Alex
Undergraduate Senior · State University
Generated February 20, 2026
Career Explorer
You're clarifying where your career could go and what fits you.
Recent education and early professional footprint fit the Career Explorer chapter.
Alex, what stands out to me isn't uncertainty — it's the fact that you're asking the right questions this early. Most graduating seniors are trying to pick the 'right' job. You're trying to figure out what work you'd still want to be doing three years in. That's a more useful question, and it changes how we should approach the next six months. Your job isn't to decide your career. Your job is to run two or three small experiments — informational conversations, a side project, one internship stretch — that give you real information to decide with. You're allowed to not know yet.
Captured February 1, 2026
You're standing at the edge of a decision that feels bigger than it is. The two industries you're weighing aren't opposites — they share the parts of the work you keep coming back to (writing, research, working with people on complicated problems). What's shifted in the last month is that you've stopped waiting for certainty before you act. You've reached out to three alumni. You've applied to two things you would have talked yourself out of in September. That's not indecision. That's exploration done well.
- •Confidence
- •Interviewing
- •Networking
- •Career Alignment
- •Curiosity — asks the second question, not just the first
- •Written communication (student newspaper contributor)
- •Comfortable with ambiguity
- •Reliable follow-through on commitments
- •Confidence in professional settings
- •Interviewing under pressure
- •Building a network outside campus
- •Naming what makes their story distinctive
- February 18, 2026Send one informational-interview request today — draft it in 10 minutes, send it before you close the tab.
- February 11, 2026Write your 30-second answer to 'tell me about yourself' — three sentences, no throat-clearing.
- February 4, 2026Choose one industry to focus on for the next 3 weeks. You can always widen later.
- ◆Completed Career Alignment assessmentFirst full pass — surfaced two industry directions worth exploring.November 15, 2025 · certification
- ◆First informational interview30-minute conversation with an alum in the target industry.January 8, 2026 · interview completed
- ◆First live interview for a summer roleDidn't get the offer — got feedback that clarified two development areas.February 5, 2026 · interview completed
Over the next 90 days, focus on running three small experiments rather than trying to lock in one right answer. First, complete two more informational interviews in the industry you're currently leaning toward — you're looking for people who love the work, not people who tolerate it. Second, keep the weekly review going; the themes we're seeing (confidence, networking) tend to shift the fastest when you name them out loud. Third, treat every interview — offer or not — as data. You already know your written work is strong. What we're building now is the muscle of talking about it with the same clarity you write about it. You're closer than the résumé suggests.