Hello Everybody,
I’m currently in the midst of trying to find a major to lead me to a career I will really enjoy. Here is a list of what I want my job to have: good hours, the job is in demand, possibly doing some form of a service. By the way, I am a Pisces and am very kind and light-hearted, but at the same time I will be willing to defend you. At some point I would like to have kids some day, so I don’t want a job where I am unreasonably stressed( though I thrive on stress). In terms of subject areas my strengths are reading and writing. Though in standardized testing I am great in Science. My only concern with nursing, is that I know I need a strong science background, but physics was sooo hard. To me biology and chemistry were not a problem though.I also enjoy computers and doing technical stuff as well. But, I have never taken a computer science class because my schedule was always so packed. I do want a job where I will have a high enough salary even if that means the subject is more difficult to learn. I also love math class but am in regular math. I just want to major in something that is just way too difficult.Can someone please advice?
Not sure where you are in your college journey, but with the exception of a few majors that map onto professions (like nursing),there’s a wide range of options and jobs within fields. Really, only you can make this decision.
The tl;dr is that all of this varies a lot by the exact job you do, your company, your work location, and your personal choices. I’d advise beginning to pick a major by thinking about what you enjoy, what you can focus 4 years on, and a very general career outline, rather than thinking of a very specific career right now. Like if you’ve never taken computer science, you might want to experiment with it by doing a free online resource (like Codeacademy, or a MOOC like Coursera or edX) or by taking the intro class for majors in your freshman year. With nursing, volunteer at a hospital and shadow some nurses, if you can. Same thing with law (although you can major in anything and go to law school) - maybe shadow a lawyer or do some informational interviews.
Caveat: Although nursing majors can do a lot of stuff, most of them become nurses at least for a few years after graduation, and most of the nursing-adjacent jobs that nurses can do (healthcare consulting, nurse management, nurse epidemiology. And the flip side is that if you want to be a nurse, you of course have to major in nursing - although you can do this by doing an accelerated program after college, it’s easier if you do it IN college.
What does “good hours” mean to you? For some people, that means the number of hours they work a week - and even then, what’s “good” has variation. Some people like working the standard 40-hour work week or even a little bit less. Some people like the demands of a 60-hour-a-week job. Even knowing that, all of your careers could potentially slot into that at different jobs. Nurses can often work part-time or “as needed,” choosing as many hours a week as they want. Lawyers can work at high-powered firms where they are working 60-80 hour weeks, or at corporate businesses where they have more standard 40-60 hour weeks, or at nonprofits or small firms where they may work more regular hours. Software developers, technical program managers, and other folks who have CS degrees can also have flexible schedules and depending on the company could work a regular 40-hour week or more.
In-demand is also a flexible requirement. Nurses in general are “in-demand,” but new grads sometimes have difficulty finding their first job, especially in desirable urban areas. Lawyers aren’t really in-demand overall. Many jobs within computer science are in demand, too, especially software developers and, to a certain extent, technical program managers.
“Doing a service” is super nebulous; there are lots of ways to perform a “service,” including who you are providing it to (the public? Other businesses? Individuals, or groups?) People in all three of those professions and many more provide services to other people or companies.
People in all three of those career areas (and many more) have kids. While it’s good to think about the kind of lifestyle you’d like to have, you don’t have to currently choose your major or your career on the basis of whether or not you want to have kids. Lots of parents adjust their schedules, change jobs or careers after they have children to adjust. And like I said earlier, all three of those fields have lots of jobs with variable schedules, projects, and stress levels. It’s possible, for example, to start out as a nurse working 5 shifts a week to make money and go down to part-time when you have kids, then back up to maybe 3-4 shifts when your kids start school. Or it’s possible to begin at a BigLaw firm after law school for 3-4 years, pay down your loans quickly, and then go into corporate or public interest law with a calmer schedule (and lower pay) as you prepare to have kids. It’s also possible to work as a software developer at a big company, go really hard and work crazy hours in your first few years, and then reduce your hours and refocus at the same job when you have a family. I’m just throwing out hypothetical examples, but all of these scenarios can and do happen in the real world (and I have personally witnessed the nursing and computer science examples).
A “high enough salary” is also vague and undefined. That really depends on the person. Some people want the lifestyle that can only come with six-figure salaries, whereas others are happy living a middle-class or even working-class life because they love their jobs and the extra time they have. It also varies a lot depending on where you live - if you wanted to live in New York or the Bay Area, a higher salary is a necessity because the cost of living in those places is astronomical. But if you were totally fine living in a small city in the Sun Belt or the Midwest, your costs and thus your salary can be lower. Do note that salaries in all those fields vary a lot depending on what you’re doing and where you’re living: nurses in urban areas make more money than nurses in small towns or rural areas (but again, their costs are higher).
