Did You Choose to be Poor During College?
Posted on July 26, 2007
Filed Under Careers
There is a joke that one of the shortest books ever written is titled “Career Choices for History Majors.” That’s pretty funny, though it’s probably not funny to history majors. The fact is, choosing your major is a critical decision that people are forced to make at when you don’t know much about life – age 19. Who really knew what they wanted to do, were capable of doing, and would enjoy doing, at that time?
I had two roommates in college. One was a sociology major, one was pre-med, and I majored in finance. Everyone was happy with their choices – everyone did ok grade-wise. After graduation, the sociology major became a social worker. The pre-med roommate attempted but failed to get into medical school, and went into dentistry instead. I got a job in finance.
As a few years passed, the sociology major realized that his job would not enable him to amass wealth. He earned less than $25K per year – steady, with little hope of substantial increases. I went from $30K to $67K in that time period, from 1995 to 1999. Fortunately, my roommate was smart enough to see his dilemma, disciplined enough to obtain several certifications in information technology in his spare time, and determined enough to change his career path. Today, he earns $80K per year in the computer industry.
Now, I know people are going to say, you should do what you love. Unless that realistically can make you good money, you shouldn’t. Do what you love in your spare time. Once you become financially independent, you can do what you love all day long. That mean’s staying away from majors like sociology, anthropology, history, women’s studies, English, philosophy, etc. Leave those for the future peasants.
You want to be rich, right? So do your due diligence. Research what jobs are available for your chosen major, what they pay and the typical career path. If you are fine with that, then by all means, pursue it. If not, then change it. When you are in a foot race, do you line up a few feet behind the starting line? Then why would you do that on your road to riches.
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