Hi, I am currently a freshman at the University of South Florida (Tampa Campus) and I plan on applying for the BOLD internship for Google in my junior year. Now I know that is far away but I would like to be prepared before I apply. I am studying biomedical sciences right now, but plan on changing it soon. I have always enjoyed computers and figuring stuff out, but I’m still unsure of what to major in that I could potentially stand out with. I know that your major isn’t the only thing that they look at, but I want to be on the right track. So what should I major in? (Keep in mind that I’m not solely changing my major to fit the preference of the BOLD internship, I would like to know what companies like Google, Facebook, Youtube, etc. are interested in). Computer Science, communications, marketing? Please help! Thank you!
Technology companies hire people of all majors. I work at Microsoft and I know people who work here and at other Seattle-area tech companies with bachelor’s degrees in all kinds of things - history, theater, photography, psychology, linguistics, political science, women & gender studies, international studies, journalism, etc. The majors I listed are from people I know personally who either only have a BA, or if they have a master’s degree it’s in the same field as their BA (e.g., no people who majored in women’s studies in undergrad and the got an MS in computer science or something). They’re all people who work as program managers, producers, directors, or consultants in tech.
Google places BOLD interns in teams across the company, so they probably have a need for many majors.
Right now, the greatest need in technology is for software engineers. The majority of open tech jobs are going to be for people who can code, program apps/websites/games/whatever and develop software. Those are traditionally going to be people with majors in computer science or some kind of engineering (often electrical, but also sometimes mechanical or other areas). But many times those folks are people with majors in other areas who minored in CS and/or taught themselves have to code/develop software some other way.
And if you don’t want to be a software engineer/programmer, there are lots of other jobs in technology. Program manager and producer are two of the other most common job titles and most of the people with the odd social science/humanities/arts majors I listed above have the title program manager. (Often PMs are SDETs who have transitioned but not always.) Tech companies have gigantic marketing departments and always need people there, so business and marketing are good majors, too. Communications also works.
Basically you can major in any one of those things and find a job. I’ll be frank and say that right now, since the biggest number of openings is in software development, in theory those jobs have less competition per position to get. However, who knows what the world will look like 3-5 years from now when you’re job hunting. Not to mention that the degree itself isn’t enough - incoming software developers/engineers these days usually have experience building something that they’ve honed in college. So only go that route if you actually like programming and want to be a software developer!
@tiastratton
I colleague of my recently interviewed for a technical position at Google. They flew him out for an interview but it turned out that it was a mutual decision that he was not a good fit for the team he interviewed with, came down to personality and work styles. He has a degree in English from UCF. His work experience is nothing exceptional, but was a good fit for what they needed at the time, I believe the fact is well spoken and a good communicator got him the interview.