First-year students receive expert career guidance—even before arriving on campus

Most incoming students spend orientation figuring out their class schedule, getting their ID card, and learning about student services. This summer, 1,180 of them also spent a few minutes answering a different kind of question: What kind of work might actually make them happy?

That question came by way of the Work Interest Assessment, a new addition to Santa Clara University’s new student orientation that the Career Center debuted this July through its Focus2Career platform.

Built on psychologist John Holland’s theory of vocational choice, the assessment sorts students into six personality types—Enterprising, Realistic, Social, Conventional, Artistic, and Investigative—and returns a three-letter Holland Code meant to point them toward careers that fit who they are, not just what they think they should study.

The early results sketch a portrait of Santa Clara’s newest class: 38% of students scored Enterprising as their dominant type, signaling a class drawn toward leadership, persuasion, and entrepreneurship.

For Dylan Houle, executive director of the Career Center, the timing of the assessment matters as much as the results.

“Having students complete this assessment during orientation—before school even starts—helps spark their curiosity about their career goals early on in their college experience,” he says. “During each interactive session, we saw students sharing and chatting with one another about which characteristics of their Holland Code most and least resonated with them.”

Rather than simply hearing an overview of what the Career Center does, students were able to walk away with useful insights that they can start acting on right away. That self-discovery also helps the Career Center employees who will coach them on campus, Houle explains.

“Discernment and self-awareness are critical steps in every student’s career journey. Our students get to know themselves through this assessment, and we get to know our students—it’s a win-win from a career development perspective.”

The Career Center plans to keep that conversation going throughout the year with a series of workshops where students can dig deeper into their results and explore other assessments on the Focus2 platform, including a Myers-Briggs-style personality inventory and a career readiness assessment built around the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ eight core competencies.

And good news, Houle adds. Those workshops—along with employer events, on-campus interviews, and networking receptions—will soon have more room to grow.

This summer, the Career Center is leaving its longtime home in Benson for the second floor of the Locatelli Student Activity Center, doubling the office’s footprint and adding a 40-seat classroom, five private meeting rooms, and easy access to Locatelli’s first-floor event space and the outdoor Kerr Alumni Park.

It’s a fitting upgrade for a career center that’s been recognized in the top 20 nationally by Princeton Review and continues to innovate in a changing job market, helping students answer the ever-evolving question: “What do I want to be?”