Choosing a major

[The Technocrates]

tldr, I choose physics and math

[Kubra]

Choose what you like; we ain't gonna make money off our degrees, anyhow.

[Cekoviu]

It depends on what you personally value. If you feel like you'll be fulfilled and happy with a less interesting job that pays well, then sure, go for that degree. If you're okay with being paid less but being able to do what you love, and you think that will make you happier, then do that. Some fields, like mine, both pay decently and are interesting, so I would look for that balance wherever possible.

[Bear Stearns]

Pursue an educational path that you think will yield a fruitful and productive life.

But be smart and don't put yourself in debt for something stupid.

[Bear Stearns]

If you've got the stomach for it, pursue the investment banking career path.

Maintain a 4.0 throughout all of undergrad, while simultaneously networking and securing internships that will work you 80-90 hours a week.

[Xmara]

If you've got the stomach for it, pursue the investment banking career path.

Maintain a 4.0 throughout all of undergrad, while simultaneously networking and securing internships that will work you 80-90 hours a week.

Yeah I am one of those people who don't have the stomach for that. Careers in finance sound so boring to me.

[Bear Stearns]

If you've got the stomach for it, pursue the investment banking career path.

Maintain a 4.0 throughout all of undergrad, while simultaneously networking and securing internships that will work you 80-90 hours a week.

Yeah I am one of those people who don't have the stomach for that. Careers in finance sound so boring to me.

I find mergers & acquisitions to be fairly interesting, but very few people go into this out of passion or interest. It's the prospect of graduating college on strong financial footing and having several open doors open to you. Having investment banking experience on your resume makes you employable almost anywhere.

Also, it's nice to graduate college and immediately start making $85k/year, or $125k after bonus.

[Nordengrund]

I actually plan to learn a trade, and my school offers a paralegal course that is one or two years. The only real requirement is having a high school diploma, but I need to improve my work ethic as I am to expect loss of homework.

After that, I might go to school for law or political science.

[Luziyca]

I just went with political science since this is what I am interested in, and I do want to dip my foot into the political scene once I'm done with my studies.

[Esternial]

I did my major in bioinformatics, which I mainly chose because I was competent enough in programming.

I figured it would be a waste not to exploit that. I barely did any programming before I took up that major, but I had one class in my Bachelors which involved some Python and I passed it with little effort at all, while plenty of my peers struggled with it.

At the end of my Masters I realized I found the programming more interesting than the biotechnology - at least when it comes to doing it as a job.

Now I work as a business intelligence consultant at a huge financial telecommunication firm. Strange how some things pan out.

[Katganistan]

I actually plan to learn a trade, and my school offers a paralegal course that is one or two years. The only real requirement is having a high school diploma, but I need to improve my work ethic as I am to expect loss of homework.

After that, I might go to school for law or political science.

All valid, and necessary occupations. Best of luck.

[Nordengrund]

I actually plan to learn a trade, and my school offers a paralegal course that is one or two years. The only real requirement is having a high school diploma, but I need to improve my work ethic as I am to expect loss of homework.

After that, I might go to school for law or political science.

All valid, and necessary occupations. Best of luck.

Thanks. It’s either that or HVAC. The latter is still good, and kinda runs in the family, but I think I find law and political science more interesting. My dad recommends I choose HVAC first so I have a skilled trade to fall back on, but I’m not sure myself.

[Nilrahrarfan]

I’m not someone who automatically dismisses certain degrees as “useless,” but what exactly can someone do with a gender studies degree?

Here are around forty five thousand job listings under the 'gender studies' search on Indeed.com.
Likewise, here is a partial list of employers who specified Gender Studies etc. in their job listings.

