Is it worth it to change your career? Can switching majors in college harm you down the line?
The good news is that today’s article is designed to help you figure out how to choose a career. The sad news is that many of my friends have gone on to completely switch programs or even worse, some graduate to learn that they hate the work. My brother enrolled in a business program similar to mine only to find out after a semester that he would love to work in the field of Science, so he started researching biology degree career options.
If you don’t want to the be the kind of person that spends a fortune on career coaching or can’t decide what career to choose, the following tips should be used as a guide:
Talk to others about how to choose a career.
Forums may honestly be one of the greatest inventions when it comes to figuring out how to choose a career. You can gather the opinions of many older and intelligent people without the fear that you would have during an interaction in person. You can ask the stupidest questions and not feel bad. Whether you go to a forum on the website of your local town, college, or alumni site, there will always be people older and more experienced than you for you to communicate with and ask questions.
If forums don’t give you the answers you’re looking for then you can try the old fashioned method of actually calling or meeting someone. You can meet with a relative, older friend, adult, or anyone else in your community that has gone through a particular college program or worked in a specific field. This is sort of like free career coaching. Free advice is extremely valuable when it comes to deciding to buy a home in your 20s or choosing the right career,
There really is no excuse for you to not get the answers you are looking for when it comes to deciding what career to choose.
Check out our school’s site if you’re unsure of what career to choose.
This type of research is boring when deciding what career to choose. The reality is that you definitely need to go on a school’s website to determine what your total fees will be before you spend a plethora of money on a career path that you might not even care about.
You should also check out the websites of other colleges to determine which program you think would best suit your interests. I would recommend finding a school that offers a co-op or work term along with its program. This way you could at least work in the field to determine if the work is for you or not.
This ties into my next point.
Be honest with yourself about what career to choose.
Everyone wants to be a Lawyer or any type of prestigious high paying job.
Are you really ready for all the work that is needed to complete such a difficult program? If you have a Facebook addiction or love to go out many times during the week then chances are you won’t be willing to sacrifice all of that to spend every single minute of your time studying. The point is that you must be realistic with your own interests and do what’s right for you, not your parents or anyone else.
At the end of the day only you can help yourself decide what career to choose. Are you ready to make that decision? If you make this decision in school you won’t have to worry about what to do after college.
I wanted to conclude this article with a comment that was left behind my a reader on switching careers:
“You don’t want to drift aimlessly, change your major eight times, or end up with a degree in something you hate, but I don’t think changing programs is always a bad thing or a sign of a poorly researched decision. Interests evolve.When I started college, I KNEW I was going to get my degree in biology, go on to get a Ph.D. in microbiology, and go on to become a college professor so I could combine research and teaching.
I’d been an aspiring biologist since late elementary school when I first read a Scientific American article about the different mechanisms used by antibiotic resistant bacteria. (I was an odd child.) I researched job prospects, working conditions, and salaries. (The federal governments Occupational Outlook Handbook is great for that.) I talked to several people in the field and formally interviewed and shadowed one. By the time I was seventeen, I’d done all that you suggested.
So why didn’t I end up with a biology degree? Simple, my interests evolved. I took my first physics class and concluded that there was no way I’d ever be willing to give up learning about the subject. I still loaded up on biology and chemistry classes for my elective hours, and I did my thesis research on an optical methods for biophysics project where I used lasers to study proteins as they unfolded (one of the high points of my life to date). I agonized over the decision to change majors, but it was absolutely the right thing for me.”