Explore career options
Your degree is just one of the many important pieces you bring to your future career. These resources can help you discover what motivates you, where your skills and interests lie, and what career options might be a good fit for you.Common careers for your area of study
Curious about popular career paths for graduates of your program?
Discover career possibilities, hands-on learning opportunities and more!
Understand yourself
Identify your career motivators
What are career motivators?
The best way to start your career exploration is to identify what motivates you so you can seek out options that align with your personality and interests.
Career motivators are what energize you when you think about what you want in your career—concrete descriptions of what you think would make your work fulfilling. They're not job titles (like “lawyer” or “writer”) and they are not vague phrases like “fulfillment,” “financial security,” “happiness” or “work/life balance”; they're what your work would need to be like for you to have these things.
Three types of career motivators
Contribution motivators: How you want to contribute to the world through your work—things you want to create, passions and causes, or how you like to work with people and information. Examples:
- I want to use my research and writing skills for sustainable urban development
- I want to help people who are disadvantaged, but in a behind-the scenes role
- I want to design efficient software that can adapt to people's individual needs
Work environment motivators: Elements of your workplace that are important for you—environment, work culture or your role on the team (leader, support person, expert, etc.). Examples:
- I want to work in a corporate environment that is vibrant and exciting
- I want to work for for a small, fast-paced startup where I can take on different roles
- I'd like working for an organization that is strongly connected to the local community
- I’m happiest in a structured environment where everyone’s role is clearly defined
Lifestyle motivators: How your career supports other areas of your life—salary, location, work schedule, flexibility, time off, etc. Examples:
- I'd like to work a standard 9–5 work week with evenings and weekends off
- I'd like short-term contract work so I can work on creative projects in between
- I'd like my earning power to increase as I get further into my career
Identify your motivators
ACTIVITY: Use the What are your career motivators - info sheet and Identify your career motivators - work sheet to brainstorm your motivators. Try to separate what you really want from what you feel you "should” want.
Do some more self-exploration
Find support
- Access Counselling Services (MBTI, SII, career exploration groups, counselling appointments)
- Join the Horizons Program
- Talk to a career educator
- Take this free personality test to learn more about yourself.
Try a variety of activities
(This can also help you meet people who might connect you to new opportunities!)
- Volunteer
- Join a UVSS club, course union, sports team or intramural league
- Join co-op, or try a new job or work study position
- Take a professional or personal development course
- Ask a professor about helping with research
- Travel (for fun or through an international co-op, exchange or volunteer placement)
Putting career exploration in perspective
As a student, you might feel anxious about learning what the "hot jobs" are or making the “right” career choice to set you on the “right” path for the future. This puts a lot of pressure on you.
The truth is, sometimes, one career choice would fit you best—but usually, several choices are viable and interesting. Your options may even contradict one another. Different opportunities and choices may lead you to the same place by different paths—or somewhere you never thought you’d end up. Along the way, you’ll transition from role to role, getting more in tune with yourself as you go.
Since the career landscape is so uncertain, remember to keep an open mind about your career. It's normal to change your mind about your career direction during university, and you'll have all sorts of experiences that may impact your career choices.
Research career options
Brainstorm career options
Before you can start researching careers, you'll need to brainstorm a list of potential options. You might already have some ideas in mind. This is a rough brainstorming process, so don’t rule out ideas too quickly. Include ideas for the long range and the short range.
Start here:
- Your own ideas
- Download your degree sheet
- Google search: "What can I do with a degree in [area]?"
- Career Cruising: Career Matchmaker tool
- TalentEgg
- HR Council for the Non-Profit Sector (non-profit sector careers)
- Check job posting sites for an idea of job titles being posted
- Come to a What can you do with your degree? session
- Watch our What can you do with your degree? video series
ACTIVITY: Brainstorm a list of career options and write them down in a master list. You can use this Career options resource or create your own list using the Career options - work sheet.
Do some online research
Once you’ve made a list of interesting career options, the next step is to do some research, consulting several different sources. Consider:
- The basic requirements of the work (education, experience, skills)
- What the work is like (salary, working conditions, work prospects, work culture, schedule, flexibility, contract/ongoing)
- Where the work is done (sector, industry, size and type of organization, location)
Start here:
- Career Cruising
- WorkBC
- Canada Job Bank
- O*NET OnLine (US website)
- Career Trek (videos about different careers)
- Labour market information
In your research, you may discover new ideas you hadn’t thought of—add these to your list!
ACTIVITY: Choose a few promising career options from your list and research them using the websites above. You can use this Career options -work sheet to make notes.
Conduct informational meetings
Meeting with someone who actually works in the field can teach you a lot more than a job posting or website. An informational meeting (a.k.a. networking meeting or informational interview) is an information-gathering meeting that helps you learn more about a career or company (learn more about how to conduct an informational meeting).
You can also use informational meetings if you're actively looking for a job – see Work search tips.
Assess your research and set goals
Assess your career research
Now that you've done some career research online and/or in person, it can be helpful to compare your career options side-by-side and see which ones stand out.
ACTIVITY: Use the Career comparison - worksheet to compare your career options based on what you learned from your research. This sample can help you fill out the worksheet.
Set career goals to move forward
Once you've assessed your career ideas, some options may start to stand out. Now, it's time to look at the requirements for those careers and lay out some steps for how you can meet them.
ACTIVITY: Use the Career goals - worksheet to set goals around the education and experience you'd need to pursue your career ideas. This sample can help you fill out the worksheet.