Certain specialties or work environments also pay differently: so a nurse who works in a hospital may make more than a nurse that works in a doctor’s office or a small clinic, but their work style and hours will likely be very different (e.g., hospital nurses usually work 12-hour shifts, will work some weekends, and may have to start off working nights, whereas a doctor’s office will have hours that are more like M-F, 8-5 or something.) A software developer may be the only developer at a nonprofit or small business or could work on a large team of them at a large company. Lawyers’ salaries also vary a lot; so if you were at a small firm or nonprofit you could make somewhere in the $50-70K range; if you work in corporate business as an in-house lawyer, maybe you make in the $80-100K range; if you work in BigLaw at a top firm you could easily start off making $140-160K base. And that will vary depending on location and company and all that.
Nurses always have work, and flexibility as they can work night shift. Nurses can also work for two hospitals on contract, and move around between hospitals here in Colorado. We do have a high density of hospitals here for the population, in and around Denver. Also you can take time off, say with kids, and get back into nursing. You will have to pass license exams to become a nurse. You can get advanced degrees and become a nurse practitioner. That job pays very well, but I agree with all the ideas above that salaries vary by geography, and also type of job you get in any job category.
You should try a computer science class to see if you like it, over the summer. You can learn to program using the internet, find a program on line with Khan Academy or any of the Open Course programs that are free and on line.
The problem with engineering and computer science is it changes so rapidly and thus it can be hard to get back in, if you take time off after kids. Its best to learn hardware and software, although lots of coders know nothing about hardware. The computer scientists that have engineering and hardware knowledge may get better jobs. Math
and statistics are also important for computer scientists today.
I see lots of bachelors, masters and PHD degreed women with engineering or CS degrees, who are UNEMPLOYED after children. This is because high tech workplaces are less flexible than nursing and teaching, and because they let their skills go stale, and because of the rapid changes in the computer science field, and hardware taking a backseat to software. It is possible to freshen up a CS degree with a masters degree after kids but it costs money and time.
Also computer scientists that work in high tech will get excessed and experience lay offs at least two to three times in their careers. If you want a federal government computer science job, that is more stable. Or working for state or city governments, too, may be lower pay but more stable than “high tech”.
Attorneys are in between, at least US law and state laws change slower than computer software, but law is very male dominated, and not that easy to step back in, but you can sometimes get contract work as an attorney. . Attorneys get payed considerably less than engineers to start, and is more of a “desk” job, so reading and writing and analyzing all day. Some attorneys work closely with clients, depending on the field of law, such as divorce and family law.
Attorneys who own law firms, so a small business, often do better than beginner attorneys. Its a rough road to
get to become a partner of a large national law firm, lots and lots of overtime hours to make it. Also attorneys need to be “billable” so its a lot of pressure to work a lot of hours, not all are billable.
Nursing is much more active, you get to move around a lot and interact with humans.
Not understanding physics may mean you had a bad high school physics teacher. Nurses do not need physics so much. Computer science, it depends on exactly what you do.
Attorneys don’t need physics or much math, unless they are patent attorneys in physics, optics, CS or EE fields.
I work in tech at a large technology company, and I don’t see unemployed women as a huge problem in my field. However, I will say that’s because the women I know largely go back to work after having children at least part-time - they take 5-6 months off for maternity leave (we have generous leave policies in the tech industry) and then transition back.
I also wouldn’t say that high tech workplaces are less flexible than nursing, and certainly not teaching. My mother and my cousin are nurses, and my sister is a hospital tech, and I have several friends who are teachers (and I work with teachers as part of my job). It really depends on the workplace. At my high tech company, my hours are pretty flexible. Lots of parents come in at 9 after dropping off their kids, leave at 4 to go pick up kids from school, and then do more work in the evenings from home. Some parents work 7-3 so they can be the one to get their kids off the bus, or do 10-6 so they can drop their kids off, if they are balancing with a partner.
We certainly have more sick days and PTO than a teacher (I have several friends who are teachers, and it is very difficult for them to get off time during the school year). Some teachers and many nurses have to find someone to cover their shift if they need to take off during previously scheduled time, whereas the vast majority of tech workers do not need to do this. Also, if I’m running late because a kid is pitching a fit or the nanny is running behind or something else - or unexpectedly have to leave early because my kid got sick at school - I don’t have to worry too much, because I can come in and leave basically whenever I want (and I have, in fact, seen many people on my team do this). Teachers and nurses pretty much have to arrive on time.
