Choosing a Career Path

Feeling "clueless" about selecting a career? You are not alone. Many of your peers feel the same way. There are countless opportunities out there, so it makes sense that you may feel confused and stressed about narrowing it down to just one or two. The Career Center can help you start exploring your career goals as early as your first year on-campus. But, if it’s not your first year on-campus, that’s okay too.

Below are some career exploration resources that you may find helpful in your career decision-making. In addition to this list of resources, we also highly recommend that you meet with one of our Career Counselors to discuss your potential career path. You can make an appointment by calling extension 1740.

CAREER EXPLORATION RESOURCES

Major to Career
The Major to Career portion of our website provides career-related pages for all majors (and many of the minors and concentrations) at Dickinson, which will help you learn what alumni with those majors are doing now, the skills you will acquire, the variety of careers available to you, and web links for more career information.

MyPlan
MyPlan is an on-line career planning resource that will help you with your career decisions. One of the most important parts of the site is the assessment section. There are four separate assessments that consider your personality, interests, values, and skills. The results of these assessments are combined to identify careers that you may find suitable. It is important to remember that the list of careers provided by MyPlan is merely a jumping-off point in your career exploration. Some of the careers provided on the list you may rule out within minutes, others you may have never thought of before and decide to research further. We strongly recommend that you go over this list with a career counselor at the Career Center.

SPOTLIGHT ON CAREERS
Spotlight On Careers, a collaborative project initiated by the Liberal Arts Career Network (LACN), a consortia of twenty-nine private liberal arts colleges. Through use of the World Wide Web, the goal is to make available the best information from a wide range of career fields. Each college is responsible for a single career field and seeks to identify quality informational sites pertinent to that field. The result is a dynamic, ever growing library of web links which facilitates the career development process for students.
Off campus users should contact the Career Center for the username and password.

Vault.com
Vault.com is a system that can be used to conduct extensive career-related research. On vault.com you will find approximately 2500 specific company profiles, as well as detailed industry overviews, career overviews, career advice articles, and downloadable career guides. There are also message boards which allow for the opportunity to observe, as well as partake in, discussions on specific companies, career and industry topics, and graduate school. Additionally, vault.com provides a tour of their site, which is great for new users.

Job Descriptions
Looking at job descriptions through some of the online job search engines is another great way to learn more about a certain occupation. Most job descriptions list the educational background needed for the job, skills needed for the jobs, duties performed in the job, etc.

Resource Library
There are several books in the resource library you can utilize when doing research on potential careers. One series of books that might be helpful is the Great Careers series. The series includes Great Careers for Psychology Majors, Great Careers for Mathematics Majors, Great Careers for Biology Majors, as well as many others. These books, as well as many other helpful resources can be found in the General section of the Resource Library. Additionally, the library is divided into several sections based on career-types: Investigative, Social, Artistic, Realistic, Conventional, and Enterprising. A chart indicating what types of careers fall under what category is located in the library. If you cannot find any information in the Resource Library on the career in which you are interested, please speak with a counselor and we will assist you.

Occupational Outlook Handbook
The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) is a resource developed by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is updated every other year and provides information on job outlook, salaries, working conditions, training, and other career related information for a multitude of professions. We also have a hard copy of the OOH available in our resource library.

Informational Interviews
Informational Interviews are a great tool for learning more about a particular career. You can set up Informational Interviews with anyone who works in your field of interest. Potential resources are Dickinson Alumni (by utilizing the Dickinson Works program) or friends of your parents/family. You may also simply call someone who works in the field in which you are interested and ask if they might be willing to speak with you about their career. A counselor at the Career Center can help you find potential contacts with whom you might be able to conduct an Informational Interview.

Dickinson Works
Dickinson Works is an online database of alumni who have provided their contact information for the purpose of helping students and fellow alumni with their career exploration and planning. You can search by major, field of interest, geography, etc. After you enter your search criteria you will get a list of names and contact information based on the criteria you entered. This information can be used in two ways: to gain information about working in a specific field (informational interview), or to aid in your job search (networking).

Internships
Internships are a great way to “test” an occupation. Once you have conducted some initial research and narrowed your list of potential career choices, internships can help you narrow that list even further.