CAREER EXPLORATION
Your career journey always starts with knowing yourself, your values, and your skills. We believe that students need to make informed decisions about their career goals. Check out the resources below to get started.
Quick Start
- Start a Career Assessment by heading over to the O*Net Interest Profiler. Or alternatively, take the 123 Career Aptitude Test.
- Save your results by emailing a PDF copy to yourself!
- Schedule an appointment with a career counselor to get help with interpreting your results and goal setting.
Career Exploration Playlist
Get started with your Career Planning by exploring these resources.
- Resources like CareerOneStop and Khan Academy Careers provide a variety of excellent and high quality career education videos.
- Check out the Guam Department of Labor’s portal for Labor Market Insights. Labor Market Insights (LMIs) is tool that displays current trends and data to explore employment opportunities.
- Not sure where to start? Check out and explore O*Net Online, or take the the O*Net Interest Profiler.
- What does it mean to be “Career Ready”? The National Association for College and Employers (NACE) offers a breakdown of core competencies that could help job-seekers evaluate their level of preparedness.
Career Planning Checklists
Don’t get stuck with analysis paralysis. Instead, keep track of your career related goals by downloading and using this Career Planning Checklist.
Please note that these checklists do not have to be strictly followed, but to spread out career readiness over the course of four years.
Want to get all of these checklists in an all-in-one document? Click here.
Myths in Career Planning
Myth. The reality is that things change. Plans change, commitments change, you change. College should be about taking in careful consideration the experiences, the knowledge, and the skills that you encounter and harnessing them into a career that fits your personality and your desired goals.
Not necessarily. The results that you encounter in a career assessments should be treated as possible pathways. These results are often based on work personalities and mainly answer the question of, “What kind of work do you enjoy doing?” What’s great about these results is that they help students translate their major into a possible job or career.
Not really! There are plenty of seniors who come face to face with the looming question of life after graduation. The training wheels are off — for real, this time — and it can feel overwhelming. The good news is that you don’t have to tackle that question alone. Connect with a career counselor or drop by the Triton Advising Center at EC202 to see what resources are available.
Not at all. It’s okay to change your major, especially when your thoughts about career begin to materialize more clearly. What is important is that you make an informed decision — explore and research the possibilities, find out what careers that new major could translate into, speak with trusted professors, mentors, counselors, relatives, or friends.
Hey, we get it. Cost of living is high and times are tough. It may be tempting to let the highest number dictate what career you should head into and there’s nothing necessarily wrong about this mindset. However, a high paying job that is ill suited for your work personality can lead to layer of added stress later down the line. If you’re having doubts or need further reassurance, connect with a career counselor today.
Unless there are stringent certifications or exams, you can do almost anything with the major you have. What matters is being able to take your experiences and your transferrable skills and articulate them confidently for the job your applying. It’s important to be able to take a look at your experiences and say, “I may not have experience in x but I have experience in y, which allows me to do x.” If you need help articulating this, connect with a career counselor or specialist today.
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