Accdon: Editorial Assistant
American Red Cross: Disaster Workforce Engagement Manager, Recruitment Coordinator
Arkansas Teacher Corps: K-12 Teacher
Ascend Public Charter Schools: Middle School Humanities Teaching Fellowship
AXA Advisors: Financial Sales Professional
Balboa Capital: Account Executive
BASIS Charter School: English, History, Elementary Reading/Language Arts Teachers
Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver: Outdoor Education Coordinator, Youth Enrichment Specialist, Athletics Specialist, Education Specialist, Health Specialist, STEM Specialist, Club Director, Assistant Site Director, Program Manager
Buckeye International: Sales Management Program
Campus Point: Bilingual (Mandarin) Customer Care Technician, Business Services Specialist, Project Coordinator
Capacity Builders: Community Change Agent
Carmen Group (government affairs consulting): Junior Associate
Catholic Community and Housing Services of Western Washington: Community Support Coordinator
Center for American Education and Culture: English (ESL) Teacher in China
Central City Concern: Human Resources Partner
Change Corps: Organizer
Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago: Coordinator of Research and Support
Chemsearch: Territory Sales Representative
City of Carlsbad, California: Human Resources Management Analyst, Human Resources Manager
City of Portland Oregon Housing Bureau: Senior Housing Administrative Specialist
Coalition of Community Health Clinics: Health and Housing Coordinator
Disability Rights Oregon: Intake Counselor
Epic: Project Manager, Technical Writer, Client Systems Engineer, Software Tester, Technical Problem Solver
Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund: Beneficiary Coordinator
Gladish Community and Cultural Center: Executive Director
Graham-Windham: Case Planner
Hillel International: Innovation Specialist
Human Rights Watch: Associate-Development and Outreach/Operations Departments
Interaction Metrics: Communications Lead, Customer Experience (CX) Analyst
Irving Texas Police Department: Police Officer
Jackson Street Youth Services: Next Steps Manager
King County: Human Resource Analyst
Kwontified: Strategy Analyst
Lumen Learning: Marketing Coordinator
MDRC: Technical Research Analyst, Research Associate, Research Assistant, Resource Management Assistant
Multnomah County Mental Health and Addiction Services Division: Consumer Engagement Coordinator
Neighborhood House: Staffing Specialist
Nestle: Retail Sales Representative
Next Level Exchange: Recruiting Sales Account Manager
North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health-Office of the Chief Medical Examiner: Child Death Research Assistant
Sinclair Broadcasting Group: Spanish Language Multimedia Journalist, News Producer, Multimedia Journalist, Social Media Coordinator, News Photojournalist, News Editor
Social Science Research Council: Understanding Violent Conflict Initiative Program Assistant
State of California Department of Parks and Recreation: State Park Peace Officer Cadet (Ranger)
Survey.com: Community Coordinator
SurveyMonkey: Business Development Representative
Teach for America: Corps Member
Texas Public Policy Foundation: Grants Manager, Web Writer and Social Media Assistant
The Advisory Board Company: Coordinator-Research for Health Care Research Department; Analyst for Strategy and Operations Department
The Nature Conservancy-Washington State Chapter: Olympic Field Forester; Conservation Coordinator, Lands; Philanthropy Coordinator; Public Fundraising Manager
Total Quality Logistics: Logistics Account Executive
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Research Communications Associate
W.W. Norton & Company: Publishing Sales Representative
Wells Fargo: Financial Analyst Program-Middle Market Banking Development Program
YMCA of Columbia-Willamette: Digital Communications Specialist, Aquatics Program Director, Senior Program Director-Camp Collins

as well as a partial list of people with Women's Studies degrees and their careers:

Analyst for a global consulting firm
Analyst for an economic, financial, and strategy consulting firm
Analyst for an information and technology company
Assistant Annual Fund Director for a university
Assistant at a digital media and broadcasting company
Assistant to the Director of Training and Technical Assistance for a sexual abuse prevention nonprofit
Assistant to the President for nonprofit dedicated to women’s equality, reproductive health, and nonviolence
Associate Consultant for a multinational technology company
College Coach for an academic success program
Consulting Analyst-Human Capital for a global consulting firm
Family Access Navigator-Medical Case Manager for a health and social services agency
Field Organizer for a presidential candidate
Grant Specialist with a health system
Instructor for an adventure-based education program
Intern with a women’s reproductive health nonprofit
Media Analyst and Account Manager for a media monitoring, analytics, and data visualization company
Program Coordinator for a community center
Public Information Coordinator for a public radio station
Recruitment and Selection Associate for a nonprofit providing summer and after-school programs for youth
Reporter for a weekly newspaper
Research Assistant for a children’s hospital
Research Fellow for a university
Residential Specialist for a behavioral health nonprofit
Sourcer for a chain of specialty apparel stores
Staffing Services Associate for a multinational technology company
Strategy and Analytics Analyst for a global marketing and technology agency
Student Researcher for the Fulbright Program
Supervisor for community recreational nonprofit/human service organization
Teacher for an education nonprofit
Translation Project Manager for a staffing agency
Writing Intern for an independent game developer

Here are another 377 jobs ranging from $17k to $134k a year from Glassdoor.com.

The problem you're experiencing is education versus vocational training. If you go to welding school, you learn to weld, and then you get a job as a welder. Nothing wrong with that, welders get paid a lot. Also, the ratios are easy to understand. I learned to weld, I am a welder. But when you try to apply that metric to a degree like Gender Studies it doesn't fit as well. You can't go, "I studied genders, I am now a gender." No, of course that doesn't work. There is no job called "gender." But there are jobs were an understanding of gender issues and society are useful. Jobs where sometimes even if there is a vocational training track one could take, additional study can be more valuable, like in instances of journalism. Learning to write an article and vet sources and that stupid standard language guide doesn't give you an understanding of specific subjects that you would cover. These are the applications of the degrees where there isn't the singular path between training and the specific job you'll be doing.

Going back to the welding example, because often this is the dismissive path people take when I've answered this question in the past...oh yes, this question with an easily researchable answer has been asked several times. No variation. It's that hacky...often the complaint is that the job also requires other experience or know how, like the journalist job. But so does welding. Once you've learned how to use the various torches and how to make metal stick to other metal, you have to then become whatever kind of welder. Like underwater welders, they get paid a whole lot. But you also need SCUBA certification and a whole bunch of other nonsense in addition to your regular welding training. So it's really not that different. Autobody repair, construction standards, etc etc etc, you have to learn the specifics of your welding job. It's not really that different.

Those jobs don't pay as well as, say, Accounting. In fact, I still don't recommend Gender Studies. I don't think that ANY of those jobs require Gender Studies degrees anyways. Plus, Gender Studies is known to be bad for you.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Here are around forty five thousand job listings under the 'gender studies' search on Indeed.com.
Likewise, here is a partial list of employers who specified Gender Studies etc. in their job listings.

as well as a partial list of people with Women's Studies degrees and their careers:

Here are another 377 jobs ranging from $17k to $134k a year from Glassdoor.com.

The problem you're experiencing is education versus vocational training. If you go to welding school, you learn to weld, and then you get a job as a welder. Nothing wrong with that, welders get paid a lot. Also, the ratios are easy to understand. I learned to weld, I am a welder. But when you try to apply that metric to a degree like Gender Studies it doesn't fit as well. You can't go, "I studied genders, I am now a gender." No, of course that doesn't work. There is no job called "gender." But there are jobs were an understanding of gender issues and society are useful. Jobs where sometimes even if there is a vocational training track one could take, additional study can be more valuable, like in instances of journalism. Learning to write an article and vet sources and that stupid standard language guide doesn't give you an understanding of specific subjects that you would cover. These are the applications of the degrees where there isn't the singular path between training and the specific job you'll be doing.

