Exploring Majors and your VIPs

Values are desirable qualities, standards or principles that serve as your guiding force, especially when making decisions and pursuing options that best meet your needs and lead to increased happiness. While values - work and personal - may change over time, it is important to consider the values you hold in the career planning process as they will influence what "work" will look like for you; they serve as a way to filter duties, roles, organizations, and environments.

Ways to explore and understand your unique personal and work values include:

• Values Identification and Reflection Worksheet
• Life Values Inventory: Life Values Inventory is a free values clarification and personal development program developed to help individuals and organizations clarify their values and serve as a blueprint for effective decision-making and optimal functioning. To learn more, visit https://www.lifevaluesinventory.org

Your interests relate to how you like to spend your energy. People tend to thrive in work environments that align well with their interests. 

One informal assessment you may wish to explore to discover your career interests is the My Next Move Interest Profiler from O*Net. This short activity helps you identify career interest clusters based on your personality type. Once you complete the assessment, O*Net provides comprehensive information on the careers and industries that align well with your interests. You can also start with the My Next Move resource to research careers. 

• Schedule an appointment with a BCC staff member to discuss your interests and career exploration questions. 
• Visit Marquette University’s Career Services Center website for information on additional assessment options. 

Ways to explore and understand your unique personality include:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality inventory used to increase self-awareness of ones preferences and to help individuals understand and appreciate the differences of others. The MBTI measures preferences in four different areas and produces a personality type for each individual. It assists in career decision-making by providing information about what personality types are most often represented in different career fields. It is important to understand that the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is not a test. There are no right or wrong answers. Your answers to the questions on this assessment will help show how you like to look at things and how you like to go about deciding things. You will fill out an online questionnaire to select the answers that best fit for you. Through interpretation of the results you will learn about your natural preferences. Knowing your own preferences can help you understand what your strengths are, what kinds of work you might enjoy, and how people with different preferences can relate to one another.
  • It is important to note that while there are several free and accessible "personality tests" on the internet based on MBTI, there is only one verified and reliable assessment created by the Myers and Briggs Foundation and only certified MBTI practitioners can interpret and debrief results with you.

Interested in completing the assessment and reviewing your preferences (including career ideas)? Contact the Career Services Center career.services@marquette.edu

Before you begin the instrument:

• The MBTI will take 20-30 minutes to complete.
• Complete the assessment at a time when you are feeling like your usual self – not overly stressed or relaxed.
• Answer the items from your perspective, letting go of others’ expectations of you.

For additional assessments and instruments, including the Strong Interest Inventory, please contact the Career Services Center.

Considering your current skills and strengths as well as areas for development can contribute to your career exploration research and reflections as well as the ways you market yourself to an employer.  

Skills are sometimes categorized as hard / soft, technical / transferable, and most recently as “power” skills.  Considering your own skills as well as how you are most interested in contributing and developing through your career can be productive ways to advance your career decision-making and self-marketing. 

For additional and expanded information about skills, and how you can identify and utilize your skills take a look at our Skills Guide