No matter where you are in your college journey — just starting out or getting ready to graduate — you’ll eventually start thinking about your future career and the kind of life you want to build. Exploring careers isn’t something you figure out in one moment. It’s an ongoing process of learning about yourself, trying things out and adjusting as you go.
Career exploration usually follows a cycle:
You’ll likely move through this cycle more than once during college—and many more times throughout your life. That’s normal. That’s growth.
Some may think of a career as static, linear and well-defined from start to finish. For most people, however, a career can better be defined as a series of professional decisions that affect your financial, social, political, educational, personal and spiritual development over your lifespan. A career is not just the list of positions and titles you have held but can be an expression of who you are as an individual.
A career can have many different definitions and meanings throughout the lifespan.
While a career certainly involves holding a series of jobs, it also takes considerable ongoing self-reflection to make decisions that align with your interests, skills and values. This guide will provide advice on how you can discover relevant information about yourself and the world of work to make informed decisions in your career exploration process.
Reflection PromptWhat ideas do I have about careers? What is important to me in my career right now?
Many people begin thinking about their career in high school or college when they pursue their first job or internship. For some, they begin thinking about career upon picking a college major. When developing a career plan, adopting a lifespan perspective can help you understand how your career will evolve to meet your needs as they change over time.
For a teenager or young adult, a part-time job may serve to earn spending money, save for college, or support a family. Once in college, a student may pursue experiences that will diversify their skill set and determine next steps. Young professionals may focus on building competence and rising through the ranks. For those with family responsibilities, caring for loved ones young and old, may take precedence over career advancement. As a person ages, they may seek to maintain their level of career success or perhaps dial back on professional responsibilities as retirement approaches. Career transitions associated with changing life stages are to be expected and are part of the natural progression of your professional life.
Reflection PromptWhat role has work played in my life to this point? As I look to my near future, what do I seek in my work? What do I imagine my needs will be in 5-10 years?
Instead of imagining a career as a choice you make once, you can conceptualize it as a recursive process or cycle with the following stages. You will likely complete multiple cycles of career exploration in college, and many more throughout your lifetime. As your identity develops and changes, so might your career.
Know Yourself: Gain a sense of self-awareness and understand your natural strengths, weaknesses, talents, values, and interests.
Explore: Build knowledge of the positions and industries available in the world of work. This also includes on-campus opportunities for exploration such as student organizations, leadership, and research.
Decide: Use your best judgment to select a course of action based on what you reflected upon and explored in the previous steps.
Act: Try out careers through jobs, internships, volunteering, or co-curricular activities. In this stage, you may also declare your major and build your network of professional contacts.
Reassess: Pause, reflect, and determine if you successfully integrated your self-knowledge with your knowledge of the world of work. If you are satisfied with the path you chose, you can continue building the knowledge and skills needed for your field. If you were unsatisfied, you can use your experiences to shift course and re-enter the cycle of career exploration.
Reflection PromptWhere do you see yourself in the cycle of career exploration? What does the next stage look like for you?
Think about who you are as a person and take some time to write down what you know about yourself.
Reflection PromptWhat special qualities do you like about yourself? What would you like to be better at? What career areas would you still like to explore?
Exploring the world of work means thinking about the careers and industries you are aware of andmgaining exposure to those you are not yet familiar with.
Reflection PromptWhat curricular and co-curricular activities am I aware of? Am I interested in participating in these activities? If so, in what ways? What careers/industries do I know about? What do I know about them? Where does this information come from? Is the source reliable? Do I need to do more research? On what?
At this point, you have improved your sense of self-awareness as well as your awareness of the world of work. You are now prepared to apply your knowledge by making a decision about your next steps.
Depending on your individual situation, you might need to decide:
There are many ways to make career and life decisions, and each person will be unique in their process. Most people will either utilize an intuitive or analytical approach.
Intuitive decision-making relies on a combination of one’s past experiences and personal values. An example of this could be a prospective student who enrolls at Marquette because they just “had a feeling” while they were touring campus. Intuitive decision makers might be drawn to values, relationships, and instinct.
Analytical decision-making focuses on the facts and figures. An example of this could be a prospective student who tours Marquette and compares their financial aid package, academic programs of interest, and social environment of Marquette to other schools under consideration before deciding. Analytical decision makers might be drawn to data, rankings, and objective information.
Learn more about Decision Making.
Reflection PromptWhat is a time in the past you have made a difficult decision? How did you go about it? What was the outcome of the difficult decision? Looking back, would you make the same choice? What did you learn about yourself?
To make informed career decisions, you must test your career ideas to confirm that you are progressing along a viable career exploration path. Testing your ideas will help you learn more about a given field and dispel or confirm the information you have gathered prior to beginning the experience. You can test your career ideas in a variety of ways.
If you need assistance in pursuing any of the above experiences, consider making an appointment at the Career Center. The Career Counselor meeting with you can support you as you make your unique career exploration plan.
Reflection PromptWhat ways are best for me to explore my career options?
After you seek out an experience, you will need to take some time to reflect on what you learned.
A Career Counselor can also help you make meaning of your experiences. Taking time to process all of the information you have gathered will help you proceed with the necessary forethought that underpins meaningful progression in your career development.
After you engage in self exploration, learn about the world of work, and test out your career interests, you may need to repeat the cycle multiple times. If you find that your initial exploration was satisfying and helped you move closer to your goals, you can seek additional experiences associated with that career path. If you find that your exploration was not satisfying and did not address your goals, you can continue the process by re-examining yourself, the world of work, and possible opportunities for career-related experiences.
Reflection PromptDo I need to change course? How do I know that? Where should I start again?
Now that you have learned about the career exploration process, you may be ready to make decisions to learn more about yourself and the world of work. These can be expressed in next steps or goals, depending on how you like to think about them. When you consider what you would like to do moving forward, make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
You can also identify your system to work towards each goal, as well as your motivation to remind yourself of the importance of addressing your next steps.
Consult the example below to see what a goal associated with a system and motivation might look like.
Use the Goal/System/Motivation technique to consider your next steps and why those steps are important to you and your progress.
The Career Center can help you with your career exploration process. Career Counselors are available to meet with you 1-on-1 as you make decisions about your career path. A Career Counselor will partner with you to determine your needs and create a plan that helps you progress. You can also speak with a Career Counselor about personality assessments that may address your unique situation.
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