Interests

Your interests give you direction for focusing your career exploration. What subjects/activities/issues/tasks interest you? These are things to which you are drawn, things that you would do for the sheer pleasure of doing them, with the only compensation being the joy you derive from those activities.

What are you interested in?

Skills

Skills are what you have to offer the working world. When exploring careers, it is important to not only assess your skills, but to identify the skills that you enjoy using. Many skills learned through college and experiential education are transferable skills — skills learned in one context (e.g., college) that can be used in another context (e.g., the working world). Read some transferable skills you may not even realize you have.

Many liberal arts graduates possess transferable skills in critical thinking, research, leadership, planning, communication, information management, interpersonal relationships, and assessing values. Some students may also possess technical skills that are relevant to their field (e.g., accounting, engineering). These skills are specific to their career field.

What are you good at? Don't be shy to recognize something you're good at:

Values

Values are what matters most to you. You may highly value your personal time and achievement, but if your job requires 60 hours of work per week to succeed, your values conflict with the values of your job. Many values are deeply ingrained and difficult to articulate; others we may know from experience. Reflecting, identifying, and prioritizing what values are most important to you will help you identify and eliminate possible careers in your exploration process.

What do you value?