I’m a college freshman and I’m currently undeclared. I need to choose a major before the spring semester starts and I can’t decide. I’m considering these jobs: occupational therapist, RN, Nurse anesthetist, counselor, elementary teacher. I’m a very organized, patient, caring, calm, and would like a job that helps others. I also would like a job that pays well. I do have a really bad fear of needles however which might not be good if I become a nurse. I don’t want my job to be really stressful either. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews online about the jobs i’m considering. Some people say that they hate their job and wish they’d never went to college for it while others say that their job is very rewarding. Could someone please give me some advice or job recommendations?
Are you afraid of needles for yourself or are you just more generally afraid of needles? If the fear is mostly for yourself, then you could still be a nurse, but if you just hate needles in general then nursing is maybe not for you. (And nurse anesthetist would definitely not be for you - most anesthesia delivery routes are through needles.)
Several of the jobs you mentioned require licensure and/or certification in a particular field, which requires a certain level of education. If you want to be a nurse, you have to major in nursing. If you aren’t at a school that offers a nursing major, you could potentially take all the nursing prerequisites and then go into a one-year accelerated nursing BSN program after college to become an RN. Nurse anesthetists usually have a couple of years of nursing experience plus a master’s of science in nursing (MSN). There are some 3-year programs that are designed to take people with no background in nursing, but the appropriate prerequisites, and allow them to earn the RN and the MSN to be a nurse anesthetist. Places like Columbia, Yale, and Penn offer these programs.
Likewise, elementary school teachers require a certain major - the elementary education major - including a semester of student teaching and a series of tests to prove you are qualified and earn your certification. So if you thought you wanted to teach elementary school, you’ll need to major in elementary education. If your school doesn’t have it, you could major in something else and then earn an M.Ed in elementary education later. I don’t think those programs require any specific type of major, but it’d be best to take a variety of classwork in the fields you’d have to teach in the elementary classroom.
Occupational therapists have to attend a master’s or doctoral program in OT and get licensed, too. OT programs have prerequisites, and most also require you to have at least one letter of recommendation from a currently practicing occupational or physical therapist and certification of a certain number of hours volunteering with that therapist. Check out the websites of some OT master’s or doctoral programs to find out more about the prereqs and requirements.
That leaves counselor. What to major in and what you need to do depends on what kind of counselor you want to be, but all counselors need at least a master’s degree. School counselors need an M.Ed in guidance counseling + certification in the field; community mental health counselors can get a master’s in mental health counseling, a master’s in social work, or another closely related field that leads to licensure to practice in your state. There’s also the field of school psychology, which requires at least a master’s in school psychology but allows you to practice in schools counseling students and helping students with special needs and individualized education plans.
The tl;dr version: Nursing & elementary school teacher require a specific undergrad major, although there are pathways to follow if your university doesn’t have those majors. See above. Occupational therapy and counseling don’t require a specific major, although you have to complete prerequisites for OT in order to get the master’s you need.
Either way, it sounds like a social science major may be well-suited to you, since you’ve got a real interest in connecting with and helping people. Psychology can be excellent preparation for all of these careers (as long as you take the prerequisites for the health-related ones and are willing to do some post-baccalaureate work for nursing). Sociology is another major that may interest you and is related to all of these in some way (ditto prereqs). A natural sciences major like biology or chemistry is a potentially good fit for a nursing or OT career.
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That’s life. Some people have entered the wrong field or they have a bad job within the field and they hate it; other people are in the right field for their interests and skills, and have a good position, so they love it. Rather than listening to individual people’s preferences and such about their jobs…read about the job descriptions, the day to day work, and the skills you need. Conduct some informational interviews with people in these jobs, in which you spend 30 minutes asking them about what they do every day. And volunteer! Schools and hospitals always love volunteers; I volunteered in an elementary school and at a hospital when I was in college. Sign up for a volunteering program and spend some time shadowing people who are in the careers you’re considering to see if you like them.
@juillet I’m just afraid of needles for myself. I think I would be able to give others shots and stuff like that. All of the careers that I listed are available majors at my university. I’ll look into some of the majors you mentioned and maybe try volunteering somewhere. Thank you!