Learning about your preferences, strengths, and areas for improvement is important at any stage of your career exploration and development.

Start by clarifying your preferences that may affect your satisfaction with a potential academic program/career path. You may do this informally by talking to academic and career advisors, professors, family members, and friends. Here are some questions to help you discover what will ultimately make you happy:

• What courses and topics spark your interest?
• What social causes and activities are you passionate about?
• What talents and skills come naturally to you?
• What three adjectives would your friends use to describe your personality?
• What can you see yourself doing in five or ten years?

To gain a better understanding of your VIPS, use various self-assessments and discuss the results with a career advisor. Start keeping career exploration notes or a journal to record what you learn through this process.

This step involves researching potential academic majors, careers, industries, employers, etc. Research takes time; don’t rush this step. 

To make Step 2 effective, use what you’ve learned about yourself through self-assessments (Step 1). This will help you focus your efforts on finding information that matters to you. For example, search for and organize career information around the VIPS associated with the major/career. 

You may also want to research and take notes on educational requirements, employment trends, and salary ranges in potential industries. 

• Use the following resources:
  • Review Career Guides by Major.
  • Learn the career competencies employers value and seek in new hires.
  • Explore O*Net, Occupational Outlook Handbook and Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For.
  • Reach out to faculty, alumni, and other professionals (they can be your family members, family friends, or friends’ family) and ask for an informational interview to learn more about their fields.
  • Attend Career Center events and programs.
• To further your career exploration, engage in experiential learning: pursue extracurricular activities and internships, which will help you learn more about yourself and about different work settings and organizational cultures.
• Your hobbies and volunteering can evolve into a career path. Keep them up and reflect on the related skills you’re building through these activities. 
• Talk to AU alumni who work in your dream jobs/fields.

Before you continue, congratulate yourself on your career exploration efforts and the progress you've made so far! 

Through self-assessments, you’ve deepened your awareness of your VIPS. By engaging in various career exploration activities, you have gathered valuable information and experiences. Finally, you’ve learned what AU majors and career paths entail. 

Now, evaluation will help you identify possible options to pursue and build confidence in your decision. 

• Compare major/career ideas that you have researched and evaluate their specific pros and cons. Don’t forget to use the results of your VIPS self-assessments when you evaluate and compare the options. Which options are a better fit? Why?  
• Don’t rush through the evaluation step. You may discover that you need more information to select the best option. That’s ok! Spend some more time researching majors/careers. You might even need to do more self-reflection of your VIPS.  

• When you're ready, create an action plan. It may include:  
  • Declaring your major/minor
  • Finding major/minor-related internships
  • Developing a focused job search strategy  
  • Pursuing other skill-building projects and activities in your field of interest
• Meet with an academic advisor to declare your major/minor.