We have excellent benefits, including guaranteed backup care in case your nanny gets sick or your kid is too sick for day care. We can work from home to stay with ill family members if necessary, which teachers and most nurses cannot do. My job also gives me four weeks of paid family medical leave, which for me is coming in handy (my mom has a serious illness and I will need to take some time to care for her).
Although the OP didn’t mention teaching in their original post, I definitely wouldn’t say that teaching is more flexible than technology. In comparing my work situation to my friends’ who are teachers, I have much more flexibility than they do.
I also don’t think tech is necessarily more unstable than most other fields; it kind of depends on where you work and what kind of job you do. If you work at a start-up or a firm that does really cutting-edge technology, there’s always the potential to be laid off. I know many, many long-term tech workers who have never been laid off, though, and have worked pretty much continuously since beginning their careers. (Besides, nurses get laid off, too - my mom got laid off from her hospital and experienced a period of unemployment before finding another job. While healthcare will always be necessary, funding for health/medical services does expand and contract with political winds and the government’s proclivities, for example.)
The flexibility that most people refer to in nursing involves the easy availability of part-time and as-needed work and the ability to work different shifts (like night or mid-shift) and to work fewer days a week (like working three 12-hour shifts, rather than five days a week). But that’s a different type of flexibility, and I wouldn’t say that in general their schedules fall under other things we normally think of as flexibility in work - the ability to set one’s own hours, come and go as one pleases, come late or leave early if necessary, etc.
I also want to mention that going back into the workforce after taking several years off is difficult in any field. Healthcare changes rapidly, too. Having a gap of 3-5 years isn’t going to be easily accepted in most fields; it may be a bit more understood in fields that are dominated by women, but it won’t be easy. If you visit any nursing forum, you’ll probably find at least one thread with some nurses discussing how to get back into the field after an extended absence, often from raising children. I remember reading those when I was considering nursing as a career for myself. (I also do want to point out that having children and a family doesn’t mean you have to take time out of the workforce at all.) BUT one advantage that nurses are is the ability to work part-time or PRN, which isn’t really a thing in tech in general. It’s easy for a nurse to pick up a few shifts a week when they want to work fewer hours for whatever reason, just to keep their skills sharp.
The only reason I push back gently on this is because these are common reasons that women shy away from the fields in which we are underrepresented, like engineering and computer science. Just to be clear, I think nursing is an excellent career path that is overlooked by many students, but can be the pathway to a really fulfilling and enjoyable career for one who wants it. And people with nursing degrees and experience can also do a variety of other things using that experience if they ever want to change careers.
BUT a lot of women reason their way out of trying out scientific fields in which they are interested before they’re even seriously thinking about having children or are partnered with someone with whom they could have children, because they believe (perhaps erroneously) that scientific or engineering or technological jobs are going to offer them less flexibility and less ability to raise their children than other types of jobs. I was initially kind of nervous about this myself, but I’m certainly heartened by the fact that the vast majority of our senior leadership here - men and women - have children.
Just cross lawyer off your list right now. Seriously. The profession is way over-saturated, debt loads are high, pay is low (if you can get a job) and depression and substance abuse rates are high. Just don’t do it. You’d probably make more $$ as a nurse.
Nurses can and do work offbeat hours.
Night shift, holidays, mandatory overtime - it can all be part of the job depending on where you work. Hospitals need someone 24 hours a day, so healthcare professionals like nurses are scheduled around the clock. New nurses generally work in a hospital first, although there are jobs in doctor’s offices and drug companies depending on your experience. You can also be a traveling or visiting nurse.
Nurses are in high demand just about everywhere - and you will make job contacts through your clinicals. It’s a hard job, though, and not one to be entered into solely based on salary or possibility of advancement (though both are strong).
You will also touch people and their fluids, and work with patients and families during what could be the worst time in their lives. I told my daughter this, and she still entered a BSN program. 
If you have more specific questions about nursing, come visit the nursing forum
I can tell you first hand via my wife that doing 12 hour shifts for 3 days a week may sound enticing with all the days off, but you get drained physically a lot. Especially when you get older. And yes she was a nurse in Denver for so many years, and when she moved out to Silicon Valley 2 years ago, she easily doubled her salary.
Also, my wife was a Fine Arts major in college and went into nursing. My next door neighbor’s kid was a Biology major and went into nursing after graduation. And yep, at age 25 her salary is pretty close to what top CS majors make coming out of school in Silicon Valley. From what I understand, a starting salary at say Stanford Hospital for an RN out of school is in the $50-55/hr range. So the area where you work does matter.