Picking a Major

 

Your planning starts here.

MyPlan is an online career planning tool for students and professionals which can help you make well-informed decisions about education and career goals.

• Take the career assessments to identify your personal interests, skills, and values
• Explore majors and career options
• Use MyPlan.com to help figure out what is right for you; follow up with Career Services to discuss your results and further develop your career action plan

Visit http://psuds.myplan.com and click on "Create Free Account" to complete your registration.

Enter license code LBK2H28R to take your career assessments free of charge.  Arrange an appointment with Career Services (call (814) 372-3015 or email aaa39@psu.edu) to discuss your results and develop your career action plan.

Exploring Majors & Career Options

Make the Most of Your Time at Penn State

Career Planning Steps

Online Career Planning Workshops available in LionPath

Make the Most of your time at Penn State DuBois

• Visit Career Services in the Hiller Building to explore your own process of decision-making, engage in self-assessment activities, and identify the action steps necessary to define and achieve your goals. We have a number of exploration activities that we can do such as MyPlan and Skill Scan.  To do one of the exploration activities, request an appointment by emailing aaa39@psu.edu   
• Meet with your academic adviser to learn about majors, academic options, course content, and requirements
• Establish a relationship with faculty to learn about opportunities to gain experience in and outside of the classroom
• Increase your exposure to career fields of interest through job shadowing, internship, volunteer, or work experiences during academic and summer breaks

Career Planning Steps

Self-awareness

Increasing your self-awareness will help you determine a major or career path that is a good fit for you. Engage in discussion, activities, and career assessments to identify your interests, values, abilities, and personality. Through career counseling you can work toward understanding who you are and apply this information to career decisions.

Explore Career Options

Explore career options so you can connect your knowledge, interests, values, abilities, major and personality to careers. The four levels of Career Exploration provide examples of how to collect career information.

Read about Careers of Interest

• Use our career library located in the Career Center in 102 Hiller Building
• What Can I Do With This Major?
• Career Internet Database (career list with hundreds of occupations)
• UserName        1484w   
• Password        future
• Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)
• O*NET (Occupational Information Database)

Talk with Others in Career Fields of Interest

Talk with a variety of people in careers you find interesting.  Most people like to talk about their career path and their position, career field, or industry. Even if you decide that the career is not the best option for you - that is valuable information. Conduct Informational Interviews for guidelines and start talking with:

• Relatives, neighbors, friends, and others
• Faculty/staff in your department
• Alumni through LionLink
• Employers through Penn State Career Connection LinkedIn Group or Information Sessions

Observe Professionals At Their Workplace

Observe and "job shadow" professionals in the workplace to get a better sense of the day-to-day responsibilities, challenges, and work environment of various careers. This experience can reinforce to you the types of skills, interests, and values desired to succeed within career areas.  Seek out opportunities to observe professionals through your network of contacts and Career Services.

Experience Work First-hand through Internships/Related Opportunities

Test-drive specific career fields by taking on short-term work or volunteer activities. Reflect on your experiences to refine and modify your career interest areas. Remember, even short-term experiences lasting less than a semester or summer can be very valuable in shaping your future career plans. Take a look at the internships that are available to you.

Develop Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Gain insight into the type of knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to succeed in a career field as you learn more about career options. This may shape what you want to gain from your academic classes, your involvement in student organizations, and the types of work experiences you seek.  While most career options have certain academic skills required to perform well in a particular job, many skills and qualities are common among employers across career fields.

Develop Self-Marketing Tools

Recognize the experiences, abilities and education requirements that are commonly expected by employers and graduate schools. This will guide you as you compose and deliver your self-marketing tools (resume, cover letter, application essay, personal statement, writing sample).  Work with a career counselor to ensure that your application materials are putting you in the best possible position to be considered for the opportunities.

Visit the skill development page