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The Essential Student-Parent Conversations
Scott Sager
Their question was sincere, not like a few who asked me 30 years ago “what on earth” was I going to do with an English literature degree other than teach high school. Sometimes people think that if your major doesn’t reflect an identifiable professional pathway (think “accounting” = “accountant”), then you will find it difficult to have a successful career.
As both my son, who works at a tech company, and I, who work in publishing and higher education, know very well—what you major in doesn’t mean you will be stuck in one kind of job the rest of your life.
But while some things remain the same, the career landscape has changed considerably in the last few years, in part because of technological advancements and globalization, and those changes are driving students to different majors in search of a career pathway that will lead to purposeful work.
Want to work in sustainable agriculture? There are majors for that. Want to learn how to create video games? There are majors for that, too. These are just two examples of fields that were not well known or were even nonexistent years ago.
While choosing a major may cause major stress, it doesn’t have to be that way, and you don’t have to choose something that is a hot field. Here are five strategies that can make choosing a major less stressful:
Do your homework. This means talking to your academic advisor, professors, and fellow students about the major requirements. How long does it take to complete the degree? What kinds of requirements will you have on the road to finishing it? Some degrees require field experience, internships, and apprentice programs that may influence your decision. You may also investigate major requirements for job opportunities or graduate programs. The more information you have about what majors might be best for you, the easier it will be to decide.
If there is an emerging field that you want to go into, such as a customer success engineer who bridges the gap between technology and customer satisfaction, you should find out what kinds of majors can get you there.
Pick something that interests you. Ask yourself if you are choosing a major to satisfy your own interests and goals or someone else’s. You may think that choosing something a parent or relative does is good enough, but if it isn’t what you want, it will be hard to stick with it when it becomes more challenging.
Consider your own interests and activities before you enrolled in college. What did you spend your time doing? What did you daydream about becoming? What kind of career would help you fulfill your purpose? Answers to those questions are a starting point, and with some feedback from a career counselor or academic advisor, you can begin to focus on promising majors.
Align your major with your long-term goals. Do you want to work with children in an educational setting? If so, a computer science degree may not be the pathway to fulfillment, but a degree in psychology, education, or nutrition may. Take some time to determine what kind of work you want to do and with whom. The answers can often help you narrow your choices of majors.
Do you want to have a job immediately after graduation? If so, you may want to pick a major that aligns clearly with a career. Do you want to work in an exciting, thriving industry? Then you may want to investigate majors that lead to trending jobs.
Be prepared for Artificial Intelligence to change everything. Thirty years ago, no one could have predicted that social media managers would be a career or that Artificial Intelligence would be changing everything all at once. Even though we know that AI is already shaping the career landscape, we don’t know just yet what that will look like in the few more years it will take for you to graduate. Right now, researchers are predicting that careers in healthcare, accounting, customer service, and logistics are fundamentally changing because AI can be trained to do entry-level tasks.
Focus on the professional skills, not just the content. If you are going into fields that will be affected by AI (and really, that may be every field eventually), it may be best for you to focus on a major that provides you with the tried-and-true professional skills of communication, critical thinking, and flexibility. History majors, for example, learn how to read critically, determine cause and effect, analyze various viewpoints, and create accurate narratives. These are skills that can be adapted to a variety of professional fields, which can give you more options not only after graduation but for your long-term career as well.
Thirty years out from earning my English degree I can say that what I do now is not what I envisioned. I use my analytical and communication skills along with technology — and even AI — in ways I would never have dreamed possible. A year after his own graduation, my son is using his problem-solving skills to design products. Neither of us is doing “English” or “math” day to day, but we are both able to use our majors in innovative ways.
Who knows what the future of the workplace holds and how that will affect choosing a major. But one thing you can count on is that your major—if approached as the first step in your career—can become a foundation on which you can adapt, grow, and change as your career takes you to all kinds of exciting places.
