Career path advice for an incoming college student?

[ProgressiveModerate]

In just a few weeks I will be starting college. At my school, I have a lot of freedom and don't need to choose a major until the start of Junior year (I'm going in undeclared). I know I have ability and interests in different areas of mathematics and am generally just more of a STEM person. I also know that economic stability and ideally, economic freedom is important to me; if I ever have kids I feel it is my duty to offer them economic stability before I bring them into the world.

I know there are a lot of discussions around doing what you love for work vs doing something that will give you the money to do what you love outside of work. There are also discussions around if AI threatens to replace or at least consolidate STEM jobs that were previously seen as irreplaceable.

Part of my conflict is that a lot of the jobs that are the most well-paying (anything related to finance) are often discussed as being particularly cutthroat, boring, and toxic. I know for myself, I have a strong work ethnic and as an autistic person often enjoy monolithic "boring" things, however, I also don't want my work to surround me in a toxic culture, especially one where I may be at a disadvantaged or "used" become I'm autistic.

How would you recommend I go about exploring different career paths at college and how should I evaluate "economic opportunity" different paths present? What is the balance between enjoying work and making money; can you have both?

[pikachu]

The only real career advice I have is to be open-minded.

When I was 17, I thought I had a good idea of what the job market would be like and what my options were, but both jobs I've had since graduating college were jobs that I did not know existed in fields that I did not know existed. Along those lines, what was in hindsight the the most consequential decision I made for my professional life while I was college was also something that I didn't know existed while I was in high school.

[Хahar 🤔]

If you don't know what you want to do and you like math, then major in math. A math major is as strong a signal of general aptitude as you can get from a college major. Also study other things in college if you want (personally I had a couple other majors in addition), but taking that step will do a lot to make you employable without committing yourself in any particular direction.

[Benjamin Frank]

Two points, the first is the general advice I always give.

1.People usually get it wrong in understanding how career choices for going to college work. They provide aggregate analysis which is incorrect not marginal analysis which is correct. Or, it's both the supply and the demand that matter, not just the demand. If there is a market for 10 million lawyers but there are 20 million lawyers, it's not a good career path despite the large market for lawyers. I suppose an exception can be made if the person is an absolute 1% genius at law and can outcompete virtually everybody, but that's not 99% of people.

Conversly, if there is a market for only 100 basket weavers, but there are only 10 basket weavers, that's a good career choice.

2.Forget everything I said in '1' and everything anybody else may have told you. You should become an actuary.

https://tinyurl.com/2pkktuc3
Actuarial Profession in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Process Automation

[Mr. Smith]

Network like crazy and pick something that you can stand doing, has some kind of stability [though freelance is okay if you're okay with your parents], but don't totally love to death either. Picking a passion only serves to murder the passion.

[Blue3]

Be open-minded.

Delay choosing a major and instead spend your first 1-1.5 years doing all the required courses and trying out a bunch of different classes.

Your major and your college name don't matter nearly as much as the actual work you put into it.

Go to office hours with your professors at least twice a semester, and keep in contact with your favorite professors after their class ends.

Your college degree won't entitle you to ANY kind of job. It's just a small factor among many.

Make the most of your time, whatever that means for you. Enjoy it if you can, but if you have a sucky experience, also remember it's only a few years.

People make mistakes all the time, don't be perfectionist to the point of being anxious. But not all mistakes are equal - don't make stupid mistakes you'll definitely regret years later.

[Crumpets]

One thing I would recommend from my personal experience is to talk to people with entry-to-mid-level careers in fields that interest you and see what a day in their life looks like and what they find fulfilling about their work. If it seems like they get a lot out of their work, ask yourself if the stress and/or boredom of whatever work they do would be made up for by the successes/fun they have by your own personal standards.

I'll also note there's a difference between making enough money and being rich. Finance is certainly one path you can take if you really want to be a wealthy person. But I know I went with a major that's not associated with a heavy income at all, and I do alright. If your plan for life is to have multiple kids that you send to private school and have a second house by the time you're 40, where you strike the balance between fulfillment/pay is going to look very different than if you're happy living in a studio apartment or having multiple roommates for your first 10 years after you graduate.

