Design Your Career and Life
Are you exploring potential careers or majors? Not sure where to start? We can help!
Our career coaches help you think about career and life planning in a structured way. Through the basics of life design, you can learn how design thinking mindsets like curiosity, prototyping (trying stuff), reframing problems, and asking for help can help you design and build your career in the face of all the unknowns. You can start this process by asking yourself what gives you joy, what you are good at, and what you can offer the world.
What would you like to do?
Learn About Yourself
Before you make career decisions, we encourage you to invest time into learning more about yourself. Identifying your skills, interests, and values will equip you with the critical self knowledge needed when exploring career fields and different pathways. If you would like to debrief any of your results, please make an appointment with a career exploration coach on Handshake.
Discover Career Paths
It can be difficult to know where to begin when exploring potential career paths. However, the more you expose yourself to, and the more information you gather, the better prepared you will be to make a decision about your next steps. As a BC student, you have access to multiple resources that allow you to learn broadly about different industries and deeply about specific professions.
Get First Hand Experience
Once you’ve found yourself curious about a few areas, the next step is taking action. There is no need to make a commitment right away; it’s critical to take small steps to try different things out before making a decision. Designers call this step prototyping.
Build Skills
Discover the keys to success with skill-building resources, hands-on projects, and networking opportunities. These diverse opportunities will equip you with the practical skills and connections needed to shape your career path.
Reflect
Designers emphasize the necessity of collaboration during the design thinking process. After each career exploration step, it’s important to reflect on what you learned—what excited you, what you’re curious about, what you didn’t like, etc., in order to feel more confident moving forward. Having sources of support is invaluable in your career journey; consider discussing your journey with career coaches, advisors, faculty, and peers.
Our career coaches are here to partner with you on your career journey. We offer several types of coaching services, including drop-in hours, career exploration appointments, and industry-specific appointments. Faculty and academic advisors can also be supportive when thinking through your personal journey.
Participating in mentorship programs can have a beneficial effect on a student's career exploration journey. Such programs offer guidance, insights, and a supportive network that encourages reflection, self-discovery, and informed decision-making about future careers.
Journaling can help you process your feelings about career exploration-related experiences, including projects and accomplishments, and what you’ve learned in the process. It's also a great place to record advice from mentors.
Endeavor
For Sophomores and Juniors
Endeavor provides you the opportunity to explore the fit of a few careers of interest by providing space to identify skills, network with alumni, and visit an organization within an industry.
Employer Engagement
For All Students
Engaging with employers through career fairs, networking events, campus recruitment, and internships can provide valuable insights and connections to help you make informed decisions about your career path.
Designing Your Career Course
For Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors
A one-credit hybrid course that provides you with structure to the career exploration and preparation process by guiding you through design thinking-inspired exercises.
Embrace Your Career Exploration
"Some advice to anyone of any age out there still exploring: Embrace it! Don’t fear it. Let it fuel you. Let it motivate you. Enjoy every second of this exploration phase because now is the time to ask all of the questions without having the answers.
You’re allowed to be a little lost. You’re allowed to be a little uncertain. Relish it! Relish the uncertainty and instead of seeing it as something obstructive see it as something that opens up a whole world of possibilities."
Nat Murcia, MCAS ’19
