Brothers of reddit, those of you that went to college and got a degree, how did you know it was exactly what you wanted to do? Do you have a job different from your degree? What was the process like?

25 comments

  1. I had a hard time deciding. I started in the sciences and I’m a class or two away from a biology degree, but I ended up finishing in political science.

    I don’t use my degree now but my background did give me enough experience working with data and that’s definitely relevant to my job now.

    I would like to work in research on political issues, but I’m in the wrong area for that and I think I’d need to go for a graduate degree to really go where I’d want to. Now that I’m old, decrepit, and married I don’t foresee myself going back to school.

  3. Went to college on a scholarship, got a degree, did not know if it was what I wanted. After graduation I couldn’t find a job in the field, fell into a weird job that I knew nothing about, but I’m not afraid to try new things and it has exceeded my expectations. Some days I feel like that old Talking Heads song lyric when I wonder, “Well, how did I get here?” You probably don’t want advice from me, I’m just lucky – like Forest Fuckin’ Gump lucky.

  4. I wanted to be Computer Science but bombed out of the higher level Calculus classes required for admission to the college of engineering. Had a job selling retail fireworks at the time and took Marketing electives in high school. Switched my major to Marketing with an IT minor that still had a lot of Python/C++ programming/project management stuff in it. Graduated, got a Microsoft-certified 14 class certification for data science, learned SQL and more Python. Got a job doing database querying/maintenance and auditor assistance.

  5. I took an “Introduction to Computers” class in the 80’s. Computers were still pretty rare and an intro class taught a little BASIC programming.

    The clouds parted and the angels began to sing. I changed from Business Administration to Computer Engineering the next semester. It was a LOT more work, but it was a great life.

  6. For my BS I took the path of least resistance. I had some credits from my younger days, and some from the military. I did ok professionally, but I was very selective with my MS, and have done very well since. I guess my advice would be to talk to people in the field in which you want to work and see how to play it.
    But get good grades. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but it can be a tiebreaker for entry level hiring.

  7. I studied what interested me, which was Psychology. I don’t use it in a related field, but I apply a bit of theory to whatever job I’m holding. Surprisingly, having a good understanding of thought and behavior is useful when dealing with other people.

  9. So i went to a private college right out of high school, postponed university, i took a 10 month course just to kind of get my feet wet in the field. That is how i knew it is what i wanted to do when i went to university a year later.

  10. I went to school for sport management because I wanted to work in sports since it was a passion of mine. Picked a school that took the program serious and offered real world experience through internships and part time jobs. Took about 9-10 months after graduating but now I’ve been working full time in sports for 2 months and enjoy it. I suggest finding something you can see yourself doing. Find experts that are willing to help you succeed and take their advice.

  11. You don’t, unless it’s your passion. For a lot of people there degree is just something they chosen because it paid a lot, opened up a lot job opportunities or was somewhat interesting. I didn’t graduate yet, but I’m too far in to change my major without a major graduation setback. I’m an accounting major, I hate it. I’m already looking for other non accounting jobs and applying for government work. If I can go back to 2019/2020 I’d probably switch schools go into like criminal justice or something.

  12. If you went to school for a particular vocation, you’re probably working in that field. University (especially humanities) really focuses on the theoretical. You don’t really know how to do anything in particular which leaves a lot of open space but makes job seeking a lot harder.

  13. I demonstrated an affinity for it in an elective in high school. My college degrees (associate in the tech discipline, bachelor in a more general business but still tech leaning) honed those skills. 40 years later I’m still working in that capacity.

  14. Focus on your strengths. If you are naturally good at something, advancing in it is easy. Because you hold an advantage, it can be easier to make good money.

  15. I was always immensely passionate about things that fly, as well as how things work. I loved science too. Math was never fun for me, but I was good at it when I was younger, and I grew to appreciate it as I did more with it.

    Aerospace Engineering seemed like an obvious mixture of these, plus it paid well enough for me to justify spending the time, energy, and money pursuing a degree in it.

    Now I work on radios all day, and hardly ever use the specific parts of my degree, the stuff I was (and still am) passionate about. My degree got me my job, and my job lets me do the things I like.

    Maybe it’s time for me to find an engineering job working on aircraft or spacecraft; something where I could actually enjoy what I do!

  17. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I went for the only thing I’m good at and don’t mind doing in my own time. Unfortunately I am flipping burgers right now rather than fixing computers like I’d like to be doing.

  18. I liked art, music and math. I wanted to go for architecture but my school didn’t have it, ended up going for Civil Engineering.

    After a few classes I fell in love with it, it felt great to understand things on a mathematical level.

    I would say try to get all the experience you can while in school, this means join student organizations, competitions, do undergrad research if you can and do internships (there’s plenty of paid ones). That way you stand a real good chance of getting hired quickly. Unless you can rely on nepotism, a lot of people have a great start with that.

    I got hired at a firm two weeks after graduation because of my experience. I worked as a Civil Engineer for 3 years but I started a family and my salary wasn’t enough to support my wife and child.
    I changed jobs and now I work for an electric utility. They pay almost double. Across the board Electric engineers make more than civil engineers.

    My advice is keep an open mind, many fields may seem boring until you get into them. Also make sure it pays well enough.

  19. Went to college aiming for medschool. Still planning on it eventually or some other grad school.

    Currently have too much in student loans to feel comfortable taking another 500k+ out. I first went to community college for my associates where I could work part time and pay tuition in cash while still saving money.

    After that took 60k out for 2 years at a 4 year school for my bachelor’s in a degree not medicine related but I knew would let me get a job. Currently working, make okayish money.

    Do I love my job, eh I wouldn’t say I’m passionate about it. The mountains of mindless paperwork wound me. But, I have the most amazing coworkers, supervisors, and regional managers I could ask for.

    All in all, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I was taught and raised to find a job or field that I can at least tolerate and stimulates me mentally or physically. Passions can wane and ebb, like my passion of medschool ebbs with each year as I crunch the numbers. So long as my work can keep me mildly interested and pays the bills then I’m alright with it.

  20. First I studied business. Wasn’t for me. Worked with machinery while studying and got interested in engineering. Got the idea to study to be a mining engineer. Moved to a city where it was an option. Changed to robotics quite early and now I work in an adjacent field.

  21. I thought ‘I want to go to university and get a degree’.

    I started doing astrophysics, but that involved a lot of early mornings, so I changed to English Literature.

    The plan was to join the Army after that, which I did.

    I have spent my whole working life in one uniform or another, trying to fix the world and have adventures at the same time, and have never used my degree. I don’t care, though, as I didn’t get it to use it, I got it because I wanted to learn things. I also had a wonderfully bohemian four-year spell at university making friends and doing things I’d never otherwise have done.

  23. I actually wanted to be a physicist from a very young age.
    And I loved coding as a kid too.
    When I told my parents that I was planning to study bachelors of science in physics as my degree, my father was very upset.
    He convinced me that the degree is to put food on my plate and physics is my passion….. I can still pursue my passion with a useful degree in some other field like Engineering (not to say that physics is a useless degree….. Just that it’s very hard to get a good job as a physics major).
    And upon his advice I ended up taking Computer Science Engineering.

    I am really glad that I listened to him.
    I was a kid back then and I didn’t know better….. But now I can still study physics as my passion and even do a degree from an open University or take up some online courses, while still being a well paid software developer.
    It was very practical advice especially considering the fact that I was going to take a bank loan for my studies.

    And the good thing now is that I can get involved in amazing things like Quantum Computing, because I have a decent knowledge in both of the fields relating to it.

  24. Ha I would have gone crazy sorting through every major and trying to pick the “perfect one”.

    I picked one that seemed good and did it. My job now is pretty related.

  25. did a LLB with the intention of practicing

    got tired of the posturing and rat race so got out of it

    atm wfh, little need to work/communicate with people, and tripled my salary

    -takeaway: it’s more important to do whatever you’re doing well (and to learn from it) than what you do (for example people on social media are doing well because they’re ace at something – no matter whether that something is magic tricks, music or film editing etc)

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