By Erick Traska/reporter
An assessment on career values can help students choose the major and career best suited for them, a speaker said at the Sorting Through “My” Career Values speech Nov. 17.
Monica Miranda, director of career services on South Campus, said career values are important if students want to be happy with their career choice.
“A lot of times, we get students who come into the career center, and they think they have an idea of what career they want to go into, but they’re not sure,” she said.
Values can include independence, helping, risk-taking, variety, prestige, leadership, team membership, advancement, material benefits, security and artistic elements, Miranda said.
“Being aware of what we value in our lives is important because a career choice that is in line with our core beliefs and values is more likely to be a lasting and positive choice,” she said.
Miranda said she helps students assess their career values and figure out what type of career matches up with those values.
A career once thought desirable may not fit a student’s values.
“We get a lot of students who just say they want to make a lot of money, but there’s more to it than just going down a list and choosing a job based upon the salary,” she said.
Miranda’s office helps students achieve direction and conviction in their choices of classes and majors. All types of students can benefit from having an assessment done.
“In the career center, we have three different types of assessments to figure these out,” she said.
One of these tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which assesses personal characteristics. The office also offers a Strong Interest Inventory test, which will help students pick a major. Another, called My Plan, is similar to this program but geared more for high school students or nonstudents, Miranda said.
“We help many non-traditional students or those that are in some type of transition in their lives who have no idea what their skills, values or interests are,” she said.
Failure to address what is important to students can cost time and money if they find themselves in the wrong career only to realize it doesn’t match their values, Miranda said.
“We have those students who already have a degree, and they get burned out,” she said. “And they realize that the money doesn’t matter anymore as to doing something that they enjoy personally.”
