For Cal Parents

Choosing a Career

Myth vs. Reality
Career Center Resources
How You Can Help

Myth vs. Reality

Myth: Most students know their career goals when they enter college.

Reality: Most students who come to Cal as freshmen do not know what career they want to pursue, and plenty do not make a definite choice before they graduate.

Myth: It’s best to choose a career that you can plan to stick with for life.

Reality: Although many students worry about choosing the "right" career before leaving Cal, it is very common for people to change careers several times over the course of a lifetime. Career planning is an ongoing, never-ending process. And many occupations that will be available within a student’s lifetime may not even exist yet!

Myth: A career should be chosen based on career field market demand.

Reality: It is very risky to choose a career based on market demand because there are constant fluctuations in the market. A career that exists today may become obsolete tomorrow. On the other hand, careers that do not exist today may be tomorrow's "hot jobs." It is very difficult to make risk-proof predictions when it comes to career decisions. Therefore, it is important that students seriously take into account what matters to them in terms of their interests, values, and preferred skills as well as paying attention to industry and employment trends and cultivating their ability to adapt to changes in the world around them.

Career Center Resources

At the Career Center we help students engage in making informed decisions and gain perspective about the career development process.

Making a good career choice generally depends on three things:

Evaluating oneself - improving awareness and understanding of one's interests, skills, and motivations
Researching the World of Work - learning what kinds of jobs, employers, and career fields fit with one’s interests, abilities and values
Making decisions that take into account both of these sets of knowledge.

The Career Center offers:

Career Counseling and Self-Assessment tools to help students identify their interests, skills and values and related career options to explore
Online information about Career Fields and Employer & Industry Guides for students to investigate a wide variety of industries, career paths, and employers
Career Exploration Programs/Workshops
Internships.berkeley.edu, a section of our website that provides resources for students to find opportunities to gain experience that can inform their career decisions
Externship Program - opportunities for undergraduate students to get a taste of the “real world” by shadowing alumni in the workplace
10+ Career & Internship Fairs and hundreds of Employer Info Sessions that students can attend to learn about different jobs, employers and industries
@cal Career Network – a database of Cal alumni who have volunteered to share their career experiences and knowledge with students through informational interviews.

How You Can Help

Listen to your son or daughter about the different career choices he or she is considering. If you are unfamiliar with or concerned about the options being presented to you, try to be receptive to hearing about what makes them compelling
Encourage your son or daughter to:
- come to the Career Center early on to take advantage of all that it has to offer before leaving Cal; if he or she is anxious about choosing a career, suggest making an appointment with a Career Center counselor
- follow his or her interests and if need be, explore a variety of career fields, by reading about them, talking with individuals working in them, and seeking out opportunities to get hands-on experience and "reality test" different roles and environments
Help your son or daughter identify his or her strengths and occupations that might be suitable without letting your personal biases carry too much weight
Share your own educational and work history. Talk openly and honestly about your current job, including both the pros and cons
Help your son or daughter develop a list of people in your network of friends and relatives working in fields that might be of interest to contact for informational interviews

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