Choose your major, develop your resume, learn how to interview with top companies, and more.
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Making choices about your major, career, or graduate school plan is challenging. The UVA Career Center is here to help guide you through the process and provide you with resources to help make you more successful.
ASSESS YOUR INTERESTS, VALUES & STRENGTHS
Career assessments can help you identify career interests and give you a starting place for your job search. One of the first steps in understanding yourself as a professional is to identify your goals, interests, values, skills, and strengths. These assessments can help you discover connections to the many major and occupational options available to you. The following career assessments are available through the UVA Career Center.
PathwayU
PathwayU is a platform with assessments to help you identify education and career pathways that fit you and make the most sense for your unique interests and values.
- Complete your 4 assessments (Interests, Values, Personality, and Workplace Preferences) in 20-25 minutes.
- Review your personalized assessment reports.
- Explore your career matches to see what education and career pathways are the best fit for you.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a questionnaire-style assessment that assigns each participant one of 16 personality types based on four different preferences. Knowing your personality type helps to determine a career "fit" based on how you communicate, how you take in information, how you make decisions, and how you complete tasks.
The MBTI will increase your awareness of who you are. It will also provide suggestions on how to improve your decision-making and communication style based on your personality type. You can use the results to gather additional information about your career options and work that matches your type. Remember, this assessment does not indicate what you SHOULD do, but provides suggestions to help you clarify and explore your interests. Although there are many web-based tests that claim to measure type, they are not validated. If you'd like to learn more about type and development you can visit The Myers Briggs Foundation for general information surrounding type.
Meet with a career counselor first to determine if the Myers-Briggs is a good fit for your career questions. You take the assessment on your own time via a link. After taking the assessment, call the main number at 434-924-8900 to set up a time to meet with a counselor again and receive your results. Please note that there is a $45.00 fee associated with The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
CliftonStrengths
Finding a career that is a good fit for your natural strengths is a key element of the career exploration process. CliftonStrengths helps students recognize their unique gifts and learn how these assets can be used in their everyday lives to maximize the potential for personal growth and career satisfaction. The Strengths Finder assessment identifies a student’s top five strengths from a list of 34 talents while providing ideas on how to leverage their strengths to overcome challenges and reach personal, academic, and career goals.
What Would I Learn?
The CliftonStrengths will give you a deeper understanding of who you are, how you fit into the world, and how you can use your talents to stand out and be your best self. This assessment is based on the concept of intentionally developing your strengths rather than your weaknesses. Once finished with the assessment, you will find additional resources and discussion questions/prompts that will help you interpret the results, either on your own or with a career counselor. CliftonStrengths does not indicate what you should do, but rather provides ideas to help you better clarify your career interests.
How can I take the Clifton Strengths for Students?
Meet with a career counselor first to determine if the CliftonStrengths inventory is a good fit for your self-discovery and career questions. After the appointment, a counselor will send you an email with a code and instructions to complete the assessment, which should take approximately 45 minutes to an hour. After taking CliftonStrengths, you can view your results online, and if you'd like to discuss your results with a career counselor, you can call the main number at 434-924-8900 to set up an appointment.
Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) is an assessment designed to identify your career interests by matching you with six broad basic interest areas and assigning you a 3-letter code for researching careers. Data is based on career themes, basic interests, personal style, and occupational compatibility.
The Strong Interest Inventory will increase your awareness of your interests in work, school, and leisure. It will also provide suggestions for occupations, majors, internships, campus organizations and activities which seem suited to the type of person you are today. You can use the results to gather additional information about your options. This assessment doesn't tell you what you SHOULD do. It provides options to consider. You might also consider exploring O*Net Online and browse by interests to organize careers into categories.
Meet with a career counselor first to determine if the Strong Interest Inventory is a good fit for your career questions. You take the assessment on your own time via a link. After taking the assessment call the main number at 434-924-8900 to set up a time to meet with a counselor again and receive your results.
Life Values Inventory
The Life Values Inventory (LVI) is a questionnaire-style assessment that measures how strongly you endorse certain pre-determined values such as Achievement, Belonging, Financial Prosperity and Spirituality. The assessment also measures where these values find their strongest expression and areas in your life where they are expressed least.
The LVI will increase your awareness of who you are. It will also provide suggestions on how your values interface with your personal and professional life, and whether or not the activities and experiences you engage in are in line with your highly prioritized values. You can use the results to gather additional information about career options and activities that naturally align with your values. The assessment will also cover practical steps you can take if you want to increase the presence of a value in your life or seek a suitable place to express that value.
The LVI is a free online assessment. No appointment with a counselor is necessary, and you can immediately receive and review the results as you see fit. Visit www.lifevaluesinventory.org to take the assessment and create a profile. You can take the assessment as many times as you'd like and record how your values change over time. You can always bring the results in to talk to a career counselor as part of an appointment.
EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS
Find out more about your career options by doing research, connecting with professionals, and gaining hands-on experience through the UVA Career Communities, volunteering, clubs, and internships.
- Seek diversity in your courses to explore possible majors/degree programs.
- Get involved with student organizations and extracurricular activities.
- Find out where UVA alumni in your field have been employed through LinkedIn and Virginia Alumni Mentoring.
- Brainstorm ways to get hands-on experience through part-time jobs, student organizations, and volunteering.
- Attend UVA Career Center workshops, events, and career fairs.
- Get an internship during the summer or academic year to gain relevant job experience and test out the field.
