Based on the book "You Majored in What" by Katharine Brooks, this will help walk you through the process of creating a wandering map.

1. Getting from Major to Career
Based on the book:
You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career
by Katharine Brooks, Ed.d.
NMU Career Services
Melissa Sprouse, Assistant Director

2. The QUESTION
• What’s your major?
• What are you going to do with that??

3. The Linear Path
Hard to break this kind of thinking –
it’s ingrained in our culture!
At Two: Oh cute, you like firetrucks?
I bet you’ll be a firefighter.
High School Graduation: What’s
next? Have you decided what you’re
going to school for?
Junior Year: You’re an art major?
What are you going to do with
that??

4. … it’s a lie.
The problem is a few things.
The roots of this come from a method of career
analysis developed in 1909….
Today’s workforce isn’t clearly defined by majors…
Often it’s based in a desire to be financially
successful. Studies have shown a weak correlation
between your major and your income – it’s much
more closely linked to your location, your field of
work, and your job title.

5. Consider Chaos
Theory
• Ask real alums how they got their jobs. Most stories have some
element of the unpredictable.
• Butterfly Effect – an unplanned event that ends up significantly
influencing the outcome
• Consider this story…

6. Quick Overview of Chaos Theory
• Originally developed to help predict
weather.
• Helps us understand that too many
variables in a complex system make them
outcome hard to predict.
• Assess what we currently know, what we
cannot know, and what we can learn.
• Abductive reasoning is important – can’t
base decisions on single factors/traits
• Change occurs constantly, and the
unpredicted/unexpected will occur.
• The system will ultimately reveal an order.
Sometimes you’re just too close to see it.

7. Take a minute to think -
What variables might affect your
career path?
• Family
• Level of education
• Skills & talents
• Job market
• Where you want to live
• What you know :
• Have a variety of interests
• Unsure of decisions
• What you don’t know:
•
• What you can learn:
•

8. Chaos Theory & Behavior
• Several types of attractors help
control behaviors:
• Point attractors (move us to or away
from something… drawn to a party,
getting a raise),
• Pendulum attractors (two or more
points we move between… like
choosing between grad school or
working??),
• Strange attractors (random events
that don’t repeat)
• Torus attractors (cycles of behavior
we repeat… like procrastination)

9. Any “butterfly moments” in your life?
• Day you chose NMU?
• Day someone gave you
valuable advice?
• Day you learned a new skill?
• Decision your parents made?
Unexpected Event:
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
Result:
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________

10. Wandering Map
What? Why are we doing this??
• Brainstorm new ways of
viewing/understanding your
past.
• Identify themes and threads
• Break out of linear thinking
• Order in chaos
• Vision for planning future
• Get excited!
Okay. Keep this in mind:
1. It WILL be a work in progress
2. No rules. You don’t have to
finish today, you don’t have
the know the answers today,
you don’t have to make
something perfect, you don’t
need to include things that
your parents think are
important.

11. Let’s take 15 minutes….
• Think about all the interesting and
significant things you’ve done, or have
happened to you. Go as far back as
feels important to you.
• Unique jobs? Classes?
• Summer experiences?
• What are you most proud of?
• Hobbies?
• Awards or honors?
• Particularly valuable lesson?
• Knowledge you rely on, developed from
your education and/or experience?
• Write them down.
Not just what you
think is career-
related, but
whatever comes to
mind. KEYWORDS
not sentences.
• Don’t try to organize
them, just get them
out of your head.
• 10 or 40 or 400

12. • Objects you use and/or enjoy:
• Computers
• Musical instruments
• Books
• Binoculars
• Skateboards
• Telescopes or microscopes
• Sailboats
• Paintbrushes
• Journals
• Events in your life:
• Jobs you’ve held, wonderful or awful
• Taking a fantastic class
• Tutoring a child
• Baking cookies for holidays
• Designing a web site
• Acting in a school play
• Running for office
• Playing sports
• Creative projects
• Adventures/risks you’ve taken
• Assignments/papers you’re proud of
• Family heritage/culture
• Hobbies
• Ideas you developed
• Internships
• Places you’ve traveled
• Summer activities or vacations
• Volunteer activities
Think
about:

15. Objects you use and/or
enjoy:
• Computers
• Musical instruments
• Books
• Binoculars
• Skateboards
• Telescopes or microscopes
• Sailboats
• Paintbrushes
• Journals
Events in your life:
• Jobs you’ve held,
wonderful or awful
• Taking a fantastic
class
• Tutoring a child
• Baking cookies for
holidays
• Designing a web site
• Acting in a school play
• Running for office
• Playing sports
• Creative projects
• Adventures/risks
you’ve taken
• Assignments/papers
you’re proud of
• Family
heritage/culture
• Hobbies
• Ideas you developed
• Internships
• Places you’ve traveled
• Summer activities or
vacations
• Volunteer activities

16. 1. Identify Categories
(5 mins)
• Are you surprised by any?
• Are there categories you weren’t
expecting to see?
• Is there a pattern?
• Does any one category have a lot
of items?

