How to choose your college major

Choosing a major is one of the most important choices you'll make in college. Some say it doesn't matter, but I think it does.

But I don't think it's about choosing the major that has the potential to make you the most money. I think you should choose a major based on something else. 

Check out the video below from the Pearson Students Blog to find out what you should think about when choosing the right major for you:

Ask Isa: What do you do when you don't like your major anymore?

From the Ask Isa inbox:

Dear Isa,

I will be a freshman this fall and my current major is early childhood education. I've always wanted to be a teacher since my first day of kindergarten. 

But lately, the thought of being a teacher has not been connecting with me. I am a helpful person and I want to make a difference in peoples lives. I am known to give good advice and I love helping others. 

What should my major be if I'm not sure if I want to be a teacher anymore? 

Sincerely,

Changing Majors

----
Dear Changing Majors,

I can SO relate to this as I too thought I wanted to be a teacher most of my life. However, the more I learned about what it really takes to be a good public school teacher the more I realized it wasn't the best fit for my skill set and interests. 

Eventually I learned there were many careers that help, connect with, and teach people.

For most people it's impossible to know exactly what your career is going to be after college. By the time we get to college most of us have only been exposed to the careers of our parents, our school teachers, and what we've seen on TV. 

And there are countless jobs your generation will have after college that don't even exist yet.

There are so many choices and it can be overwhelming. 

It's okay if you don't have it figured out right away.

However, having some direction is helpful when it comes to having enthusiasm for class each day and ensuring you graduate on time. 

You don't want to graduate college without a good idea of what you are good at, what fascinates you, what problems you want to solve, and what value you add. 

Below area few things you can do right now to start thinking about how careers fit in with your personality and interests:

1) Take this free myers briggs personality test to get your 4-letter code. Then, type in your 4-letter personality code (e.g. mine is ENFJ) into Google like this: "ENFJ Careers" and read up on the careers that are suggested.

2) Go to insidejobs.com and pick your favorite topics for the "What do you like" and "What are you good at" drop down menus and read up on the career options they suggest.

3) Take classes that sound interesting. Most people don't know their career until much later in life, so don't put too much pressure on yourself. Right now, focus on learning stuff that you find interesting. You'll be surprised at where the new knowledge might take you. 

4) Get involved in a club. Working with others can teach you a lot about yourself and what kind of work you're best at. Notice what projects you gravitate towards and were you excel.  

5) Interview people whose jobs you like, ask to job shadow them for a day, and start taking internships.

The best part about college is that it gives you options and opportunities to figure out your career along the way. A degree opens doors.

As long as you don't want to go into an industry that requires a specific degree, such as being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, majoring in something that interests you will serve you well.

You're about to start a great adventure, and it's okay if you can't predict the end. Know that it will be a good ending if you commit yourself to the journey. 

You can submit your question to the Ask Isa inbox here. 

AskIsa: My ultimate formula for getting the best internships (& figuring out what you want to do with your life)

From the Ask Isa inbox:

Dear Isa,

Do you have any sources for finding internships? I'm a math major and am interested in civil engineering, although I am not 100% on that. I feel that getting a little experience in any engineering/math field would help me figure out exactly what I want to do. 

Sincerely,

Internship Seeker

Dear Internship Seeker,

You are right on about starting to get some experience to figure out what you want to do.

Some of the internship websites I know about are YouTern.com and InternQueen.com; you can also search Indeed.com for "civil engineering internship." I also recommend searching the websites in some of the most well-known corporations in your field to research their internship programs. 

The best internships are highly competitive and doing research early can make all the difference. 

The best thing to do is to start connecting with professionals via informational interviews (something I talk about how to do extensively in the 3rd section of my book.)

Here are the basics of the formula: 

1) Start a LinkedIn Profile
2) Click "advanced search"
3) Put "Civil Engineer" in the job title section
4) Enter in your zip code and choose a 10 or 25 mile radius
5) Click "search"
6) Review the profiles of the civil engineers in your area. What companies are they working for? If you can see their resumes, find out where they got started.
7) Choose one or two people whose jobs and/or companies sound really cool to you and request to connect with them. You can choose "friend," and then in the request message section write something personal telling that person why you admire their job and that you'd like to connect with them to be able to learn from them.
8) If they accept your request, send them a direct message requesting to meet with them for 10-15 minutes in person to ask a few questions about how they got to where they are today, what they like about their job, and any advice they might have when it comes to trying to get an internship in their field.
9) If they say yes, email them back with a few days/times you are free, ask them to pick the 15 minute window that works best for them, and then ask for directions for the most convenient place for them to meet (usually their office).
10) Then show up on time, dress professionally, and don't go longer than 15 minutes unless the person insists they want to talk longer. Ask questions. And listen, listen listen. Take notes.
11) Follow up via e-mail and/or a handwritten card and say thank you.

