SSA
The Academic Advising and Learning Center can provide WOU students with advising and assistance as you engage in the exploration process to discover and pair your interests and values to a major that can lead you into a great educational experience and a rewarding career.
To discover and understand yourself you need to identify your skills, interests, and values to better identify and work through the major and career development process. Through self-exploration and investigation you will be able to take a responsible approach in making a well-informed decision on a major that best suits with your values, skills, and preferences.
Completing personal assessments is what you may need if you are in the exploring process of a major or a career. You need to take action, be proactive and responsible by taking personality assessment tests to discover yourself.
We recommend you consider utilizing the services and resources from the following centers:
Service Learning and Career Development
Offers the following assessments for you to discover more about yourself.
Career Liftoff
A survey that can help give ideas to possible career paths or vocational interests. Once you complete the survey, your scores will be sent to our Service Learning and Career Development Center and you can make an appointment to follow-up on your results in-depth details.
Myers-Briggs
A personality assessment tool that describes your natural preferences and tendencies. It is helpful in describing your strengths, your preferred function in a job or organization, and specific career areas that might be more attractive to an individual with your particular preferences.
Dependable Strengths
The Dependable Strengths Articulation Process helps you reflect on your life experiences, identify your pattern of strengths, understand your passions, and be able to articulate the value of those strengths to an organization or community. The process can help you focus on courses of study or certain career paths.
It is best to work on this process in a group of 3 or 4 over several sessions. If you and 2 or 3 of your peers would like to take part in this process, please contact Service Learning & Career Development to set up an appointment.
Offers the following assessments for you to discover more about yourself.
Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong Interest Inventory is an assessment tool that compares your interests and personality type with professionals in various careers with matching interest patterns, offering you valuable insight to many careers. It allows you to understand your leadership preferences, as well as how your personality is related to your interests, improving your career direction.
After you have completed your assessment and followed up the results with a counselor from the Service Learning & Career Development, make an appointment with your academic advisor to continue your pathway to a major by calling the Academic Advising and Learning Center at 503-838-8428.
More Assessment Tools to Discover
Follow up with the advisors in the SSA after you complete either assessment.
Majors Fair
Purpose of this event is to help students who are currently undecided about their majors answer the burning and often-asked question “What’s your Major? Representatives from academic departments will be on hand to answer questions and provide information regarding majors and related careers.
Career Decision Making Course
Take a two credit course that gets you actively engaged in the career searching process, offered spring term.
My Next Move – O*Net
My Next Move is specifically designed to help you determine the right career for you, and to help you find a job that you will enjoy. You will be able to search careers with key words, search by industry or take the O*NET Interest Profiler to help you find your interests in relation to the world of work and help you decide what kinds of careers you might want to explore. Take the assessment and discover your interest profile!
What is Your Career Interest Profiler?
John Holland (1966) developed a theory that organizes people’s interests and work environments into six groups. His assumption is that people can be classified into six different groups: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Conventional, and Enterprising.
Holland believed people who established careers that were congruent with their personal interests and orientations were more likely to be satisfied and successful in their work. Which profile aligns with you?
Review each of the six Holland groups and spend some time learning about which description best fits you. Gathering further information can help you make a good decision and set you up for a successful college experience.
Consult with an academic advisor or career counselor for more thorough explorations and understanding what WOU can offer you.
Realistic
- A person with a Realistic Personality tends to be frank, practical, focused, mechanical, determined, or rugged.
- Examples of Realistic Abilities include manipulating tools, doing mechanical or manual tasks, or doing athletic activities.
Artistic
- A person with a Artistic Personality tends to be Complicated, Original, Impulsive, Independent, Expressive, and Creative.
- Examples of Artistic Abilities include using imagination and feelings in creative expression.
Social
- A person with a Social Personality tends to be Helping, Informing, Teaching, Inspiring, Counseling, and Serving.
- Examples of Social Abilities include interacting with people and concerned with the welfare of people.
Enterprising
- A person with an Enterprising Personality tends to be Characteristics: Persuasive, Energetic, Sociable, Adventurous, Ambitious, and Risk-taking.
- Examples of Enterprising Abilities include leading, managing, and organizing.
Conventional
- A person with a Conventional Personality tends to be Careful, Conforming, Conservative, Conscientious, Self-controlled, and Structured.
- Examples of Conventional Abilities include ordering activities paying attention to details.