Find Your Career

My favorite part of being a career counselor and working at The Career Center is helping students and alumni figure out their career and/or major. At The Career Center, we offer various tools and resources to help students with their career exploration and decision-making. And, as a career counselor, I am always on the lookout for articles that offer tips on this aspect of what I do. Recently, the website, Mind Body Green, posted the article 10 Questions to Help You Tap Into Your Purpose, which lists questions people could ask themselves when they are figuring out their path:

1. What’s my hunch about what I should do next?

2. What have I previously dismissed that is something I’d really like to do?

3. Who in my life would be unconditionally supportive toward me as I try to achieve my goals?

4. Who in my life has a strong opinion about what I should be doing?

5. What real world experience could I pursue to give me more insight into my path?

6. Who could I talk to who is already doing what I want to be doing?

7. What’s most important to me right now?

8. What will inspire me to take action?

9. Is there anything I need to let go of that is currently keeping me stuck?

10. What’s the next small, real world step that I see in front of me?

Check out the article to see how these questions can help you find your career!

Nayelli Perez,
Assistant Director

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays!

YES! You made it to Fall Break! No matter what holiday you celebrate, there’s nothing quite like being able to go home, unwind from the craziness of the Fall Semester, and spend time with your family. Of course, this comes with the one family tradition that every college student dreads; the seemingly never-ending string of:

“So, what’s your major?”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“Are you looking for a job yet?”

Handling these questions, especially when you aren’t sure of the answers, can make what’s supposed to be a relaxing time off from responsibilities stressful! So, your friends at The Career Center have put together a list of things for you to think about to help you combat nosy Aunt Nelly!

If you don’t have a major yet: Own it! Point out that you’re taking this time to explore courses that really interest you. Even if you haven’t come closer to deciding what you DO want to major in, you may have already figured out a few subjects that you DON’T—which is sometimes even more helpful!

Explaining the career paths for your major: Sometimes this is pretty cut-and-dry, especially for students enrolled in trajectory programs like pre-law or pre-med. However, certain majors have many career options. Sites like CandidCareer offer valuable insight on the many different career paths one can pursue, and even Googling “What can I do with [insert major here]” can be incredibly helpful!

Your job search (or potential lack thereof): Even if you haven’t started looking for positions to which you can apply yet, it’s never too early to start networking! Use the Alumni Student Konnection to A.S.K. Hofstra alumni from a variety of fields questions about their career path! To access A.S.K., log in to the Hofstra Portal and click on “Hofstra Online,” then click on “A.S.K.” To keep in touch with everyone in your network, make sure your LinkedIn profile is professional and up-to-date (or create a profile if you don’t have one!).

Whatever you do, don’t sweat it! Your family is there to support you no matter what step of the Path you might be on, and your Career Center family is here to help you when you get back to campus!

Have a very happy and healthy holiday!

Amy Smith, Graduate Assistant

Life Lessons from the Twilight Saga

How many of you are Twilight fans out there?  Well, it might surprise you to know that there are a couple of us here at The Career Center, me included.  The movie premieres tonight and I was lucky enough to have tickets to an advanced screening of Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Wednesday (the movie was amazing!).  As you are watching and swooning over Edward and Jacob, don’t overlook the important lesson Bella teaches us about making choices.  Yes, there is more to Twilight than vampires and wolves.  There is an important message that life is about a series of decisions.  Every day we are faced with decisions, big and small.  We can weigh the pros and cons, ask our friends and family, postpone the moment as long as we can, but eventually we must choose.

As students, you are forced to make a lot of important decisions about your future:  what classes to register for, what major to choose, and what career to pursue.  As career counselors we can listen to you, provide you with resources, and give you assessments.  However, the best advice we have to give comes from Bella Swan:  trust yourself.  We were all given the gift of intuition – an inner voice that guides us.  This voice knows what is best for us; it is our truth.  Yet somehow many of us have learned to ignore this voice and over think the decisions we have to make.  We have let logic and reason, or even other people make decisions for us.  Many of us are paralyzed by all the information available today that we let things happen to us rather than going with our gut.  

So I challenge you to take a page out of the Twilight series and make the decision to listen to your inner self.  Today make a choice (a healthy choice) that just “feels right.”  It could be as small as what to eat for lunch or as big as taking that art class you have always wanted to try.  With every decision, you will begin to nurture and trust this relationship with yourself.    

~Deanna Rodin, Associate Director & Internship Coordinator