Making the actual decision about which concentration or career to pursue can
be the most difficult and frustrating part of the process. It is scary to
think, "Do I really want to do this the rest of my life?" It is
nerve-wracking to wonder, "What if I make the wrong choice?" These
are not uncommon feelings, but they are the greatest myths about career
decision making. Generally speaking, roughly two thirds of all college
students change majors at least once. On average, people change careers fields
three to four times in their lifetimes. A decision in college about an
initial career path does not predetermine the rest of your life!
A career is really is series of jobs and other events that string together
to form a larger pattern. When making career decisions, start with short term
goals: "What do I hope to accomplish and learn in the next few
years?" You may have an ultimate goal of becoming the CEO of a major corporation,
but to achieve that large goal, you need to set smaller and more readily
achievable goals first. You can never completely map out or plan what will
happen to you next, so look first at the short term and evaluate the next level
of skill development you hope to achieve.
Students who have been out of college for 5 years have gone on to do many
different things. After two or three years of work experience, many return to
school for an MBA. Many students go on to pursue law and medical degrees, as well
as other fields of graduate study. Still others have taken time to travel
around parts of the world, teaching English as a second language or getting
involved in world volunteer organizations. All of these Wharton alumni, people
who were presumably somewhat similar to you when they were undergraduate
students, have gone on to a variety of activities under the label of
"career." There is no one right path to follow. Instead, you want to
take a look at your values, interests, skills, and lifestyle preferences in
order to make the "best" decision for yourself.
You make the best decisions you can based on the information you have at the
time. There are few decisions that are completely irreversible. There are also
no guarantees. Decision making involves some element of risk: you might make a
good decision, only to have the outcome be different than expected. Decision
making also involves an element of luck; sometimes, no matter what you do,
opportunities surface and things click into place. You can minimize your
risk and "organize your luck," however, by putting time and effort
into assessing yourself and researching your options -- the first two steps of
the process.
Keep in mind that it is rare for one job to meet all of your needs. You will
have to do some bargaining and prioritizing to pick the jobs which meet your
most important needs or allow you the flexibility to meet them outside the
workplace. If you find that you are getting stuck in this stage of the process,
you might want to revisit steps one and two. You might also decide to sit down
and speak with a career counselor, to examine what you have done thus far and
to identify potential strategies for getting unstuck.
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