Does Your Major Matter?

Survey Responses!

One of the questions I asked in my survey was "What advice would you give young people who are undecided about what to study in college?"

What really struck me about the answers was how many hiring managers urged undecided young students to follow their passion and to study something they love.  Take a look!  I put the first 25 responses from my survey below!

1.  Figure it out and fast. The reason for this is that your studies will be more focused and have more meaning. For example, if you want to be in marketing you will spend a lot more time on the subject seeking to learn it, instead of just getting the grade.

2.  Always go with your passion. Whatever you feel naturally drawn to, whatever you feel passionate about, study exactly that. Be true to yourself. When we love something, it's almost natural that we'll become good at it. There is no point studying something that might stand a chance to success just because it is in demand in the market today when you don't truly believe in it and don't feel the passion for it. It will only be a torture and will not lead you to success unless you really like it and enjoy it. Great works don't come out of dedication and hard work, but also out of passion and conviction.

(That's just the first 2.  Click through for the rest of the 25.  More later... I have over 500 responses for this question!)

College Grads Only!

If you're reading this blog, it's highly likely that you are already going to college, or on your way there in the future.  You probably already know how important a college degree is for professional success and financial stability.

Yet, even though my survey specified that it was for students who we re already planning on going to college, many of the survey respondents felt it was so important to emphasize a college degree that they wrote to me specifically to mention that!

If you want to see what survey respondents said about the necessity of getting a college degree, please click through!

Survey Results 3: Skills by Organization Size

Although many of us have grown up believing that we'll spend our working lives in a job at a large organization, this seems to be a changing trend in the business world. Big companies are there, just as big as ever, but they're employing less people for less time. Now, the gap is being filled by smaller companies of 100 employees or less, and many entrepreneurs are also leading the way with mini-companies of 10 employees or less.

Chances are, we'll end up working for many different sized companies throughout our career... instead of just sliding into that big company job right out of college and onto retirement. We may work for a big company, we may work for a small company, we may work on our own. It's hard to tell before we even enter the workplace!

That's why I thought it was really important to find out what skills employers of all sizes are looking for in college graduates. So, during my survey, I asked several demographic questions to help me divide up the results and get a picture of the skills needed at different sized organizations.

Just like in the real world, the majority (68.8%) of respondents to my survey work for companies of 100 employees or less. The 168 responses from bigger companies, however, is enough to get a picture of what such organizations are looking for and make comparisons between the skills desired by different-sized organizations.

To see what different sized companies are looking for in their potential employees, please click through!

Survey Results 2 - Does College Major Matter?

As a Classics major, this question is very important to me personally, and I bet that a lot of other students out there are also wondering just how important their college major will be in their job application process.

So, to satisfy my need-to-know, I included a question about this in my survey:  “If you were hiring someone for a job not requiring a specific degree, how important is their major in your decision?”

I was surprised how drastic the results were!

Survey Results: Part 1

A couple years ago, I faced a very difficult dilemma.  It was the point in my junior year where I had to decide on my college major…and I had no idea what to do!  There were the majors I knew I should study if I wanted to be “employable” and there were the subjects I actually liked studying. 

I didn’t know what to do! Then my adviser said something that I’ll never forget.  He told me that “whatever you study, you’ll develop skills that can be used in the real world.”  I was flabbergasted!  I had always thought that the college major I studied would directly impact my future career.  But I trusted his advice and got my degree in Classical Languages.

Not surprisingly, however, I still had lingering doubts.  After all, the ability to read Homer’s Odyssey in the original is not a skill that organizations specifically list as something they desire! So, this summer, I asked 555 businesspeople (who hire college-educated young people) how important certain skills and college majors are to them in hiring decisions.

What to see the results?  Click through to the next page!

Who in the world is answering this survey? The Scoop!

Over the past couple weeks, I've been getting incredible responses to my survey.  I can't tell you everything about it yet, because I don't want to influence the people who are still planning to take my survey...

HOWEVER, my results are really exciting and I can't keep them all to myself much longer.  Today, the 500th person responded to my survey and in honor of that, I'm going to release some of my highly-confidential data!

Some quick teasers:
500+ Respondents
20+ Countries
449 Recomendations about subjects to take in college (the results are surprising!)
- and-
457 Bits of Advice for Young People who don't know what they want to study!

If you want to know exactly WHO is filling out my survey, click on the link below.

If you still want a chance to fill out my survey, go here.

And stay tuned for some more results!