College Major Quiz:
10 Key Questions

Take the college major quiz! Answer these 10 questions when want help with choosing a college major or finding the right career.

The College Major Quiz

1) Excitement!

What excites you?

What subjects, topics or fields are you most curious about, whether you’ve knowledgeable about them or skilled in them yet, or not?

2) Your Greatest Gifts and Challenges

What do you, your partner, boss, parents, siblings, friends and other important people in your life say ...

a) ... Are your greatest talents, gifts and abilities?

Do you have an urge to cultivate these?

b) ... Are your greatest weaknesses, barriers or challenges?

Do you have an urge to overcome these?

3) Dealing with Feelings

How would you respond in a situation when someone starts to cry? Would you feel like you are in or out of your comfort zone?

I rate this as question 3 because it's a quick way of determining how well you would enjoy working in social work or the "helping professions."

4) Getting Your Hands Dirty

Do you like to get your hands dirty? In other words, do you like working in the “realistic” or skilled trades where you use your hands a lot and either make or fix things?

5) A Feeling of Importance

Everyone wants to feel and know that they are making a valuable contribution in their work. What gives you a feeling of importance? (What verbs and nouns come to mind?)

6) How Much Does It Mean to You?

What provides you with a sense of meaning in your job, your career, and your life in general?

7) Letting Time Go Lightly

When does time pass quickly for you?

a) What sort of enjoyable or meaningful activity are you involved in during which you lose track of time or are surprised to see how much time has passed by while you were doing it?

b) Have you ever been in a work situation during which you were enjoying it so much or so in tune with it that you completely lost track of time? If so, describe it in as much detail as possible.

8) "If I Had a Million Dollars, I'd ..."

If you had unlimited money and other resources at your disposal and could take the time to train fir any job or career in the world,

a) What would it be?

b) What would you enjoy most about doing that job or career?

c) What would be the very first step for you to take toward getting that job or developing that career?

Again, describe everything in as much detail as possible.

9) "When I Grow Up, I Want to Be ..."

When you were a young child, what sort of work did you imagine you would do when you grew up? What interested you so much about it then?

10) Who Do You Really Want to Be?

What’s gradually, slowly but surely, pulling you along? It feels like you’re being pulled into a particular career avenue, regardless of your present interests or pre-occupations. It’s more lasting than the mere trends and fascinations of the moment or the "flavour of the week."

What seems crazy, but is something that you can’t forget about?

What “keeps coming back for more” despite objections from you, your family, your friends and what you think society expects from you?

Making Decisions and Taking Action

Look over each question in the college major quiz and really think and feel about it. Make hand-written notes to record your thoughts and feelings, no matter how strange they may be.

Be very honest with yourself about each answer in your college major test. If you’re not sure about it, take your time and ponder it. If you are sure about it, make a note of that too, and really honour it.

As much as possible, make a decision about each college major quiz question. Then, you can make a commitment to yourself to move forward and make the changes you need to make in your job and career as a result of that decision.

So many people are doing jobs they hate. If we can take a few moments to be honest with ourselves before we start out on our career, it can save us years of heartache.

You may also enjoy my related article:
Finding the Right Career: Write Answers to these 8 Goal-Building Questions


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