A Guide to Choosing the Right Major for You

Choosing the Right Major

            I know, it can feel like the weight of the whole world and the rest of your life rests on this decision… Good news—it doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, choosing the right major for your goals and future is important, but it doesn’t mean that you are limited to only that career or field of work. Your whole life won’t hinge on your major, and you are always free to change your mind, branch out to new areas, and switch directions entirely.

            Your major is meant to prepare you for your desired career through the development of necessary skills and the acquisition of key information. However, many of the skills you develop for one kind of career can be used in others. So, while choosing the right major for your desired career is incredibly helpful in setting you on your desired path, it does not mean that you are limited to that one career and if you don’t succeed in it, you have failed everything.

            You won’t ruin your life if you pick the wrong major. But choosing the right major will make things go faster.

            Many students come into college with a major in mind, and, arguably, just as many aren’t decided. If you aren’t exactly sure what major you want to study, don’t worry, you’re in good company. It can be stressful to settle on something right away when you haven’t even experienced a college class or working environment yet.

            Not to worry, we’re here to help. Choosing the right major looks a little different for everyone, but we have some steps that can help you identify what your goals are, which will help you narrow down the degree options that will help you get to where you want to go after college.

How to Choose a College Major

            As I’m sure you’ve heard many times in your life, “get out a pen and paper…” or do this on your laptop, I guess. Whatever works for you. This process involves writing things down, and drawing a diagram. Do you have to? No. Will it help and be something you refer back to later? Yes.

            Step 1: Make a List of Interests

            What are you passionate about? What do you like to do in your free time or look forward to being able to do when you finish your homework/school/whatever responsibilities you have? Write down the things you like doing or learning about. Make a list of all those things, even if you don’t think that they translate to an academic study or potential career.

            If you like playing ultimate frisbee, write it down. Are you a full-time gamer and a part time student? Write it down. If you love biology, all things plants, and think of your potted roses as your children, write it down.

            The point of this step is to see your interests, passions, and the things you like all together, to get an idea of some potential common factors. Maybe you really like taking photographs, playing video games, and reading. You could study graphic design, animation, or computer programming, and use it to propel you toward a career designing video games, creating cartoons, or working in marketing.

            Identifying your passions/interests is a key component of choosing the right major for you, because it gives you a good starting point to find out what you may enjoy working with and learning about for next four years and after, in the career world.

            Step 2: Strengths and Weaknesses

            Next, we’re going to make a list of our strengths and weaknesses. These can be character-related or skills-related, such as “good at writing/composition,” or “bad at conflict resolution.” This list is for you, not for vanity or an evaluation of how good you are, so be brutally honest with yourself. It’s okay to admit that you aren’t the best at communication or public speaking or whatever it might be.

            Remember that everyone has weaknesses, and the point of making this list is to determine what skills we can lean into when looking for future careers or majors. For example, if you are bad at public speaking, a career as a politician may not be a great fit. You could still pursue a major in government or political science if that’s what you’re passionate about, but you’ll want to adjust your classes and experience to a role that spends less time behind a podium, like an analyst or strategist.

            In the same way that we need to be brutally honest with ourselves for this list, we also need to not be too humble. If you’re great at something, emphasize that on your list. No need for modesty, this list is for you to find out what potential careers line up with your strengths.

            While this list is for you, it can be very helpful to ask those closest to you what they think your strengths and weaknesses are (provided you can take their answers without getting offended). Ask your parents, your friends, and even your teachers, if you feel comfortable getting their input. We aren’t always the most capable of being objective about ourselves, so getting other’s opinions can be very beneficial.

            Step 3: What are your Career and Lifestyle Goals?

            This isn’t exactly about what job you do, so much as the factors surrounding your job and living. For this section, you’re going to be answering questions like these:

• When/at what age do you want to retire?
• What do you want to be able to do in retirement?
• Where do you want to retire?
• Where do you want to live while working?
• What kind of role do you want? (ie. remote, in-office, leadership, relaxed, teamworking, independent, challenging, travel, stationary, etc.)
• What kind of salary do you want?
• What kind of lifestyle do you want?
• What is your ideal work/life balance?

These questions help you understand the parameters that you want for your future career. For example, if you want to retire in your 40’s and travel, then you need a job that pays quite well for about 20 years after you graduate college. Let’s say that you also want a job that allows you to work remotely, offers flexibility, and allows you to comfortably lease an apartment for $1,500/month.

From that, you know that you’ll need a career that involves technology/online work, that won’t be easily replaced by AI, and that pays around $3,000/month on average. Understand that it will be difficult to find a career or job that allows for everything you want. The ideal is rarely the actual, and that’s okay. These answers are more about helping us identify our goals, prioritize them, and direct our search to find what can offer us the closest to the ideal.

If you aren’t exactly sure what you do want, it may be more beneficial to answer in terms of what you definitely do not want. That can be a great way to eliminate certain careers or jobs that would put you in a lifestyle, retirement, or work roll that you know you don’t want for yourself.

Once you have a good idea of what you do (or do not) want in terms of lifestyle and how much it costs, you’re ready for the next step.

            Step 4: Find the Intersections

            Grab a protractor, bowl, or something circular, cause we’re making a Venn diagram.

