Our career coaches help you think about career and life planning in a structured way. Through the basics of life design, you can learn how design thinking mindsets like curiosity, prototyping (trying stuff), reframing problems, and asking for support can help you design and build a fulfilling career.
Meet Your Career Coach
Our career exploration coaches are here to help you get started, work through feelings of doubt, talk through your ideas, and connect with specialized industry resources when you are ready.
Career Exploration Process
These steps will guide you through an iterative process of discovery, action, and reflection to empower you to design a life of meaning and purpose.
Learn About Yourself
Before you make career decisions, we encourage you to invest time into learning more about yourself. Identifying your skills, interests, and values will equip you with the critical self knowledge needed when exploring career fields and different pathways. If you would like to debrief any of your results, please make an appointment with a career exploration coach on Handshake.
Assess your interests, skills, and values and map your results to BC-specific majors and careers. Access Code: Eagles
Discover how your interests, skills, personality, and goals intersect.
Identify your personality type and gain insight into how you make decisions, interact with other people, and process information.
Reflect on your social identities and how they impact your career development.
Consider your views on work and life and their integration.
Brainstorm possible futures for yourself by creating three different potential versions of your life.
Discover Career Paths
It can be difficult to know where to begin when exploring potential career paths. However, the more you expose yourself to, and the more information you gather, the better prepared you will be to make a decision about your next steps. As a BC student, you have access to multiple resources that allow you to learn broadly about different industries and deeply about specific professions.
Explore career paths and curated industry guides.
Learn what it is like to work within an industry, a company, or a profession.
Information on job duties, education, training, pay, outlook and more for hundreds of occupations.
Review 100 major profiles with information on common career paths and types of employers.
Connect with BC alumni to learn about real life experiences and find mentors.
Explore first destinations of BC graduates by school, major, industry, location, and more.
Check out BC classes that will expose you to areas of interest.
Get First Hand Experience
Once you’ve found yourself curious about a few areas, the next step is taking action. There is no need to make a commitment right away; it’s critical to take small steps to try different things out before making a decision. Designers call this step prototyping.
Explore internship & entry-level job opportunities.
Connect with BC alumni mentors to learn about work experiences.
Find & connect with students who completed internships you may be interested in.
Make an impact and boost your career by exploring opportunities at the Volunteer & Service Learning Center.
Build Skills
Discover the keys to success with skill-building resources, hands-on projects, and networking opportunities. These diverse opportunities will equip you with the practical skills and connections needed to shape your career path.
Reflect
Designers emphasize the necessity of collaboration during the design thinking process. After each career exploration step, it’s important to reflect on what you learned—what excited you, what you’re curious about, what you didn’t like, etc., in order to feel more confident moving forward. Having sources of support is invaluable in your career journey; consider discussing your journey with career coaches, advisors, faculty, and peers.
Our career coaches are here to partner with you on your career journey. We offer several types of coaching services, including drop-in hours, career exploration appointments, and industry-specific appointments. Faculty and academic advisors can also be supportive when thinking through your personal journey.
Participating in mentorship programs can have a beneficial effect on a student's career exploration journey. Such programs offer guidance, insights, and a supportive network that encourages reflection, self-discovery, and informed decision-making about future careers.
Journaling can help you process your feelings about career exploration-related experiences, including projects and accomplishments, and what you’ve learned in the process. It's also a great place to record advice from mentors.
Resources to help you explore
A resource to help you identify your personality type. Your results can guide you as you reflect on how you relate to others, how you get your energy, how you receive and organize information, and how you make decisions.
A resource to help you discover how your interests, skills, personality, and goals intersect. Get real-time recommendations on careers and industries to consider, then meet with a career coach to review your results and determine next steps.
- First Year and Exploring
- Communication, Arts, and Marketing
- Consulting, Finance, and Business
- Education, Nonprofit, and Social Impact
- Government, Law, and Public Policy
- Healthcare, Nursing, and Counseling
- Science, Technology, and Engineering
Cluster, Counseling, Advising
The Career Center has organized careers into seven groups to support the diverse interests of Boston College students. To start off, our career exploration tool will help you discover how your skills, interests, and values fit with potential career options.
Every class, job, internship, and leadership position is preparing you for a meaningful personal and professional life. The ability to recognize and articulate how these experiences are helping you develop the skills employers are seeking will help you in all stages of the career development process.
Through reflective exercises, conversations with alumni, and industry immersions with employers, you will explore the fit of a few career options and leave knowing at least one career field you are interested in further exploring.
Endeavor is a free three-day career exploration program held over winter break that will empower you to take control of your career journey.
A major and career exploration platform that will guide you through a series of self assessments. Your assessment results are then matched to career and BC-specific major options.
Artificial intelligence (AI), including ChatGPT, has emerged as a powerful career development tool, used to streamline job and internship searches, enhance application materials, and even provide tailored career advice. It also has limitations, like potential biases in algorithms and the inability to replace human insights and connections.
A resource that can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, outlook, and more for hundreds of occupations. If you're wondering what job titles actually mean or how to prepare for a career in a specific industry, this is an easy-to-navigate tool to help you.
Use the Boston College Career Outcome Data to explore the types of experiences Boston College seniors pursue after graduation. The interactive outcomes dashboard allows you to explore first destinations of graduates by school, major, industry, location, and more.
Use the Career Center's Summer Experience Dashboard to explore the types of experiences Boston College students completed over the summer.
Find out what it's like to work within an industry, a company, or a profession. View the Career Guides for up-to-date information on a variety of careers as well as interviewing strategies and job search tips.
