What personally helped you decide what major/career to pursue?

Interesting question because of the inclusion of the word "personally:" There are many factors that help decide which major/or career to pursue, but few are what I would call personal. I personally wanted to make money, and a lot of it. Personally, I disliked biology and all careers related, but I really liked language arts. Consequently, I set my sights on being a lawyer.

My father intervened, refusing to finance any effort toward a degree that would support law. This was personally OK, because I also happened to be pretty good at chemistry, physics, and math, and chemical engineers make money. For better or worse, the more I learned about the subject, the less I liked it. Upon graduation, I personally could not stand chemical engineering but had no idea what career to pursue. After a little professional career counseling, I learned that people with science backgrounds that also had language skills are quite rare and that one could successfully combine the two in a chemical sales career.

So, as you see, the major you choose (or you're forced to choose) may have no relationship to whatever career you have! More important is to have as large a skill-set as possible to keep your options open.

Mireia, I was interested and really enjoyed physics, chemistry and math in high school. I started my college career as a Physics major but when I started talking to some of the other students and professors in the department, I realized that even though I enjoyed it, I did not have the passion necessary to do the work needed. I changed my degree to Chemistry my second semester and again, after talking to my fellow students, professors and councilors in the department, found again that I did not have the passion necessary. All this time I was taking math classes as a minor. When I started my Sophomore year, I changed to a general science degree. This worked well until I talked to some students who grew up on ranches. I had personally grown up on a farm with a few cows, horses, chickens, pigs and goats. I realized that I had really enjoyed working with the animals even though I had fought it while I was at home. I then made the decision to change my degree to agriculture which required me to change my college. I gave up my math minor because again, I did ok, but didn't have a passion for numbers.

In short, I graduated with a degree in Animal Science. Found out I was allergic to animal dander. Taught a meat cutting class at the college and really loved it. I got a job at a meat market and became the assistant manager. Got laid off, started a sales job for food products, found I hated sales, got a job working for a food distribution company and became the operations manager. I got experience driving trucks for this company and found I hated driving large trucks (too nerve wracking). I left that job and got a job as an auto parts distribution center receiving supervisor. I learned to supervise all aspects of the distribution center and when that company went out of business, I was recommended for a job at a Wal-Mart distribution center. I was the shipping manager for that facility, moved to managing the new store setup team and then moved to an order filling manager role. I had to move my family so I left there and got a job as a quality control tech for a food manufacturing facility. I became the traffic manager arranging transportation for our products nationwide. I then got promoted to the quality control manager for one of the other facilities and moved my family again. I did that until I got laid off again. I got a job with a computer company in the manufacturing factory until that company went out of business. I got a job at a laminating company in the R&D department creating and testing laminate material for desks, tables, etc. I kept looking and got a job at the company I am currently working for which is a high tech computer manufacturer and I've been here for 20 years.

My Animal Science degree provided the foundation for all I have done in my career and change has been a constant in my journey. Success has been measured in the skills I gained along the way and the fact that I was able to find something I enjoyed.

Your journey will be what you make it. Don't be afraid of change. A career is not a destination but a life long journey. Enjoy the trip! Good luck in whatever you do.

One thing that really helped me in choosing my major and career path was having great mentors. Your mentors can be your family members or teachers or coaches. I have had several mentors in my life and they have come from different places. It's always great to have people in your life that you can go to for advice who can provide you with great input. I would suggest you choose a major that includes something you personally enjoy, a passion that you have but I would also seek out advice of advisors that you trust who can hopefully help you.

For me it was a major industry trend - which was Computers at the time and the internet was just becoming a trend in the technology industry. I only had a rudimentary knowledge of what computers were and I have an inquiring mind and love to learn so I decided to do a Computer Science degree. It's been 3 decades and its been one great ride as I have learned so much and am still teaching as the technology has changed so much from when I started learning about computers and with the internet being the center of everything now it is evolving everyday!

It is amazing as there are so many areas to explore in this field. I loved it then and I am still loving it as I continue to learn everyday!