Career Resources

Click HERE for the Virtual Career Fair. 

Click HERE for a list of local job opportunities. 

• "What do you want to do after you graduate from high school?"
• "What is your intended major in college?"
• "Where do you want to go to college?"

So many choices, options, and decisions to make while you are still juggling high school!

Have no fear!  You are not alone if you have no idea where to begin your career or college search! 

Think about the following suggestions to begin your post-secondary planning:

1. Evaluate Yourself! 

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Look at your transcript; which classes did you do well in or enjoy?
• List your favorite hobbies, interests and clubs or organizations you are apart of. They may include writing, taking care of animals, trends in fashion, cooking, visual and performing arts, traveling, helping friends, sports, environmental issues and many others! These areas may indicate areas that you may want to pursue as a career, college major or training program. 
• Use www.mynextmove.org to assist in your career research and planning!

2. Complete Character Assessments in Maia Learning

• Career Interest assessment in Maia Learning
• Can take multiple times to provide suggestions for matching careers
• Work Values assessment
  • Provides a spectrum of values you feel are most to least important
• Learning and Productivity assessment

  • Provides suggestions on how the student learns best, in what environment and their preferences in work performance 

• Personality Type Assessment
  • Results are rooted around the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and discusses possible strengths and weaknesses

• Determine if there are similarities between the different assessments or common career clusters (i.e. health care, education, business, engineering, skilled trades, etc...) 

3. Volunteer, job shadow, join clubs and gain exposure in your field of interest.  Explore these sites below:

• List of WTHS clubs and extra-curricular organizations
• Hospital Volunteer Contacts
• Volunteer Opportunities in Lake County
• Accounting-Information about different types of accounting careers, best accounting schools and accounting scholarships
• Engineering-Information about different types of engineering careers and universities which offer specific engineering majors
• Health Careers-Information about different types of health careers and job opportunities
• Occupational Outlook Handbook-The most recognized source of career information and job trends; updated every 2 years 

4. Finding the right fit in a college or university

Community College vs. Four-Year Colleges/Universities:

• Finding the right plan for you requires an understanding of your values, skills and interests.  One factor you should consider is how your learning style matches the educational institutions that you are considering attending.  If you prefer classes that relate directly to a particular career, and/or a more hands-on approach to education, you may want to consider beginning your education at a community college or technical school.  Or, you might decide that you want to begin college coursework, however you do not want to move away from home or attend a four-year institution quite yet.  Community colleges can help ease the transition from high school to college.  Of course, the decision of whether to attend a two-year college or four-year college is not this simple.  We want to remind you of the importance of considering who you are when you are deciding on what type of institution to attend.

Consider Personal Factors

• When researching and comparing colleges, you will want to consider your personal preferences such as selectivity (admission competitiveness), type of school (public or private), majors offered, size, location, activities available, faculty-to-student ratio, composition of the student body, facilities, special programs available, housing, and cost.  It is a good idea to have in mind what is most important to you before you begin exploring schools.  Many students benefit from using a comparison worksheet. 

PLEASE NOTE: All through your own process of deciding where you want to apply to college or what you want to do for a career, remember that your counselor, post-secondary counselors and the resources of the College & Career Center are available for you.  The websites listed above are general references only. We do not endorse any website or company and suggest caution when users are asked to fill out an optional quiz/survey or any contact information as part of the website offering.