Drury University offers 51 majors and 38 minors. With all of those choices, how do you decide what is the right path?
Drury’s Office of Career and Planning Development is an on-campus resource to help point students in the right direction. It offers a number of services including information about degrees offered, resume assistance, searching for internships or jobs, and self assessments to help you put your interests and talents together to find a good fit for a career.
The two assessments offered are the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Emily Buckmaster, the office’s assistant director-internal relations, helps students with choosing a major or career. In her interview with The Scoop, she shared five frequently asked questions from students:
1. What if I can’t find a job in my desired career field?
If you can’t find your desired job right off the bat, or a position related to your major, then we typically tell students to find something as relatable as possible.
Buckmaster advises students to develop transferable skills. Not all students will get their dream job right out of college, but it is important that they take away the most valuable skills from each job to use later on. Then when it comes time to work at their dream job they will feel more confident.
For example, if you were wanting to work with kids who have behavioral problems then it might be helpful to work at a kids camp in the summers, or an internship, or a job at a daycare. Just find something that is going to be relatable.
Students should also be willing to take an entry-level job during college or when they graduate to gain experience. Most companies won’t pay someone a big salary if he or she doesn’t have valuable experience.
Says Buckmaster:
The main thing would be to keep working, even if you can’t find something that is at all related it would still be good to do some volunteer work, or somehow be involved with associations where you are still keeping your foot in the door with that particular field.
2. Will there be jobs for me when I graduate?
College students should start looking for jobs before graduation, and not wait until the last minute. As students research and decide what career they want, they should also look at how fast the field is growing and whether positions are available.
A good resource is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Sometimes the economy can determine what jobs are out there, but college students can help themselves by building their résumés during school.
Buckmaster advises:
The big thing is making connections. Most jobs are found through networking, so if you can set up your network [in college], hopefully by the time you are graduating and looking for jobs that network can help you to secure something.
She also mentioned that students are sometimes hesitant to move, but for certain jobs, “…it could more helpful to move and then come back.” Springfield may not have what some college graduates are looking for, so they should take a step and move somewhere new to find a suitable job.
3. How long should I expect that it would take to find a job?
Buckmaster says research shows it takes about six months to find a job.
It’s a full-time job to find a full-time job.
Students have to plan ahead when looking for a job, and if it takes six months to hear back from a company, it would be wise to start searching at the beginning of senior year. Seniors should also make their school schedules with job-hunting demands in mind.
Says Buckmaster:
Usually, you will typically see the career fairs in the spring — like ours was at the end of February — so that’s usually the recruiting season.
4. Should I double-major, or should I add a minor?
This question depends upon what a student is wanting to do; there isn’t one set answer for everyone. Career and Planning Development offers a resource on its site called “What Can I Do With This Major?” Students can click on their major and see a list of occupations they could have with their major.
Says Buckmaster:
The first thing I tell people to do is to start looking at job descriptions. So even if you aren’t going to graduate for two or three years, just look at those types of things. Look up people on LinkedIn and see what their majors were. … Certain jobs do require a set degree, but others will be more gray. It also depends on your previous experience.
If students have an interest area, it can be a good idea to add a minor because they are typically not too burdensome to acquire. Still, it is good to look at a job description that you’re interested in to see if the minor would help.
What does Buckmaster advise?
Sometimes, we’ll recommend on a résumé to just put relevant coursework, then maybe you can add key classes you have taken. Adding these classes can be just as effective as saying you have a minor in that field. Don’t add them [minors] just because you can. Research them first and see if they will actually help you.
5. Should I get my master’s now?
After receiving an undergraduate degree, some students want to move right into working on their master’s. For some, the option is good to get done. But there are also some downsides, Buckmaster says.
As far as thinking of an MBA (master of business administration) program, a lot of the top MBA schools discourage students from going straight through. Even in Springfield, business owners are saying that the area is oversaturated with students with MBAs.
Buckmaster says students often expect to get paid more because they have their MBA. But if they don’t have any experience because they went straight through, they probably won’t get paid more. “We try to encourage people to really research and really think about it before they go straight into more school,” she adds.
Some majors will require students to go straight through to more education, like psychology, but if a major does not require students to it is not recommended.
Getting a master’s degree isn’t for everyone. Another option is taking a gap year. Sometimes, if students can’t find a job they want or the search isn’t going well, they will take a year off to travel or get an internship to gain more work experience before embarking on their careers.
