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Dear career changer: It can be difficult and stressful when you find yourself in a job that you no longer enjoy. However, the good news is that you do have options. Your first option is to try to change your job or your work environment to better suit your personality and abilities. Sometimes it can be a lot easier and less expensive to change your environment than to walk away from a career altogether. On the other hand, sometimes it is time for a major change, and a career counselor can help you explore this possibility. If you are not a student here, many community colleges offer career counseling. These services can be free or inexpensive for students and non-students. If you are a student enrolled at NIU, you are very welcome to set up an appointment for career counseling. We have professional counselors available to assist you with your career development needs. You asked for "career assessment," and if you and your counselor think it will be helpful, we can have you take one or two useful career tests for a small fee. Then, you and your counselor will go over the test results so that you have a good understanding of what the results really tell you. Just call the Counseling Center at 815-753-1206. You can also come to the Career Resource Center at NIU, which is in the Campus Life Building Room 235. There you can find many books about the career transition, graduate schools, and the areas you mentioned. Also, the Internet can help you get a lot of information about jobs and graduate schools. One helpful site is NIU major weblinks: http://www.stuaff.niu.edu/csdc/major/Weblink.htm At that site you can click on any undergraduate major we offer and find a list of some of the jobs you can get in these fields. Those jobs will often have links to other useful websites. Your career counselor can point you to many other websites that give useful information about career changing and graduate schools. Finally, if you are not currently a student but are an alumnus of NIU, the staff of the Career Planning & Placement Center of NIU would be happy to work with you and answer questions on your career development getting into graduate school. You can call them at 753-1641. I hope this information helps you in your quest. If you have additional questions, feel free to call the counseling center at 815-753-1206. Good luck! Barb |