Welcome back Bison,
This semester we are starting a new blog series that will focus on major and career exploration. Over the coming weeks, we will highlight different tools that you can use to help assist in finding a major that interests you and how that major can lead to different job opportunities. Along with highlighting these tools, we will showcase how many of these tools can be used in tandem with each other to create powerful new ways of exploring.
The first tool we will be highlighting is one of my favorites and is one of the newest tools that we are integrating into our office called Focus 2 Career. Focus 2 Career makes use of 5 inventory assessments to discover what majors and occupations match up with your personality and passions. The inventory assessments are:
- Work Interest
- Values
- Personality
- Skills
- Leisure
While that may sound like a lot, all of the assessments use a 5-star rating scale for each question, and the whole thing can be completed in around half an hour. Once you complete an assessment, it will give you your results and show how they relate to different fields. For instance, upon completion of the Work Interest Assessment, you will be provided a Holland code which shows how the activities you like doing align with the typical day-to-day operations of different careers. After completing all the activities, you can use the Combine Assessments tool to compile all your results and see how different careers line up with your attributes.
Along with generating careers that match up with your assessment results, Focus 2 Career provides information related to that career that may help you in making your decision. This information includes the average salary across the US, its job family, which assessments it is matched to from your results, and the supporting majors and programs found at NDSU that can lead you to that career. Much of this content is filled with embedded links that lead to things like job descriptions as well as the NDSU catalog where you can see the breakdown of the major’s map and what classes you would have to take at that major.
In addition to the main 5 inventory assessments, there are 3 more tools located in Focus 2 Career called Career Planning Foundations. These inventories are not taken into account when creating your list of potential jobs and are instead for your personal use to gauge where you are at in your college career. These assessments are,
- My Career Planning Involvement
- My Academic Strengths
- Am I Career Ready
Instructions for logging into Focus 2 Career can be found on our website at https://career-advising.ndsu.edu/career-exploration/ and if you are seeking more information or want a more in-depth walk-through of this tool and others please feel free to schedule a Career Exploration appointment with us through Bison Advise.  Â
