You Majored in What?: Designing Your Path from College to Career - Softcover

Brooks EdD, Katharine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452296005 ISBN 13: 9780452296008

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Fully revised and updated in 2017, the revolutionary career guide for a new generation of job-seekers, from one of the U.S.’s top career counselors

“So what are you going to do with your major?”
 
It’s an innocent question that can haunt students from high school to graduate school and beyond.
 
Relax. Your major is just the starting point for designing a meaningful future. In this indispensable guide, Dr. Katharine Brooks shows you a creative, fun, and intelligent way to figure out what you want to do and how to get it—no matter what you studied in college. You will learn to map your experiences for insights into your strengths and passions, design possible lives, and create goals destined to take you wherever you want to go. Using techniques and ideas that have guided thousands of college students to successful careers, Dr. Brooks will teach you to outsmart and outperform your competition, with more Wisdom Builders and an easily applied career development process.
 
No matter what career you aspire to, You Majored in What? offers a practical, creative, and successful approach to finding your path to career fulfillment.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DR. KATHARINE BROOKS is the Evans Family Executive Director of the Career Center at Vanderbilt University. A nationally recognized career coach, trainer, professor, and counselor for more than thirty years, she is the creator of the National Association of Colleges and Employers Career Coaching Intensives. She has a doctorate in educational psychology.

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Chapter 1

Moving from College to Career

Making Sense of the Chaos

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

-Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

Has it happened yet? Have you been asked THE QUESTION?

You know the one: it's the question that cuts to the core of your existence, the question that haunts you pretty much from the time you decide to be a college student to months, even years, after you graduate. It starts so innocently. Someone asks you what your major is, so you tell them.

There's a slight pause. Then comes THE QUESTION:

"What are you going to do with that?"

OK, think fast.

"I'm going to law school," you say, because it sounds good, even though you aren't really sure you want to. Or "I'm thinking about med school," even though you have no interest in science classes.

The questioner's face relaxes; maybe he even smiles. He pats you on the shoulder. "Wow, that's great!"

And that's how the lie begins . . .

Do you feel sometimes there's a cosmic joke at work? That you chose this really interesting major but now you're wondering, was it worth it? Or perhaps you're just starting college and the pressure of THE QUESTION is already making you nervous. Do I have to choose a career when I choose my major? And will I make a terrible mistake if I choose the wrong major?

The Pressure of the Linear Path

The problem behind THE QUESTION is that it assumes a linear path between your major and your career. Your major must somehow equal your career. The lure of the linear path is powerful. It's embedded in our thinking. From the time you played with fire trucks and people asked you if you wanted to be a firefighter, linear paths to careers have been assumed to be the natural state of things. So it seems only logical that you would pursue a major that would become your ultimate career. Business majors go into business. Engineering majors become engineers. Philosophy majors become . . . ? Hmm . . .

Your parents would probably be thrilled if you had a glitch-free linear path from school to work all worked out. You know, "I'm studying accounting so I can be an accountant," or "I'm going to be an English major so I can teach English." You might be secretly relieved as well.

But that's early twentieth-century thinking-1909 to be exact, when the trait-and-factor approach was designed to determine the best career choices for people. As America shifted from an agricultural to an industrial society, vocational researchers sought ways to determine the best fit between individuals and their jobs. Career tests were designed to match people's interests and skills with potential vocations. Society placed additional restraints on employment, with women and minorities relegated to narrow fields. Most people pursued education to learn a specific trade, and a college education was reserved for the elite few who would likely go on to teaching, medicine, law, or the ministry.

In the twenty-first century, a college education is wide open to many more individuals regardless of gender, race, or career goal. Many students now choose a college education because of the interesting subjects they can study, not necessarily because of a specific career plan.

Whatever your reason for pursuing your major, you, like many others, are probably struggling with THE QUESTION: What do I do with this degree? Where is my linear path?

To help you envision such a path, here's a list of the careers of some recent graduates, drawn from alumni surveys from three institutions. Note the relatively direct relationship between their majors and their careers.

Major    Job

Art    Cartoonist

Asian American Studies    Teaching English as a second language in     Korea   

Chemistry    Veterinarian

Classics/Archaeology    Latin teacher

Dramatic Arts    MTV program developer

Economics    Bond trader on Wall Street

English    Editor, major publishing house

French and Spanish    Foreign Service officer

Geography    High school geography teacher

Government    Special prosecutor, district attorney's office

Government    Republican National Committee PR staff

Psychology    Psychotherapist

Religion    Minister, single adults program

Can you see the linear relationship that exists between a major and a career? The symmetry between the job titles and the use of the graduates' skills? The English major is using her writing skills. The psychology major is helping people. The economics major is working on Wall Street. Helpful and reassuring, isn't it? Not only can you get a job, your job can be directly related to your major.

There's only one problem with the list: it's all wrong. These are the actual careers of the alumni with those majors:

MAJOR    JOB

Art    Special prosecutor, district attorney's office

Asian American Studies    Bond trader on Wall Street

Chemistry    Teaching English as a second language in     Korea   

Classics/Archaeology    Foreign Service officer

Dramatic Arts    Republican National Committee PR staff

Economics    Veterinarian

English    Psychotherapist

French and Spanish    Latin teacher

Geography    Editor, major publishing house

Government    Minister, single adults program

Government    High school geography teacher

Psychology    Cartoonist

Religion    MTV program developer

Oops.

Is something wrong here? No, something's actually right. Clearly, reality doesn't always match up to that traditional linear career path. These graduates, whether by design or by accident, have channeled the real, deep value of their academic and life experiences, and taken them beyond traditional thinking.

The linear career path hasn't disappeared. Some psychology majors do become psychologists and some English majors become English professors. But linear thinking can keep you from thinking broadly about your options and being open-minded to new opportunities, and ready to respond to the constantly shifting nature of the job market. So let's start thinking about YOUR career path.

Wandering Off

My Degree Equals My Earning Power

Want to know the number one most requested piece of information from college career centers? The employment figures from first destination and alumni surveys. Everyone, from students to parents to government agencies, wants to know what percentage of students found jobs by graduation. And how much they were earning. And their major. There seems to be a theory that if sociology majors found jobs in X field, making X dollars, then I, a sociology major, can find a job in X field making X dollars. While there's some truth to that theory, there's less truth than you might imagine.

Study after study shows poor correlations between students' undergraduate majors and their income. Get that? Weak...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0452296005
• ISBN 13: 9780452296008
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland