The cornerstone of career development is to define your own preferences and priorities. By exploring your values, skills and interests, you will clarify your goals and identify which careers might best suit your desire to positively impact our society. This process is key, as once you have taken the time to investigate which careers might satisfy you best, constructing an effective internship or job search strategy becomes much easier.

This section includes exercises and resources designed to assist you in defining and prioritizing your interests, values and skills so that your future career choices may be made meaningfully and with a sense of purpose. Remember that talking to a counselor in individual appointment might help you in this process.

In addition to individual appointments, the Career Development Center offers a number of resources to support you in your self-assessment process:

Fee-based inventories

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ($10 fee) – an inventory designed to assess your personality type and associated strengths and weaknesses. Careers that are particularly suited for each of the 16 types are emphasized. A career counselor will help you interpret your result during a scheduled appointment.

Strong Interest Inventory ($15 fee) – a web-based questionnaire that compares your interests with the population in general and with people working in a large number of careers. A career counselor will help you interpret your responses during a scheduled appointment.

FREE SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOLS

The following resources and books can help you identify preferences and start prioritizing values and interests along with skills that will help you focus on a few careers of interest:

Online tools

Typefocus.com - Discover your personality type, strengths and how they relate to careers in this mini-version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Take the Free Personality Assessment.

CareerKey.org - This assessment, based on interests, values and personal style, leads to a variety of careers, which you can then research immediately through the online Occupational Outlook Handbook. It is designed for general audiences.

Nextsteps.org - Comprehensive career planning resources to help you identify your interests, lifestyle and work values, as well as the transferrable and job-related skills you have gained in and outside of the classroom at Brown.

Handouts

Understanding and Explaining what you really want - From the Swearer Center

Assessing your interests, personal and work values, and your skills

These tools are designed to help you articulate what values and purpose you would like to see included in your life during and beyond Brown. Please call our front desk at 863 3326 to set up an appointment with a counselor so that we can help you clarify your goals and explore your options based on your individual values and priorities.