A recent Wall Street Journal article written by Steve Yoder and his son, Isaac, asks whether freshman year is too soon to think about a career. Isaac is going to a liberal arts college, in contrast to his brother who's an engineering student. Isaac's father wonders whether he's "setting Isaac up for unrealistic expectations about what life holds after graduation," and the $100,000 plus he's spending. "Should we," Steve wonders," expect Isaac to identify some plan for how he will recoup that investment in the job world?"
College discussions inevitably turn to money, which is not an inconsequential issue, but is often a red herring surfaced by the media and the banking industry. Just as enlightening are the comments to the article, all of which focus on college costs and the recession and liberal arts, with engineering as the best path to job stability: an idea which the recession has now debunked.
For many freshmen, making a decision about a major or concentration of studies is difficult. Trying to make a decision about a career is even more difficult, especially when you're liable to be making the decision without career experience or input.
Making career decisions is difficult enough with work experience in your background. Furthermore, the current model of career coaching among trained counselors, both within and outside colleges, is linked to personality testing that holds to an "inner core" or a "true self," a model that needs to go the way of the Dodo bird. Instead, as Herminia Ibarra puts it, "A very different definition of working identity asserts that we are not one true self but many selves and that these identities exist not only in the past and present but also, and most importantly in the future." Most of us can put on a lot of hats given a little bit of time. We don't need to wear the same one forever. In the 21st century, versatility and adaptability are the essentials, not career permanence or changelessness, as many have learned from this recent financial fiasco.
Think, instead, of careers from a different perspective. We are essentially actors, carrying around a whole cast of characters that are surfaced or evoked by the opportunities that face us. Certainly you're going to need to make a decision about your major fairly early if you're going to be an engineer, not quite as early if you're going to be a physician and probably not until the beginning of the junior year in college if you intend to be a lawyer. But the rest of the world of work responds to all kinds of degrees, majors, concentrations and interests. The successful managers and execs that I work with have college majors all over the map: agriculture, physical education, philosophy, French, English, art history, math, biology, physics, economics,etc.
In my mind the purpose of a college education is to be able to make informed decisions. That's a monstrous task, for example, in an economic crisis, facing unanticipated financial constraints, and yet be expected to assist in solving problems comparable to health care delivery and climate change. The problems of the future will not get any simpler.
Bottom line: Don't spend college study time worrying about career. Instead, dig deeply into a few subjects, learn how to think from many different perspectives and disciplines and learn how to communicate effectively. The better companies want well-rounded people and it's a lot more fun working for a "better company."