Discovering what you want to do begins with thinking about who you are. Take some time to focus on your interests, strengths, values, and goals for your academic and professional life. Questions to consider include (but are definitely not limited to):
- What am I good at? What do others tell me I am good at?
- What do I enjoy doing? What kinds of problems would I like to solve?
- What is important to me?
- What kind of work environment would fit me well?
Below are some tools to help you get started.
Strengths, Values, and Interests
What skills do you already have, and which would you like to develop? What factors have shaped you and made you the person you are now? What do you care about most? Being able to articulate your strengths, values, and interests can tell you a lot about which career paths might work well for you.
These tools, recommended by the Pomerantz Career Center, can help you get started.
Skills Assessment
Identify the things you are good at and match your skills to careers that use them.
Values Assesment
What does it take to feel motivated and engaged by the work you do?
Interest Assessment
Find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work.
MyBlueprint
MyBlueprint is a great way to get started if you enjoy writing. There are seven different blocks, each with a prompt that asks you to reflect on some aspect of yourself, your preferences, and your goals. You can fill it out quickly, with what comes to mind, or take some time to think about your responses.
MyBlueprint
You can either download the PDF, type in the blocks and save it, or print it out and write in the blocks.
Assessments from the Pomerantz Career Center
The Pomerantz Career Center has many useful resources to help students explore possible career paths. These assessments can help you identify academic interests. They can also help you explore how to align your skills and what is important to you with your career path.
Each assessment focuses on a different aspect of exploration, so you can take both. You can find more assessments on the Career Center's website.
MyMajors
A short assessment to identify your top 10 majors at the University of Iowa based upon your academic strengths and preferences.
SparkPath Challenge
Sort a deck of 56 challenges based on your preferences to discover where you want to put your effort in the workplace.
Create a student account by following the link below and insert the unique code: UniversityofIowa