You’re going to draw three circles that overlap in the middle and with the circle on either side of them (example below). One circle is going to be our passions/interests, or things we like to do. In that circle, write down your list from earlier. Again, include even the things that don’t necessarily seem relevant to academics or career.

            Another circle is going to be your strengths, or the things that you’re good at.

            And the last circle is going to be lifestyle and salary. Focus on how much money you need to make for your desired lifestyle. You can include a range here, from minimum necessary amount to the ideal amount.

            Now we’re going to compare potential careers and talents with our categories. For example, jobs that allow us to do things we’re good at and enjoy doing but don’t necessarily offer the salary or compensation that we need would be considered hobbies or past times. Potentially these could turn into side hustles, depending on whether there is any market for them, but often these sorts of jobs aren’t building the bank account.

            Jobs or activities that you enjoy and that pay well, but that you aren’t necessarily good at are great areas to focus on growth. These could also be hobbies, but with more potential to profit from them and become careers.

            Jobs or activities that you are good at, but don’t necessarily enjoy but that pay well are good jobs, but not necessarily careers. They can be careers, but if you don’t really enjoy doing them, it’s not ideal. These are what you might call “just a job.” You do it for the paycheck and live to clock out at 5pm. Sometimes, these are just what you have to do so that you can have the life you want. Not ideal, but good enough.

            Then, there is the sweet spot. The jobs or activities that you enjoy, are good at, and pay well. This is the intersection where dreams come true (not literally, but you get the idea). These are the careers that complement what you enjoy, what you are good at, and the kind of lifestyle you want to have; they are ideal.

            For example, let’s say you enjoy video games, social media, and all things computer. You are skilled with technology, great at seeing things through to their solution, and are attentive. You want to be able to retire in your late 40’s but also be able to afford a decent home by your 30’s. Some ideal careers for those factors could be cyber security, IT services, computer programming and coding, and software engineering.

Most of these careers, earn comfortable to high salaries after a few years’ experience, require a skill set that excels at problem solving and attention to detail, and are best fit for someone who lives and breathes technology.

Now, what does this have to do with majors? The purpose of finding out what potential careers you would want to pursue is to be able to choose the right major for you and your goals. Based on this example, if you know that your ideal career is working with computers in one of these capacities, then you know that the right major for you is going to be computer related.

I recommend focusing on a specific career if you can, at least once you’re a couple years into college. If you can narrow in on one before declaring a major, great. For example, if you’d like to work in cyber security, there are specific majors for that.

But, if you aren’t certain exactly which direction you’d like to go, then keeping your ideal careers to 2-3 options is also okay, especially if they are related. In this example, all the options are computer/technology-related, which means that starting with a computer science degree and narrowing your focus after you’ve had time to test out different classes and potentially internships is a great way to go.

It’s more complicated if your list is more diverse. If somehow your ideal career list has jobs that are far apart in terms of the degree and study required, such as IT services and PR specialist, then narrowing down your options sooner becomes a little more necessary. In this case, I recommend either going with your gut and choosing the one you’re more passionate about or taking freshmen year to choose introductory courses to both degree tracks and seeing which one interests you most.

All that to say, the key to choosing the right major for you is knowing where you want to go after graduation. When you know what career you want, choosing the right major becomes much easier.

I will say that when you have your ideal career(s) picked out, you should ask professionals who are already in that career and advisors what the best course of action would be. It may not always be the degree that seems most relevant. Asking their advice on how to get where you want to go is important to ensure that we are choosing the right major for the career we want.

            Career Quiz

            Another options for how to choose a college major would be taking a career quiz, and from there choosing the major that best prepares you for the career you’re given. I say this hesitantly, though.

            Career quizzes are a great way to brainstorm potential careers that you may be good at and enjoy, but there are a lot of factors that can make a career ideal for a person, and the quizzes may not be great at presenting many or the best options. There are unique and out-of-the-box careers that may not even be considered by the quiz-makers and therefore aren’t part of the pool of potential answers.

            Also, most of these career quizzes will charge you to give you your “results.” Yes, that includes the ones that say “FREE.” Even when you specifically search for a FREE Career Quiz, and the results say FREE, likely you’ll still have to pay $1 or so to have the results sent to you. College Board has a career quiz available on its website. If you’ve taken the SAT’s or used it to send your scores, you should have a login for College Board that you can use to take their career quiz.

            Again, these quizzes can be helpful in brainstorming potential careers, but I would still recommend using the system above for choosing the right major to open up more areas of potential and get a better idea of what you really want for yourself.

Choosing the Right Major or Changing to it?

            What happens if you get it wrong? What happens if the one you picked isn’t what you thought it would be and it isn’t working for you?

            Then change your major.

            The great thing about the process above for choosing the right major is that it shows you there are other options that align with your skills, passions, and lifestyle goals. Refer back to what you know, update it with what you’ve learned, and rework the process.

            As for changing your major, that’s more common than you think. It’s believed that about 80% of college students change their major during their college tenure. 1 in 10 students change it more than once. Listen, you’re young, and you still have a lot to learn, and a lot of that learning happens in the first couple of years of college.

            It’s absolutely okay to change your major during college. If your first choice doesn’t pan out the way you thought it would, no worries. Now, you know how to choose a college major, so get out your notes, and start the process of finding the right major for you!

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