What's Your Major? Part 3: Personality & Lifestyle Preferences

In yesterday’s post, we looked at some practical factors to consider what choosing a major, namely, career paths, financial aspects, and growth potential. The final installment of this three-post series takes things back to the personal level. Who you are and how you want to live your life must be considered in choosing the career area that is so strongly tied to deciding on a major.

Personality. Are you energized by being with other people, or do you need time alone to recharge? Do you like dealing with concepts or theories, or are you more comfortable with specific facts and figures? Do you thrive when there is public pressure to succeed, or do you prefer individual feedback? Do you need flexibility in your work environment, or are defined rules and schedules optimal for you? The answers to these questions can provide insight into your personality and what kind of job environment may be best suited to you. Links to some helpful personality measures will be provided in an upcoming post.

Lifestyle preferences. Do you like being busy all the time? Do you prefer to work at a more steady pace? Do you need a lot of variety in the work you do, or do you thrive on doing a smaller range of tasks with excellence? Do you prefer living in an urban or a rural area? Is 40 hours your ideal work week, or are you willing to work as many hours in a week as it takes to complete a project? These are but a few of the questions you should ask yourself when considering the careers that stem from a prospective major. While some people, for instance, may want the prestige and affluence that comes from being a heart surgeon, few of them will be willing to go through the intensive schooling, demanding and low-paying internships and residencies, long hours, and stressful working conditions needed to reach that goal.

Visualize your life 5 years from now, 10 years from now, and 20 years from now. What is the quality of life you want to have? Where do you want to be living? What kinds of relationships will you have? Work has a profound influence on all of your life, so choosing a career path and major wisely will have long-term payoffs.

Making a decision as to what your major will be takes using both your head and your heart. Hopefully, this series of posts has given you some ideas about how to choose a major or even to re-evaluate the major you have already decided upon.

What's Your Major? Part 2: Career Path, Financial Aspects, & Growth Potential

In yesterday’s post, we looked at the basics of what goes into choosing a major and more specifically how interests and skills can contribute to this vital decision. Next, let’s consider some practical aspects.

Career paths. It is wise to think about the different career paths a particular major can provide you. Make sure to explore other opportunities in case your dream job is not all you believed it to be or, as has been the case for many people in today’s dysfunctional economy, the job market throws you a curve ball and your dream job no longer exists. While it is good to have concrete career goals, don’t let them narrow your focus too much. Include inquires about the range of jobs available when talking to professors in your proposed major and people who are already working in the field.

Financial aspects. It is important to consider what sort of pay you can expect working during the course of your future career. While no one has a crystal ball to predict what a certain profession will pay in the future, looking at the wage history for different jobs can be informative. In California, the Employment Development Department hosts an online occupational guide that provides a wide variety of job information, including wages and how many jobs are expected to be available for particular professions in the future. Most states will have something similar available for use.

Growth potential. Where will this major take you over your career’s lifetime? It is extremely rare for anyone to work in the exact same job position for an entire career, and most of us expect to be able to advance in responsibilities, authority level, and pay as we gain further work experience. However, some careers might have a lower “top level” than our expectations might lead us to believe. Find out about the growth potential within your proposed field of work while talking with professors who teach the major and people employed in that field.

In the final post of this series tomorrow, we will look at how personality and lifestyle preferences are important pieces in the puzzle of choosing a major.

What's Your Major? Part 1: Skills & Interests

What's your major?

This is probably the second most asked question directed to college students, right behind what school do you go to? It's an important question, too. Your major is something that will shape the direction of your life, so it's crucial to choose it wisely. This multi-part post will give you some guidance on ways to successfully search for a major that works for you.

Choosing a major is not a one-time decision for most college students. There are, of course, those who have decided firmly what they are going to be when they grow up from an early age and have stuck to that decision. For the rest of us, however, choosing a major is a process made in steps, hopefully starting around the time one attends middle school. Yes, you read that right, middle school. In my considered opinion, the common practice of waiting unless a student is a junior or senior in high school to discuss college is counter-productive. At that point, many students are feeling so much pressure from contemplating what comes next that it is difficult to truly give the choice of a major the attention it deserved.

A major should be chosen by balancing several important factors. Let's take a look at a couple of them and do some brainstorming, either by yourself on paper or with the assistance of someone who knows you well.

Interests. Since we spend a majority of our waking hours as adults engaged in work, doing something you like as your career helps make life more meaningful and your work life more enjoyable Make a list of your interests, academic, professional, and personal. Look at both the big picture (for example, “I like helping people”) and the details (“I’m really interested in improving the nutrition of children in our country”). Don’t worry that an interest of yours might not be marketable at this point; just get as much interest information down as possible.

Skills. This is where having a friend or family member who knows you well can come in handy. Sometimes we are not as aware of skills we have as those who observe us. We also might have the tendency to sell ourselves short as to the strength of our talents and abilities. Again, look at both a broad perspective (“I communicate with people well”) and a more narrow approach (“I’m good at being able to calm people down in a crisis situation”). List everything, no matter how big or small the skill may be.

Part 2 on career paths, financial aspects, and growth potential is on its way tomorrow.