Exploring & Researching Career Options

After gathering information about yourself (through self-assessment or by consulting with a career counselor), you can begin exploring majors and career options. But just what is out there? At this point in the process, do not be too worried about making a decision; instead, focus on increasing your knowledge of various academic disciplines and careers, to assess which ones fulfill your interests, skills and values. There are a number of methods for researching your options:

Utilize Resources in the Career Services Library. A number of print resources are available to help you explore your options. Many books include short, easy-to-read profiles of a "day in the life" of a particular field. You can learn about typical work activities, qualifications needed, job outlook for the future, and so on. Just a few examples of the books available to help you explore your options include: Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors, Breaking into Advertising, Opportunities in Chemistry Careers, College Majors and Careers, Careers in the Nonprofit Sector, 100 Jobs in Social Change.

Utilize Resources in the Princeton Library. The library system has a variety of books and online databases that can assist with career choice and exploration. The library has put together a useful guide to using their Career Resources. A reference librarian can also assist in finding these materials.

Explore Online. There are incredible resources online to help you identify careers that suit your interests, skills and personality. The following are some of the better sites for occupational profiles:

CareerOneStop – COMPREHENSIVE:  Offers job profiles, salary information, advice on job search tools, and information from O*Net (see below).

O*Net – EASY-TO-USE:  Learn about typical tasks and in-demand careers with links to the Strong Interest Inventory codes and lists of necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Occupational Outlook Handbook – EXTENSIVE: Compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, it contains job profiles, training and education requirements, salary potential, and job outlook for the future.

Career Overview – SIMPLE:  Provides overviews of several business, technology, medical, service, and education careers with information on job titles, earnings, and day-to-day work.

Vault Online Career Library – FOCUSED:  Excellent information about a wide variety of industries, from advertising to biotech to manufacturing.

WetFeet.com Career & Industry Research – RELEVANT:  Another great site to research various industries and career fields.

Road Trip Nation – DIFFERENT:  A project started by some graduating seniors who wanted to talk with others in the search for what to do with their lives. The interviews are full of advice and inspiration and represent some very interesting paths taken.

Talk to People About What They Do. Once you have identified an occupation that sounds interesting, talking to people who already work in that field can be tremendously informative. They can provide special insight into the rewards and rigors of a particular occupation, as well as tell you specific information about their organizations. This is a process called Information Interviewing; learn more by clicking on the link on the right-side menu of this page. Start with friends, family and faculty. Expand your network to include alumni and employers who recruit regularly on campus. Use the Career Services alumni database, the Alumni Careers Network (ACN), to identify people in a variety of industries and occupations to speak with. Read about Information Interviewing, the process of contacting people for career information, by visiting the link on the right-hand menu of this page.

Volunteer or Pursue Work Experiences. A valuable way to research careers is by getting involved in them early. Volunteering, working part-time, conducting research with a professor, or securing an internship are all great ways to gain a deeper appreciation of day-to-day life in a particular field or industry. Practical experiences help you evaluate and "reality test" your choices.

Consult with a Career Counselor. Exploring career options and examining your potential level of satisfaction with them requires you to manage a lot of information. Consulting with a career counselor is a good way to develop strategies for managing your research and to learn about ways to research your career interests more productively. Call 258-3325 to schedule an appointment.

Utilize as many different resources and gather as much information as possible. Use what you have learned about yourself to rule out the obvious choices that are not for you. This is time consuming and, at times, overwhelming, but the investment you make in gathering good information often aids good decision making.