Major & Career Guide

The Four Steps of Major Decision Making

The major you choose can lead to many different career possibilities. The area you choose to study will shape the way you view the world and have a direct impact on your academic engagement and interest, your passion for learning, and your overall satisfaction with college. Review the steps below to help you more confidently decide on a major and career.

Step One: Self Exploration

Developing self-awareness is the first step in making major/career decisions that are a good fit for you. A self-assessment can help you better understand your values, interests, personality, and strengths.

Start Taking Self-Assessments

Step Two: Generate Ideas

After reviewing the results of your self-assessments, check out the complete list of academic majors at Stony Brook. Now that you have a better understanding of your interests, begin to narrow down your majors of interest.

List of Academic Majors

What Can I Do with This Major?

Provides information on the relationship between specific majors and typical career areas, employers that hire people with each major, strategies to make you a more marketable candidate, and professional associations and other related resources.

Occupational Outlook Handbook: Fields of Degree

Highlights data and information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau for a variety of academic fields. Each page provides a glimpse of workers with the degree and shows occupations, outlook, and more for people in that major.

Step Three: Take Action

Research

Use reliable resources to learn more about majors that interest you and connect them to potential career paths.

Talk

One of the most effective ways to learn about what a major/career is really like is to have informational interviews or career conversations. Talk with:

Professors who teach courses in subjects that interest you
Classmates who have taken courses in your major of interest
Major advisor
Alumni with majors/careers that interest you
Career Coaches in a related Career Community of interest
Family/friends in careers that interest you

Not sure how to conduct an informational interview?

Try

Take action! Find small things that you can do to gain more in depth knowledge of a major or career. Options include:

Sit in on a 100, 200, and 300 level class in the major you are interested in
Attend a meeting for a club/organization related to your major of interest
Attend a Career Center workshop on a topic of interest to you
Spend a few hours shadowing someone in a job of interest
Join a professional organization

Find a relevant job simulation

Step 4: Implementation

Once you have decided on a major, connect with an academic advisor to discuss your major requirements and plan out your academic journey. Connect with the a Career Coach related to potential career paths you are considering.

Connect with an Academic Advisor