Deciding on a Major or Career Path

Deciding on a major or career path is sometimes difficult. Career Engagement offers help for students who are undecided or confused about what majors or career paths might be a good fit. Career development is a life-long process, however, and many things change during the course of a lifetime. The goal of career counseling and assessment is to help the student make educated decisions on majors and career paths that will lead to satisfaction in the next step.

Career Exploration

The process of career exploration involves learning about self and the world of work. Learning about self often involves self-assessment and career counseling. Learning about the world of work may involve such activities as reading about careers, talking to others about their careers, job shadowing, informational interviews, and internships.

Career Counseling

Career counseling is an individualized process involving you and a career counselor. Through the process of self-discovery and learning about the world of work and majors, you may reach a better decision about a major and career path that will result in satisfaction – which is the goal. Because career counseling is individualized, please make an appointment to see a career counselor by calling 785-670-1450. You will receive instructions to start by taking FOCUS2, an online career assessment. FOCUS2 is free and open to anyone.

Career Engagement also uses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Strong Interest Inventory in some cases. These assessments require an interpretation appointment following administration of the assessment. MBTI and Strong are only used in certain cases where FOCUS2 is deemed not sufficient or clear by the counselor. They are not offered on-demand. MBTI is a personality assessment; persons with each of 16 personality types and satisfied in their jobs are attracted to certain occupations more than others. Strong is an interest assessment; persons with certain interest areas tend to be drawn to certain occupations where similar persons report being satisfied in their jobs.

You can take FOCUS2 at any time using the logo link below. You will need this access code: ichabods

Explore more about what you can do with specific majors using “What Can I Do With This Major”

Learning About the World of Work

FOCUS2 above provides much information about specific careers and occupations. Below are some other tools to use to learn more about occupations and the world of work.

O*NET
Information about Internships
Becomeopedia - How to Become Anything - descriptions of paths for many occupations
JOBSHADOW - Read real interviews from people as they talk about the jobs they do and the careers they have

Career Development

While career development is life-long, WU Career Engagement has some suggestions about how to make yourself the person everyone wants to hire or admit to further education. The two links below lead to these resources.

Four-Year Career Development Plan – what to do while you are at Washburn to be the person everybody wants to hire when you graduate!
What Can I Do With This Major – The third column of each major handout describes strategies for getting the most out of your major for each listed type of employment.