You Career Matters: Making Sense of Career Exploration |

Stony Brook University; Career Center Staff Portraits

Determining career fit requires a combination of reflecting on past experiences (to better understand your likes dislikes, values and skills) and learning accurate career knowledge (by reading, talking to, and/or observing professionals working in careers of interest). Career exploration is a life-long process of learning about yourself and careers; therefore, your experiences enable interests to evolve and grow. Lack of career-related experiences greatly contributes to indecision, partly due to the inability to reflect on concrete experiences in the workplace.

Whether you’re changing careers or entering into the workforce, for the first time, here are three tips to help with your career exploration process:

Are you an experienced professional? Reassess your strengths, passions, interests and accomplishments; this can provide greater career direction.
Passions and interests develop from day-to-day habits; not by imagining what you want to pursue, tomorrow.
Feeling stuck? Try something new and expand your mind; volunteer and assist others.

View our latest Alumni Career Services webinar titled “What is Career Exploration Anyway?” to learn more about FREE online career assessments and career research sites, and more, within our ‘Archived Webinars‘ or visit our website.