Going back to the welding example, because often this is the dismissive path people take when I've answered this question in the past...oh yes, this question with an easily researchable answer has been asked several times. No variation. It's that hacky...often the complaint is that the job also requires other experience or know how, like the journalist job. But so does welding. Once you've learned how to use the various torches and how to make metal stick to other metal, you have to then become whatever kind of welder. Like underwater welders, they get paid a whole lot. But you also need SCUBA certification and a whole bunch of other nonsense in addition to your regular welding training. So it's really not that different. Autobody repair, construction standards, etc etc etc, you have to learn the specifics of your welding job. It's not really that different.

Those jobs don't pay as well as, say, Accounting. In fact, I still don't recommend Gender Studies. I don't think that ANY of those jobs require Gender Studies degrees anyways. Plus, Gender Studies is known to be bad for you.

As with everything, the whole deal is in how how you implement it. There’s no reason why someone shouldn’t take Gender Studies if that’s what they want to do. Or how it couldn’t help in getting a job when in fact it can.

[Cannot think of a name]

Here are around forty five thousand job listings under the 'gender studies' search on Indeed.com.
Likewise, here is a partial list of employers who specified Gender Studies etc. in their job listings.

as well as a partial list of people with Women's Studies degrees and their careers:

Here are another 377 jobs ranging from $17k to $134k a year from Glassdoor.com.

The problem you're experiencing is education versus vocational training. If you go to welding school, you learn to weld, and then you get a job as a welder. Nothing wrong with that, welders get paid a lot. Also, the ratios are easy to understand. I learned to weld, I am a welder. But when you try to apply that metric to a degree like Gender Studies it doesn't fit as well. You can't go, "I studied genders, I am now a gender." No, of course that doesn't work. There is no job called "gender." But there are jobs were an understanding of gender issues and society are useful. Jobs where sometimes even if there is a vocational training track one could take, additional study can be more valuable, like in instances of journalism. Learning to write an article and vet sources and that stupid standard language guide doesn't give you an understanding of specific subjects that you would cover. These are the applications of the degrees where there isn't the singular path between training and the specific job you'll be doing.

Going back to the welding example, because often this is the dismissive path people take when I've answered this question in the past...oh yes, this question with an easily researchable answer has been asked several times. No variation. It's that hacky...often the complaint is that the job also requires other experience or know how, like the journalist job. But so does welding. Once you've learned how to use the various torches and how to make metal stick to other metal, you have to then become whatever kind of welder. Like underwater welders, they get paid a whole lot. But you also need SCUBA certification and a whole bunch of other nonsense in addition to your regular welding training. So it's really not that different. Autobody repair, construction standards, etc etc etc, you have to learn the specifics of your welding job. It's not really that different.

Those jobs don't pay as well as, say, Accounting.

Wasn't the question, but at least one of the jobs makes @$134k a year.

In fact, I still don't recommend Gender Studies.

You hear that Gender Studies majors? You lost the endorsement of some rando on the internet.

I don't think that ANY of those jobs require Gender Studies degrees anyways.

Also wasn't the question. All of the jobs listed are either held by or specifically requested Gender Studies majors apply. Thus they are the answer to the question "what do you do with a gender studies degree."

Plus, Gender Studies is known to be bad for you.

I'm not watching your YouTube playlist.

[Esternial]

Those jobs don't pay as well as, say, Accounting. In fact, I still don't recommend Gender Studies. I don't think that ANY of those jobs require Gender Studies degrees anyways. Plus, Gender Studies is known to be bad for you.

As with everything, the whole deal is in how how you implement it. There’s no reason why someone shouldn’t take Gender Studies if that’s what they want to do. Or how it couldn’t help in getting a job when in fact it can.

Having a degree at all can already help you get a job. Surprisingly perhaps to some, everything else can have a major influence on your opportunities as well.

When I went in for my interview I bluntly told my boss I had no idea why they invited me in for a talk. He spent more time trying to convince me rather than the other way around.

If people see you've got some good personality traits, they'll care less about your experience - at least when you're just starting out, of course. You can learn a skill on the job. Learning how not to be a douchebag and playing nicely with others is more difficult.