Advice for a college freshman?

[supertrooper1]

My 18 year old cousin just emailed me asking specifics about my job and what type of degree I would recommend to go into my line of work.  Apparently she's struggling to pick her major and doesn't know what she wants to be "when she grows up."  She went into college thinking she'd be a communications major, but she's now changing her mind.

But I'm not sure I'd even recommend my job. I'll give her the pros and cons and let her decide for herself.  I remember being a young college student not sure what direction I was going to go, feeling all of that pressure of decisions I thought I had to make then that would affect the rest of my life, and then I fell into my line of work that I hadn't even considered.  But it seems like there are jobs out there that have better pay, more flexibility and a better work environment than mine. 

So if you were giving advice to a college freshman about choosing their major and line of work, what would you suggest?   

[pitta12]

I agree - internships and exposure to the actual work is so much more important than what classes you take, outside of required technical knowledge, of course. It is so hard to know at 18 anyway, and in all honesty I am not sure now at my advanced age what I would major in if I had it all to do over again. The more real world experience she can get will make a huge difference and help her figure out what she wants and doesn't want.

And working summers in my mom's law firm definitely turned me away from law school, privacy.

[toratoratori]

privacy's recommendation to take a wide breadth of classes is a great one. The other thing I'd recommend are informational interviews. Have her talk to a bunch of different people in different fields she has some interest in about what they do, how they got there, and what they majored in. This can help her see how different degrees apply to real-world occupations, and also what people actually DO in those jobs.

If you don't have a wide range of people to introduce her to, have her talk to the Career Center at her college. They likely have career mentors on call exactly for this kind of thing. She can also peruse LinkedIn and send messages to professionals she finds interesting to request meetings.

Full disclosure: I'm an academic advisor, so helping college students figure out what to do with their lives is literally my job. If she has more specific questions, I'm happy to help.

[supertrooper1]

Thanks all for the advice. I'll definitely direct her to her college career center and see what she can do for internships or shadowing.

[sandandsea]

Think about the lifestyle you want and if it's important to you, pick a career that you enjoy that will provide the lifestyle you desire. Also choose a degree that will lead to a career that is regularly hiring

[sctiger]

Take a variety of classes, volunteer or do an internship, talk to people in fields you are interested, think about the job you want, consider if you have the skills and ability for it, if it's a growing field, then pick a major that aligns with it. Take some career and interest assessments and take advantage of the career center at the University.

I'm a guidance counselor and undergoing training as a career development facilitator so I enjoy helping people finding the right career for them

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2015 17:52:24 GMT -5 privacy said:

As a freshman, my advice would be to take as many different courses as possible and not try to pin down a major right away. I'd also say to visit her school's career services office and see what type of externship/internship and shadowing programs they have to offer.

Quite honestly if I'd questioned myself more and shadowed attorneys, I would have never gone to law school and become an attorney. I think there's way to much pressure on an 18 yo to decide what they want to be when they grow up immediately. Find time to explore new things and figure out what they are passionate about.

Same. As a person who went back and got a second degree in nursing, I wish I would have not pigeonholed myself right away in my first degree.

[Deleted]

Also, maybe suggest take one of those personality assessments online to see what type of worker she will be (i.e., DISC assessment).Some of these give a good insight in true personality and help to decide what good careers are successful for those personalities.

[sugarcraze]

I agree with the taking as many classes as possible. And have her think what she likes - is she artsy? Good with numbers? Great with time management or stressful situations? Likes to help people? Also, as silly as it sounds, I'd see if she would take some of the 'what's my career' type quizzes online. Obviously not the most technical, but it might show her something she never thought about

[litzo27]

Often there are different professionals visiting the campus for informational sessions (usually set up through recruitment office but sometimes through other venues, I was VP of "international business" club and we brought different people to speak to our club about their jobs). Often students don't start going to these session until senior year but it's really good to find out about them and go as early as possibly. She may get excited about an opportunity. I would suggest taking a variety of courses but to make sure to incorporate several (usually more than required) writing and math classes. Those are useful in a number of professions. As are a foreign language, presentation skills, computer science.
Also what she can do is be very practical and look at what jobs are most in demand either in general or go to the recruitment office and ask for statistics of where graduates have been placing recently.
www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=11%2f20%2f2014&siteid=cbpr&sc_cmp1=cb_pr852_&id=pr852&ed=12%2f31%2f2014

[k3am]

My advice is that once she's figured out what she wants to do, she NEEDS to to internships. For some reason, I never made the correlation that an internship was what gets you a job, I just viewed it as a temporary job.

And then I graduated and tried to get a job and found out that, particularly in accounting, the big firms have this policy.. if you they haven't seen your name before - ie internship - they don't even bother interviewing you. It's one of the way they weed down the number of applicants. And there are a lot of applicants. I can't imagine it varies that much from industry to industry.