BYU NewsNet - Picking a profession

During her second- to-last semester at BYU, Steph Payne decided to go in an entirely different direction. She is a speech pathologist major, but is hoping to go into floral design after taking a floral arranging class at BYU.

Payne, a senior from Sandy, said she tried to talk herself into pursuing her major, but the more she came to know herself, the more she knew she had to go in a different direction.

Many college students across the nation will make a similar decision and pursue a career different than their major. Alberto Puertas, an academic and career counselor at BYU, said the correlation he sees between a major and a career is that a major teaches students to learn how to learn, which is invaluable in a career.

“I came to realize I could not see myself in the career and enjoying it,” Payne said. “I think it takes a long time for people to know who they are and what they want.”

Puertas said a college graduate can go in many different directions with their major, but it is the person who gets a job; it’s not the major that dictates the job. Students should look beyond just getting a degree and look to getting internships, volunteering and part-time jobs; these are all things that steer a person into their career path, sometimes even more so than their major, Puertas said.

He said the number one thing employers are looking for are people skills, including being able to communicate well, work as a team, problem solve and be on time.

When Puertas counsels students on majors, he usually tells them to try to understand who they are, their interests, skills and passions.

“The major is more a discipline of learning, not necessarily an occupation,” he said.

Students should enjoy their learning experience and feel edified as a result; they should not choose a major that makes them miserable, Puertas said.

He said he sees people change their majors on a regular basis. He thinks this is because students are often influenced by external factors like money, parents, friends, prestige and gender instead of really choosing for themselves.

Payne said the reason why she originally chose her major was to try and prove to others that she was intellectual.

Donald Asher, a Wall Street Journal writer who recently wrote a book on how to get a job with any major, said in an article titled “Don’t Feel Locked in by Your Chosen Major” that the biggest secret in career counseling is a person can get any job with any major. He said people must abandon the limitations they put on themselves.

“Chance, inclination and hard work are far more important in the long run than your major,” Asher said in his book.

He listed five different jobs five college graduates had: bank officer, stock market analyst, music therapist, director of a senior citizens’ center and field archeologist. The common link for all five is they majored in French at the same college.

Networking is one of the most vital skills to have when getting a job, no matter the field, Puertas said. And for Karlyn Norton, director of Human Resources at Xactware in Provo, networking was how she got her job.

Norton was an interior design major when she went to school at BYU. She said she uses those skills she learned when decorating her house, but networking and life experience is what she said got her various jobs throughout her lifetime.

Norton has been on the Utah Game taskforce, in the Utah Legislature, was in P.T.A. and helped Ms. Utah prepare for the Ms. America Pageant. Her neighbor told her about her current job at Xactware.

When Norton looks for employees, she said one of the most important things she looks for is a good personality, someone who is willing to learn and a person with balance in their life.

“You could have technical skills and be a jerk or be willing to learn and have a good personality; I would pick the second,” Norton said. “If you cannot work with a team and cannot explain what you can do, it’s useless.”

Although Norton said a major is not the most important thing she looks for in future employees, she said it is important to have certain skills in her line of work that a major or minor would teach.

“A lot of what a degree shows is that you can start and end something,” she said.

Communication and emotional skills are other attributes she looks for in future employees. Networking, she said, is 90 percent of why people get the jobs they do. She said it is important to keep in touch with roommates, co-workers, volunteer organizations and internship associates. Even Facebook can open up opportunities.

Ben Davis is a BYU alum living in Vancouver, Wash. He majored in geographic information systems, and did not use Facebook to get his current job as a financial officer, but said he did get every job he’s had since college through networking.

Davis said one of the most important things to learn in college is communication and dedication. None of his employers were as interested in what he majored in as much as a degree and a good personality. No matter what a student’s major is, Davis said students should not let anything stand in the way of their career aspirations.

“Figure out what you want to do and go do it,” he said. “You can make it work.”