of course, these results will be withheld from you until you
make an appointment with an advisor from career services and meet with them in
person. From there, you can not only
look at your results, but discuss them, find majors or careers that interest
you, and then do your own research from there.
When I took the test, I found out I was an “INTJ”- a
personality type that fits amazingly well within my chosen major of computer
science. That was a reassurance, but not
enough to convince me that I was in the right major.
This is when the next batch of tests comes in. Another great tool for students exploring what
to do with their lives is myplan. Make sure to get the school’s license code
from a career service’s adviser before registering, for the website’s services
are not free. However, as a hokie, the
school is paying for those services for you!
At this site, you will find four assessments to take: two
personality tests that put you in a Myer-Brigg personality type and give you a
Holland Code (a personality code based on your interests), a skills assessment
that ranks what careers best fit your strengths, and a values test that ranks
what you find most important and fulfilling in a work environment. After taking these four tests, a composite
score is created for you that shows what careers best match the results from
your four tests.
The results I got from these tests further convinced me that
I was in the right major. My top
interest in the interest test was conventional- an area that focuses on problem
solving, detailed oriented tasks, and routine over chaos. Sure enough, on the handout I got from my adviser
on this test showed computer science as one of the best majors for this
category. My values test also showed
that one of my biggest priorities when working is getting a strong sense of
achievement and accomplishment, something else that computer science is great
at as well.
Of course, whether your results are reassuring or
surprising, they should be discussed with a career services adviser (hopefully
in the same meeting you discuss your results from collegescope). Once
you have a sense of what all of these personality assessments mean, you’ll be
on your way to finding the major and career for you.
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