What do you want your life to look like after graduation?
You just got here! Why would we ask you about life after graduation? Because we are excited for you to start building toward that life as soon as possible.
Begin by clarifying your career preferences. Then, you can start to work toward that goal or backward from that goal:
- you can identify which majors are common pathways to a career that you’ve chosen, or
- you can identify common careers for your major and choose the one that meets most of your preferences.
Questions to ask yourself about your ideal job
- What work most appeals to me?
- Work environment – Indoor/outdoor, formal or informal settings, office or home, fast-paced or laid back, desk work or working with your hands
- Work context – working independently/partnered/in teams, routines or constantly changing, autonomy, safety on the job
- Who do I want to work with? Children, families, or special groups
- What impact do I want my work to have? This could be contributing to larger causes, influencing or leading others, or solving important problems. Nonprofit work, business work, and advocacy work are types of impact work.
Learn more about different careers with FOCUS 2 Career
Personal considerations that affect career choices
- How will work fit into the rest of your life? Do you want to work business hours, variable shifts, nights and weekends?
- Do you envision a single income or dual income household? Would a partner accept a job with a lot of travel?
- Does the work you’re considering align or conflict with your personal values?
- Will your career require additional education such as graduate or professional school? How does this fit into your timeline for moving, contributing to your family’s care, purchasing a home, or other personal goals?
Learn more about pre-professional planning
OSU support for reaching your goals
Career preparation requires a balance between thinking ahead and making decisions in the present. It’s also a combination of academic preparation, personal preparation, and job-related preparation.
Once you have a clear understanding of the type of future you’re preparing for, explore Ohio State’s resources to find opportunities to develop the skills that will make you an strong applicant.
Career support
OSU offers both general career services and some colleges within Ohio State, such as the Fisher College of Business and Arts and Sciences, offer career services for their students. Explore career support options.
Networking
A network is simply a group of people you know, some of whom know each other, who can share information or make referrals for you. For example, OSU campuses offer a network of education professionals such as faculty, residence hall staff, Buckeye Link counselors, and advisors who help students.
During your education, you should build your network of personal and professional connections. You do this by taking opportunities to meet new people in social, academic, and career/volunteering/research settings. You should maintain ongoing relationships with them over time, so that if you approach them for help later, they know what’s going on in your life and studies. It also means that you should learn what is going on in their lives and offer to connect them with people you know or information you’ve read/received so that the relationship isn’t one-sided.
Networking is about making and nurturing mutually beneficial relationships over time. This is very important in today’s job market, where some jobs aren’t even posted and where employers appreciate referrals from current employees; it’s also important in landing gig work for contractors and start-ups.
Networking opportunities
- Career fairs are a good way to meet with employers, get an idea of the types of jobs they have to offer and what makes a good candidate for a job. Explore career events.
- Student organizations offer ways to make friends with peers who share common interests, and organizations focused on career or academic topics also bring in professional guest speakers and alumni. Find a student organization.
- Student Activities enable students to get involved in leadership, community service, and government. Explore student activities options.
- Campus Activities provide local programming and ties to your campus community and regional OSU campuses have their own campus activities calendars. Your advising website and/or campus website often has links to these resources.
- Alumnifire is our online community to connect for career advancement, mentoring, affinity groups, or staying in touch with what is happening at Ohio State. Join Alumnifire
Your networks also include your family, neighbors, and work colleagues. Try talking to them about your studies and goals the next time you see them. And keep the conversation going after you’ve moved; the more separate your paths become, the more you each create new networks that you can link each other to.
Internships and student jobs
Internships and student work allow you to experience actual work settings. Internships tend to occur in areas closely related to your major, while student work can occur in unrelated settings. Both options give you a chance to practice professional behavior, and to learn skills that can advance your career. For example, a biology major working in campus dining learns about antiseptic, sterilization, and safety protocols. Those are important skills for lab work.
Reminders
If you have personal resources that can connect you with volunteering, observation, work, or internships please take advantage of them! Ohio State offers resources to add to your own career resources, so also use those as often as you need them.
Check your understanding
If you explored the resources provided above, by now you should be able to:
- Describe your most important career goal and a secondary goal
- Find at least one university opportunity that can help you meet these goals and explain what you hope to gain from it to your advisor during your next advising appointment