Knowing your values, interests, personality, skills, strengths, motivations and what brings you meaning is one of the most important aspects of figuring out major and career options. Personal exploration is key to aligning who you are with your career, resulting in a life that is fulfilling and satisfying. No one wants to hate their job, but lots of us forget to consider who we are when making career decisions. Get started on this process as a freshman so you have time in college to take advantage of all the avenues UT offers that can support your personal exploration process.
Attend a Career Exploration Workshop
What Am I Doing With My Life? Adventures In Career Exploration
See Handshake for workshop dates.
Explore your career options! Useful for students at any stage. Come learn how to pay attention to what your life is already telling you and walk away with practical tips and a plan for exploring career ideas. Unique opportunity to take a one-of-a-kind motivations assessment to understand yourself and explore career options related to who you are . RSVP on Handshake; SPACE IS LIMITED TO 20.
Meet with the Career Exploration Coach
Schedule an initial appointment to get started on your personalized exploration process. Most students find it highly useful (and enjoyable!) to meet and talk. Schedule an appointment. Because this is a popular service, you may have to wait a couple of weeks to meet— get your appointment scheduled now, then get started on your exploration process by choosing some activities below.
Life Map
A hands-on way to look at different themes and patterns in your life that can give you clues to your values, interests, personality, skills, strengths, motivations and what brings meaning to you. Click here to get started: Life Map, then bring your map to your coaching session.
TruMotivate
TruMotivate is a one-of-a-kind assessment that uses YOUR stories to generate your top 5 motivations. Students are using this assessment as a tool for exploring career ideas (you receive a career report when you complete the assessment), and to uniquely express themselves on resumes and in interviews.
Click here to get started: TruMotivate Assessment
This is the ONLY motivation assessment that exists for college students! When you complete the assessment, you can use this resource to explore suggested careers. You can also schedule an appointment with a career coach to talk through your results.
FOCUS2
Beginner level, sampler assessment of your values, interests, personality and skills. Helps you begin to generate ideas about who you are, as well as majors and careers that might be of interest to you. It’s not meant to give you definitive answers, but provides some concrete ideas to begin exploring majors and careers. Learn more about the Focus2 before taking the assessment.
FOCUS2 Online Career and Education Planning System
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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Most popular personality assessment in the world! Take this assessment and learn your personality type, as well as popular careers that people similar to you enjoy. Schedule an appointment with Career Services to take this assessment: Schedule an appointment
Strong Interest Inventory
Widely used interest assessment that helps you understand how your interests relate to a wide variety of career paths and work environments. Schedule an appointment with Career Services to take this assessment: Schedule an appointment
Join Clubs or Organizations
One of the best ways to get to know yourself, get to know others, what you like/don’t like, get experience and make the most of your college experience! Go to ut.edu/studentengagement/ to see what’s out there…
Take CAR 201
This one-credit course is designed for second semester freshmen, incoming transfer students (freshman/sophomore status) and sophomores who have not yet declared a major or who are unsure of their previously declared major. Students will gain an understanding of the process of career decision making and explore values, interests, skills and personality and learn how they relate to major and career choices. Topics will be addressed through professional lectures, career assessments, group discussions and activities, and class assignments.