How to choose a major

When going into college, it’s common for us to feel like we don’t know what to major in. But something that helps us are the resources that the Charleston Southern University Career Center suggests. One of these resources is Awato. 

Awato is a website that helps with determining what majors may interest us based on who we are as people. From there, it offers suggestions about majors we may be interested in, details about those majors, what careers can be achieved with them, and ways that can help us work toward that career. 

When you log onto Awato, it offers several assessments to determine what path may be best for you. The assessments are based on your interests, inclinations, values, the 16 types, social tendencies, and aspirations. You can take these assessments in any order you want, but the first three mentioned are what will determine what occupations you may be the best match for. 

When starting the interests assessment, it will ask you what hobbies you enjoy, what disciplines you have, and other general questions that will determine what you want to do in a job. The inclinations assessment asks how much you agree with a prompt that pertains to how you think in certain situations. And the values assessment acts the same but provides prompts about workplace preferences. Once you have taken those three assessments, then Awato will suggest some majors and careers that may interest you. 

The website will take you to the explore page, which will allow you to look at the results of your assessments. They will show you which careers and majors are the best match for you, and you can look at the details of those careers and majors. 

Under careers, you can click on their details. It will tell you the average salary, what education level is required to work in that field and that career’s industry. It then offers a brief description of what that job entails, what you would do in that field, and what the environment is like. It then shows the skills that are associated with that career. The page ends with what aspects of your assessment results show how you are a match but also aspects of your results that show how it may differ from what you’d want from the job. 

Under education, it will offer the majors that Charleston Southern offers. It will show you how long it takes to get a degree in that major and the average cost it takes to pursue that degree. It then offers a summary of the major, skills that apply to the major, and how your assessment results match with aspects of the major.  

After you look at the majors and careers, you can create a pathway that will show how you attain a career or degree that you’re interested in. Similarly, you can set career goals that will show which career you want to go for. 

The 16 types and social assessments are offered to help you understand more about yourself when you are in the workplace. The 16 types assessment asks you questions about what you would do in various situations and then determines your personality by assigning four out of 16 aspects of a personality. The results will show what personality you have, a description of that personality, what careers work best for it, how you function socially, and your strengths and weaknesses. The social assessment will determine your emotional propensity. It will show what strengths you have in emotional situations. 

The aspirations test will help narrow down what specific careers you may be interested in. It starts by asking for a zip code in order to determine regional salaries. It then asks if you are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree. It will then ask how you want the results to be determined, by the previous assessments, based on a selected degree, or a selected career. 

While Awato’s assessments are great tools for discovering your passions, they offer more ways to help you with getting those careers. Under the documents tab, it will show options that will help you with creating a resume and cover letter. 

The cover letter offers a standard template that will show the necessary information you need in a cover letter. It will explain the importance of the parts of the cover letter and offers tips about them. 

For the resume, it will ask if you want to upload a previous resume or start from scratch. If you start from scratch, it will ask you what kind of situation you are in when creating the resume, and then ask for details about what you’ve done that is noteworthy for a resume. It will then ask for the industry you are interested in and ask for a job description that you are applying for. It then creates a resume where you can add information about your previous work experience. 

Overall, Awato is a great place to begin a search for what you want to do in college and what you may want to pursue afterward. The platform can help you with applying for a job and will be a great guide to  achieving your goals. 

Justin Brennan is a senior Charleston Southern student, interning with the Marketing and Communication office.

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