How to Choose a College Major

In this video, I discuss the tough decision of choosing a college major and a career path.

VIDEO SUMMARY

I talk to a lot of different groups of people from business executives, to business owners, and investors. Out of all the people I talk with, the group of people I find is the most “stressed out” is college students. And I always find this so shocking. This group of people, who most would consider as having a fairly carefree existence, is under tremendous pressure. And they are under all this pressure because they are faced with an impossible decision: choosing a major. They are being asked to choose a career without having enough data to really make that decision. They do not really know what these jobs are going to be like. They do not know if they will like the industry or not. And to make matters worse, college is a lot of money. So they are making this huge choice, with tremendous financial consequences. No wonder they are so stressed out.

So here is the central question: “How do you choose a career, when you do not know what your dream job is?” That is really the key question. Because if you know what your dream job is, this choice is really easy. But most people are not in that position. What do you do? I wanted to give you some suggestions that might make this process easier. The biggest thing you need to know is: It is okay. Relax. It is great if you are lucky enough to know what your dream job is, because that just makes it easier to get to your destination. But if you do not know, it is okay. If you are feeling stress about your future, let it go. I am going to show you how to figure it out along the way.

Here is my suggestion if you are struggling with the question of choosing a career: Make the question more general, and it becomes easier to answer. I think a lot of people think they have to plan out their entire career with the exact job they want to land. Do not put that much pressure on yourself, because your decision is not that detailed. You need to realize you are just picking a general direction. Once you realize this, most people do have enough data to make this decision. Give yourself some credit. Even if you are only 18 years old, you have 18 years of life experience and you know a lot. You should have some general notions about which general areas of life interest you more than others.

I want to look at some examples a little closer. I am going to list out some potential choices for a major, and your goal is to identify which of these sparks your interest. Each one of these can be engaging and rewarding careers if you are interested in them.

• Engineering (Math)
• Medicine (Biology)
• Art (Music, Dance, Film, Writing, Painting)
• Business (Money)
• Law (Philosophy, History, Politics)

So here is the question, does it interest me to spend my life exploring one of these areas? When you break the choice of a major into this simple, high level decision, most people realize they know enough to make this choice. And all five of these are very different directions. A life in medicine looks very different than a life in the arts. What life can you see yourself living? What interests you? It is also helpful to cross out what you don’t like. For instance, if you are someone who does not like needles or blood, medicine is probably not a good field for you. You should also be looking for one of these fields that holds more meaning for you. Everyone has a life story that will inform this decision. So for instance, if you have had some life experiences that gave you insight into the legal process, a career in law might have more meaning for you.

All you are doing is picking a general direction. And once you choose, you are going to start heading that direction. You will gradually be able to get more focused in specific areas. Each one of these general areas has more specific areas. And each one of those areas has more specific areas. So as you go along, you are going to learn more about the different options, and you will be able to choose something more focused. For instance, if you choose business, you will start taking business classes. Then you can choose some area more focused like accounting or marketing. And then if you choose accounting you can specialize again in an area like tax or audit. But you do not have to know all those specifics at the beginning. All you have to do when you are picking a major is choosing a general direction, and then figure the rest out along the way.

I also want to spend some time talking about money, because a lot of people let money drive their decision on what major to choose. I think that is a mistake. And I will give you two reasons why:

• It is really easy to point to examples of people in each one of these areas who are multi-millionaires. If you work at it, you can make money doing anything.
• The salary data available is not guaranteed in the future. I got to be honest here, because I did this too when I was choosing a major. I sat down, and looked at tables of statistics of how much money each major was expected to make. But what I have seen is those statistics do not always come true. I am going to age myself here, but I went to college a long time ago. This was before the Great Recession. And of course, when the Great Recession happened, all those salary figures went out the window.

So I just wanted to caution you against making this decision based on money, because I think it is more effective to choose a major based on what you want to spend your life exploring.

So this is the message of this video. College students, stop stressing out. If you are comfortable with the general direction you are heading, you are on the right path. You have your whole life ahead of you, so give yourself permission to figure the rest out along the way. I feel like a lot of people think of choosing a major as locking themselves in a room and shutting the door. That is not what it is. It is walking through a doorway, and on the other side is endless potential to explore. On the other side of that door is how you are going to change the world. So keep the decision really simple. All you are doing, is setting a general direction and walking through that door.

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Neither Zach De Gregorio or Wolves and Finance Inc. shall be liable for any damages related to information in this video. It is recommended you contact a CPA in your area for business advice.