I feel so unsure of everything right now. Im starting my third year of college, and I have 90+ hours so far, so im technically a senior. I have a full time schedule, a internship, and joined a sorority. Plus, I am maintaining extra college things like participating in on campus events and interviews.
In the midst of all of these I have been struggling with my major and the motivation to stay in college. I really dislike my major, Computer Science, I don’t think I see myself in it any longer. When I came to college two years ago I like working alone, independently and loved computers. Now, I enjoy days I don’t have to get on them and I like to talk so much.
I just don’t know if I can see myself in this, but now I have an internship in it with great pay, and i can work from home which is amazing even though I don’t love what im doing.
Also, so late in my degree I do not want to change my major and end up a super senior, I just want to be done with college already and in the workforce. I’ve maintained a job at all times, two at some point, and full time in the summer, for over a year now and I would much rather work at a job than be in school.
I just don’t know how to tell my parents who have poured their money in my schooling that I don’t like my major and don’t want to change it because I am so over college, but I don’t know if they will be upset if I end up going to a field outside of my degree once I graduate.
Have you gone to speak to an advisor about how you are feeling? Gone to the career center to explore all of the things you might be able to do with your degree? Maybe you are more tired of the grind of college than the actual program that you are in? Do you have one or two years to go? You said you are starting your third year but are technically a senior. Many people get degrees then end up doing ver different jobs than they envisioned in college.
A CS degree in the hands of somebody with good social skills will open many many doors. As one example- the marketing department of a CS based company. Somebody who can speak both languages is valuable. Finish your major & pick up some business classes. You will have amazing options- talk to the people in the career center.
@difficultiesofcollege , I agree with @collegemom3717 that you should get your CS degree, then look for a job that involves both CS and social skills.
I worked for tech startups where some of the most interesting and fun people were the sales/marketing engineers. SMEs have all the technical expertise of the programming staff and most of the communications skills of the marketing staff. Some S/M engineers have undergraduate CS/CP degrees followed by a MBA a few years later after they begin their careers as coders/architects. They realized, like you, that they wanted more than to program and program only. Some people love to only do programming – some want other facets in their work life.
But being so close to your degree, I would definitely complete it.
You don’t have to be a programmer even if you should go into a technology company. There are a lot of customer facing jobs if you enjoy working with people. As a matter of fact, it is very hard to find people who are both technical and “customer friendly.”
I hire a lot of vendors and vet out new technologies. My first contact with any company is usually through their sales team, then SMEs (subject matter experts) who would do presentations, and if we should move forward then they would assign a customer success team to us. All of those people are some what technical, but their jobs are very customer facing.
You should focus on doing well in school now, instead of doing so many ECs. With good grades will give you more options later on - change your career and graduate school later on. There are many (good paying) jobs outside of being a developer with a CS degree.