Self-Reflection

What activities do you enjoy? What subjects are you fascinated by? Reflecting on these questions can help you discover your interests and find major and career paths that will allow you to embrace them. 

• Think about the courses you’ve taken and extracurricular activities you’ve participated in. What did you like – and not like – about these experiences? Use this information to guide you as you explore majors and careers. 
• Take the O*Net Interest Profiler to see how your interests align with different occupations.
• Try new things! After all, how can you know if you enjoy something unless you test it out? There are so many ways to get involved at UW-Madison. Here are some resources to get you started: 
  • Check out volunteer opportunities through the Morgridge Center
  • Take advantage of on-campus employment opportunities
  • Join a student organization
  • Participate in undergraduate research
  • Search for internships on Handshake
  • Review The Guide to see how your interests match majors and certificates

Your experiences both in and outside the classroom help you develop crucial skills to become career-ready. As you explore majors and careers, reflect on which skills you feel confident about and which you feel motivated to strengthen.

• Use the Top Skills Employers Seek Worksheet to dig deeper into how your past experiences have helped you develop important skills, and make a plan to build your skills even more.
• Learn about the career-readiness competencies that employers look for in job candidates. 

What’s important to you? Our values are the principles that guide our behavior and decisions, and understanding them can help you get in touch with who you are and what you want from your major, career, and life.

Here’s an exercise to help you begin thinking about what’s important to you in your future work life. Print out this values list and grab a pencil! 

1. Put a checkmark by every value that resonates with you. Don’t overthink it; just mark every one that feels important. If you think of a value that’s not on this list, add it.
2. From the values you checked, circle your top four most important ones. 
3. Rank those values from one to four. 

What did you discover? Any surprises? Or did this activity help confirm what you already knew about yourself? (If so, great!)

Values can shift with time and experience. What seems important to you at this stage of your life may change as you learn more about yourself and the world of work. That’s normal! It pays to keep checking in with yourself about your values so you are always aware of the principles that guide your decisions. 

Want to talk over your values and learn what they might mean for your major and career decisions? Schedule an appointment with a CEC career advisor – we’ll be glad to help!

Your purpose is the central motivating theme of your life, the reason you get up in the morning. As a student, your reason for getting up may be as simple as your chemistry lab or your Spanish class. But if you could choose why you get out of bed and start your day, what would your reasons be then? 

Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers at this point. Many people older than you are still finding their purpose. But starting to think about it now can help guide your decisions. Here are some questions to get you started:

1. What brings you joy (activities, projects, people, hobbies, etc.)?
2. What are you naturally good at?
3. Who inspires you the most, and why? (It could be someone you know or don’t know: friends, family, artists, leaders, etc.)
4. What would you regret not doing, being, or having in your life?

Your answers to these questions will probably change over time, so don’t feel you need to set your life purpose in stone right now. If you’d like to go deeper into purpose and talk over these questions with a career advisor, we’re here for you!