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This is
a tough one for many students - how do you
choose?
Choosing a
possible major or field of study will help you
narrow down choices for transfer colleges and
help you pick courses that will apply to your
major. Still, it's really difficult to
know what you'll want to do as a career when
you're a student in college.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do
to explore majors while you're here.
Take advantage of the experience of others
around you as you make this journey.
Here are some ways to explore:
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- Take courses to
explore majors. "Introduction"
courses are designed to present an overview of
subject areas and often discuss careers
opportunities within those fields.
- Look at typical
careers associated with specific majors:
- Take Montgomery
College's DS
103, Career Development, to learn the
process of career planning. Students take
career interest inventories to match your skills
and interests to specific career areas and
investigate careers in depth. DS 103 is
offered on all three campuses and as a Distance
Learning on-line course.
| DS 103 |
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT |
1
semester hour |
DS-Student
Development |
| Course
Description: Teaches
how to plan, establish, or change a
career. Includes process of establishing
or implementing career goals; assessment
of values, interests, and skills plus
their relationship to occupations;
analysis of labor market needs;
identification of employers and sources of
occupation information; and means of
securing employment (proposals, resumes,
applications, and job interviews). One
hour lecture/discussion each week. |
- Use career
exploration sites on the Web:
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| Explore
Experiential Learning |
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Nothing beats
throwing yourself into the work environment that
you are considering. This can be done
through internships, volunteering, summer or part
time jobs, study abroad or service learning
opportunities. Don't miss any of these
chances to test a career.
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Internships allow
you to do an actual job that interests you, like a
regular employee. Interns usually have more help
and guidance while learning to do a job.
Internships provide
more than exposure to jobs. Internship experience
may help you get a job. Employers like to hire
people with experience, and sometimes hire their
most successful interns.
Internships are
available to college students, whose education and
training may be appropriate for many jobs.
Internships usually last several weeks to a few
months. They may offer pay, school credit or both.
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| Montgomery
College Opportunities |
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| Conduct Your
Own Search for an Internship |
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Use a search engine
like www.google.com
and type in a variety of phrases to generate some
possibilities. For example, you might try
"internships psychology Rockville" as a
first attempt and see what pops up. Vary it
a bit each time to enlarge or reduce your scope -
you might try "internships psychology
MD", "internships psychology
Maryland", "mental health internships
Maryland" etc.
You can also search
for internships by going to specific company
websites and surfing around under
"Employment" or "Human
Resources." For example, you
could go to the National
Institute of Standards and Technology site
(find it by typing in the organization name in google
) and look in the Employment link - bingo!
Remember that many
students go for the big name companies and
organizations, so competition for internships may
be intense. If you offer yourself as an
intern at a smaller / local company, they may not
have a formal intern program but they may be very
willing to put you to work. A smaller
organization may be able to give you more
responsibility in handling a variety of tasks.
Have a resume ready
before you begin your search. Make use of
MC's resume writing services to polish up your
form.
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| Internship
Listings on the Web: |
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Many, many
companies & organizations list internship
vacancies on the Web. Remember that everyone
else is searching this way, too, so actual
opportunities may be limited. This is a good
way to get an idea of the types of internships
that exist, and perhaps you can market yourself as
an intern for a local company after you see the
kinds of things that interns generally do.
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Volunteering can
provide three wonderful benefits - an opportunity
to explore a career field, an opportunity to build
your resume for college, scholarship and
employment applications, and the opportunity to
contribute to your community and the world at
large. A great place to begin searching for
placement begins with Montgomery County's
Volunteer Center www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgtmpl.asp?url=/content/citizen/volunteering.asp
Check out other possible listings in the
MC Career Centers.
Other sites:
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..Go
on to Step 4
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