Learning about Yourself: Skills, Abilities, Values, Goals, Personality

To develop meaningful goals, it is helpful to first learn about yourself and what is important to you. Examining your values and skills can help steer you in the right academic direction and create an awareness that will enable you to take advantage of the many opportunities available to you.

 A good place to start is at UCSC’s Career Center. The Career Center advisers can help you with the following tools:

• Focus2 - an online assessment tool that can help you find majors and careers

• Career Beam - learn where to start, skills, values, temperament, personality, interests, skills & talents and what career paths would be beneficial to you.

• The Meyers Briggs Type Indicator - a personality preference assessment based on psychoanalyst Carl Jung's theories. The results help you better understand yourself and the career possibilities you may find satisfying.

• The Strong Interest Inventory - identifies your areas of interests, occupations and majors (if applicable) that you may be interested in pursuing.

Information on the tools above and more can be found here. 

Taking the time to explore your personality, values, and skills will be helpful as you explore your major choices. There are a number of internet resources that use assessment exercises to help you find your academic direction.