Selecting a major is one of the most daunting tasks a college student ever has to face- at least, that’s what I’ve heard.
As a student who elected to go undeclared and pursue exploratory studies, I’m often asked by my friends and family why I’m even going through with college in the first place.
After all, I am often pressed on why am I bothering to go to college at all if I haven’t dedicated myself to a specific field of study. Always questioned about how I will ever land a job without a degree.
While I’ll eventually have to choose between a specific social science or Communications, I’m so comfortable with where I am because I don’t believe a specific major is a necessity for every student’s future.
From what little I’ve gathered from business magazines over the past week, the working world may not care about the specifics of your degree as much as your experience and attitude.
In today’s job market, employers are no longer looking for solely academic experience. In the past decade, I believe employers have begun to place more emphasis on what the U.S. Army originally coined as “soft skills”.
“Soft skills” refer to one’s social tendencies and other factors that can’t be tested under traditional methods. More often than not, employers seek out candidates who display soft skills like critical thinking, work ethic, and even attentive listening.
According to a 2019 report from LinkedIn, 89% of job recruiters said that when a new hire doesn’t end up working out, it usually comes down to a lack of those crucial soft skills.
So while my certification in underwater basket weaving may not qualify me for a position at NASA, there’s a chance my general work experience could land me something else.
While a Bachelor’s degree in itself may generally be a prerequisite for much of the workforce, studies from the last decade suggest that the specificity of one’s education may not matter.
According to calculations from the 2010 U.S. Census, 62% of recent college graduates worked in a job that required a degree, yet only 27% of graduates were working in a job that related to their college major.
While this set of statistics is relatively outdated, the sentiment still stands: Future careers don’t always correlate directly to one’s college major.
Take, for example, Silicon Valley’s massive intake of liberal arts majors. In recent years, tech giants like Facebook and Uber have taken on creatives in addition to STEM specialists.
Of course, this isn’t to say that picking a major is entirely pointless. Some careers, especially in technical fields, do require a specific certification. With that being said, I think it’s unfair to assume that you can only pursue one field of interest post-graduation.
To quote Christopher Walken, arguably one of the most iconic voices of the 20th century, “At its best, life is completely unpredictable.”
The major you choose doesn’t automatically cement your future. At the end of the day, the only factor that can truly determine your future career is you.
