10 Reasons Your College Major Doesn't Matter

Many of my colleagues went to school for something called journalism. I'm not sure what exactly that is, and neither are they. Journalism looks a lot different today than it did ten years ago. But, we shouldn't just pick on poor J-School grads—student loan officers do enough of that already. Many fields are constantly evolving. Filmmakers, doctors, and engineers, are all probably using different tools today than they did a mere decade ago. Sometimes jobs that were once vital to the economy practically disappear over night. Even something as immutable as writing is surrounded by a business that changes with every landmark novel. Even if you don't go back school, you'll find yourself constantly schooled on the changing realities of your chosen discipline.

What do your friends do for work? Consultant. Social media coordinator. Brand manager. I don't remember any of those majors from college. How many people do you know who majored in The Internet? How many people do you know who struggle to describe what they do and then settle on "The Internet?" The academy isn't a trade school. A university doesn't exist to plug a man directly into a job like an air conditioner repair school. There is no point in stressing about what major you've chosen, because on the liberal arts end of things, they all have the same goal, to teach you how to write and think. Whether you choose anthropology, woman's studies, or theatre, there won't be a job gift wrapped for you when you leave college, but hopefully, you'll have gained tools that will help you on the way to discovering a practical application for your life's passions.

Colleges are prepared for you to choose the wrong major. That's part of the reason they build so many damn gen-eds into your educational experience. Gen-eds are colleges' way of telling us that we aren't to be totally trusted with our own education. Oh, you want to write haikus on the side of pots for the rest of your life? That's great, but why don't we have you take a composition class and some general economics along the way. All roads lead through Intro. to Western Civilization, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It is not their fault. We aren't here to rail against the blazer wearing academics of the world. They are far more valuable than their pay scale or Tea Party rhetoric would have you believe. At the end of the day, the only thing that these professors can fully teach you is how to be a professor. This isn't a dig at the life of an academic, it's just reality. Professors are not in your field every day doing the job you want unless that job is being a professor. Hopefully, they can pair you up with mentors or set you up on coffee dates with people with real influence. Expect perspective, knowledge, and empathy, but preparation will come once you leave college and step into reality.

You will not leave undergrad with all the tools you need for success in the workplace. The good news is that nobody does. You will learn how to do your job after years of heartbreaking failures and awkward screw-ups just like everybody else. Keeping yourself in your chosen field is about all of the things that can't be taught. When you ask people about the key to their success, they'll tell you that they showed up on time, were nice, and eventually got lucky. They also probably listened carefully to any Starbucks orders they had to take along the way. I legitimately had a boss tell me that if he taught me anything, he wanted it to be how not to screw up a coffee order. Today, I pass this knowledge along to you.

What do you really want to do with your life? My sixty-three year-old father always tells me he'll let me know as soon as he figures it out. The reality is that few of us have an uncompromising and unshakable vision of who we are and what we're supposed to be. Over the sixty-plus years of life you'll have left after you graduate from college, odds are you'll want to do a variety of things. What satisfies at twenty-eight is often what makes you want to become a hermit at forty-eight. I for one know that if I'm writing lists about actors' Twitter accounts in my forties, I might cash in my chips right then and there. If you have a clear vision of what you need to be doing right now, it's probably a good idea to go and do that thing. If you don't, then it's probably a good idea not to worry so much about it.

You can't know if you're good at something until you do it. Most majors only let you do the thing you are studying towards the end of your undergraduate education. While it is important to get the fundamentals down before you attempt a big project, this approach has its problems. Namely, you don't know if you are any good at something until you've sunk years and thousands of dollars of tuition into studying it. Will marketing bore you to tears when you no longer have art class to break up the monotony of your day? You can't find these things out until you start doing it. No amount of essay writing is going to prepare you for that.

According to a recent study, half of adults plan to go get more education. This isn't just for those among us who have to finish law school or keep up that teaching certification. A combination of factors can put you back in the classroom. We already discussed how your job could change. We talked about graduate school. We've discussed the possibility that you might have a change of heart resulting in a change of direction. Skills are no longer something we can afford to only develop until we're twenty-two and then coast on the rest of our lives. As a culture, we have to change with the times. Our politicians have told us. Our bank accounts are constantly telling us. It's time we accept it. We're going to be getting schooled the rest of our lives, whether we like it or not.

We often jump into studying our passions without considering the real world ramifications of pursuing a career. For example, writers, generally, are poor. If you don't want to be relatively poor, don't become a writer. Filmmakers can only make a steady income in a few major cities, unless local commercials are going to be your bread and butter. Many high-level business positions require round-the-clock work weeks just stay in the game and sleep-deprivation is required for a promotion. There is more to your life than your job. We like to hide behind statements like you'll figure it out and you'll get used to it in college, but the reality is that these things matter. There is no way to figure these things out until you get out into the world, so for now, just relax. Play another game of beer pong. There is no way to know if you even like the job you're training to do until you actually start to do it.