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Answers from Greg Hatch, Assistant Director, Career Center


What can I do as a parent to help my son explore his career options & explore a choice of majors - besides career center?

I think there are a variety of options that you can do to assist your son. A list (by no means exhaustive) follows:

Be open to any idea. Be careful not dismiss them or let him dismiss them because they sound silly, unrealistic, or because of what friends or family might think.

As he comes up with ideas, utilize the web as a way to find out more detail about careers. When I am stuck, I find that Google comes in real handy!! Our website also offers resources for finding out about careers or what you can do with various majors.

Utilize family and friends and a resource for exploring careers. You are looking for folks who are in area of careers your son would want to explore or people who would know people in those areas. Informational interviews are a great way to find out about a job he may have an interest in, jobs related to that job he may be unaware of but find he has an interest in and, finally, these folks can tell you the academic background they seek in these positions.

Talk to your son about the activities, classes, etc that he has enjoyed in his life and why. These often can be good clues to the future. Students sometimes will talk freely about these past experiences with me but wonder why we are doing it since they have come to talk about majors or careers.

Don't let him stereotype careers or majors. Accountants can be involved in athletics. Marketing people can be involved in the arts. Broaden the vision-Dream big.

Find the area he wants to start with. Is it major or career? Usually, it is easier to reduce it to a couple and then work towards the other side.

Become familiar with The Career Center website so that you can help direct him to resources and encourage him to check it out.

Would be good to discuss how career day can or is helpful to students seeking specializing disciplines. e.g. I want to be a biochemical engineer - What firms are coming to school that this lives up for? How is student aligned?

I am a little unsure about what is being asked so I will do my best. I will be glad to answer any follow up questions. The campus career centers can provide a list of firms that came in the previous year to recruit on campus through their office. They also can let the student know who has registered for this year but that list can change on a daily basis. Depending on a student's interest, they may find that attending various job fairs might be beneficial for those goal of obtaining an internship or full-time position. A student can go to the website of a career office and it will list the majors that that office serves. Career Fair/Days may be able to benefit students both directly and indirectly. Obviously, if they are looking for students major then it is obvious. But, it is not unusual to finds companies that may flex some based on the students ability to explain how their major and/or experiences make them a match for that position. Students may also receive advice from a recruiter on how or who they can approach in the recruiters company about the area the student is interested in.

My daughter is a student here and knows what she wants to do, but my 16 year-old son has no clue. Are there any resources I can tap into for him?

I do have a couple of suggestions that might be useful for your son. As you would aware, there are no "magic answers" out there. I often think it is best to explore careers as they come up and grab his interest. There are various ways to do that and would always be glad to be "on call" for you to provide answers and resources as things come up. Make sure that as he discusses majors and careers with you that he does not dismiss them because of stereotypes. Common general types that I have come across can be a person who likes sports/music feels the only careers would be player/performer or coach/teacher. Non profit careers are either volunteer or no/low pay. Many LAS majors can only be used if you teach them. The list goes on! We spend a lot of our time helping students see beyond the myths.

I would suggest for a start that your son go to www.ilworkinfo.com/icrn/htm and choose CIS. The user name is Illinois and the password is careers. He should look at the left hand column under Assessment Link. I would have him try Interest Profile and the SKILLS sections. They will tell him a little more about his "type" and give a wide array of careers to look at and learn more about. This site does a nice job of giving a variety of information about careers (such as related careers) and not just the usual overview.