Major A = Career B – Career Week will Prove the Error in this equation!

Many students pick a major based on the career they ultimately want to pursue.  Want to be an Economist?  Pursue a degree in Economics.  Want to be a biologist?  Begin training as a Biology major.  What about the student who, along the way, figures out all that lab/bench work they have done is not what they want to do for the next 30 years?  Or the Psychology major who loves the subject but doesn’t see themselves pursuing a Ph.D. to become a Psychologist.  Would they think to apply to a technology company where they could use their knowledge of human behavior to lead an application end user testing team? 

The staff members of the UMBC Career Services Center work with students to help them evaluate the major-career connection in terms of the skills being developed in any given major and the environments where those skills are valued.  Thinking in these less limiting terms opens up new options for potential job titles, skills being used, and the industry where they are using them.  For instance, the obvious choice if you are an information systems or computer science major would be to pursue employment at a technology company such as Google, Amazon, or IBM.  Another option would be to follow in the footsteps of other UMBC technology alumni doing great technological work in a variety of other industries:  Insurance (GEICO), government agencies (U.S. Census), finance (T. Rowe Price) and defense (NSA)—just to glimpse the tip of the career options iceberg.

To help students understand the broad applicability of their degrees and their specific majors, UMBC will be hosting our 7th annual Career Week, April 7-10, 2014.  Key components to the schedule include a series of alumni panels and guest speakers.  Other Career Week events include the free Dining & Business Etiquette Dinner and annual Spring Career Fair.  Information for Career Week events can be accessed at www.careers.umbc.edu/careerweek.  Encourage your student to attend as many of these free events as their schedule allows…it is never too early to begin discovering the vast array of career paths that are available to them!

For students pursuing Math or any other major, the equation Major A = Career B is about to get a whole lot more interesting!