Choose a Major/Explore Careers

All students should choose their major before they develop their education plan. Choosing a major and a career is a process that can include exploring one’s interests and skills through college classes, internships, volunteer and/or work experiences, as well as leisure activities.Students exploring majors and careers can benefit from:

• Meeting with a Career Center Counselor
• Taking Career Assessments
• Attending an “Undecided Majors” workshop - see Workshop Schedule
• Enrolling in career planning courses
• Using a variety of online career resources

Career Counseling

Meet with a Career Counselor to help you choose a major and explore careers. It’s helpful to see a Career Counselor if you:

• Need to choose your major before developing your education plan
• Haven’t chosen a major and you’re not sure where to start
• Don’t know what career you would like to pursue
• Would like to confirm a career choice you’ve already made
• Want to make a career change

Career counselors are committed to providing guidance, information, and support to facilitate your career development journey.  We focus on YOU and assist you with a process to help you determine your educational and career goals. Remember, this process takes time, so visit us during your first semester at MiraCosta College.

A Career Counselor will help YOU:

• Clarify your interests, personality style, values, and preferred skills
• Explore career information
• Manage your career decision-making process
• Identify potentially satisfying majors and careers
• Create an action plan
• Strengthen job search skills
• Empower you to be an active participant in your career planning journey

Call the Career Center at 760.795.6772 to schedule an appointment.

Take A Career Assessment

Self-Scoring Assessments 

Check out these great resources – no appointment necessary.

• California Career Café: This virtual career center, specifically for California Community College students, offers assessments and many other resources to help you find your best career path.
  • Section 1: GET STARTED to uncover who you are and where you want to be. Self-assessments will help you uncover your strengths, talents, passions, personality and learning style.
  • Section 2: GET A PATHWAY helps you to explore California’s 15 industry sectors.
    
    
• My Next Move: This interactive tool helps students and job seekers learn more about themselves and their career options.  The O*NET Interest Profiler offers personalized career suggestions based on a person’s interests and level of work experience.  My Next Move has tasks, skills, salary information, and more for over 900 different careers. My Next Move is developed and maintained by the National Center for O*NET Development, under the sponsorship of the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration.
  
  
• California Career Zone: The California Career Zone site offers a brief assessment of interests based on Holland’s codes. It also has a 30 minute Interest Profiler that helps students explore vocations based on their interests. The Work Importance Profiler helps students explore their values in the workplace. All assessments are free of charge. There is a fun section called Reality Check that helps students explore their preferred lifestyle and the cost of that lifestyle.

Counselor Interpreted Assessments

Call the Career Center at 760.795.6772 to schedule an appointment with a career counselor prior to completing the following assessments:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: This personality assessment measures personality preferences and provides a description of “type,” valuable in career decision-making. It explores preferred work tasks, work environments, and “job families,” as well as the most popular and least popular occupations for your type.  
• Do What You Are: This personality assessment produces a “type” similar to the MBTI type.  You will identify your natural preferences, gifts, and talents. The information connects type to career options (O*Net database of careers).
• Strong Interest Inventory (SII): A highly reliable interest assessment that helps you discover your interests, preferences, and personal style. This assessment will compare your results with those of people like you who have already found satisfying careers. It will generate a list of the top 10 occupations that you are most likely to find rewarding.

Career Exploration Resources

Password Protected Sites

The Career Center offers programs to help you explore majors and careers. Please call 760.795.6772 or stop by Bldg. 3700 on the Oceanside campus to get your password.

• Career Cruising
  • “Career Matchmaker” assessment will clarify your interests and connect them to related occupations.   “My Skills” assessment matches your skills to careers.
  • The “Careers” link is a database of hundreds of occupations that include job descriptions, working conditions, education, earnings, and job outlook. Each description also includes interviews with two professionals working in the field.
• EUREKA Career Information System
  • Identify your skills and personality characteristics
  • Research occupations and plan your career
  • Find schools and training you need
  • Find out how to find Financial Aid
  • Learn valuable Job Search information

Non-Password Protected Sites

• What can I do with this major?: Provides a list of common majors and their related careers and industries.
  
  

• The San Diego Work Portal: This site is a project of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. It includes valuable labor market information for job seekers including local employment statistics and projections by industry.
  
  
• Employment Development Department Occupational Guides: Summary guides of occupations that include job description, job outlook and wages, and qualification requirements.
  
  
• Employment Development Department Labor Market Info: The site also includes a self-assessment that identifies your interests and skills and includes links to other valuable information on conducting a job search and  job trends.
  

Informational Interviews

Informational Interviews are a great way to gain inside information about a particular occupation. Make an appointment with a career counselor to learn more about this method of job exploration or view this site:

• Quintessential Careers

Credit Courses

• Intro to Career Planning - CRLP 101 (1 unit, P/NP)
• Career & Life Planning - CRLP 100/COUN 100 (3 units, CSU & UC Transferable, meets CSU/Area E Requirements)

Videos on this Topic

• Student Lingo: a series of interactive on-demand workshops, action plans and valuable resources focused on helping students achieve their academic, personal and career goals. You will be prompted to enter your first and last name.  Be sure to do so if your instructor will be granting you extra credit.
  
  
• CareerSpots