Exploring Careers

Taking the time to research different careers will enable you to make better decisions when applying to internship or job opportunities.  It is important to utilize alumni, professors, family members, and friends in discovering careers and what they entail.  Career Services can help you assess your skills and interests, pinpoint careers, and give you additional resources to learn more.

• Getting Started - Career Self Assessment
• Research - Exploring Careers & Employers
• Tufts Career Network
• Alumni Career Audio Interviews

Getting Started

Self Assessment

Understanding your own skills, interests, values, and personality is the first step toward satisfying work.  Through a careful self-assessment, you can begin to identify careers and industries to explore.  Developing your self-awareness can be as formal as taking a personality or interest inventory or as informal as participation in volunteer work to explore a new interest.

People who are in satisfying careers that match their talents, personalities and goals usually achieve a higher level of success, and lead healthier and more satisfying lives.  Here are some suggestions that will help you learn more about yourself and begin to link this knowledge to possible career paths.

• Meet with a Career Counselor to discuss careers that interest you, to reflect on your skills, to discern your ideal work environments, and to consider which rewards are most important to you in a job.
• Inquire about the Strong Inventory or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), two assessments offered by Career Services.
• Visit the Career Planning sections of the Career Resource Library in 740 Dowling Hall.

Other Assessment Resources

• Career Development manual - Developed by University of Waterloo, this guide has many useful exercises for all stages of your career development.
• Franklin Covey Mission Statement Builder - This Mission Builder exercise can help to add focus, direction, and a sense of purpose to your daily decisions.
• What Color is Your Parachute? - This Web site is a companion piece to the book that is called the best selling career book in the world.
• Skills Center - The Skills Profiler allows you to build a list of skills, then identify occupations that require your skills, and identify gaps in your skills and/or education for each occupation so you can get any necessary training to be most successful.
• What's Your Skillset - Free registration gives you access to “What’s Your Skillset”, located through the “Assessments” link.
• Career Assessment Exercises
• Career Interests Game

Research - Exploring Careers & Employers

After learning more about yourself, you’re better prepared to explore careers and how they match your specific interests, skills, values, and personality. To determine which career fields may be a good fit, you must do your homework. This involves researching the workplace – specifically, the knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, and work values that are associated with various jobs.

Vary your research methods: read about careers, talk to people in jobs and industries that appeal to you, and gain hands-on experience to explore at a deeper level. A thorough and varied exploration will offer you the following rewards: a clearer focus for your career-decision making, a more targeted and manageable job search, rich information to leverage in cover letters and interviews, and finally - work that you love. You can get started with the following resources:

• Career Search - this database of over 4 million firms is searchable by location, industry, keyword, and is an excellent tool for developing your target list of employers.  Access Career Search by logging in to the Tufts Career Network and clicking on "Alumni Resources". 
• "What Can I Do With This Major?" is a tool that will help you connect your major with possible careers.  It lists areas you may wish to pursue along with employers and strategies to land a job in that field.
• Vault Online Library - books & resources on a variety of careers & employers.  Access through the Tufts Career Network and select from menu of online resources.
• Riley Guide - employment opportunities and job resources on the Internet
• WetFeet - provides profiles of companies, careers, and industries
• Trade and Business press articles - full text articles available through the Online Community Library Databases
• Professional and Trade Associations - The ASAE as an excellent searchable database
• Career Resources by Field (below) - Career Services recommended links for researching careers & job listings by career field

Career Resources by Field

Below are the recommended sites for researching careers and finding links to internships and job listings by career field.  Some links also contain related career resources for the particular field. 

Not finding the field you're looking for? Let us know and we can research it for you!

Tufts Career Network

The Tufts Career Network is a great resource for you to use to talk to alumni about their majors. Search by major in a database of over 8,000 alumni.  Information about their careers, employers, and graduate degrees is available.