One of the most important aspects of college is exploration and getting to understand who you are as a person. I was recently reminded of this during a leadership retreat where I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment for the third time. The assessment is an introspective self-report questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. It is always so helpful for me to see what my strengths and weaknesses are, and how I can best use them in a future career. University Career Services actually offers this assessment for free to help student career plan at every stage, from choosing a major to a first career. I would highly recommend taking this assessment and working with a career counselor to better understand your personality type.
In addition, UCS offers the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) to help clarify your interests in terms of identifying areas of study and occupations related to your interests. First, it gives a one to three letter code that matches your interests with different types of work you might enjoy. This is based on six themes (also known as the RIASEC system) that are explored through the assessment: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Then the Strong compares how you respond to the questions with people who work in 130 different career fields and who enjoy those careers. The idea behind this is that people enjoy working with others who share similar interests. Therefore, I would also highly encourage you to also take this assessment at any stage in your college career.
Marissa Bane
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Gillings School of Global Public Health
BSPH Health Policy & Management
Minors: Public Relations & Public Policy