No one knows exactly what their future paths would be looking like until they make the actual steps into the future. Thus, all our decisions and actions are inevitably uncertain, with potential risks. When it comes to choosing majors and industries to study and work, our choices are made, considering both now and the future. One may choose his or her major because of his or her interest in the field, the difficulty of the required courses, the availability of academic sources in the college, and the accessibility of help from professors and advisors (to here and now). At the same time, he or she has to consider if jobs in this field will provide a high enough salary, the possibility of getting a promotion, or the job market demand (with respect to the future). I don’t know where I will be working in the future, nor what specifically I will do. However, I know I should make my decisions now as wise as possible to the future so that I will have more options to choose from with sufficient experiences I gained.
To begin with, I chose my major based on my interest in psychology and economics I got a chance to explore them during high school. In other words, the decision was made because it seemed a good choice for the current moment. I took an AP course in psychology in my first year transferred to the US. Although it was super hard for me with my poorly spoken English at that time, the course content was intriguing. It includes topics from personalities and social actions among people all the way to different psychological disorders. I also took an introductory economics class in my senior year. All the terminologies and concepts were taught combined with daily situations and cases, which made the course material comprehensible and interesting at the same time. Through the course, I first time learned about from the market supply and demand model to how to make decisions improving time efficiency.
After I came to study at U of I, I found my inclination to select majors has changed because I made more thorough consideration with respect to the future. I started to think of the potential (more specific) jobs I would like to pursue; how much money will I make with those jobs; whether I can picture myself doing those jobs for years or decades. After those considerations, I switched my inclined concentration in psychology from social psychology to clinical psychology since therapists make a decent amount of money, and helping to treat patients sounds exciting and meaningful to me. I also swung my focus from economics to psychology because although I find economics interesting, I was not able to picture myself doing work related to it.
I have a cousin who earned her master’s degree in accounting years ago and became an accountant in PWC right after she graduated. The reason she chose accounting as her major for both undergrad and grad was that she thought she would be interested in having a job related to it. However, after working for a year, she got bored and doubted her choice (why chose accounting as her major). She gradually discovered her interest in business consulting, so she taught herself statistics and computer science material and switched to the consulting department eventually. She is happy with her choice even though learning brand new knowledge of a different major from the very beginning is super tough. Her experience made me realize that it is totally normal when your initial plans and experience don’t match with your current (or future) goals. What matters is your resolution and your action of adapting your skills with the new job (or even a new field).
To begin with, I chose my major based on my interest in psychology and economics I got a chance to explore them during high school. In other words, the decision was made because it seemed a good choice for the current moment. I took an AP course in psychology in my first year transferred to the US. Although it was super hard for me with my poorly spoken English at that time, the course content was intriguing. It includes topics from personalities and social actions among people all the way to different psychological disorders. I also took an introductory economics class in my senior year. All the terminologies and concepts were taught combined with daily situations and cases, which made the course material comprehensible and interesting at the same time. Through the course, I first time learned about from the market supply and demand model to how to make decisions improving time efficiency.
After I came to study at U of I, I found my inclination to select majors has changed because I made more thorough consideration with respect to the future. I started to think of the potential (more specific) jobs I would like to pursue; how much money will I make with those jobs; whether I can picture myself doing those jobs for years or decades. After those considerations, I switched my inclined concentration in psychology from social psychology to clinical psychology since therapists make a decent amount of money, and helping to treat patients sounds exciting and meaningful to me. I also swung my focus from economics to psychology because although I find economics interesting, I was not able to picture myself doing work related to it.
I have a cousin who earned her master’s degree in accounting years ago and became an accountant in PWC right after she graduated. The reason she chose accounting as her major for both undergrad and grad was that she thought she would be interested in having a job related to it. However, after working for a year, she got bored and doubted her choice (why chose accounting as her major). She gradually discovered her interest in business consulting, so she taught herself statistics and computer science material and switched to the consulting department eventually. She is happy with her choice even though learning brand new knowledge of a different major from the very beginning is super tough. Her experience made me realize that it is totally normal when your initial plans and experience don’t match with your current (or future) goals. What matters is your resolution and your action of adapting your skills with the new job (or even a new field).
You started off talking about making wise choices now, even while the environment you are operating in has substantial uncertainty. What you didn't say but should consider is whether you can tell whether your choice is wise at the time you make it or if you can only tell in retrospect - hindsight is 20/20. In class last Thursday I showed a little experiment which takes on the framing of how choices are made. Some people are driven to minimize regret ex post. You ended up concluding in your last paragraph that such regret doesn't matter. But maybe it does. Have you asked your cousin whether she could have figured out to major in something else while in college and wind up where she is now? I was unclear whether she remained in PWC or not after making the change. If so, there may have been something else to Accounting major regarding opening that door, which might have been quite important even if she is no longer doing accounting.
ReplyDeleteNow I confess to be outside of my area of expertise, but I will guess a little bit here. I suspect that if you want to be a therapist in psychology you need an advanced degree. If that's right, I wonder if you've considered taking any graduate courses in psychology as an undergraduate. Doing so might be revelatory to you.
Let me say how something similar played out in my case. As a junior I took principles of macroeconomics. In class one day the professor said that if you are good in math he could get you into graduate school in economics. So I went to see him about that. He advised me to take the advanced graduate course in math econ as a senior. I did that. I found I could do the math that was required, though I didn't understand why the model were something economists would be interested in. In any event, it gave me some confidence about going to graduate school in economics. Without that course, it would have seemed a very odd undertaking as I had hardly any economics as background.
More generally, undergraduate study and graduate school might not be so similar. If your path will lead you to the latter, it might be a good idea to have a preview of it as an undergraduate. That would be a way to reduce the uncertainty.
Thank you for bringing up such good points!
DeletePeople are usually good at making conclusions and being smart using their hindsight. So do I. However, sometimes I really don't know the answer (or don't know what is the best for me) before I give it a try. Only when I walked along a decision and looked back I realize "it was indeed a correct/wrong move"; "I knew it". Sometimes regrets don't matter, which is good, but sometimes regrets matter, and regrets are not enough to turn things around. My cousin is lucky. She stayed in PWC but only switched into consulting. Her efforts paid off. I also know the possibility of "efforts not paying off" is high.
In order to reduce the uncertainty, I'd love to take your advice to take some advanced grad courses in psychology if I get the chance. I made my decision to pursue a master's degree in clinical psychology [only after] I tried other "options". At the moment I tried everything, I was not able to make judgement on if my decisions are the right call.