After having completed a significant portion of the career exploration project, I have discovered much about myself. Each step of the project– the reflection and Strong assessment, the identification of a potential career, the draft cover letter, and the creation of a budget– has permitted me to view different aspects of myself that I don’t necessarily think about on a daily basis.
Without a doubt, during the Strong assessment and reflection section, I thought a lot about my own preferences and interests. The Strong assessment was fascinating because it essentially quantified my interests and provided me with a list of different careers that might be compatible with those interests. One of the most prominent takeaways from this assessment was that I have a lot of interests (in Strong assessment terms, I had many “very high” interest levels), and although I already knew this, the assessment made explicit a point that I had not yet really considered– that I would be content with, or at least interested in, many different careers. After identifying a potential career– I chose to explore a position as a classics professor– I was able to really think about the vast range of duties of a professor and imagine myself fulfilling those duties. In doing so, I realized that I am someone that enjoys variation in my schedule. Lastly, after learning how to make a budget, I became increasingly aware of the fact that I am sort of a minimalist when it comes to expenditures.
Owen Schuster
