Career Chasse

Find your major out of chaos!

As the week of course request for Fall semester classes ends on Tuesday, you may be asking yourself if you are in the correct major. Maybe you thought you were good in math, so engineering was the direction you were leaning, but now you’re not so sure. Or maybe you took some intro classes in a certain major you thought you would like and now you think the classes are boring. If any of this sounds like you, a Career Advisor in Career Services can help you figure out your career direction, whether that is through a self-assessment tool or by devising a plan out of chaos.

Figure yourself out with self-assessments

Although self-assessment can’t give you the answer (you’re the one who holds the answers, right?), using a tool to look at your interests, skills, values and personality type, may give you some ideas of careers or majors to consider as you decide whether to make a change in your major or career plans. Students who take a self-assessment like MyPlan or Do What You Are, also sometimes find that one of these tools confirms a direction they were already wondering about, which makes them feel more confident as they make that choice.

With another tool, StrengthsQuest, you are able to learn about your talents that you can work on to turn into strengths. This instrument may help put a name on some of your key qualities that you might not have viewed as talents before - also beneficial as you make career or major choices. If you want to get started with one of these assessments, the first step is to make an appointment with a Career Advisor; call 540-231-6241. We’ll meet with you to talk about your particular situation, determine the best assessment tools to meet your needs, follow up to talk about your results and point you to people or places to find out more about majors or careers of interest.

Devise a plan out of chaos

If you feel you know yourself well enough but still want to take some action as you decide your major, another possible step is to create a Wandering Map. Dr. Katharine Brooks, author of You Majored in What (great book to figure out your career direction and get to know yourself better) suggests using this wandering map to look at your past for hints to help you plan your future. She applies chaos theory to making career decisions. Although the weather is difficult to predict and often chaotic, weather patterns emerge, and this is true of our lives too, where certain patterns come to light if we take the time to look.

Though the path that got you here may seem random to you, Dr. Brooks takes you through steps where you map out key events that have happened in your life this far. First, you brainstorm and list objects, events, people, and other things that have played a role in your life so far. Then you will review your ideas, add more items, and analyze your notes for categories and themes. Next, she asks you some key questions about those themes you’ve identified. Want to see if you can create a plan out of chaos? We can get you started with creating your own wandering map—call 540-231-6241 to meet with a Career Advisor to learn more.

Help is close by if you feel like you need a hand in your journey to your major or career. Set up a meeting with a Career Advisor today to get started with increasing your self-knowledge and mapping out a plan out of chaos.