Many college students enter college without choosing a major. Unfortunately, this indecision can lead to students wasting time and money taking classes outside their major. Without a concrete plan, confidence levels are lowered as students enter the job market late. Students take classes across multiple subjects and departments without knowing the best-fit major. No one enjoys hanging out in the purgatory of indecision, especially when one’s future is questioned.

Three Easy Steps to Deciding the College Major

The first step is to assess what types of careers will lead to the greatest happiness and success. Once you know which career theme or combination of themes fits, you can begin to review various career options within that theme. The six broad areas of choice include Realistic, Artistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Most majors and careers include aspects of two or three of these areas.  Once you know which areas fit your child best, you can help your child to view themselves and their preferences more clearly.

After the assessment phase, the second best practice step is holding conversations with your child. Take notes as to which factors are most important to your child. Questions to ask range from the importance of hot technologies and emerging occupations to job families and individual competencies. Try not to get caught up in holding the “right” kind of conversation. Instead, you can ask open-ended questions related to the assessment results. There are resources online that can help you determine skills needed for the various job families and skills needed to bring focus and a concrete educational plan.

The third step is to help your child reflect on their options by researching college majors and careers that match their results. There are some excellent free resources such as O’net. These resources will allow you and your child to drill down and review the options to determine everything from starting salaries to the expected outlook of any particular major over the next several years beyond college. Using AI can also help your family to predict emerging occupations related to your child’s preferences.

The most important thing is to get started! Even if your child seems to have decided, the topic must be brought up, and career choices should be vetted as soon as possible. Going to college can be a beautiful journey or rocky and confusing. They say, “Knowledge is power,” and this kind of knowledge will impact your child far into the future. If you would like to book a time to talk to me, I welcome your call! 415-385-7778.

Sincerely,

Rachel