First, reflect and find the words to describe what you value for your education and career, use the assessment tools like Focus2 on the Career Exploration and Student Employment (CESE) website.
Discuss your assessment results with people you trust and who know you, like family and friends, to get help with how to share your values and interests.
Then turn to those with the expertise to guide you in discovering potential majors and related careers that match you and your goals.
- Meet with your AMES academic advisor. Tell them about what you enjoy studying and what subjects you do well in. They will give you advice about what majors match these interests and skills.
- Meet with your CESE career coach. Tell them about your career goals and the types of work you have enjoyed. They will coach you on how your major choice relates to your professional development.
If you feel like you need to organize your thoughts before you meet with these professionals, the IU Peer Coaches are available to help you get ready.
To make a well-informed decision about your major, you need to know your options.
Now that you have started to describe your interests in terms of academic and career fields, we recommend exploring majors related to these interests.
To be thorough in your exploration, we recommend the Explore Programs tool.
Use this award-winning tool to narrow down the whole list of majors to the ones that match your interests. You can:
- Filter the list of majors to show the options related to your interests.
- Skim through the A-Z list of all the majors.
- Sort the majors by school to see what majors are in each school.
- Do all the above for the list of minors and certificate programs too.
Explore Programs tool also allows you to easily click through the different majors to compare the details like involvement opportunities, required courses, and related careers.
Meet with a Peer Academic Coach to get help navigating all the information about majors and hear the peer perspective on finding a major that fits.
Meet with your AMES advisor to expand your understanding of the subject of study, the courses required, graduation timeline, and opportunities available for each major you are considering.
We know that for most students the choice to attend college is related to their career goals. Career exploration in your first year is critical to making the most of your college experience.
Once you identify careers that interest you, you can use your career objective to guide you in building an IU experience that supports your professional goals.
In the Explore Programs tool, you found interesting majors and learned what careers are related to them. Now, use the CESE Career Guides below to find interesting career fields and learn related majors.
Career Guides
- Arts, Sports, and Entertainment
- Communication and Culture
- Health and Human Services
- Exploratory (when you need help figuring out your career direction)
You don’t have to have it all figured out before you meet with your CESE career coach, but if you want help organizing your ideas first, meet with a Career Peer.
Meet with your CESE career coach to bring your career goals into focus and chart a path for career-readiness that includes your major.
Find information about appointments and drop-ins on the CESE website.
Look beyond the classroom and explore Experiential Learning Activities (ELA’s).
Research shows that students who pursue experiential learning end up with greater career satisfaction and tend to be higher earners. Through ELAs you can gain insights into what types of work you enjoy and develop skills that employers seek.
Experiential learning activities that you can pursue at IU include:
Learn how to build an IU experience that supports your academic and career goals.
- The IU Peer Coaches can give you a peer perspective on how to get started with these types of experiences.
