Counseling and Testing

Understanding Yourself
Understanding what interests you and what you are good at will form the basis for identifying a career that will provide satisfaction in your first job—and beyond, as your interests and skills develop over the years. Students often find that discussing and evaluating their interests with a career counselor helps to achieve this personal understanding.

Your First Appointment
In your initial appointment you will be asked to describe your concerns and what you hope to gain from counseling. You and the counselor will decide whether our services are the best campus resource for resolving your concerns. If appropriate, you will be referred to another office on campus or you may decide to continue your counseling here.

Testing
Your career counselor will help you define your concerns, sort out your feelings, and find your own answers. Self-assessment tests may be administered and interpreted during counseling. Because each student's situation is unique, the tests may vary in number and the length of time needed to take them and to interpret those results. Tests offer an opportunity for a new perspective on your concerns but they cannot make better decisions for you than you can.

Tools for Assessing Interests, Skills, and Values
SIGI 3 (System of Interactive Guidance and Information) is a career guidance system using a computer to help you systematically examine your values, interests, and skills. Once you enter your own criteria, the program searches to find careers that most closely match them. It contains nine separate but interrelated sections, which cover all major aspects of career decision-making and planning. You then choose the path through the system that most closely meets your needs. 

Enter your Cornell NetID and password to gain access to SIGI 3. New users click on "Register" and enter new information to set up your personal account. Make a note of your login information so you can save your material and return at a later date. Print materials as suggested while completing the program. Note that the printing option may be extensive and costly using the University's netprint system. It is less expensive on your home printer, or you may access your SIGI account and print without charge in the media room at 103 Barnes Hall. 

We recommend that you discuss your results with a career counselor after completing SIGI. You may also want to take other assessments or tests. See below for other options and available counselors.

The computerized Strong Interest Inventory measures your interests—not your abilities—and takes twenty to thirty minutes to complete. The results are scored and then interpreted in a follow-up appointment with a counselor. The Strong compares your interests with those of people happily employed in a wide variety of occupations and is used to aid in making long-range academic or occupational choices and decisions. 

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) provides a useful measure of temperament by looking at eight personality preferences that all people use at different times. It describes preferences, and can help you identify preferred types of college study and work environments. As with the Strong, follow-up is with your counselor. 

SKILLSCAN is a "card sort" designed to help you determine skills and increase your marketability for employment. It can provide information on self-assessed skills and abilities that you can then use in communicating your skillset to potential employers. You can complete this exercise in about half an hour with the counselor in the office or by yourself in the career library. 

EXPLORE is a booklet of career planning exercises to identify and assess values, skills, and interests, and to help you make decisions regarding choice of a major and of a career direction. It includes a bibliography of books and Web sites useful in career decision-making. Pick one up in our office, or download it above.

Career Counselors
The following counselors are available to assist you with testing and assessment:
Gene Burpee - Students from all colleges at Cornell
Irene Komor - Arts and Sciences students
Laurie Gillespie and Amy Benedict-Augustine - CALS students