Chose A Major With Caution
The unknown is a scary place, especially when it is related to your career.
While you are sitting in your dorm, you worry about what you want to major in, or maybe you already know. The intensity rises as you seek out your options of majors. You then find yourself in a constant cycle with a re-occurring problem. That problem is an evil friend named uncertainty. As adolescents, we don’t know what we will pursue as a career. In that case, how do we know which career to pick? Although it may seem impossible to ignore, stressing out about which major to choose is a waste of time. People switch majors often. In fact, you should wait as long as you can until choosing a major. At the ages of 18 to 20, I doubt you know what career would best fit you when you are in your 30s. For example, when I was 12, I was convinced I would be a UPS driver when I grew up. Now I laugh at my 12-year-old self and wonder what I was thinking. Our opinions and thoughts develop over time, and as college students we shouldn’t be hasty when choosing our major.
My mother, Kelley Porter, declared her major in English at the University of Washington. She then graduated with a degree in English. Now, she co-owns the business Greenwood Heating with my father. Other than the occasional email to employees and costumers, she does not apply English to her career. Her job at Greenwood Heating is to control the payroll of the company, which involves mathematic skills and time management. When I asked my mother if she ever thought she would be a business owner she said, “No, I wanted to be a teacher, but then this opportunity came along and I lost my interest in the English department.” She wished she had waited to declare her major. It was her sophomore year that she was convinced English was for her. Then she soon realized that was a mistake she couldn’t take back. On the bright side, some businesses do not pay attention to what major you declared.
According to my father, Mike Porter, who co-owns Greenwood Heating with my mother, when he looks at applications he does not look for what they majored in, or what college they went to. He looks for people who will make a positive impact on his company. Mike also did not receive a college education, which made him think that he would fall behind. He was mistaken after he started his successful company. With this being said, with or without a major people can be successful if they have confidence and persistence.
Why is college focused on majors, when college is about learning how to learn? College teaches discipline, time management, or in other words responsibilities. Instead of going out to a party, or staying up late with friends, the library comes first. This is harder than it looks, especially since Harvard studies reports that in the United States, “Only 46 percent of students completed college once they started it.” Finishing college is a difficult task, which in the end, is almost useless.
With more than 72 percent of college graduates receiving a job that is related to their major (Washington Post) their needs to be a re-evaluating of universities polices. Most college students are worrying about picking a major as soon as they can — only to realize they are uninterested in that subject later on during their careers. As a counter argument some majors can result in unemployment, which could be the reason why people receive a job unrelated to their major. The book, Hard Times by Anthony Carnevale, stated that specific majors are the cause of unemployment.
“The unemployment rate for recent graduates is highest in Architecture (13.9 percent) because of the collapse of the construction and home building industry in the recession. Unemployment rates are generally higher in non-technical majors, such as the Arts (11.1 percent), Humanities and Liberal Arts (9.4 percent), Social (8.9 percent) and Law and Public Policy (8.1 percent).”
-Hard Times by Anthony Carnevale
This issue needs to be fixed, and the best way to fix it is for universities to provide beneficial programs for students that can help them decide on a major to best fit them. They also could stress that majors should not be worried about to an extent. At the end of the day all that matters is what career would make you happy. Choose a career that you would want to do for the rest of your life.
Article by Emily Porter