Undecided Students Resource Guide
This is a guide to help you if you are undecided about your career and major.
Schedule a Career Counseling Appointment
A career counseling appointment can help you navigate and decide on your career and major.
- If you have a counselor that you currently prefer to work with, contact them for a career counseling appointment.
- If you would like to schedule a career counseling appointment with a Career Center counselor, you can do that through the Career Center website.
Consider Enrolling in PSCN 10: Career and Education Planning (2 Units)
This course is taught by a Chabot College counselor and is designed for those who are undecided or uncertain about their career and educational plans.
Answer These Self-Reflection Questions
Knowing yourself is key to your ability to decide on a career and major.
- What kind of work do I want to do?
- What am I good at?
- What inspires and motivates me?
- What do I like to study?
- What is important for me to have in my future career?
- What type of career or major would fit my personality type?
- What kind of work environment would I like to be in?
Answering these self-reflections questions helps you identify what are your interests, strengths, motivations, and more.
Do Research & Take Career Assessments
In addition to self-reflection, another key to your ability to decide on a career and major is to research and learn what options interest you.
Research and learn about different careers and majors from any of these career information and career assessment resources:
Explore the different learning and career pathways at Chabot College to give you an idea of career and academic program areas that may interest you.
This website contains information on 900 different careers, and you can learn about their tasks, skills needed, salaries, and more. Additionally, you can complete the career assessment and receive career suggestions based on your answers to the assessment.
This resource provides information about career areas typically associated with different types of majors.
This is a career assessment that recommends you to certain careers, including information about those careers and testimonials from people who have those careers. This is put together by Roadtrip Nation, a non-profit media organization that helps people find their career paths.
In addition to conducting a general Google search, utilize AI Mode in Google Search to ask about careers that interest you and continue to ask questions to the Google AI Mode to gain further information about those careers and assess if it would be a good choice for you.
Get Exposure & Experience
A more impactful way to research and learn about a career or major is to get exposure and experience in that area.
Here are examples of ways to get exposure and experience in a career or major that you can consider doing:
Many people are able to decide on a career and major after talking to people about their careers and majors, and finding someone you can resonate with.
There are many ways to find people, you can first begin by talking to people you know or the communities you are connected too such as people here at Chabot College.
You can talk to people at events or by reaching out to them individually.
Here are resources you can use to find people to talk to:
- Chabot College Learning & Career Pathway Student Success Teams - From this webpage, you can search a pathway, and then find the student success team to identify Chabot College faculty/staff that you can reach out to for career advice and to learn about their majors and related careers.
- Career Events on Chabot Handshake - This webpage contains a list of career events hosted at Chabot College or by an employer/organization partner of the Chabot College Career Center.
- LinkedIn - This is a great social media platform to find professionals and talk about careers which is the nature of what LinkedIn was made for. LinkedIn also includes search tools where you can find people based on their job titles, their employers or group affiliations.
Another way people are able to decide on a career and major is from getting some level of experience doing something related to that career and major.
Here are resources and ideas to help you find opportunities to get experience:
- Chabot Handshake - This is our school's official online job/internship board that includes career opportunities from employers interseted in Chabot College students. These opportunities include internships, volunteer work, part-time jobs, and career events. All of these opportunities are ways to give you experience and help you discover your interests.
Taking a class can introduce and expose you to subjects/knowledge related to a major and certain careers. Additionally, classes can assign you to work on a project/assignment that can resemble work you would do at a job, and this experience can help you discover your interests.
Here are ways you can find classes:
- Introductory Classes at Chabot College - You can explore the Chabot College class schedule or catalog to find introductory classes related to majors or careers of your interests.
- Open Online Courses - You can do a search online for open online courses. These courses may be taken immediately, not require a long time committment, and some of these courses are offered for free. Though they are not offered within a formal educational instition and may not have the same level of credibility, these open online courses can be a practical way of exploring your interests. Here are some examples of open online course websites:
If you made your decision on your career and major, meet with a counselor to create or update your student education plan (SEP) if necessary. Additionally, complete the Major Declaration form if you need to update your education goal and major.
For questions or if you would like additional resources, contact the Chabot College Career Center: cc-careercenter@chabotcollege.edu