First Generation Career Resources

Career and Major Exploration

What Can I Do With this Major? - Features 100 major profiles with information on common career paths, types of employers that hire in the field, and strategies to maximize opportunities. Scroll to the bottom of each profile for links to professional associations, occupational outlook information, and job search resources.

Focus 2 is a career, major, and education planning system where you can explore in an online, self-directed environment:

• Career possibilities
• Map your traits to specific career possibilities. Then, research the career options using the site's database of occupational information.
• What I can do with a major from UHCL
  Discover occupations you can pursue with your chosen major here at UHCL

Texas Reality Check: Texas Reality Check will show you how much your living expenses will cost, and the amount of money you will need to earn to pay for them.

Job/Career Research Guide: UHCL Alfred R. Neumann Library

Job and Internship Resources

Jobs4Hawks Powered by Handshake: Find full- and part-time job postings on and off campus.

Job Search Guide: Career Services UHCL offers a number of resources to help you succeed while you're a student and after you graduate. Our office collaborates with program faculty and key university departments and is connected to other valuable campus resources to support you on an academic and personal level.

Grad School

Career Advice for First-Generation Grad Students: Inside Higher Ed article that offers six key pieces of advice from a First-Generation graduate student on transitioning from academe to the world of work.

Additional Career Resources

Career Closet: Free resource for students to obtain new or gently used professional attire to wear for interviews, career fairs, employment site visits, presentations, banquets, etc.

Qualified Applicants Only: Don't Be Intimidated By A Job Description
Article From Ivy Exec, that will help explain why you shouldn't be intimidated by job descriptions.

How to Build Your Network as a First-Generation Student: Article Harvard Business Review discussing that one of the reasons students, especially those from underrepresented and low-income communities, struggle to end up in good first jobs is the lack of access to a strong network.

Career Development For First-Generation Students: NACE Journal survey conducted in March 2021 among 300 first-generation students who took part in the First-Generation Career Leadership Experience event identified three critical skill areas that should be integrated into career and leadership development programs to position first-generation students for post-graduation career success: relationship management skills, virtual work skills, and leadership skills.

The "Imposter Syndrome": Chronicles of First Generation College Students: Blog post from La Comadre where a student describes her experience in her first job after college. Describing how she felt like an imposter in the early days at her new job, and how she combats feeling like an imposter in any setting.