The college experience plays an important role in shaping your career journey. It is a time for exploration and design – an opportunity to reflect on your interests, motivations, skills, and potential career paths. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 80% of college students change their majors, with many students switching an average of three times. This pattern of change continues beyond college. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the average adult changes careers 5 to 7 times throughout their working life.
Career exploration
If you are unsure about your major or future career, you are not alone, and we can guide you along the way! The career coaching team at the School of Public Health-Bloomington believes meaningful career development and planning begins with YOU.
Our approach to career development is rooted in helping you:
Identify your values, interests, personality and skills (VIPS) Understanding what motivates you can give you insights on meaningful careers.
Apply a Design Thinking mindset Taking an "experimental and design thinking" approach to career planning opens doors to opportunities.
Explore and research a wide range of majors and careers Learning about potential majors and career pathways can help you make the match with your VIPS.
Develop career readiness skills and competencies for success after graduation Knowing and building key skills during college makes you "career ready" after graduation.
Finding a fulfilling career begins with understanding yourself and what motivates you. By exploring your values, interests, personality, and skills (VIPS), you lay the foundation for making confident and informed major and career decisions as well as identifying potential careers that are meaningful and rewarding. As you deepen your self-awareness, you will begin to see how your VIPS align with different career paths. Take some time to reflect on the following questions and explore your values, interests, personality, and skills. Then, meet with a career coach to further discuss how your VIPS connect with academic majors and career options.
Values
Your values shape your thoughts, influence your worldview, and help you decide what actions to take. They can dramatically impact how satisfied you are in your work (and with your employer), and they serve as a basis for your reactions to your environment. No internship or employer will consistently represent a perfect fit with your entire value system, so prioritizing your values is important.
- What's important to you?
- What issues or causes motivate you?
- Is it important for your work to involve interacting with people or contributing to society?
- How important is it for you to have a prestigious job or high salary?
Interests
Interests are activities or things that you naturally enjoy doing. Identifying what those interests are and finding work that incorporates your interests will make your relationship with work more enjoyable and motivating for you. Conversely, identifying activities that are uninteresting to you is also valuable as you research career paths.
- What topics could you talk about endlessly?
- What do you do when you have free time?
- What are you inspired to learn about?
Personality
By exploring your personality, you will learn more about how you prefer to derive your energy, process new information, make decisions, and which environments are best suited for you.
- At the end of a long day, would you rather go out with a big group of friends or stay home?
- Do you make decisions with your head or your heart?
- Do you prefer things to be scheduled or more flexible?
Skills/Strengths
You already have many of the skills you need to have a rewarding career. An aptitude is a natural or acquired ability. In addition to looking at what you are good at doing, also consider what you enjoy. It is possible to be quite adept at a particular skill, yet despise every second spent using it.
- What do you do well in the classroom, workplace, or within a campus organization?
- What have others expressed you do well?
- What skills or strengths are more natural for you?
As you explore your VIPS and career options, we recommend applying a "design thinking mindset". Design Thinking is a creative problem-solving methodology. In an ever changing and evolving workforce, the principles of design thinking will enable forward-thinking action in the face of uncertainty. "Life isn’t about FINDING yourself…It’s about CREATING yourself"…- George Bernard Shaw
The Design Thinking mindset integrates proven practices to help figure out a career path while in college. While these tools can be used frequently throughout the career cycle, they can also be applied to every aspect of life. Understand strengths and challenges, brainstorm ideas, test them out, and refine them.
Be Curious
One who is curious sees everything as new and is willing to explore. Ask questions, do research, and seek out information. "Lean into your curiosity," and generate as many ideas as possible and consider a variety of options.
Try Stuff
Have a bias towards action. Try things and if they don't work, then try something else. Prototype until you identify your greatest gifts, there is a spark of interest, or you find something that intrigues you to move forward.
Reframe Problems
Designers build forward out of problems to get unstuck. Step back from the situation, explore biases and assumptions, and be open to new solutions. Ask if dysfunctional beliefs are preventing forward progress. Sometimes reframing allows new questions to emerge.
Know It's a Process
Design thinking is about taking risks and not being afraid to fail. Be willing to take one step forward and two steps backward. Instead of focusing on a particular end, stay focused on the journey. In doing so, your outcome may end very differently than you initially expected.
