The first step in the Career Roadmap is to Know Yourself. Whether you are a first year student interested in learning how majors relate to careers, a senior contemplating graduate school or an alumnus considering a career change, it is crucial that you first identify your INTERESTS, VALUES, SKILLS and PERSONALITY PREFERENCES in order to make a well–informed decision.

• Learning about your interests will help you identify opportunities to pursue and the topics you are most naturally drawn to, making school and work more motivating and enjoyable. Click on the below interest areas, based on John Holland’s Occupational Themes, to see how they connect to academic and career choices.

  Artistic Conventional Enterprising

  Investigative Realistic Social

• Values are the things that motivate us and move us toward certain decisions, behaviors and goals. Values greatly influence the career decision making process, job satisfaction and, ultimately, life satisfaction.

• Skills are the things that you are good at and have the ability to do well. Assessing your skills allows you to determine which ones you want to acquire or further develop, the specific ways to accomplish those goals, and how your skills match with potential careers.

• Personality Preferences & Interpersonal Needs are related to your individual, innate nature and tend to be consistent over time. Understanding personality and interpersonal needs allows you to see correlations between the way you make decisions and your work style.

Explore more with the CHOICES Planner Interest Profiler. Log–in to Choices and select the “Interest Profiler”. The profiler helps you find your work interests and match them to career options.

You can also attend relevant workshops such as Connect Your Values to Career Satisfaction, Identify Your Skills and Accomplishments, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and DePaul Interest Finder (DIF).

What Can I Do with This Major or Degree?

Learn how to apply your major to specific career areas, what types of employers are hiring for different majors, and strategies for breaking into particular fields. Remember, your major does not always determine your career. Professionals use their education in a variety of fields. Be sure to explore a variety of resources as you research possible career paths.