Explore Career Options by Prototyping

A pile of colorful post-it notes with several pens and highlighters sitting nearby.

How do you know if a job or career is a good fit?
Easy – just try it! In other words, prototype!

A hand moves colorful sticky notes around on a whiteboard.

What Is Prototyping?

Prototyping is trying something out on a small scale and in a low-stakes environment.

This is POWERFUL for choosing a career or area of study. The goal is to find out if you
want to study that topic, pursue it as a career, or even make a hobby of it!

One orange lego piece on a large dark blue lego base.

Why Prototype?

Prototyping can give you data to make well-informed career decisions. Through this method, we learn what works for us and what doesn’t.

Prototyping your career choices:

Engages others in similar fields
Reduces risk
Exposes your assumptions

A woman with painted nails drawing a detailed flow chart.

How Do You Prototype?

Ideal prototypes should be:

Cheap: You don’t want to invest too much initially into something that may not work.
Quick: Your time is valuable, and you want to learn as much as you can as fast as you can.
Easy: There should be little resistance to getting started.

Prototype Conversations

What has your experience been like?
What skills/experiences are most useful in your role?
What does your day-to-day life actually look like?
What have you loved/hated about the work/field?
What tips do you have for getting started in the field?

Check out our full guide!

Prototype Experiences

Little colorful lego bricks are interspersed with the words "Try it out!" and "See how it feels!"

Or even browse a textbook in an area you’re curious to explore – see if the content interests you!

Follow someone around for a morning! Someone working in the field – if you don’t know who to ask, meet with a career counselor for pointers! Or find someone on Rams Connect; the professionals in that platform would LOVE to connect with you.

Do some volunteer work for an organization that interests you. Perhaps it’s an organization doing the type of work you’d like to be involved in or perhaps someone at the organization has the type of role you would like. Either way, volunteering could help you to get your foot in the door and gain an understanding of whether or not you truly would like to pursue that line of work!

Take on a related role in a club, e.g. become a treasurer, secretary, or social media manager!

You have free access to LinkedIn Learning while you’re a student! You might as well utilize that resource and gather some additional expertise on your area/s of interest.

Build something relevant – maybe a website! Or a marketing plan for your favorite coffee shop! You can totally put this content onto your resume even if it wasn’t paid.

Apply for a paid micro-internship on Parker-Dewey’s website. These are a fantastic was to explore a variety of career options – especially marketing!

Read 5 job descriptions on LinkedIn, Handshake, or Indeed. Do they sound interesting to you? Can you imagine yourself in the role?

Do a free virtual experience with Forage, where you can spend 2-6 hours working your way through a simulated work experience for a well-known company.

Find a part-time job in the field – it doesn’t have to be exactly what you want to do in the future, but might allow you to interact with professionals in positions of interest.

Interning is a more robust prototype and is one of the BEST ways to get a sense of whether a role/field would be a good fit for you!