17. 2. Identify Themes and
Threads (5 mins)
• Does anything follow you from
elementary school to college?
• Is there a pattern to the types of
jobs you’ve held?
• What might your experiences
have in common?
• What did you learn/strengths
did you gain

18. Ideas for Themes & Threads
• Achievement/Awards
• Alone or with others
• Animals
• Art
• Computers
• Creative ideas
• Doing or Thinking
• Drama
• Family
• Fun
• Hobbies
• Learning
• Internal or external
motivated
• Indoors or outdoors
• Risky or safe
• Roles you’ve played
• Solving problems
• Reading
• Research
• Analytic
• Communication
• Counseling
• Detail/follow-through
• Interpersonal
• Presentation/Perform
• Serving/Helping
• Thinking Strategically
• Challenge
• Leadership
• Justice
• Harmony
• Power
• Spirituality
• Variety
• Wealth
• Friendship
• Expertise
• Diversity
• Health

19. • Share your map with your
neighbor, to see if they can identify
themes or connections you might
have missed.
• Consider showing this to others
who might help you make some
connections about yourself –
friends, roommates, parents,
adviser, etc.
Show and Tell

20. Think about the following questions:
1. If you’re having trouble seeing your themes, ask yourself “If a miracle
occurred tonight and I could suddenly see my themes, what do I think
they’d be?”
2. What 2 or 3 items are you most proud of? What skills/behaviors did you
use to accomplish them? How might you apply those in a work-type
setting?
3. On a scale of 1-10, which theme do you rank as most important and why?
4. If you knew you couldn’t fail, which one of these themes would you keep
pursuing?
5. What theme would you like to take a step toward pursuing in the next 24
hours? What step would you take?

21. That’s great but… what do I do with it??
• The map process is designed to
help you identify key themes,
skills, interests, values, and other
important aspects of your life,
but isn’t meant to point you
directly at a career.
• Part of that “Assess what you
know and don’t know” part of
chaos theory.

22. Mapping Your Major
Let’s take a quick look at
your major, what you’re
getting out of it, and how
you can use what you’re
learning to set yourself
apart in the job search
(whatever that looks like!)
Hooray, another map!

23. 1. Put your major in the center,
draw a circle around it.
2. Scatter the following words on
your paper, drawing a circle
around each one.
1. Courses
2. Skills
3. Theories or ideas
4. Interesting items
5. Knowledge
6. Related courses from other
departments
7. Future
3. Jot down ideas related to each of
the categories and draw circles
around them as well.
4. If you’re stuck, find a “major-
buddy” who can help you fill in
some blanks.

25. Afterwards:
5. Take a step back –
• What pops out?
• What’s the most interesting part?
• What ‘speaks’ to you?
• How have you done something
unique with your major?
• How have you tailored it to fit your
interests?
• Series of courses on a specific aspect
of your major (concentration?)
• What skills did you learn?
6. Pull it together –
List three characteristics
you’ve developed or
acquired from your major

26. Quick review
Pull out your Wandering map.
• Do you have a point attractor – a field, job, or activity that seems to call you?
• Do you have a bunch of attractors, so many that you don’t know where to
start?
• Do you have no attractors? Nothing interests you because you don’t know
what’s out there?
• Is your attractor something that seems unattainable? Why?
• Are you being advised by your parents, professors or others to pursue a
particular path? Do you agree with them? Is it YOUR attractor or theirs?
• Do you have those pesky pendulum attractors pulling you in disparate
directions with no middle ground to be seen?

28. The Last Map

29. Mapping Your Possible Lives
1. Write your current status in the center.
2. Write down 2-10 possible lives all over
the paper, in no particular order.
• Include one blank circle for the yet
undiscovered career
• Don’t censor your ideas
• No limitations (other than the laws of physics
or physiology)
• Don’t consider education or talent
• Don’t consider the salary
• Jot them down, even if you “know” they’re
unrealistic

30. How many would you seriously pursue?
One?
• That’s where you start your
planning. On the line connecting
your first choice to you, list some
step you’d need to take before
you can start doing that activity
or job.
• Good resources for research
include the Occupational
Outlook Handbook and
CareerOneStop
Two or Three?
• Star your top choices. Start
thinking about how you could
begin pursuing each of them
now, and write those ideas on
the lines.
• If any of your choices require a
particular skill, can you look for
opportunities to develop that
skill?
• Can you think of a creative way
to combine opposing ideas
(pendulum attractors)?

31. How many….
More than three?
• You don’t necessarily have to
choose.
• Pick one at a time, enjoy it, then
move on.
• Pick several and try each by pursuing
several avenues at once – creatively
combine interests
• Bounce back and forth, choosing one
as your consistent option.
• Pursue one as a hobby or volunteer
option

32. How many…
None?
• Don’t quit. You just don’t have an
idea right now.
• You just figured out the part of
chaos theory that you don’t know!
• Be honest with yourself – are you
not sure because you’re too afraid?
Do you not have the energy or the
interest? Is there something
blocking you?
• Take your maps to someone else
and talk to them about it!

33. Explore!

34. Resources for Exploration:
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: www.bls.gov/ooh
• O*Net (also has skills profiler and other assessments):
www.onetonline.org
• LinkedIn “Find Alumni” tool: www.linkedin.com (informational
interviewing)
• My Next Move: www.mynextmove.org
• Riley Guide www.rileyguide.com
NMU CAREER SERVICES
3302.3 Hedgcock * 227-2800