Suggested Planning Timelines

Self-Discovery
Learning about who you are and how you want to make an impact is a great place to begin. Career choices that combine your skills, interests, values, and personality are likely to be a good fit.
Ingredients for Making a Well-Informed Decision

Interests are those subjects, objects, topics, and issues that deeply engage you and pique your curiosity, defining what you like to do and how you prefer to do it. Skills are your strengths and abilities, and may reflect analytical, communication, organizational, technical, or creative capabilities. Personality reflects our preferences, and how we like to operate in the world based on our particular combination of preferences. Values reflect the things that are most important to us in both personal and work life, motivating us to do the work we enjoy.
Game Plan
Exploration
Exploring your personal, academic, and career interests enables you to begin to develop career goals. Reflecting on experiences in your classes, internships, student groups, and community will generate many interesting options to consider and learn more about.
Game Plan
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Talk with peers and alumni (see Alumni Directory and LinkedIn) doing work you think is interesting. Ask what they like and dislike about what they do, as well as about pathways into the field.
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Explore your interests through internships, research, volunteering, and/or extracurriculars.
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Follow people or organizations of interest on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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Explore career pathways, read the Vault Guides, and attend talks and workshops on campus to learn about diverse options.
Preparation
Preparing for your next steps may involve developing relevant skills. But it will also involve putting together a strong resume, learning how to write a cover letter, developing graduate school or fellowship applications, understanding the importance of networking, honing your interviewing skills, and developing a timeline for how you’ll achieve your goals.
Game Plan
Action
Once you have some ideas about next steps, you’re ready to move forward!
Game Plan
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Apply for jobs, fellowships, service opportunities, or graduate school.
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Continue to build your network of connections.
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Attend one of our 20+ annual career fairs to learn about opportunities and make connections.
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Be open to considering unexpected opportunities, or different pathways to your goal.
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Note: Some students decide to take a gap year off between high school and college to travel, volunteer, pursue an activity, or engage in some other meaningful experience. Harvard College supports, and in some cases, requires such a “gap year.” Some resources that might be helpful in making this decision and/or identifying activities are: