“What’s your major? What are your plans post-Davidson? What are you having for dinner tonight?”
Notwithstanding a few extraordinarily awkward winners (like the time a small child came up to me in an amusement park to ask if I was having a baby or of course the solidly uncomfortable classics like Grandma asking if there is a boy in my life) few questions make me as uncomfortable as those about my future.
“What’s your major?” seems like such an innocuous question to ask a college sophomore, yet it fills me with panic. I have cultivated two top responses to avoid looking like a deer in headlights:
1. “Haven’t the foggiest,” which I’m pretty sure I picked up from Harry Potter—not that I would know what to major in at Hogwarts either.
2. Something full of expletives and followed by a fake laugh, so everyone knows that I’m totally fine with the fact that my future occasionally feels as unknown the inside of a gaping abyss.
And if “what is your major?” terrifies me, “what kind of job do you want?” is really a fun anxiety-inducing question. The idea of choosing feels like I’m cementing my future in stone, and the idea of not knowing makes me feel like I’m going to end up out in the world unprepared for everything. What’s important to remember, even if, like me, you panic initially, is that neither of those things are true.
1. You Will Find a Job
Believe me, I know what people say about liberal arts educations. Despite what your business major friends at other schools tease, there’s a reason the liberal arts model of education works. If you hear jokes about wanting to be an English major all the time or love studying science even if you aren’t pre-med, you’re going to be just fine because you learn valuable career skills. According to Jeffrey Selingo of the New York Times, “Employers say that future workplaces need degree holders who can come up with novel solutions to problems and better sort through information to filter out the most critical pieces.” I know it’s easy to forget what they told you liberal arts colleges were all about. You did ten tours in five days and they all kind of became a blur of fancy buildings and promises that the dining hall food is better than it really was. So friendly reminder from your tour guide or info session leader: learning those skills is kind of what we’re here for.
2. Study What You Love
You can be pre-med and an English major. That could be because you want to be a good writer to publish medical research, or that could be because you really like books and words. Your biology-loving future-lawyer self might end up specializing in medical malpractice suits or public health policy. If you know what you want to do with your career, don’t let someone convince you that the subject you really want to study doesn’t apply to it. The 2010 American Community Survey by the US Bureau of Census found that only 27% of people have jobs within their major. That means that no matter what you want to go, there is a way to make your major marketable. Sure, you may have to pick up some other skills along the way, but there are plenty of ways to do that.
3. You Can Change Your Mind
Everything I’ve said about how your major won’t limit your career options boils down to this: choosing your major isn’t choosing what you’re going to do for the rest of your life. At Davidson, you have lots of room to explore. You can even double major, or add a minor to your major. Liberal arts means you get to explore almost unlimited fields of study. You also don’t have to panic when it comes time to choose a job. Julia Child worked for the CIA before becoming a chef, Harrison Ford quit acting to be a carpenter until he was approached about Star Wars, and Walt Disney worked as a newspaper editor. And it’s not just extraordinarily famous people who had a career change. Normal people do too, every day. The decision you make today does not have to hold true tomorrow.
4. You’ll Be Fine
I promise. It’s okay not to know what you’re doing because Davidson will prepare you well. Take a deep breath. You’re gonna be great.