And as others have said, your major and your career are different things. I know someone who majored in English and is now a government lawyer. I know someone who double-majored in math and dance and now works in tech. I know someone who majored in Slavic studies and now works in risk assessment. I know someone who majored in linguistics and is now a middle school teacher. I'm sure many others have examples. It's not rare at all.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Wow, thank you for all the responses! The general sense I get from this is that the major itself isn't as important as who you are and what you want to do (unless it's smtg where you need a specific degree like doctor). I feel a lot less pressure to "figure myself out" my Freshman year.

[Torie]

I find your posts invariably polite and sensitive and well considered. So in that sense, at least in the written word, you are sensitive to others, so I would work on your self confidence to work well with others, through therapy or otherwise, because on that front I think you might be selling yourself short.

All the best. i am rooting for you. You have earned it, in all ways, from my perspective.

[ProgressiveModerate]

I find your posts invariably polite and sensitive and well considered. So in that sense, at least in the written word, you are sensitive to others, so I would work on your self confidence to work well with others, through therapy or otherwise, because on that front I think you might be selling yourself short.

All the best. i am rooting for you. You have earned it, in all ways, from my perspective.

Thankl you man. Def been trying to work on my confidence irl and have seen improvements, though i think it's a process that takes a while but once you're confident, it's easier to stay confident. I think confidence deep down is mostly just how you see your self; the more I am happy of and sure of myself, the more confident I will be. Ofc, you want to be careful not to become arrogant, but I right now don't think that's really my problem.

[Electric Circus]

Take time off if you're still not sure of what to study after your first year. The college experience is an infantilizing one for many students, and you may need to look elsewhere to learn what you thrive on as adult.

Don't take anything that your professors tell you about career paths on trust. It's good to spend some time with them, but not too much. Many will be out of touch with the realities of work for recent graduates.¹ It's better to hear from practitioners firsthand, and it's especially useful to hear from people at various career stages.

Also be careful about trusting graduates who show up for department events, if that's something that happens at your school. Many of them will be there because they view these occasions as professional networking opportunities, and they won't necessarily answer your questions honestly in this context. That's not to say that you can't gain anything from the exchange, but they are there to sell something.

Above all else, be brutally honest with yourself. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses. There can be a huge difference in what makes sense for a median student compared to a 90th percentile student, let alone a 99th or 99.9th percentile one.

My experience with people on the spectrum is that they are either uncannily good at playing organization politics or extremely bad at it. Know which kind you are. If you are in the latter category, know how to make yourself useful to people who can protect you. This is the reality of a diminishing white collar job market. It's not enough to know how to build things, you also need to know how to protect yourself.

¹This is another reason why broader, intellectually challenging majors like math are better than narrower, intellectually diluted majors with a career focus. There is a clearer divide between clergy and laity.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Take time off if you're still not sure of what to study after your first year. The college experience is an infantilizing one for many students, and you may need to look elsewhere to learn what you thrive on as adult.

Don't take anything that your professors tell you about career paths on trust. It's good to spend some time with them, but not too much. Many will be out of touch with the realities of work for recent graduates.¹ It's better to hear from practitioners firsthand, and it's especially useful to hear from people at various career stages.

Also be careful about trusting graduates who show up for department events, if that's something that happens at your school. Many of them will be there because they view these occasions as professional networking opportunities, and they won't necessarily answer your questions honestly in this context. That's not to say that you can't gain anything from the exchange, but they are there to sell something.

Above all else, be brutally honest with yourself. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses. There can be a huge difference in what makes sense for a median student compared to a 90th percentile student, let alone a 99th or 99.9th percentile one.

My experience with people on the spectrum is that they are either uncannily good at playing organization politics or extremely bad at it. Know which kind you are. If you are in the latter category, know how to make yourself useful to people who can protect you. This is the reality of a diminishing white collar job market. It's not enough to know how to build things, you also need to know how to protect yourself.

¹This is another reason why broader, intellectually challenging majors like math are better than narrower, intellectually diluted majors with a career focus. There is a clearer divide between clergy and laity.

Thank you for this response! This is interesting because a lot of what I hear is about how it's important to develop close relationships with professors in college and network, but ig you're saying to not over-do it and be more skeptical and ideally selective with who can actually add potential value to your network.

I'd say for myself, I've always been relatively good at communicating with people below me and people above me, but struggle with people at my level.

In school for instance, I was never that great at socializing with peers in my grade (though I'd say decent for an autistic person), but I was selected by my teachers to receive scholarships despite not even having the best grades and was often used as the "example" in class (basically a teachers pet), and was also very good at interacting with people a few grades below me in tutoring them and stuff. Many people have said I should become a teacher lol.

Obv HS isn't going to be representative of an actual job I could see myself doing a good job at pleasuring my superiors and those below me even as the rest of my team thinks I'm a bit awkward.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Take time off if you're still not sure of what to study after your first year. The college experience is an infantilizing one for many students, and you may need to look elsewhere to learn what you thrive on as adult.

Don't take anything that your professors tell you about career paths on trust. It's good to spend some time with them, but not too much. Many will be out of touch with the realities of work for recent graduates.¹ It's better to hear from practitioners firsthand, and it's especially useful to hear from people at various career stages.

Also be careful about trusting graduates who show up for department events, if that's something that happens at your school. Many of them will be there because they view these occasions as professional networking opportunities, and they won't necessarily answer your questions honestly in this context. That's not to say that you can't gain anything from the exchange, but they are there to sell something.

Above all else, be brutally honest with yourself. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses. There can be a huge difference in what makes sense for a median student compared to a 90th percentile student, let alone a 99th or 99.9th percentile one.

My experience with people on the spectrum is that they are either uncannily good at playing organization politics or extremely bad at it. Know which kind you are. If you are in the latter category, know how to make yourself useful to people who can protect you. This is the reality of a diminishing white collar job market. It's not enough to know how to build things, you also need to know how to protect yourself.

¹This is another reason why broader, intellectually challenging majors like math are better than narrower, intellectually diluted majors with a career focus. There is a clearer divide between clergy and laity.

I actually disagree with this, even though I very much agree with the rest of what you said, ESPECIALLY your third paragraph, which is frankly something I wish someone had told me when I was the OP's age. Being able to complete your undergrad degree within four years (or at most five) of when you start is a major plus for your career, plus there's far more you can do with a degree than without one, even if you don't use it right away. I think the answer actually lies in your last paragraph: if you still aren't sure what to major in by the end of your first year, pick a broad major applicable to many career paths and interests. At most places, you can probably still change course during sophomore year and graduate on time.

[Electric Circus]

I actually disagree with this, even though I very much agree with the rest of what you said, ESPECIALLY your third paragraph, which is frankly something I wish someone had told me when I was the OP's age. Being able to complete your undergrad degree within four years (or at most five) of when you start is a major plus for your career, plus there's far more you can do with a degree than without one, even if you don't use it right away. I think the answer actually lies in your last paragraph: if you still aren't sure what to major in by the end of your first year, pick a broad major applicable to many career paths and interests. At most places, you can probably still change course during sophomore year and graduate on time.

I've known too many people who struggled to choose a major because they weren't comfortable in the classroom, and whose discomfort in the classroom presaged future discomfort in the kind of career track that was preparing them for. That's worth recognizing early when it occurs.

With that said, I wouldn't argue over the generalization too much. Situations vary, and many people will struggle to find better opportunities off campus (although, for some, the latter is a lesson worth learning firsthand). What I've observed is that taking extra time to complete a degree is itself rarely a problem, except insofar as it correlates with other setbacks like mental illness, unstable relationships, drug recovery, poor performance in an initial major, or just plain indecisiveness. But there's such a diversity of paths that anyone's experience touches on only a sliver of the possibilities.

