This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UGA chapter.
College is a confusing time for everyone. I can almost guarantee that no freshman knows exactly what major they want and exactly want to do with said major. Almost every college student will probably change their major at one point or another. Someone’s lying to you if they tell you that they’ve never done so. If that’s the case then run because they’re more lost than you.
If you’re like me and had only a small idea of what you want to do, here are some things you can do to help.
1. Know yourself
I know it’s easier said than done, but having a general knowledge of your likes and dislikes will go a long way in the search for the right major. If you know you can’t sit behind a desk all day and that you need to be interacting with people, never doing the same thing twice, then an accounting major is probably not for you. If you have no idea what would be appealing to you in a job, you can take personality quizzes such as TypeFocus.
2. Do some research
Nothing helps more than some good old fashioned research! If you aren’t sure if you’ll like the classes you have to take, do some exploring on your university’s course bulletin. For UGA, the course bulletin has many features such as a compassion tool that allows you to compare up to three majors and a small course description of each class offered. If you can’t go all the way to the career center, go to their website! The career center at UGA offers many tools on their website such as candid careers that are short videos of people in those fields telling you about their jobs.
3. Utilize your school’s resources
If you don’t know where to turn, go to the career center! They’ll be able to help you through this confusing time. The career center offers a ton of events aimed at choosing a major or building professionalism. These events usually last an hour, with students who are just as confused as you are in attendance, so you won’t be overwhelming yourself by going to them. In addition, the career center has career consultants for every major that you can make one on one appointments with.
4. Try many different things
As Thomas Edison once said, “I didn’t fail, I found 2,000 ways to not make a light bulb. I only needed to find one to make it work.”
I know that inventing a light bulb is probably way harder than finding the right major, but what Thomas Edison is saying here is that he didn’t let failure or trying the wrong thing prevent him from achieving his goal of inventing the light bulb. When searching for a major, it’s important to not get discouraged if you find something you don’t want to do. For example, I came into college as an intended business management major and, once I did some research on it, I found out that it wasn’t the degree for me.
5. Find internship opportunities
No class can prepare you exactly for the field you’ll be going into. I highly suggest participating in an internship. Internships can provide you with a small taste of some of the tasks you’ll be doing, and the great thing about them is that they don’t last forever. If you absolutely hate everything you do at an internship and know you couldn’t possibly work in a job like that, the good news is that it will only last a couple of months at most and you’ll have narrowed down your search even more. On the other hand, if you like and excel at your internship, you can potentially gain a job after graduation from it.
The important thing to remember is that you will find your calling and you will find a career you love, so don’t stress!