As the end of the semester approaches, time is running short for fourth-year students to get a job and second-year students to declare a major.
"People ask all the time and I'm just like, 'I have no idea,'" second-year College student Erin Golden said. "It's the first question someone will ask you when they meet you -- what year you are and what your major is and I feel there's some kind of stigma for a second-year to not know what they're going to do."
As the countdown to the deadlines begins, many students feel pressured to make a decision.
"There are two issues when [you're] trying to decide: what you want to do after you graduate and what you want to do while you're here," Golden said.
Kendra Nelsen, director of student services at University Career Services, said the pressure to make these decisions is common.
"I think American culture is pretty focused on outcomes like what a student is going to major in, what they're going to do," she said. "So there's a lot of pressure to know, but we also need to allow time to explore to really know."
While Golden said she still does not know what major she will declare at the end of the semester, she has "some ideas." She said she has taken classes in a subject or two she has not studied previously almost every semester. She said she also has continued taking classes in subject areas she knows are of interest to her.
Nelsen stressed there is a big difference between a student who has no clue what he or she will major in and one who is just taking his or her time to choose.
"If you hear yourself say 'Eh, I don't know' when someone asks 'What's your major, what are you gonna do?' that's a different feeling than 'I'm not sure, I'm still exploring,'" Nelsen said. "I want people to feel excited about the exploration process and not embarrassed, because it's completely normal."
UCS to the Rescue
Nelsen noted that when students are having trouble making these decisions, University Career Services is there to help.
"We have ... resources to help explore, but when people feel that big 'I don't know,' probably one of the most helpful things to do is to come in and see a career counselor to help them get some ideas," she said.
Nelsen stressed that career counselors are not there to force any ideas on students, but merely to offer suggestions for exploration.
"What UCS does is provide a full range of career development services," Nelsen said.
While most students only hear about UCS because of its more specialized career services such as on-Grounds interviews and career fairs, Nelsen said UCS offers many resources to assist students from the very beginning of their career searches.
UCS offers "career counselors that students can come in to talk [to] for people not sure about their direction or people who have changed their direction and are back in nowhere-land," Nelsen said.
While UCS offers many other resources for students, Nelsen said one-on-one counseling sessions are the best option for students at the beginning of their search.
"Career counseling is where we can really let [students] make meaning for themselves ... to identify the core elements of skills, interests and values that the student really wants to carry into work with them," Nelsen said. "We can really help them identify the jobs and careers that involve those elements that they would want to consider pursuing."
Another resource UCS offers is a library with over 5,000 online and print materials that list careers, their specific functions and daily schedules, previous majors and work experience that apply to them and other details. UCS also has a database of University alumni students can contact to seek more information about careers.
"You interview someone in a career you might be interested in and can ask them what classes they took, how they got there, what a typical week is like for them," Nelsen said, noting "You can really pick their brains and find out what their career is really like."
Alumni often also help students in other ways, such as through professional employment panel presentations during which University alumni working in specific industries such as government or advertising come to the University to talk about their current careers and how they got there.
UCS also helps organize alumni major panels, but with a different twist.
"Rather than being about one career field like government ... these host people with the same academic major all doing different careers," said Nelsen.
For example, a major alumni panel for psychology majors will be held Feb. 19 and boasts alumni pursuing both traditional and non-traditional careers with the major.
Nelsen said the resources UCS provides -- like these panels -- try to not only offer information about careers but also to teach students how they might prepare for them.
"Both programs give students a chance to think creatively about [how] the different things they are intrigued by and enjoy learning about might relate to different kinds of career fields," Nelsen said.
Testing the Waters
UCS also assists students in looking for internship and externship programs.
According to Nelsen, internships are summer or semester-long employment opportunities through which students can learn about careers, meet people pursuing those careers and find out how they got there. Externships are a shorter option with many of the same benefits.
The Jefferson Externship Program is one of these options offered by UCS for which "the idea is for students to really take ownership of what they might want to do by doing a short-term shadowing program," Nelsen said.
Alumni can also assist in the internship and externship process.
One such alumnus, political campaign manager Jack Cooper, a 2005 College graduate has assisted University students in obtaining internships that he said not only helped students choose careers, but helped them obtain their first jobs.
"Internships are at least semi-professional, not just a [normal] job, but they're something in a professional industry that get people's attention ... which means it can get your foot in the door," he said. "You see it on a resume and it shows you've got some kind of experience."
According to Cooper, one benefit of internships is to help students decide what kind of job they really want to pursue.
"The vast majority of young people when they get out of college don't know what they want to do and that's okay because it's not like you're stuck in any option," Cooper said. "One way to see what you do or don't what to do is through internships. Once you get in an industry and see what's going on, you might see that it's something to cut off your list, or you might see it's something you want to stick with for the rest of your life."
Cooper added that his internship on Capitol Hill the summer before his fourth year solidified his plans to pursue a career in politics.
"Working in politics in that capacity made me see that's what I wanted to continue in," Cooper said.
Fourth-year College student Nina Antony said her internships have helped her explore career options.
"I'm still not completely sure, but they've given me good ideas," Antony said. "They've helped me focus my list. I've knocked off a few and know the direction I want to head in."
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