The Career Services & Internships Office will be closed on Monday, January 20th as BSU is closed in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr holiday.  We will reopen on Tuesday, January 21st.

Explore Your Interests / Self Assessment

Choosing Your Major or Career Path

Are you trying to select a major?  Have a major, but not sure what you want to do with it?  Review the links and resources below to help you begin the career exploration process.  Contact the Career Services & Internships Office to schedule a Choosing a Major or a Career Counseling appointment for further assistance.

Explore Career Options

Self-assessment allows you to learn about your personality, skills, interests, values, and motivations. After using various tools to gather this information, you are presented with a list of sample occupations to explore for your careers. Utilize some of the following career resources to learn more about various careers and continue to clarify your career interests.

The first step in choosing a career is to learn about yourself. The more you understand yourself and your motivation, the more informed and productive your career search process will be. Start by reflecting on your interests, values, skills, personality, and motivations. As you learn more about yourself, pursue various experiences to reaffirm or challenge your self-perception and become more career-ready.

Factors to Consider When Choosing A Major or Career Path

Personality refers to a combination of qualities that form an individual’s unique character, which influence how you see, experience, and interact with the world. Personality inventories can provide insight into how your personality compares to others and your work preferences. Our office offers Focus2 and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for BSU students and alumni to understand your personality and how it relates to career choices.

What are your key abilities, talents, and strengths? Common examples include interpersonal, communication, leadership, and organizational skills that you may have developed through employment, campus activities, or academic projects. Being able to identify and describe your skills allows you to answer key questions at job interviews such as What can you do for my organization? and What problems can you solve? Use Focus2 to help you articulate your skills.

Being able to identify and describe your interests allows you to answer key questions at job interviews such as What part of this job excites you the most?  What attracted you to this position?  What attracted you to our company? Use Focus2 or the Strong Interests Inventory (SII) to help you identify your career interests.

Values are your deeply held beliefs about what is important to you in life, essential guiding principles that influence your decisions and actions; they are your core priorities and what you consider morally right or desirable. Examples of values are honesty, integrity, sustainability, and equality.  Use Focus2 to help you define your values. 

What are your motivations? Discovering your motivations provide the language for you to describe your unique purpose, express your values, and identify a work environment that you can flourish in. Connect with a career advisor to examine your true motivations using TruMotivate.

What is the difference between industries and job functions?

Industries are often associated with a type of product or service. When thinking about your target industries, your first question will often be, “What purpose, problems, topics, products, or ideas do I want to be engaging with at work?” For example, if you’re passionate about climate change, that might correspond to work in government, politics, policy, non-profits, law, or education—all industries that engage with this issue.

A job function is your role within that organization – say being an HR recruiter. Jobs with the same function often exist within many different industries. So, you can be an HR recruiter at a hospital system (healthcare), a publisher (media), or even a college or university.

Resources to Explore Majors and Careers

Focus 2 – Explore your career interest, values, personality, and skills through this self-paced, online career guidance tool. Create an account or login as a returning user by clicking here. Enter the Access Code as Bridgew. Schedule an appointment with a Career Counselor if you would like to discuss your Focus 2 results. 

TruMotivate: Reflect on your personal stories of achievement and success to uncover what motivates you and what you find to be fulfilling. When you access this URL, a new and personalized link is created for your unique assessment. Do not share your personal URL. 

O*Net Interest Profiler – Find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work.

16 Personalities – Get to know your personality and gain career and relationship advice with this free personality assessment.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

O*Net Online – Select your skills and then find matching occupations.

Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) – Review information on what workers do in certain occupations along with the typical work environment, the required education, training, and other qualifications; the average pay; the job outlook; information on state and area data; and similar occupations.

CareerOne Stop Career and Career Cluster Videos – Browse CareerOneStop’s video collection to learn about careers, career clusters, skills and abilities, and more.

BSU Majors and Minors – Access a list of all the majors, concentrations and minors that are available to you as a BSU student.

What Can I Do With This Major? – Learn about typical career paths and types of employers that hire people with each major, as well as strategies to make you a more marketable candidate.

Focus 2 – Log on to your Focus 2 account, scroll down to the Explore the Possibilities section and select What Can I Do With a Major In to see sample position titles that relate to each major.

LinkedIn Alumni Tool  – Talk to BSU alumni to learn about career paths of interest. Check out the LinkedIn & Informational Interviewing Guide for sample LinkedIn messages as well as sample questions that you may want to ask if you schedule an informational interview with a BSU alum.

Traditional Student Program of Study Change Form – This form is meant to be used by current students (who are not a first semester freshman or College of Continuing Studies student) who are interested in changing their major. Questions? Watch the “how to” video.

First Semester Freshmen Program of Study Change Form – This form is meant to be used by First-Semester Freshmen who are interested in changing their major. Questions? Watch the “how to” video.

College of Continuing Studies Program of Study Change Form – This form is meant to be used by current College of Continuing Studies students trying to change to another College of Continuing Studies program or those who wish to change to a College of Continuing Studies program. Questions? Watch the “how to” video.

Minor Add/Drop Form – This form is specifically for those students who are trying to add or drop a minor.

Questions? Contact the Registrar’s Office at 508.531.1231

  • Handshake – Identify job and internship postings, connect with employers and locate career resources
  • Focus2 – Identify your career interests and how they tie to different occupations and career options
  • Forage – Opportunities for SFC students to pursue virtual work experiences provided by employers
  • Parker Dewey – Pursue micro-internships and short-term projects offered by employers
  • LinkedIn Learning – Participate in short-term courses to strengthen your industry knowledge and skills

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Labor Market InsightsIn partnership withLightcast logo

Explore occupations by career categories and pathways and use real time labor market data to power your decision making.

First, choose an industry of interest, then filter for occupation. (If you'd like to see data for a specific location only, filter by state.)

Type in a keyword to select a relevant occupation. (If you'd like to see data for a specific location only, filter by state.)

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Contact & Location

Phone
508-531-1328
Email
careerservices@bridgew.edu
Website
https://careers.bridgew.edu/
Address

Rondileau Student Union (RSU), Room 104
19 Park Avenue
Bridgewater, MA 02325

Office Hours

Monday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm