May02nd

Stick it to the Man By: Jun Loayza

Under: Careers, Now What?, Workplace tagged with: majors

I have two theories about choosing a major. My first theory is that you should choose a major that is very relevant to the career you want to pursue. So for example, if you want to go into investment banking or accounting, then Business Economics w/ an Accounting minor is very relevant. If you want to get into management consulting, then any major would work (do take note though, management consulting firms love engineer majors).

My second theory is that you should choose a major that you love. I personally love philosophy and psychology, that’s why I dropped my accounting minor and did the philosophy minor instead. And you know what? I did so much better in my philosophy classes than in my Econ or Accounting classes.

If you are entering the corporate world however, you will have to play by their rules. They are looking for specific types of majors, specific types of personalities, and specific types of people who will fit in their company and play their role.

Now you have two options:

1. You can give in to “the man” and take a major that you don’t LOVE so that you can get a career that you think you want
2. You can “stick it to the man” and take a major that you are truly passionate about.

In the end, I believe life is about happiness. When you’re an undergraduate, join every possible organization so that you can figure out what it is that you love to do and you get exposed to as many people as possible. If they don’t have the organization you’re looking for in school, then start one. That’s what I did. Internships are perfect to find out what you want to do with your life as a career. Take as many internships as possible as an undergrad in as many different industries as possible so that you can compare each one and so that you find out which one is best for you.

So in my humble opinion, “stick it to the man” and choose a major that you are passionate about. Also important to note is that you can definitely get a consulting position with a psychology background. Just show that you have a high GPA, great experience, and a bomb interview and you’ll get the offer. So please, don’t just take a major because you think you have to.

I am in the entrepreneurial world, specifically in the high-tech industry. My business partner Yu-kai Chou and I debate all the time about what major would be perfect for the industry that we are in. We have different opinions, but here is my conclusion:

If you’re looking to start your own company (in the Web 2.0 industry), then I feel the ideal major would be a double major in Computer Science and Psychology. Why you ask?…

Programmers are in HUGE demand. There are so many business minds out there and few amazing programmers. So by the law of supply and demand (I guess I did learn something in Economics), programmers get paid more than business people (and I’m talking about non-executive positions).

Business development is crucial for every company. With a Social Psychology background, you truly understand the psyche of your target marketing and are able to market your product or service to them more effectively. There are so many subtle factors that affect the subconscious mind that psychology teaches you.

So, I feel the ideal person in my industry is a CS/Psychology double major person with a great business sense. He or she is able to drive the overall business of the company, and is able to communicate very well with the programming team. The person would not necessarily be coding, but he or she understands the programming languages so that he or she can effectively lead the programming team.

Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts on what your ideal major would be.

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