Student Support Career Counselling

The work world is vast and constantly changing. It’s important to learn what options are available to you and which of them fit your interests, strengths, personality, values, and needs. 

 Resources To Help You Explore Your Options 

What Can I Do With My Major? 

Use the What Can I Do With My Major created by UBC Okanagan to learn about different jobs that you can do with the major or program area you are pursuing or considering. Here are similar sites created by UBC and the University of Toronto. 

WorkBC.ca 

This is an important website if you plan to work in BC after college. Visit the Explore Careers page to learn more about different careers and their earnings and outlook in BC. Visit the Career Trek page to watch videos that “bring 147 careers to life” through interviewing real-life BC residents working in those jobs! 

worxica.com 

Get a real-world snapshot of the industry demand in careers you're pursuing and identify future employers. You can also find the skills and certifications local employers require in your selected occupation. Visit worxica.

Services To Help You Explore Your Options 

Langara's Co-op and Career Development Centre offers workshops on informational interviews, which is a great way to learn about a job or field you’re interested in through connecting with someone who works in that role or area and asking questions about their experience.

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”  
- Nelson Mandela 

Once you have come to know more about yourself and your career options, it is time to make choices, such as choosing a degree or major or choosing a career path. It is natural to feel anxiety about making a choice. Often, students feel pressure to make the “right” choice. However, there is no right choice when it comes to difficult decisions, such as choosing a career. We can make informed choices based on our reflection of the information we have about ourselves, our options, and the best fit between our values, interests, strengths, and available opportunities. 

It is also important to remember that it is the norm to change jobs many times over your career and even change careers one or more times throughout your lifetime! Making good choices is something you will do over and over again, so even if you get it "wrong", you learn even from these experiences, which helps you make even better choices in the future. 

Resources To Help You In Decision-Making 

Decision-making Matrix. 

Use this tool to evaluate various options based on different criteria and how important each criterion is in your choice. Understanding your priorities, goals, and values will help you to figure out which criteria to use in this matrix. Review the Decision-making Matrix

Rational Decision Making 

Once you have researched your options, identify the pros and cons of each option, the values and needs satisfied by each option, and the risks involved with each option. Knowing this information, identify which options fit you best. 

Intuitive Decision Making

In vital matters … the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves.” - Sigmund Freud

The book Blink by Malcom Gladwell explores how our intuition, our inner knowing without conscious reasoning, often helps us make good choices when used appropriately. Ways we can tap into our intuitive decision-making include: (1) imagining each choice and seeing how you feel, and (2) making a choice in the morning and evening for several days and seeing which choice is more frequent, if there are any patterns, and how you feel.

Services To Help You In Decision Making 

Counselling Services offers career counselling sessions to help you with your academic program and career decision-making. Book an appointment with Counselling Services »

Once you have made a choice (congrats! That is no easy feat!), it is time to plan and then take action! 

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
- Benjamin Franklin

Resources To Help You Take Action

“ SMART Action Plan 

Do not underestimate the importance of action planning. Identify your goal and take some time to work it into specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based action steps. Don’t forget to think about what barriers you might face that will affect your ability to take action and succeed in your goal. For example, do you struggle with procrastination? Does your goal include getting into a career or program that is highly competitive? What supports, resources, and strategies will you need to address these barriers? 

Indeed and Other Job Search Websites 

Indeed and other job search websites are an essential place to find and apply for jobs you are interested in. These websites also help you learn more about the diversity of jobs out there, which companies are hiring for roles you are interested in, and the standard educational requirements for jobs you want. 

Networking Matters

 Although applying to jobs online is essential, it is also relatively straightforward (you can be in your pajamas on your couch applying to several jobs before the next episode of your Netflix show) and that means everyone does it and your resume is likely to get lost in a large stack of applications. Networking offers opportunities to build genuine connections that can help you hear about jobs that are not posted online and help potential employers set you apart from the stack of papers they have to go on when considering candidates. It’s harder and it’s also, like gardening, a long-game in which you don’t know which connection will offer opportunity. Regardless, it is an essential and powerful part the job search process. Read the Networking Matters article.

Services to Help You Take Action

 The Co-op and Career Development Centre offers workshops on resume and cover letter writing, LinkedIn, job search, and interview prep. 

Gastown Vocational Services (GVS) offers career planning and job readiness support for individuals with a mental health diagnosis.