Career Services

Majors & career exploration

Career guides

Career Action Guide

This Career Action Guide can help students be intentional about building experiences into their education, complementing their academic achievement.

Career Guide

The Career Guide is a more expansive resource for students in different stages of career planning and decision making. It provides information and activities on occupation information; job search strategies; resumes, interviews, and cover letters; graduate school and testing; and networking.

Career decision pyramid

Not sure where to start? Then start here. Follow the Career Decision Pyramid to discover where you are in regards to your career choices.

Career Readiness+ Inventory

Assess your skill and confidence in 4 areas:

• NACE Career Readiness Competencies*
• Social Capital
• Career Mobility Best Practices
• Life Design Mindsets

*These were identified by a national group of employers as critical to students’ success in the job search and in the workplace – Career & Self Development; Communication; Critical Thinking; Equity & Inclusion; Leadership; Professionalism; Teamwork, and Technology.

For each area, you’ll answer 3-5 questions. The assessment should take less than 5 minutes.

Immediately after the assessment, you’ll be provided with your results that include a rating system of:

Emerging Knowledge
• Understanding
• Early Application
• Advanced Application

Your results, which will also be emailed to you, will also contain 1) a comparison of your ratings to the competencies employers deem most important in college students and 2) recommendations for further developing in each competency area.

It’s important to approach reviewing these results with a growth mindset. It’s typical for students to have lots of room for growth in their career readiness competencies. Inventories are valuable tools for self-awareness and growth. Approach the process with a positive attitude and a commitment to continuous self-improvement. Use your self-reflection to set actionable goals to further your skill development and seek out opportunities to showcase your skills.

Take the assessment here!

What can I do with this major?

What Can I Do With This Major?  provides a series of links and handouts provides an excellent starting point for you to think about job titles, possible employers, and ways to build experience in different career fields. Explore multiple majors to learn about a wide range of career opportunities.

Career exploration sites

Candid Career

Candid Career has 7,000 short video clips of professionals sharing the ins and outs of their industry, field, and position.

Interest communities

Interest Community pages have advice, videos, alumni stories, and resources related to 7 career interest areas.

Career Preparation Maps

Career Preparation Maps provide students with guidance on education, hands on learning, and career preparation for each of their UW Bothell degrees. These co-curricular resources help students identify opportunities at UW Bothell based on their intended major or field of interest. The maps are accessible through the Meta-Major Pathways pages next to each degree map.

Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Occupational Outlook Handbook can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations.

Job Market Trend Data

Use this employment data from across the country to help inform your career decision making.

Vault

Vault has detailed, comprehensive guides that help students explore careers, industries and more.

Forage

Forage is a free and open-access online library of employer-designed job simulations. Get a preview of what it is like to work in a particular industry or company with this immersive tool.

WOIS (The career information system)

Use WOIS to explore careers, create goals for your future, make educational plans to reach your goals, and find the training programs and the right schools to help you achieve your dreams. Whether you are ready to find a job right now, or you want to plan for more education and future employment, WOIS has the exploration and planning tools for you!

Access WOIS via the UW network:

Graduate school

Have you considered attending graduate school? Does your career goal require an advanced or graduate degree? Learn the steps to take to apply to graduate school.

Professional and continuing education

Advance your career today! UW Bothell offers a variety of certificate programs to help you gain new skills. UW Bothell also offers courses through Professional and Continuing Education at the UW Bothell and Seattle campuses.

Salary, budgeting and finances

Money can be an important topic to research before you decide on a particular job or career path. Be smart about your finances.

Career courses

BCORE 133 – Reflect, Engage, Prepare  

BCORE 133 is a 2-credit course aimed at helping students explore their intended majors that fall under their respective Meta-Majors: Arts & Media, Health & Natural Sciences, Business & Policy, Technology & Engineering, and Education & Society. There is also a BCORE 133 designed for students who are unaware of what they want academically and/or professionally. Within each 133, students will engage in smaller, weekly activities focused on Major Exploration and Career Planning. In addition to providing both UWB and outside resources, as well as writing assignments aimed at academic/professional reflection and cultivating documents for job searching, there may be guest speakers, co-curricular events, and other campus connections. Please talk with your Academic Advisor to learn which 133 section will fit your Meta-Major best. 

BCORE 233 – Pre-Health Professional Pathways

BCORE 233 is a 2-credit course aimed at helping students explore careers in health to find those that best intersect with their skills and interests. We’ll then learn about the steps needed to prepare for applications. Students ready to apply to graduate and professional health programs will receive additional instruction and support in applying to those programs. 

BISSKL 250 – Career Exploration 

This course addresses personal, educational and career choices. The class will read about, discuss and reflect on the work world, career options, academic pathways and the process of selecting a major and/or career path. Students will research and gather information, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and learn how to make quality career decisions. This will involve career exploration, life/career planning, identifying resources, and developing goals based on individual preferences, skills, life and work values and interests. Sample syllabus (accessible word doc).

BIS 495 – Worlds of Work 

This is the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences internship course. It is designed to integrate the knowledge and skills cultivated in the IAS program with hands-on work experience across a variety of internship sites and collaborative self-reflection on the changing demands and possibilities of work. The learning and skills students gain from the work they do in their internship will be complemented with readings, field research, and online discussions. The is largely an online course meeting only three times throughout the quarter. Sample syllabus (accessible word doc).

CSS 290 – Career Exploration in STEM 

This course will address personal, educational, and career choices. Students will examine strengths, interests, and goals, and use the results to research their desired career. Students will research the best courses (minors, electives) to develop needed skills. The course will involve life/career planning, goals development, resource identification, and career exploration, based on individual preferences, interests, skills, and work values. Sample syllabus (accessible word doc).