Exploring Career Options
Here are some common myths that can confuse students and family members alike. Click on any of the myths listed below to discover the CEC’s perspective.
Three Common Myths
How Parents and Family Can Help:
Listen. When your student is considering a career direction that raises concerns for you, try to remain open by calmly asking how the career will satisfy your student’s values, interests, preferred skills and personality preferences. Ask what your student has learned about industry and employment trends and what typical job tasks are like. As your student finds and articulates answers to these questions you may find your concerns diminish. At the least, you will be coaching career decision-making skills your student will use for a lifetime.
Explore resources together. The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) is one place to start. Every two years the U.S. Department of Labor updates this on-line document to provide current information on an encyclopedia of job titles. Use the CEC website to find links to salary information for various careers, interviews with professionals representing different careers, internship information, and employment trends.
Share your career story and encourage other family members to share theirs. How have you overcome obstacles to reach your career goals? How have your goals changed over the years? What would you do differently if you had the chance to do it all over again? What are your current career goals? What do you like and dislike about your current career?
Share your personal networks. Help your student compile a list of people in your network of friends, neighbors, and relatives who have careers of interest to your student and who might be willing to participate in information interviews with your student.
How The CEC Can Help
- In-depth 45-minute sessions with professional career counselors.
- No extra charge. Counseling is covered by your student’s tuition.
- Examples of questions that might arise in a counseling session: What have you learned from your family about career and how does that enter into your decision-making? What skills and personality characteristics have contributed to past accomplishments and what do they suggest about future success? What obstacles do you see ahead as you begin to plan your career?
- Must meet with a counselor first to determine if the student is interested in career testing and which tests would prove most helpful.
- Nominal fees for career testing range from $7 to $65. In the private sector, the administration and professional interpretation of these career tests might range from $100 to $1000.
- Here are questions that might be answered by taking a career test: What are examples of careers people enjoy when they have personality preferences and interests similar to your student’s? What personal strengths and needs will your student bring into a work situation?
- nearly 2000 books, magazines, pamphlets, articles, and other materials about majors and careers related to UT Austin degrees, along with general employment trends and career considerations regarding ethnicity, disability, or gender.
- Students can direct their research to answer questions, such as: What can you do with a degree in education if you decide you no longer want to be a public school teacher? What career pathways exist for sociology majors who want to enter business? How do you find a career niche in the world of environmental conservation?
- the place to learn about career workshops, ask career questions, locate UT college career service offices, see what kinds of careers people find with your student’s major, contact UT Austin alumni willing to share their career stories with your student, link to labor market resources, and much more.