2008 Woodie Awards
Mapping your future
Career planning tips on how to discover the career that matches best with your interests, skills and personality traits to find your "niche" in the outside world
Angela Vidalis, Staff Writer
Issue date: 8/29/07 Section: Features
Undeclared college students overwhelmed with the burden of declaring a major can take several steps to help them determine what field suits them best. Whether it's personal desire or job availability, each student has to decide what's most important to him when declaring a major.
With a growing generation of baby boomers aging and heading for retirement, a sizable number of jobs will soon be open. The availability of these jobs may help some undecided students chose a career that will be in demand now and in the future.
Jobs in the medical field, such as physicians and registered nurses, are and will continue to be in demand in the future according to U.S. News and World Report. With the age of technology playing an exponentially larger role in our lives, it may come as a surprise that librarians will be in further demand as well. With libraries constantly growing and containing more information than ever, librarians are going to be needed to help steer and classify that information. If job availability alone does not appeal to an undecided student, another way to choose a possible career is to determine what personality traits match best with certain professions. A student's personality can help determine what kind of jobs work best with the way he wishes to live as an adult.
Careerbuilder.com and careerkey.org discuss six different categories of personality: realistic, social, investigative, artistic, enterprising, and conventional. Each category presents students with a list of jobs that are specifically reflective of and relating to the traits of that personality type.
So, how does a person decide on which personality type is most fi tting for them and what jobs they might consider?
People with realistic personalities enjoy work that requires them to deal with hands-on issues. They value work that is mechanical and generally like working with objects and tools rather than people. Electricians and engineers are examples of "realistic" jobs. Engineers are included in U.S. News and World Report's top 25 professions that are in growing demand as baby boomers age. For most entry-level positions, applicants need at least a bachelor's degree in engineering. Engineers take mathematical and scientific knowledge and use it to invent, test and design products. People with a social personality flourish when they work with others. Communication is fundamental when it comes to having a social personality, so jobs including social services, education, and nursing are most appealing.
With a growing generation of baby boomers aging and heading for retirement, a sizable number of jobs will soon be open. The availability of these jobs may help some undecided students chose a career that will be in demand now and in the future.
Jobs in the medical field, such as physicians and registered nurses, are and will continue to be in demand in the future according to U.S. News and World Report. With the age of technology playing an exponentially larger role in our lives, it may come as a surprise that librarians will be in further demand as well. With libraries constantly growing and containing more information than ever, librarians are going to be needed to help steer and classify that information. If job availability alone does not appeal to an undecided student, another way to choose a possible career is to determine what personality traits match best with certain professions. A student's personality can help determine what kind of jobs work best with the way he wishes to live as an adult.
Careerbuilder.com and careerkey.org discuss six different categories of personality: realistic, social, investigative, artistic, enterprising, and conventional. Each category presents students with a list of jobs that are specifically reflective of and relating to the traits of that personality type.
So, how does a person decide on which personality type is most fi tting for them and what jobs they might consider?
People with realistic personalities enjoy work that requires them to deal with hands-on issues. They value work that is mechanical and generally like working with objects and tools rather than people. Electricians and engineers are examples of "realistic" jobs. Engineers are included in U.S. News and World Report's top 25 professions that are in growing demand as baby boomers age. For most entry-level positions, applicants need at least a bachelor's degree in engineering. Engineers take mathematical and scientific knowledge and use it to invent, test and design products. People with a social personality flourish when they work with others. Communication is fundamental when it comes to having a social personality, so jobs including social services, education, and nursing are most appealing.
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