Most professionals will be so impressed that you've done this that they will offer you an internship directly, though you should never ask. This is just about learning, and if that's all you get it's so worth it. They will also know the best ways to secure good internships in their industry. 

Even if their company doesn't have any internships available at the moment, in your follow up email, ask if you can job shadow them for a few hours one day to see what their work is really like.

You'll be amazed at how much people will be honored that someone admires them and wants to learn from their work, and how much they will do to help you. Try it and let me know what happens!

Sincerely,

Isa 

Internship Seeker's updated response is below - things took a cool turn: 

Isa thank you so much for your advice! 

Looking at civil engineers’ profiles on LinkedIn helped me realize what I want to major in: Nutrition! I know I probably sound crazy, switching from talking to you about engineering to wanting to be a nutrition major, but I truly believe it is what I want to do. 

The Civil Engineering jobs did not sound interesting to me at all. I realized that if I were to pursue engineering I would be stuck in something that doesn’t really interest me. 

 Additionally, I talked to my uncle who went to college for civil engineering, and what stuck out to me was that he said “math is fun.” Math isn’t fun for me, and it surely wouldn’t get better at a four year school. I think I was focusing on the money aspect of engineering. Sadly.

But these two things (LinkedIn and interviewing my uncle) made me stop and think of what really interests me, and it’s nutrition. 

Nutrition is fun to me. I always am reading a book about nutrition, or researching it, or focusing on cooking something healthy. I’m even registered to go to a convention about nutrition in Georgia this fall. And one of my friends noticed that I bring up the topic of nutrition quite often. Nutrition is what truly interests me. So I hope I don’t sound crazy to you.

As I replied to Internship Seeker, she doesn't sound crazy at all. I told her this is one of the best possible things that can happen when you being your job-research process. 

LinkedIn-research, internships, and informational interviews are just as much figuring out what you don't want to do as figuring out what you want to do. Most people don't figure this out until they're stuck doing what they don't want to do.

Happy internship and what-do-I-want-to-do-with-my-life searching to you all! :)

How to take your college career from good to great

I just finished reading a book I've always heard about but had never read -  Good to Great by Jim Collins.

The book is based off a case study of businesses, but the concepts in the book relate a lot to your potential in college for greatness. 

Why would you want to be great? Because, as Collins says, the momentum you build when you pursue greatness "adds more energy back into the pool than it takes out. Conversely, perpetuating mediocrity is an inherently depressing process and drains much more energy out of the pool than it puts back in" (p. 208).

Does your college career ever feel like that? A depressing and draining process? The best way to counteract that cycle is to pursue greatness  in a direction that you actually care about.

Because that's the secret - greatness can only come when you care about something. When Collins asked top CEO's why they made their organization great, they couldn't answer. Because they just cared about it so much that they couldn't not go for greatness. 

Collins' advice: "Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done" (p.209). 

Do you care about your college career? Are you pursuing a major or a career direction that moves you to give your 100% every day in class? That is what it takes. As Thomas Friedman said, "the age of average is over," and success in anything requires the kind of work ethic needed to pursue greatness. 

There are so many parallels in Collins' book that you can apply to pursuing greatness in any area of your life, but for college, the one I just had to leave you with is the three circles. Collins' circles have slightly different phrasing because they are related to businesses; below I've drawn three circles for you that represent the concepts I speak to college students about all the time when it comes to finding your major and direction in college: 

To pursue greatness in your college career and future career, you'll want to start being purposeful in filling in your three circles with information about you so that you can get to a major and/or career plan that will motivate you to succeed. 

Get involved in clubs, try out internships, and seek out professional mentors to help you figure out what you care about, what you are really good at, and how that fits into our current economy. (If you're feeling really above-average, why not draw those circles on a piece of paper right now and start filling them in with your ideas so far?) 

The best way to pursue greatness in your life is to start learning about yourself. Once you figure out where your three circles intersect, there will be no stopping you :)

Collins, J. C. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap--and others don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness.

I have a vlog/blog on USA Today College!

Today I had a special vlog/blog posted on the front page of USA Today College! Thanks to Patrick Foster for working with me to make this happen and to everyone who has shared the link. It means so much to me! :)

http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/blog/did-you-pick-the-right-major