Major and Advisor Changes – October deadlines coming up!

It’s that time of year to make sure your major and advisor are up to date!  Registration for spring classes is coming soon!  Career Services and Academic Advising will be tabling in the Vaughn Center on Monday, September 30 during the lunch hour.  Please stop by our table if you have any questions about major or advisor changes.

Here is some important information for students  regarding major and advisor changes from the Academic Advising Office.  If you are not in GTW or HON, you need to have an advisor within your major. If you would like to change your advisor, come to North Walker Hall (Academic Success Center) and pick up a Change of Advisor, Major and Minor form. If there is someone specific that you would like as your faculty advisor, they can sign the form and you will automatically be reassigned to them. If you do not know who you would like as an advisor, we can select one for you.  All unsigned forms need to be submitted by October 4^th; signed forms may be turned in any time during the semester.

It is also important to make sure that your major is properly declared. Students can run into registration issues if their major or minor is incorrect. For example, declared majors in the Communication department have seats saved for them in many COM classes. If you are not properly declared, you could have difficulty registering for courses in your major or minor. There is no deadline to change your major, but you should do so well before your registration time. 

Strengths and Your Career

Have you heard people on campus lately talking about their Strengths?  All incoming first year students were given the Strengths Finder in the Gateways classes this year.  After attending the initial workshop on Strengths and what that means to you, there are several follow up workshops to find out more about them.  At last night’s workshop, we focused on Strengths and Your Career.  If you are interested in learning more about how you can utilize your Strengths in searching for a career, check out this article in the Gallup Business Journal on “Building a Career on Your Strengths.”  

Exploring Careers

I have spent some time this summer checking out some great resources for career exploration.  One of my favorite sites is O*NET OnLine.  This government website has so much useful information.  If you want to explore a career you have always dreamed about, click on the tab for My Next Move.  On this site you can search careers, browse careers by industry and take the O*Net Interest Profiler.  This tool can help you find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work.  Once you complete the questions and get your results, you can then click on any of the six interests (RIASEC) to see what type of careers might be rewarding to you.  You then select what type of training you would need (Bachelor’s degree or higher) and then see the “best fit” jobs for your interests and preparation level.  For example, if “social” was your top interest and you clicked on the “considerable preparation” job zone, your best fit careers might be a library technician or an elementary school teacher.  Depending on the type of answers you give, you might get different results. 

This is just one of many websites that we have listed on our Career & Major Exploration page.   Spend some time thinking about your career path – and then develop a plan to get there.

Have a great summer!

Fall Registration Time

It’s the time of year that students begin to question their choice of major and career.  Although I can’t wave my “magic wand” or see into my “crystal ball” to grant you a new major, I can certainly offer you some steps to help yourself narrow down your options.

1.        Self-Assessment – Explore and learn more about

·         Values – What is most important to you

·         Interests – What you like to do

·         Personality – Complex set of behavioral traits that make us different and unique

·         Skills/Abilities – special talents

2.       Research and Exploration – Explore and Investigate the World of Work

·         Job Shadowing

·         Internships

·         Volunteer Experience/Part-time jobs

·         Research

3.       Decision Making

·         Research jobs and careers using Career Services resources such as O*Net and “What Can I Do With This Major”

·         Conduct an Information Interview

·         Read the catalog for course descriptions and requirements

·         Talk to upperclassmen and department faculty about the major

4.       Get Experience

·         Job Shadowing

·         Student Involvement

·         Volunteer Work

·         Study Abroad

·         Summer job

Still undecided?  Schedule an appointment with Career Services and get started on the process of finding the right major for you! 

Majors and Careers

If you are undecided about your major, or thinking of changing your major, we have an excellent opportunity this week for you to speak to the academic departments.  The Annual Majors Fair will be held on Wednesday, February 20, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm on the 9^th floor of the Vaughn Center.  In addition to faculty and staff from the various academic departments, several employers and alumni will be available to discuss their career paths.

Once you have narrowed down your choices, you are encouraged to attend our Next Steps Workshop, Wednesday, February 27, at 5:00 pm in Riverside 102.  Sponsored by Career Services and Academic Advising, we will discuss what your next steps are to declaring or exploring your major.

I hope you will join us this month for one or both of these events!  

Make the Most of Your Semester Break

You have finished with your finals and all you want to do is to go home for the holidays, sleep in and enjoy being with your family.  Pretty soon it is January 2, 2013, and now what?  You have 20 days until classes resume.  Here are a few suggestions for you to make this your most productive semester break ever!

Job Shadow – Make some calls to see if you can arrange a job shadowing experience.  Job shadowing is a great way to gain knowledge and insight into a specific career field.

Informational Interview – Conducting an informational interview has proven to be very successful in gathering information about a particular career field and also expands your network.  Check out our sample questions and how to go about finding opportunities.

Network – When you attend family gatherings and parties, prepare a two minute summary about yourself so that if someone asks you if you are looking for an internship or what you plan to do with your life after graduation, you can give a summary of your career goals and interests.  There are many possible networking connections through family and friends.

Internship/Job Search -Take some time to look at HIRE-UT to check out possible internships and jobs for next semester.  Look at the dates for career and internship fairs and make a note of them in your calendar.  Now is the time to plan some effective networking strategy.

Resume/Cover Letter – If you don’t have a resume prepared, create one!  The Office of Career Services has some excellent resources available on the Job Search Toolbox portion of our website.  Spend some time writing your resume and once you return to campus in January, you can come to our office for a resume review.  We have walk-in hours Monday through Thursday from 3-5 pm beginning the first week of classes.

So give yourself the best gift possible – and invest some time in your career planning!

Enjoy the winter break!

Web resources for Career Exploration

At least once a day, a student will tell me that he or she has chosen a particular major, but then the next question is “What can I do with this major?”  Sound familiar? The Office of Career Services would like to share some great web resources that will help you explore possible career paths for your major.

On our career and major exploration site, we have links to “What Can I Do With This Major?” along with links to several government websites such as O*Net and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. 

Maybe you know a specific career that interests you, but you don’t know much about that job.  O*Net Online is a terrific source  and can give you information about the knowledge, skills and abilities  needed for a particular career, as well as the projected salary and outlook for the next ten years.  For example, a recent search for an event planner showed a “bright outlook” for that career in the future.   It’s very easy to search with a key word, or you can type in a particular career in the box that says “I want to be a….” .

On “What Can I Do With This Major?” you will find information on the major along with numerous links to various professional organizations associated with that major.  If you look up Psychology, you will find links to the American Psychological Association, Society for Human Resources Management, and the American Counseling Association, just to name a few.  This site is full of useful information.

So do some web surfing that will benefit you, and find information on your particular major and related careers so that the next time someone asks you, “What are you going to do with that major?” – you will have a good answer!  If you have any questions about these resources or any other career or major exploration questions, please feel free to schedule an appointment with a career counselor to talk about your options!