College Junior --> No career goals, no help!

Student Lounge College Life
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<p><em>Note: This will be long. Only those with patience are advised to read</em></p>

<p>It’s normally preferable for one to independently research the topics of “careers” or “post-colligate life” given the broad scope of educational options, economic factors, ROI, etc., but due to my immense lack of knowledge on these topics, I’ll have to defer to a CC posting as I seriously need help. </p>

<p>My first two years of college were comprised of taking inconsequential classes due to a poor registration day and budget reductions (which resulted in courses such as The Chicano Child, The Psychology of the Deaf, et al). It became obvious during the second semester of my freshman year that transferring to a more rigorous university was in order. This should have been a relatively straight forward process aside from the fact that I had attended *four *different high schools and had selected my current university due to its proximity. My family was in the military and although education was stressed the transition from schools took primacy over researching universities for the future. Fast forward to college and I began the infamous college search not unlike a high school junior. I basically knew nothing of college (What is this PSAT thing? What is an International Baccalaureate? LAC? Large university? Is this a "reach school"? What is a career center? Wait, was my high school a competitive or a sandbox school? Alumni…why does that matter?).</p>

<p>After overcoming my initial ignorance I took the SAT for the first time at 20 (scoring 2150: 780 Reading, 780 Essay + 590 Math), received glowing references and earned a 3.93 cumulative GPA. Finally, after two long years in a third-tier university, I transferred. However, unlike other students who spent the first two years of college discovering career paths and gathering contacts for internships, I researched like a high school student and had no time to allocate to typical post-college planning. </p>

<p>Basically, I’ve moved into to a new highly ranked university as a History major; obviously I am not painting myself as a pragmatic individual since I am a humanities major. The basic transfer process took up all my time and now as a junior in college I have no idea of what I want to do with my life. In truth, the decision to major in History was a default because it was a relatively non-impacted major. I have no intention of becoming a professor, nor receiving a PhD in it. I cannot change my major at this time.</p>

<p>Which brings me to the actual point of this essay: What steps would you recommend that I take in order to decide on a career path, graduate school, etc.? I purchased other books which consistently present a predetermined timeline running from frosh. to senior year in what each colligate should do to maximize his or her marketability and ultimately determine a career choice. There seems to be a noticeable gap for those who have not had a “dream career” since high school or do not comply with the archetypal student. I’ve already set up a meeting with the career counselor at my new university, though I am hesitant to announce “Hey, you accepted my to your university but I have no idea what to do with my life!” </p>

<p>I’m not writing this as a plea for attention as I am hoping to determine some information from alumni, students, or those in administration. I have looked at some grad schools that sound excellent, such as Cornell’s ILR which almost seems like a business oriented liberal arts degree. However, does one select a career path and then grad school? Or grad school first? And how does one discover what they want to do at all!? All I can say is that I’ll be as academically masochistic as is possible while attempting to get a 3.7+… but beyond that I would love any advice.</p>

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<p>Switch Majors as soon as possible ( i know you said you cant, how is that possible?), even if this means you stay for an additional year. I don’t know why anyone would choose History as a major unless you planned on teaching it. </p>

<p>If you cant immediately switch majors for technical reasons, just take the classes that would count towards a “practical” major. Then use your additional year to get an internship (probably unpaid). </p>

<p>In essence, as a 4th year senior, you would have your majors switched searching for a paid internship in your field. </p>

<p>Most people in Business field manage fine without building an network the first 2 years, since they all just get a paid internship their junior year.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>

Any useful graduate degree is going to be highly specialized. No point in going to graduate school until you have an industry or career path in mind. Chances are that you already have a very good idea of things you like or don’t like to do. </p>

<p>As for finding out what you want to do: the key is to get involved. The more you do, the more you will learn about your preferences, strengths and careers options out there. </p>

<p>Your life experience so far will give you some clues as to which sort of occupations you might look at. Do you like working with people? animals? ideas? things? Which environment do you prefer (desk job, some moving around, physical labor)? How much do you care about income or social status? How do you feel about 80-hour work weeks or $200,000 grad school loans? Once you have excluded the obvious don’t likes, get a job or an internship in something that’s left on your list. Or better yet, get two or three jobs. Flip a coin to decide on the occupation if you need to. See what you liked and didn’t like about those jobs. Rinse and repeat.</p>

<p>There’s no such thing as a perfect career. Most people would be happy in a wide range of careers and chose a specific one for more-or-less arbitrary reasons. You only need to find one career that you would be happy with. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?</p>

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<p>Disclaimer: I am not in college yet (I will be in the fall), but I have also been thinking about these issues.</p>

<p>Following up on b@r!um’s post, some questions to ask yourself to decide on a career are…What do you enjoy doing on your free time? What are you naturally talented at? What are some of your strongest personality traits? I recommend taking at least the Myer-Briggs and Holland personality tests (you can look them up online; maybe your college career center also has them). Aptitude tests are expensive but well worth it. Although you shouldn’t solely rely on these test results, they can help you find a career that is fulfilling for you.</p>

<p>As for deciding on a major…if you can change it, take a look at the course catalog and see which classes really excite you. This can give you a heads up about what areas you should look to major in.</p>

<p>One other resource - CollegeBoard has a list of careers and majors. I went through and picked out the ones I liked. I then looked up info on those.</p>

<p>These are just some things that have worked for me. Hope they help!</p>

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<p>Have you ever worked or interned anywhere? I would try to get some real-world experience so you could see what you liked to do.</p>

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<p>You could try law school or teaching.</p>