To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).

Did you choose your major because you like it or because it relates to your ideal job?

edited May 2013 in General
I'm still so undecided and I feel like I need to make a decision about what I really want to major in as soon as possible...

Does anyone here already know what job they ideally want and are choosing their major based on their job?

Or are you doing it because you enjoy the major and courses but no idea what you want to do...

Or you are doing the major because you feel it gives you more options?

Thanks in advance for your guys' input! I feel like such a lost student right now...

Comments

  • Well for my the major I like and the major that leads to my ideal job is the same thing. It is my ideal job because I like the work.

    While it might be a bit of a controversial opinion I think that by half way through second year at the latest people should know what they are going to school for an have a plan. This doesn't mean having a job picked out and everything, but if you are past second year and you are taking courses you don't enjoy and have no idea what you are going to do when you graduate I see that as a problem. If that is the case I think people are better off taking a break and figuring stuff out. Taking a break to sort out what you want to do is way better than graduating and then having no idea what you want to do.

    If you aren't too far along and are still trying to find what you like I would suggest taking courses in different faculties and trying things out. If done carefully you can hopefully find something you like, and then use the credits from the other courses for breadths and what not. Most programs have a decent amount of room for electives, so you can take a bunch of random things and not have them go to waste.
  • I'm in Computing Science. I really like it though. There's so many things in the field that are interesting. You can study artificial intelligence, computer systems, programming awesome stuff and games, computer graphics and animation, theoretical computer science, and optimization. I can't choose what to specialize in because there's so many cool choices. But i know i will stick with Computing Science. 

    I even got a co-op job for a database firm. It's focused more towards business computing applications and hopefully i'll get to try to get into a gaming industry. 

    Find whatever you like, i wasn't always a Computing Science student. First year i was in economics and figured it was boring, so i tried a variety of things from biology to english to math. I only started to love Computing Science in second year and i don't regret taking any of the courses i did. 
  • @Tofu = Jason Z.? And I take the shit I'm good at and/or interested in.
  • @BeAnBeAn Never heard of him
  • What is it
  • That is so cool. You can be like the female Liam Neeson from Taken.
  • ^Yeah that is cool! human trafficking is crazy, but knowing you could be apart of an organization to stop something like that is quite compelling. 

    @Lakerfanatic, what major is it? lol is it crim?
  • @Ryan + Tofu

    Thanks for your guys' input! I do generally have an idea but I am split...since I am so undecided I thought maybe doing business major would open up more doors for me and co op jobs for beedie seem more vast? Seems like many people do business if they don't know what they wanna do because it generalizes to lots of things. But it is way too competitive so I'm not sure :o I just don't know, I've taken a few business courses and from the bell curve and how students in it try so much harder, you can already get a taste of its competitive nature

    I've taken random electives here and there but if I don't do business I'm probably gonna do psychology? I really wanna help people in human services in any way and psychology kind of covers the whole people aspect lol. 

    But you know, the whole thing about liberal arts/psychology majors and not being able to find jobs worries me a bit. I want a major that will be useful, something I find interesting but also that will make me more employable - but that seems so hard to find...decisions decisions
  • @lakerfanatic Just memorize the cellphone monologue from Taken and recite it during interview and you will get it. Trust me.
  • I chose it because I was a dumbass
  • i was good at math in high school and enjoyed applying it to solve real life problems > math is one of the best fields to go into > ?? > profit.
  • What kind of jobs can you work as with a major in math?
  • mathematical modeling, finance, stats, actuarial science, comp sci, engineering, cryptography, etc.
    look at james stewart, author of one of the most used calc textbooks in north america.  he's ballin outta control.

    me personally, i'm planning to major in actuarial science with a minor in comp sci.

Leave a Comment