Connecting Majors to Careers

Trying to figure out what your career goals are and how they connect to your academic studies?

• Search our interactive database of recent Iowa State LAS graduates’ first jobs or plans for further education.
• Set up a Job Alert in CyHire to receive tailored notifications about jobs or internships that you could do with your (considered) major(s).
• Use our Informational Interview Guide to gain career insight from professionals in your field of interest and build your network.
• Schedule an appointment with a career advisor in LAS Career Services in CyHire.

Online resources

• What Can I Do With This Major? provides an overview of common career paths for every major and outlines ways to prepare for each path. There are also links to professional organizations, job boards, and other career-related resources.
• Candid Career features informational interviews with thousands of professionals discussing their career paths and what they enjoy about their work. Search for careers by college major, industry, and career title.
• The Occupational Outlook Handbook, managed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, contains a wealth of data and statistics such as expected job growth, median salaries, and necessary skills for careers in today’s workforce.
• CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, is a compilation of powerful career resources such as personal assessments (i.e., interests, skills, work values), occupation and industry profiles, and video overviews of over 900 professions.
• My Next Move is a U.S. Department of Labor publication that provides easily digestible overviews of careers searchable by keyword, industries, or interests.
• O*Net Online, a U.S. Department of Labor resource, is a database of hundreds of occupation profiles with accurate and regularly updated statistics.
• Iowa Career Explorer, a resource provided by the Iowa Workforce Development Labor Market Information Division, takes the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational data from above and succinctly displays the anticipated number of annual job openings and salaries for each occupation within the state of Iowa.

Career counseling

Student Counseling Services provides individual career counseling to help students improve their career decision-making skills and self-efficacy for making a career choice.

Additional resources for graduate students

• Beyond Grad School and Beyond the Professoriate are online platform that help master’s (BGS) and PhD (BtP) students make the most of their investments and build their careers. Beyond the Professoriate includes advice for careers within and outside academia. Video lessons and guides, live webinars/trainings, and a library of recorded interviews with other grad students provide advice on the full career development process. You can also add the app tiles to your Microsoft Dashboard.
• MyIDP is a compilation of career resources and assessments for graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. in the Sciences that outlines career paths inside and outside academia.
• ImaginePhD is a compilation of career resources and assessments for graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. in the Humanities or Social Sciences that outlines career paths inside and outside academia.