[Person Man]

If you don't know what you want to do and you like math, then major in math. A math major is as strong a signal of general aptitude as you can get from a college major. Also study other things in college if you want (personally I had a couple other majors in addition), but taking that step will do a lot to make you employable without committing yourself in any particular direction.

This is probably the best piece concrete advise out there. I would say to focus on getting your basic Written Communication classes out of the way alongside of math up to Calculus 2. Economics and either programming OR physics should be big priorities, too.

That'll be like 15 hours right there and with the Math and Physics, I wouldn't worry if you end up with a C in those classes. That may or may not be the case with programming classes.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Just work really hard and make friends with everyone as you go.

[Agonized-Statism]

Take advantage of the resources your school provides. Talk to whatever your school's equivalent of a career advisor would be and if you feel you can fit it in your schedule, find campus jobs and internships relevant to career paths you might be interested in. Don't shoot for the moon, shoot for sustaining yourself. Save your dreams and aspirations for your free time. This is the real, brutal capitalist world and the goal is survival. Also, universities are a bubble. Egghead academics and tryhard students can be very smart but they don't know everything and don't treat their word and their advice like gospel- Atlas included.

[MT Treasurer]

Reach out to people — no one will notice your talent unless you make yourself heard. Believe in yourself but be aware that the path will be arduous and focus on sustaining yourself in the meantime. Always have a Plan B.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

From what I've heard a job that lets you make the world a better place/help people is often more meaningful than one with a lot of money.

[Mr. Smith]

From what I've heard a job that lets you make the world a better place/help people is often more meaningful than one with a lot of money.

Only if you define yourself by the job. If the job is only there to pay the bills and do/have fun s^%t, it doesn't matter that much, as long as the people are nice enough.

[kwabbit]

For undergrad, I'd choose a major that is 1) likely to score you a well paying career and 2) somewhat enjoyable for you to study.

This advice would be more relevant if you were thinking about studying a field that didn't have good career prospects, but I think it's something to keep in mind anyway.

If you're truly passionate about something as a high schooler, odds are you won't learn too much in undergrad and only upper level electives will be that stimulating. And if you continue to be passionate about that, you won't need to give an institution $100k+ for a piece of paper to become very knowledgeable and feel confident in your knowledge.

I enjoy political science but I didn't study it in college, but now I have a well-paying office/WFH finance job where I can spend hours of the workday engaging with political news. While many of the political science majors I know weren't able to find a job in their field and have to work low-skill jobs where they don't have the freedom and flexibility to learn about their passion.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

From what I've heard a job that lets you make the world a better place/help people is often more meaningful than one with a lot of money.

Gonna push back on this one a bit.

Only take jobs that "make the world a better place" if that is truly where your heart is. Many of those jobs entail poor pay and high levels of stress/frustration, if not both.

There's no shame in getting a job that is just your 9-5 and pays the bills. You can make the world a better place and help people with the time, money, and stability that your boring job provides you.

For example, I'm an accountant at a bank. There's absolutely nothing sexy about this. Nobody tells their parents that they want to be an accountant when they are a child. Accounting is pretty dry and not very exciting, but it's something I am good at, I can tolerate it, and it pays me well. I make well above the median personal income and have a very high degree of job security and financial stability. It's this stability that gives me the peace of mind, free time, and money that allows me to volunteer at a homeless shelter and food bank, be active in a political party, partake in a neighborhoods activism group, and donate time, money, food/clothing, materials, and effort to various causes.

I know a lot of good people who went into careers like journalism, public policy, academia, nonprofits, psychology, healthcare, politics, etc. that entail making the world a better place, helping people, steering society, etc. to various degrees and many of them are honestly miserable. It's your life, day and night, and you have no break from it. You cannot escape it.

This is why I am fine with my life choice as an accountant. It's a 9-5 that pays the bills and enables me to do what I want outside of work, and gives me stability. There are days when I hate it, but when I sit back and think about my life, I am satisfied that I can do what I want with my life outside of work and get involved in things that interest me without it burning me out or me resenting my own passions.

There's absolutely no shame in doing the same for yourself.

