We often hear from students that they are interested in exploring further academic choices, whether it’s to add a second major, a minor or to declare a new major. This is usually accompanied by questions and doubts as to whether students are making the right choice, and it is normal to change majors in college. (The short story: It’s normal!)
The blog below addresses those questions while detailing the student experience of a graduate who changed majors while in school.
Normalizing the norm of changing college majors
We encourage students to use the following resources within the Handshake student portal to gain helpful information about major and career exploration.
FOCUS 2 assessment
The FOCUS 2 assessment contains a variety of resources to help students find a career that fits their interests and skillsets.
- The Career Readiness tab helps students identify career and educational goals, academic strengths, work experiences and accomplishments, career planning status and personal development needs.
- The Self-Assessment tab contains the work interest assessment, personality assessment, skills assessment, values assessment and leisure interest assessment. These assessments help narrow down your interests and skills and will pair you with careers that fit your profile.
- The Explore the Possibilities tab helps you research careers by occupation name, industry and major. It also allows you to compare two occupations side by side to see the pros and cons of each occupation.
- The Career Portfolio tab is a place where you can review and update any saved careers or majors that pique your interest.
If you would like to take the FOCUS 2 assessment, please visit our FOCUS 2 portal and use the access code “career” when setting up your account.
SparkPath Challenge Cards
The SparkPath Challenge Cards is an innovative career development resource used by our career coaches to prepare students and alumni for their future career paths. The Challenge Cards are designed to help anyone develop a challenge mindset, flip the traditional approach and discover a career path based on real-world challenges.
Matching individuals to job titles is no longer serving our students or alumni. The realities of our changing world demand that we help them look beyond those titles and seek the challenges that inspire them.
Students and alumni use a web app to explore challenges and identify the three career challenges that intrigue and inspire them the most. Each participant then receives a customized challenge profile with a career exploration action plan. Your career coach can review your challenge profile with you and help design your path to an inspiring career.
If you would like to take the SparkPath Challenge Cards assessment, please visit their site and use the access code “TUcareer” when setting up your account.
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. Learn more about the typical career areas and the types of employers that hire in each major, as well as strategies to make you a more marketable candidate. Continue your research on majors and careers through the following links provided.