What career or major should I pursue?

[tishaG]

I am a sophomore communications major, I am transferring to another university and I have a chance to change my major. I wanted advice on what are some potential career paths I could go down or other potential majors based on my interests. I have only taken two classes in my major so far which was Public Relations and Interpersonal Communications and I was interested in both, especially public relations. I enjoy reading and writing; I love writing papers especially conducting research. I am also good at writing essays and have gotten compliments on my writing ability from my professors, I’m just not good at creative writing but I want to be. I’m a curious person and I love researching anything that catches my interest.

I also enjoy communicating with people and meeting new people. I am shy but I am working on it and even though I’m shy I can strike up a conversation with anyone if I put my mind to it. I always keep up with current events and social media. I enjoy watching movies and television shows. I always watch the behind the scenes making of movies out if curiosity of how movies or scenes were made. I also analyze everything I watch like a characters plot development or why the plot of avtv show or movie is going in the direction they it’s on. I also keep up with pop culture events like the the oscars, golden globes, etc.

I would appreciate if anyone has any suggestions, I would also like to be in a career that has variety and isn’t a typical 9 to 5 job.

[CheddarcheeseMN]

Journalism

[juillet]

Your major and your career aren’t inextricably tied to each other. They can be related (or not), but one doesn’t necessarily determine the other. So when you are choosing your major, think about what you like and what you’d want to study for 3 more years in addition to what you’d like to do.

If you liked communications, why change? You could always stick with that. If you like writing, humanities and social sciences majors are usually pretty full of that (English, history, philosophy, religion, anthropology, political science, sociology, and at some colleges, psychology and economics too).

Here are some great articles about majoring in the humanities:

11 Reasons to Major in the Humanities (Business Insider): http://www.businessinsider.com/11-reasons-to-major-in-the-humanities-2013-6
Shocker: Humanities Grads Gainfully Employed and Happy: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/07/study-finds-humanities-majors-land-jobs-and-are-happy-them

Whenever students say that they don’t want a “typical 9-to-5,” I’m not sure what they mean by that. I generally work 9 to 5 - or really, 8 to 4, but same difference. I sit at a computer most of my day, in an office, and have lots of meetings with people in conference rooms. But I work for Xbox and do research on video games, which involves a lot of the things you love (writing, researching, analyzing media). I spend most of my days talking to people about video games, testing video games by running research with people, and playing the video games that I work on - and other games. (One recent project was an analysis that required me to play all of the top games in my game’s genre. Oh, the agony :D)

The reality is that most jobs have many mundane parts to them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be exciting and fulfilling. Most jobs have some at least loose form of routine, but I don’t know anyone who does the exact same thing every day. And many good jobs have schedule flexibility. I generally work from 8 to 4, but sometimes I choose to do a 9 to 5, or even a 10 to 6. If I have to leave early to go to the doctor, or come in late because I’m waiting for a delivery, I can do that.

And your major doesn’t necessarily determine that. I majored in psychology in undergrad, and the people around me majored in all kinds of things for the kind of flexibility and excitement we experience at work.