Success starts with choosing major

By Marc Hutchison/reporter

Students learned during the NW Campus student success conference last week that choosing a major can be a stressful and difficult decision.

Tracy Williams, coordinator of career and employment services, helped put some of that stress and pressure at ease during her seminar Careers Start Here: Choosing Your Major on Sept. 14.

Williams provided students with a multitude of techniques and sources to help make one of the tougher decisions of a student’s life an easier one.

Sometimes it’s easier for a student to find out what they don’t want to do first, Williams said.

“Eliminate what you do not like,” she said.

Every job, every activity, everything someone does can teach them something about their personality and can go toward making their decision about a major and career, she said.

For example, maybe students love to help people, but they aren’t great at science or anything pertaining to medicine, Williams said.

If so, careers such as social work, volunteer work and even counseling might be appropriate.

Perhaps a student is a person who cares more about a steady financial income than happiness.

Williams said maybe that person would want to get involved in finances and develop a plan to work toward becoming a chief financial officer of a company.

With a multitude of career choices available, it’s not always easy choosing the right one the first time, Williams said. It’s never too late to change a major.

Williams offered advice to students to more clearly figure out what career choice is right for them.

“You have tools everyday,” she said. “It just depends how you use them.”

TCC has tests and counselors in its counseling offices that can help analyze and detect what kind of major best fits a student.

TCC recently has joined with a website called MyPlan.com. On this site, a student can take all kinds of tests to see what types of careers might suit them best.

All students have to do is set up an appointment with a counselor who can give them all the information they want.

Williams said in only 15 minutes, any student can get access to helpful information.

Student Marianna Sommay found the seminar helpful.

“You should really enjoy your job, and the websites they gave us can give you almost everything you need to choose a career field,” she said.