Self-Assessment

STEP ONE: SELF ASSESSMENT

One of the first steps to take to uncover possible majors is to explore your interests, skills, abilities, values, and personality. All of these components can help you more confidently choose an area of study which will lead to a future career path.

Interests: You want to be able to enjoy your classes and future career. If you are interested in your field of study, you will be more energized and mostly likely, perform better.

• What do you like to learn about? What do you like to study?
• What activities do you enjoy?

Skills and Abilities: Skills are talents you have developed while abilities are talents that come naturally to you.

• What are your strengths? What unique skills do you possess?
• What are some weaknesses?

Values: Identifying those things that motivate you can be very important to feeling satisfied in your course of study as well as your career.

• Do you value working with people or independently?
• Are you motivated by learning and helping others?

Personality: Getting a clear picture of your personality will help you understand not only how you learn or take in information, but also how you "fit" in various work environments.

• Would you prefer to be in a more structured work environment, or do you prefer a more flexible, spontaneous environment?
• Do you prefer to study broader topics and theories, or do you prefer to learn more factual, concrete information?