Dwayne Peterson, director of the Career Center, works with a student. Photos provided by Taylor Snipes.
Eckerd College’s new Autumn Term Major and Career Exploration Workshop asks students in their first-ever college courses to consider connections between their academic major and career goals with their skills, values and personality types.
Data from the workshop shows 97-99% agreement across all learning outcome statements.
“The results show that students expanded their understanding of themselves and all of the possibilities available to them at Eckerd, so they are more likely to make confident career and academic decisions,” says Dwayne Peterson, director of the Career Center.
First-year students took Focus2 assessments, which explore occupations and majors that align with their personality type, values, skill set, interests and how they spend leisure time.
The results show an occupation that aligns with your responses. For instance, if your skills are writing, helping, and social perceptiveness, potential careers include healthcare social worker, business professor or fundraising manager. The Focus2 page lists Eckerd majors that align with each occupation, such as management and communication for the role of fundraising manager.
Assistant Director of Career Education Taylor Snipes provides guidance to a student.
In the work interest assessment, students receive a Holland Code. These are three letters representing their top three work interests, such as realistic, social and investigative.
Peterson describes the various assessments as pairs of glasses. One lens shows you what career might be a strong fit based on your interests, while another lens bases career possibilities on your values.
Dwayne Peterson addresses a group of students during Autumn Term.
As a result of the workshop, students are further prepared to recognize that academic majors don’t necessarily predetermine careers, identify career center resources available to them, and use their assessment results to explore experiences, majors and careers aligned with their interests.
During students’ first semester at college, they and their families often experience stress. The choices, like which course to enroll in, feel monumental. Students assume their career must be exactly what they majored in. Choices feel as if they might derail an entire life plan. Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Associate Dean for General Education and Associate Professor of Classics Heather Vincent, Ph.D.
“We wanted to reach out to the first-year class early because students at all levels are often under the impression that their major equals their choice of career,” says Vincent.
Exploration of majors and careers is a necessary part of the journey. The Focus2 assessments help students align their choices and provide a foundation Eckerd will help them build upon throughout their academic experience, she says.
Peterson adds that figuring out what you want to study and do for work is often a very internal process. Inside your own head, you might question your interests, skills and what you’re qualified to do. These questions take time to digest, so kicking off students’ first year with these ideas gives them the much-needed time, he says.
Taylor Snipes, assistant director of career education, likes to reassure students of the purpose behind this programming. The assessments aren’t to make them panic or make them feel as if they need a final career plan as first-years. It’s the opposite, she says. Whether the assessment results challenged or reaffirmed their career expectations, the intention is to help them reflect on themselves and start exploring now.
“You can keep all of these options open. You don’t have to pick a single path,” Snipes says.
The Career Center launched a new Career & Life Design Lab in Lindsey 115 that is open to students and alumni.
The Career Center doesn’t stop here, however. The center has a mentoring program, dedicated hours to meet with advisors and the Graduate School and Fellowship Launch Pad, a three-part series to help students build competitive applications. The Career Center’s integration into the academic experience offers everyone from first-years to seniors the chance to think about their futures in a meaningful way.
“We want to make sure students understand that career planning starts now,” Peterson says.
