Student AffairsIf you are wondering how to explore your options and find a career trajectory that is great for you, you are not alone! The following resources will support you in reflecting on your career strengths and needs and finding concrete steps for deciding on your career possibilities.
What to consider when exploring career options
Consider developing a “career compass” to refer to when considering possible career options with the Career Compass worksheet (PDF, 389 KB). Reflect on the skills, interests, and values that are important for you and how they might relate to your career goals with the resources provided below.
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Skills: What technical and transferrable skills are your strengths?
- Queen’s Skill Cards & Skills Sorter
- Scatterplot Handout – Energy vs Proficiency (PDF, 56 KB)
- Skills and Experience Worksheet (PDF, 225 KB)
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Values: What will make your career meaningful?
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Interests: How you would answer these questions?
- What topics do I get excited about, or never become boring?
- If I had all the money and time in the world, what would I do?
On this page we’ve laid out a series of steps you can take to explore your career options. It can be a lot to do on your own, which is why we have career counsellors available to coach you through this process. Feel free to book a 1-1 appointment with one of them to work on your job search plan.
Explore what career opportunities exist
It is hard to pick a career when you don’t know that much about what careers even exist. Below are resources to learn more what is out there.
- Career Cruising (email mycareer@queensu.ca for login and password info) has a database of 575 career profiles with useful information about each role – search through to see what might interest you
- LinkedIn – Queen’s Alumni Search: you can use this to look up Queen’s alumni and see what careers they have pursued
Interested in a few career options?
The best way to get in-depth information is to connect with someone in that field to ask more specific questions. This is often called “information interviewing” – to learn how to do effective information interviews, use our tipsheet and/or attend our Networking or LinkedIn workshops.
- Information Interviews tipsheet: Strategies to effectively connect with someone who’s in a role or at the company you’re interested in learning more about.
- LinkedIn – Queen’s Connects Student and Alumni Network
- Workshops: Networking, LinkedIn 1 & 2
Additional help
If you would like to discuss your specific situation and get help making your career exploration process manageable, consider booking a career counselling appointment via MyCareer. A career counsellor will speak with you via phone (for Canada based phone service provider) or Microsoft Teams. Here are some common questions related to summer jobs that we get from students in appointments:
- How do I find a summer job?
- How do I stand out when applying for a summer job?
- How do I find relevant work in my field of interest?
- How do I network to find a summer job?
- How can I prepare myself this summer for what I’d like to do after graduation?
Research specific careers, wages, and economic trends
- Labour Market Information Council – Job Posting Dashboard
- Visualize Labour Market Information
- Job Bank – Trend Analysis