Ask for Help
Great design requires radical collaboration and teamwork. Some of the best ideas may come from interacting with other people. The trick is being willing to ask, and knowing the right questions to ask. Navigating the career landscape is an ongoing, lifelong process. Along the way, generate ideas and build critical questions. Make it a priority to talk to people to gather further information. When taking action, set the bar and clear it – and set the bar again. Above all, maintain an open mind and reflect on moments of extreme interest, intrigue, and aliveness.
Adapted from the book, Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.
As you "design and build" your career plan, meet with a career coach early and often to help guide you in the process. In addition, take some time and explore the SPH-B Career Development Canvas Course. Career Services curates career education content and resources in the SPH-B Career Services Canvas Course. SPH-B students are automatically enrolled in this course and have access to on-demand content anytime. This course includes self-paced and interactive modules on career exploration, VIPS, design thinking, professional brand, networking, and job and internship search strategies. To access these resources, log into Canvas and find the SPH-B Career Services Canvas Course.
Taking a design thinking approach to your career journey can be incredibly powerful, both as you explore your VIPS, but also as you learn about potential academic majors and careers. Check out the SPH-B Career Communities, IUB majors and minors and online resources below to learn about career options. Remember, our career coaches can guide you as you explore majors and careers and align them with your VIPS.
SPH-B Career Communities
You may not know your specific major yet, but you might have a good idea of your interests, passions and areas you like to study. To help you connect your areas of interest to majors, SPH-B has organized our academic majors into career communities. Career communities are a great way to break down the complex world of work, helping you understand careers and design a path that is right for you.
Take a moment to explore the SPH-B career communities and matching academic majors.
Health & Human Services
Sports & Hospitality
You can also explore IU majors and minors and consider ways to diversify your academic training and give yourself a competitive advantage after graduation.
Resources to Research Careers
Along with exploring majors, we recommend you also research and learn about careers. Here are a few resources to help you learn about things like job duties, job outlook, salaries, educational requirements, and similar occupations.
What is Career Readiness?
Career readiness is a foundation from which to demonstrate core competencies that broadly prepare new college graduates for success in the workplace and lifelong career management. In today’s market, career readiness is, quite simply, the new career currency.
Career Readiness Competencies
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified eight career competencies or attributes that every graduate should develop to be competitive in the workforce. Each of these competencies can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Explore the definitions below to better understand what each one means and consider ways you can develop them during college.
Career & Self-development
Proactively develop oneself and one’s career through continual personal and professional learning, be aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigate career opportunities, and network to build relationships within and outside one’s organization.
Communication
Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with people inside and outside of an organization. Understand the importance of and demonstrate excellent verbal, written, and non-verbal/body language.
Critical Thinking
Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information. Make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning, and judgment.
Equity & Inclusion
Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism.
Leadership
Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals. Inspire, persuade, and motivate self and others under a shared vision. Serve as a role model to others by approaching tasks with confidence and a positive attitude.
Professionalism
Acknowledge work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace. Act equitably with integrity and accountability to self, others, and the organization.
Teamwork
Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities. Be accountable for individual and team responsibilities and deliverables.
Technology
Understand and leverage technologies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals. Identify appropriate technology for completing specific tasks. Quickly adapt to new or unfamiliar technologies.
Source: *Adapted from the NACE Career Readiness Competencies
Are you ready to start designing a career that aligns with who you are and what you value? Use these powerful tools to explore your values, interests, personality, and skills, and begin building a career plan that is uniquely yours. This is your career journey—let’s design it with purpose.
Check out these additional online resources to explore majors and careers
- Vault Career Resources The Vault provides in-depth information on what it's really like to work in an industry, company, or profession — and how to position yourself to land that job. Search current jobs and internships, research a company, school or industry, get the inside scoop on what it's really like.
- What can I do with this major? Whether you are exploring multiple majors or searching for information about your chosen field, this site will help you connect majors to careers by showing you a variety of industries related to specific disciplines.
- Indiana Career Explorer
Indiana Career Explorer will help you explore a world of career possibilities, make decisions about your future, and prepare for the next step in your education and career planning journey. Depending on your grade level, you’ll use Kuder Navigator or Kuder Journey, which is your solution for selecting the right major and preparing for your first career. You can make a unique non-IU account for this resource to get started. - Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)
The OOH is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ guide to career information regarding duties, education, training, pay and future job outlook for thousands of occupations.