The University of North Alabama Career Center hosted a Major Discussion event on Sept. 30 to help students access resources that provide help in choosing a career.
The event began with the speakers discussing the Focus2 tool, which contains career assessments to help students narrow down their options. To access Focus2, students can go to una.edu/career, then click on “Students and Alumni.” From there, they can click on “Major and Career Exploration” and then “What are my options?,” which takes students to the Focus2 page.
Functioning similarly to a personality test, Focus2 matches students with careers that match their passions and skill set. There are five self-assessments, and when students have completed those quizzes, they are able to combine their results to see what career fields they best match with.
Lisa Seale, one of the speakers at the event, encouraged students to take the assessments and to look into the career fields that the program suggests for them. Despite this, she also urged students to not be discouraged if their ideal career does not show up on their list of recommendations, as the list is not a complete list of all options available to students.
“Utilizing career planning tools can help individuals make informed decisions when choosing a major or career,” said Seale. “[They] can also help with determining if a major or career is a good fit prior to graduating and entering the workforce.”
Students in attendance responded, saying that their results generally matched with what they would have expected, and they were shown options that related to careers that they would enjoy going into, which was encouraging for those who had not taken it yet but were confused about their career path.
Seale and Rian Brown, another speaker at the event, explained how to utilize the Focus2 tool, as it contains key information about each career field, such as the level of post-secondary education needed and other requirements. They also informed students about PDFs that are available on the UNA Career Center website under “What Can I Do with My Major?,” which contain information about careers that fall under each major offered at UNA, as well as strategies for how to enter those careers.
At the end of the program, the speakers urged students to take advantage of the resources that are available to them through the university.
“The Career Center is here to help [students] throughout all stages of their career development,” Seale said. “We realize that education is an investment. We hope that the knowledge and usage of career planning tools will help students decide what they want to do earlier into their education and help students get the most out of their investment.”
