Every time I take a career or college major test, I get psychology. I really enjoy analytical writing, and writing in general. I guess my personality is the right fit for it. I’m kind of a quiet, reserved and observant type of person. I also did enjoy my intro to psych class.
But I’m at a community college right now majoring in computer science. My tentative goal right now is to become a market research analyst. For that field, I heard multiple kinds of majors get into it, but mostly related to marketing or math. This, of course, led me to wondering if math would be a good major. Now, I don’t mind math, especially if a math degree could lead to plentiful job opportunities like computer science does.
As for computer science, it can be a hit or miss for me. I’m only in my second semester of taking a programming fundamentals class but to be honest, I’ve actually cried a few times trying to figure out my labs. I know, lame. I’m one of those sensitive types. Looking at internships, a lot of them require knowing at least one or two languages fluently. No matter how much I think about it, I just can’t find myself having the determination to learn new languages on my own. In other words, I don’t ever code “for fun” in my spare time.
Obviously, I know computer science would be the better option for just a bachelors. It’s a hugely growing field and there are a lot of job opportunities with it. That’s what makes computer science so attractive for me, and mostly why I’m choosing to major in it “by default.”
On the other hand, going to grad school is not assured, which makes computer science the more attractive option out of the three for a bachelor’s. But I don’t know, would it be worth trying to stick with computer science for the next couple of years or should I just follow the cliche “do what you love, the money will follow”?
Opinions?
First of all, nothing worth doing is easy. Many majors can be difficult. I’m not saying continue on with computer science if it’s making you miserable and you’re crying all the time, but I’ve cried with the stress of doing research even though it’s something I love. Do you dislike it, or is it just stressful sometimes?
On the other hand, don’t choose computer science because it’s a hot major for now. There are always going to be a revolving door of hot majors - 10 years ago they were other things, and 10 years from now it’ll be something else. You can’t predict what the job market is going to look like, which is why it’s important to combine pragmatism with your own interest and pick something you like. It’s not quite “do what you love and the money will follow,” because that’s not true - I love to eat ice cream and read novels but nobody is paying me for that. It’s more like think about your own interests and skills and what you actually like to do, and see if those things are currently monetized/in demand.
A lot of students will try to major in CS because they think of all the job opportunities. But you don’t just want quantity of opportunity; you want opportunities you actually like. If you don’t like to code, then a CS job is going to be a nightmare for you because you’ll be coding most of the time! (Obviously there are other technical careers in CS that don’t require coding regularly - like being a technical program manager or a producer - but you still need to have facility with coding.) Not only that, nobody wants to hire a mediocre programmer. The good jobs want the best programmers. I work at a large tech company and whenever I talk to the successful young software engineers here, I always hear from them that they liked to code in their spare time and they made little apps or games in high school or college for practice. You have to like it, and you have to practice it to get good at it.
Market research is a completely viable field - not only are there lots of jobs in that area that you can get with a bachelor’s degree, they also pay well (not software developer well, but enough to live on comfortably), and there are internships you can do in that field to get some experience while still in college. A psychology major is a pretty common major to get into that field; a psychology major with a math minor, or a double psych/math major, would be an excellent way to enter that field.