I am switching from my current pre-med track (for multiple reasons), and I don’t know what I could study in college/do later in life that will leave me with good pay, a job im satisfied with, and good employment options. What career path should I switch to that will give me the best options? I’m desperate (i’ve been thinking about this for months). I am a good student, so far I have a 3.9 in college (I’m a sophomore), so I don’t want that to go to waste. I considered computer science, but its seems like that field changes every second, so I’m scared about how employable I will be in the future/if it is even worth it since there are people that don’t go to college and still get well payed CS jobs. I considered actuary, but that seems unbelievably boring/there are hard tests to pass that might be too much to handle (for me at least, since I’m okay at math but I’m no genius). I also considered biomedical engineering, but that seems very competitive and will be hard for me to keep up with since I’m a slow learner and I am also a girl and want to have a family later on in life.
Please! any help will go far. I am so desperately lost.
Are you interested in getting out of all medical field type jobs? Knowing that answer could help us give you some recommendations and eliminate others.
Take some time and think about what courses you are most interested in. When you say you are a slow learner, that tells me that you need to struggle a bit to get the material but you can do well at the end. This is perfectly fine. In fact, since you have to work at it a bit, you probably learn it quite well. Don’t let this deter you from a major you would like. This myth about having to be “naturally good” at something to study is pretty much baloney.
If you like CS, then go for it. If you like Biomedical Engineering, ditto but be aware that a job in that field needs a graduate degree at this time. Maybe there is another engineering field you like or science. While biology majors have a harder time finding jobs than engineers, it is still not horrible.
You don’t have to have this all figured out now. Most people don’t know at 18-20 exactly what career field they want to work, and most people’s career pathways aren’t entirely linear. Your major may not even be 100% connected to what you eventually do. You can major in anything, and then look at jobs that look interesting when you graduate from college. Each job may be a lateral move (or an upwards one) towards things that you like better.
What you can’t do is get scared and avoid lots of fields because you think you can’t hack it. The only thing to do is try, and not doing as well as you’d hoped (or failing!) is okay. If you don’t like it, you can always do something else!
The people who do this are generally people from wealthy families who had/have access to fancy, advanced computers at early ages. They started learning to code when they were in late elementary or early middle school, often had private tutors financed by their wealthy parents, and had lots of space and time to learn those elements while being supported by those samesuch parents. Moreover, a lot of the famous CS entrepreneurs who “didn’t go to college” actually started at college and dropped out; ironically, their college experience gave them the time, coursework, and network that made their companies possible.
If you look at the rank-and-file at your average technology company the overwhelmingly majority of them (us? I work at a very large one) have a bachelor’s degree, at least.