Career exploration is inclusive to all audiences, including students trying to choose a major of study, students considering various career paths, or alumni going through a career shift. On this page, we invite you to utilize the resources we have hand-picked for you to guide your career and life exploration journey.
These resources will help you explore possible occupations and life paths based on your interests, passions, needs, and skills, ultimately designing your dream life.
Our team identified four main career exploration areas to guide you in conducting a complete career S.C.A.N. (Shifts, Choices, Assets, and Needs.) Each area targets a set of objectives and provides a collection of resources to support you across your exploration stages.
In addition to these resources, you have access to a team of coaches at Toppel who can guide you through various assessments, resources, and discussions about your major and career exploration. Speak with a coach in person or online via Zoom, Monday - Friday from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Our ChatGPT Prompt Guide is also full of career exploration prompts you can utilize to help get you started.
Shifts
The average person shifts careers five to seven times throughout their lifetime! Career shifts can happen for a variety of reasons including changes in passion, a desire for a new challenge, or a shift in priorities. Changing careers is common and does not have to be a nerve-racking experience, no matter where we are in our career journey. One of the most important factors to consider when shifting careers is the skill set we already possess. To explore possible career transitions, we encourage you to utilize the resources below:
LinkedIn Transition Tool
Use this tool to help you find possible job transitions, based on LinkedIn insights into skills similarity.
CareerOneStop Skills Matcher
Ready to jumpstart, change, or advance on your career path? Use this tool to explore which career options might be a good fit based on your current skills.
Choices
Deciding which career path to pursue can seem like an overwhelming process – but it doesn’t have to be! Our team at Toppel has compiled resources to help you successfully navigate your career exploration journey. “Choices” encompasses the processes of selecting your major, job positions, graduate programs, or any other post-graduation plan, based on your interests, personality traits, goals, and other important factors. The resources below will guide you in the process of learning more about your personality traits and exploring career paths through mentors, career information and videos, and immersive experiences:
Career Explorer
Career Explorer’s career test is designed to measure a person’s traits and match them to careers. This assessment can be taken on your own or at Toppel. After completing the assessment, you can choose to meet with a coach to go over your results. Results reviews are coordinated by our front desk.
What Can I Do With This Major?
Whether you are exploring multiple majors or searching for information about your chosen field, this resource can help you connect your majors to possible careers. Learn about typical career paths and the types of employers that hire people with each major, as well as strategies to make you a more marketable candidate. Continue your research on majors and careers through the websites provided under each major.
Cane2Cane Career & Mentorship Network
Connect with alumni, friends of the University, and faculty/staff to explore career paths, prepare for the workplace, and establish new connections in your network.
Career Crawls
Immersive in-person and virtual trips offered by Toppel allow you to explore career paths and connect with that city's UM community through employer site visits, receptions with alumni, and more.
Vault
Check out Vault's "Career" content to access up-to-date information about a variety of industries and professions including outlook information and resources to connect to the field.
Forage
Get a taste of industry experience by completing short, real-world, company-backed online projects with companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citi, Accenture, BCG, and Deloitte.
Job Market Data
The Job Market Data tool gives you access to real-time job market data to help you make informed career decisions. Explore potential careers by learning about employment trends, salary data, key skills, core tasks, and more for any given occupation.
CareerSpring Career Videos
This video collection features interviews with first-generation college students who are now professionals across a variety of careers sharing insight about a typical day in their role, requirements to pursue their career path, compensation, and work-life balance, as well as advice.
CareerOneStop's Video Library
Browse this video collection to learn about careers, industries, skills, abilities, work options, and education levels.
Assets
Throughout our educational and work experiences, we gain various skills, talents, and strengths we can offer organizations that we need to keep in mind throughout our job search. The most desired competencies identified by employers include professionalism, leadership, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, technology, career & self-development, and equity & inclusion.
This domain focuses on empowering you and helping you recognize all you have to offer! Here, we provide you with tools to support you throughout the process of identifying your capabilities.
mySkills myFuture
Use this tool to find careers with similar skills based on jobs you’ve had.
StrengthsQuest
StrengthsQuest helps you identify your natural talents and how you can develop those talents into strengths. This assessment can be taken in person at the Toppel Career Center or virtually by contacting our front desk and requires a follow-up appointment with a career coach to receive and interpret your results. Access codes and results reviews are coordinated by our front desk. Fee: $15 for individual students, $20 for departments
Needs
The process of finding the right career for you is not just about what you can offer a company but what a company or position can offer you. At Toppel, we believe that your needs and priorities should be at the forefront of your mind throughout your career exploration journey. “Needs” implores you to reflect on what you need from a job, what you prioritize in life, what your core values are, and whether your core values align with the values and mission of an organization you are considering.
Career-related needs and values may include but are not limited to ongoing professional development opportunities, compensation packages that feel compatible with the life you desire, inclusive health insurance coverage, or working in a location with access to your family/community. What is important to you?
We have compiled key resources to assist you throughout this reflective process to ensure that your chosen job or career path is the best fit for you.
Career Explorer- Traits Report Section
The traits report section of this assessment breaks down your work preferences and needs, and you can utilize this section to make a list that you utilize when job searching.
8-Step Job Search Toolkit
The 8-Step Job Search Toolkit is a self-paced workbook full of strategies, advice, and resources created to help students and recent alumni prepare and execute their individualized job search plans.
Picture Your Career Workbook by Vanderbilt University
Use this workbook to find tailored activities to guide you in your career exploration and job search process.
Knowdell Card Sorts (in-person at the Toppel Career Center)
With the Knowdell Motivated Skills assessment, you will learn your proficiency and motivation within 51 transferable skills areas.
The Knowdell Career Values Card Sort allows you to understand and prioritize your values. This is a great assessment if you are looking for a job, considering a career change, or just want to better understand how your values fit into your current job.
Work Values Inventory Worksheet
Complete this work values inventory to create a list of all values related to your career needs.
CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher
This interactive assessment allows you to categorize various work values with your preferred frequency of use.
