Personality is an aspect rarely consulted when students consider which career to pursue.
Lula Fecadu, a fourth-year economics student, recently discovered after taking a personality test in a new UCLA class that level of extroversion may influence which careers she is best fit for.
“I never actually took (personality) into account,” Fecadu said. “(Before, it was) just prestige and money.”
Education 150, a two-unit class targeting students in the College of Letters and Science, will help students investigate their major options and what opportunities each major provides. The class is taught by the UCLA Career Center.
“The purpose of this class is to help students make thoughtful and informed decisions.
Secondly, it is to connect students to employers,” said Kathy Sims, the director of the career center.
UCLA is not the first school to have its career center offer a course for units.
“We aren’t doing anything earthshaking or novel. This is long overdue,” Sims said.
Normally, the career center hosts workshops focusing on career options and placement, but the subject is now being offered as an official class to elicit more student participation. While the class only has two lectures of 30 students each open this quarter, the career center will offer more sections in subsequent quarters.
Currently, the class is on a pass/no-pass grading system, though this will likely change in the future, Sims said.
Although the class is intended for mostly first- and second-year students, third- and fourth-year students are largely enrolled at the moment.
“It felt kind of difficult to explore career options on my own. I didn’t know where to start,” said Preston Kim, a fourth-year business economics student.
Kim, who learned about the class from an e-mail sent by the economics department during the summer, found that the class’ section on altruism and community service helped him realize he wanted to get involved in nonprofit organizations once he graduates.
The class is not to be confused with a different Education 150 course, “Student Development in Theory and Practice,” according to Claudia Luther, a university spokeswoman. This course, taken by future resident assistants, focuses on developmental theories and counseling methods. It is only offered in the spring quarter to people who will be residential assistants the following year.