MAJORS AND CAREERS

A quick read for both students and parents:
Misconceptions about College Majors

Majors and Careers 
A collection of sites in no particular order...google in 'what can I do with a major in' or 'careers' or ' college majors' and you'll have hundreds more to choose from!!!  As you read through these resources, keep a list of the job titles and majors that you think you might like for further consideration.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a standard resource guide usually found in most public libraries as well as high school and college career centers.  Issued by the U.S. Dept of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics, it organizes job titles by industry but there are several other factors, such as the amount of education you need or the salary, that you can use to search and sort for occupations in the online version.   It is updated every two years...keep in mind when reading it that the information is a compilation of data and information so is not necessarily 100% accurate for a given region of the U.S.  However, if you're exploring careers, it's a great resource to browse through and may give you some new ideas.  
Major and Career Search
Explore Careers
List of College Majors (includes a search for majors and colleges)
Majors and Career Exploration  this site includes a 'what can I do with a major in.....'
What Can I do with a major in.... (different from the one right above)
My Future - produced by the Dept of Defense, it includes information about military careers in addition to career and college information
Real Jobs for Real Majors
Oregon Occupational Information System (OCIS) - has career and college information.  (Please see the instructor of this course for the login and password.)

Many colleges and universities will have a list of majors (a link can usually be found on the admission page) - sometimes, they list careers that their graduates have gone into from those majors.    

Career 'Tests'
Lots of people like the idea of taking some kind of career 'test' to tell them what they 'should' do.  I have been in career counseling for 40 years and I can tell you unequivocally that there is no test under the sun that can tell anyone what they 'should' do!!!  Even the Strong Interest Inventory, the gold standard of career 'tests' (not actually a test, it's an interest inventory), can only offer suggestions of possibilities. In addition, there are personality 'tests' that purport to match personality types with careers and while these kinds of instruments are favored by some professionals, there is a dearth of good research supporting such a notion.  

Whether the decision is what to major in or what career to pursue, it is your decision.  Career 'tests' are fun to do and often lend themselves to interesting conversations, as in, "Look at me - I'm the CEO of a financial services company but that career test I took in high school said I should work in a mortuary!"  (Whatever the career 'test' was, it probably didn't say that but that's the way they too frequently get interpreted and remembered.)  However, some of us do benefit from taking career 'tests'  if only to get us on track to thinking, in an organized way, about the world of work and what we might like to do.  So, as long as you understand the limitations of career 'tests' and use them to broaden your base of possibilities  OR  just to confirm what you've already been considering, rather than as decision-making tools or messages from God about what you can and can't do, here are a few links to some quick, free, career 'tests':
  
Career Interest Game - a good design from the University of Missouri, will get you thinking about careers and career areas!!!
O'Net - like the Career Interest Game above, this is based on John Holland's six occupational themes (HOC).
Princeton Review - take the 5-minute career quiz! 
CareerLink - pretty good for free, you'll get quite a few ideas rank ordered from your best career matches to the careers least like you (it's quick, too)
Self Directed Search - $9.95  OK, that's not exactly free, is it?  Based on the Holland Occupational Codes (HOC) (like those listed above), it will give you a print-out of several pages that explains the HOC and how you can use it in your career exploration and a short list of possible occupations that match your career interests (I got six job titles on my list when I took it). This list will either confirm ideas you've already had or will add to your list of careers to consider - a good thing either way.