Discovering What You Really Want to Study

If there’s one challenge ahead of you, it’s figuring out exactly what you want to study. You can’t ask your friends, ask your parents, or even ask your teachers. You have to know in your own mind and in your own heart what you want to study. There’s something said about doing what you love, but the money might not necessarily follow. There used to be a point in time where it was possible to just do what you love and know that you were going to have a comfortable career attached to it. But those times are long gone, and that means that you really need to consider how to make anything that you major in college actually profitable in real life.

There are a few ways to go about that. If you know that you want to work for yourself someday, you might use college a test run. See how much demand there is for your field as a consultant or as someone trying to be a freelancer. If you’re in a technical field, then this means that you want to write software or demonstrate knowledge. Working for a charity and using your passion can help you get visible. But you are going to have to sell yourself if you decide to go into business for yourself. If you’re not doing the selling, then chances are good that someone else is doing the work for you. That’s not always going to be something that’s easy to deal with, so you might want to look at other options than just this.

Another track that you might want to consider is thinking about internships. It might take you some time to see what internships are available for someone in your field, but they are definitely out there. This is where networking really comes in handy. Some people swear that networking doesn’t really work but they are definitely mistaken. If you really want to make sure that you have it all together, you’re going to need to make sure that you think about the bigger picture. You aren’t an island, and you will never be an island. This is something that you are going to need help with in order to really decide not only what you’re going to do now, but what you’re going to accomplish in the future.

The career counselor can help you, but only up to a point. Remember that they are trying to fill quotas and goals on their side, so they might promote one major over another. It all boils down to what you like to do and what you can tolerate. A major might sound appealing to you, but what about the fact that you’re going to have to slog through a lot of general courses in order to get to that “fun” major track that you’re interested in?

This might be a lot more strategic than what you’ve been taught. That’s not anything that you need to feel like it’s impossible to deal with such a difficult decision. If you really give yourself time to think about it, you might find that the right major for you was hiding right under your nose all along. Good luck!