[Hollywood]

In just a few weeks I will be starting college. At my school, I have a lot of freedom and don't need to choose a major until the start of Junior year (I'm going in undeclared). I know I have ability and interests in different areas of mathematics and am generally just more of a STEM person. I also know that economic stability and ideally, economic freedom is important to me; if I ever have kids I feel it is my duty to offer them economic stability before I bring them into the world.

I know there are a lot of discussions around doing what you love for work vs doing something that will give you the money to do what you love outside of work. There are also discussions around if AI threatens to replace or at least consolidate STEM jobs that were previously seen as irreplaceable.

Part of my conflict is that a lot of the jobs that are the most well-paying (anything related to finance) are often discussed as being particularly cutthroat, boring, and toxic. I know for myself, I have a strong work ethnic and as an autistic person often enjoy monolithic "boring" things, however, I also don't want my work to surround me in a toxic culture, especially one where I may be at a disadvantaged or "used" become I'm autistic.

How would you recommend I go about exploring different career paths at college and how should I evaluate "economic opportunity" different paths present? What is the balance between enjoying work and making money; can you have both?

I am technically on the spectrum (ADD and Dyslexia).  I went to a charter school for kids with learning disabilities in Teaneck, NJ, but I dropped-out before my junior year to start community college at Rockland.   My advice would hinge on information about how well you’re able to cope with autism (with or without prescription drugs), as well as whether you have been able to acquire the skills that many autistic kids lack such as organizational writing, proof-reading, and public speaking skills.  My first semester of college was spent acquiring these skills through two electives: 1) speech writing and 2) drama.  Essentially, I’m advising you to begin college by taking classes that’ll force you to acquire skills applicable for any field.  You need to be able to communicate if you don’t want people to take advantage of you.  You also need to learn psychology, and then practice it by honestly critiquing your own behavior and interactions with other people.  Becoming self-aware.   

Next, I’d advise you to keep an open mind about potential careers.  You call finance ‘boring’, ‘toxic’ and ‘cutthroat’, but it isn’t all bad.  There are lots of interesting jobs relating to finance, and you should probably take a course before concluding that a career in that field isn’t for you.  You’re going to need finance to calculate your student loan, credit card bill, home mortgage, etc.  You should be able to make a budget with excel.  This is a vital skill for business and personal endeavors. 

The best way to explore different career paths is by socializing with successful people in your community and picking their brains for interesting opportunities. Talk to professors that have had careers in the ‘real world’, as opposed to teachers that don’t have a history of working other positions.   Ask people for internships and jobs.  I volunteered as an EMT and disability counselor when I was 16-17.  I had a job at a commercial Real Estate Agency at 18.  Don’t be afraid to embrace the unknown.  Put yourself out there to the world.  Learn to withstand rejection. 

If you want a profitable career that you enjoy, then express yourself.  Tell us what interests you.  What are some of the weird and lame hobbies you enjoy?  How do you spend your time?  If you want real advice, you need to open yourself up.   

[junior chįmp]

Wow, thank you for all the responses! The general sense I get from this is that the major itself isn't as important as who you are and what you want to do (unless it's smtg where you need a specific degree like doctor). I feel a lot less pressure to "figure myself out" my Freshman year.

You probably won't figure it out in your 20s (I mean some do but most of us wont). Spend time slacking off and trying new things.

If you look at what neuroscience has to say — and there was a great 2015 study(When does cognitive functioning peak? The asynchronous rise and fall of different cognitive abilities across the lifespan), they looked at: What do we do best during each decade of our life? Our rapid synaptic processing speed and working memory peak in our 20s. But then in our 30s, 40s and 50s we begin to develop a whole range of skills we didn't have before: executive functioning, management skills, compassion, equanimity. Wisdom really begins to kick in in our 50s, 60s and 70s.

Your late 20s to mid 30s is when you start figuring things out.

[vitoNova]

Networking is overrated.

But then again, I work in the Federal government where just because you know so-and-so whose daddy is so-and-so, or met a prospective "lead" at a happy hour function doesn't mean jack squat.