As tuition costs continue to rise and the job market becomes increasingly more difficult to predict, it’s only natural to wonder if getting a college degree still counts. If you’re either just graduating from high school or planning to go back to school to get a degree, you may be wondering if getting a college degree still has the power to set you up for career success.
The answer is complicated. A college degree alone is not a guarantee of earning a good living. How well a degree serves you in terms of economic rewards depends on the major you choose.
If you choose a major that directly corresponds to a high demand career, it could help you enjoy a lifetime of high earnings. However, if you choose a major that may be personally satisfying but that is not in high demand in the job market, then a college degree may not be enough to help you secure a paying career.
Having said that, here are three examples of some promising avenues that getting a college degree can take you:
1. The World of Fashion
If you love clothes shopping for yourself and family and avidly keep up with fashion trends through magazines and blogs, then you’ll find fashion merchandising a fascinating option. Earning a fashion merchandising degree will help you fine-tune your knack for anticipating fashion trends. In addition, you will acquire a good education in all relevant aspects of business management.
Think of it this way: you’ll still be buying clothes, but now you’ll be doing it for a living. Moreover, you won’t just be buying clothes for yourself, family, and friends, but for big department stores or fashion boutiques.Your fashion sense is now going to benefit a much larger circle of people. You’ll find it rewarding to evaluate the latest styles, anticipate new fashion trends, and help stores choose what to buy. In short, fashion merchandising can be described as a blend of combining fashion intuition based on an understanding of fashion theory with business knowledge.
2. Business Success
If you’re interested in business success, you can choose one of two routes: you can choose to work at an already established company or you could choose to start your own business.
If you’re interested in getting a well-paid job in an already established business by assisting it with a specialized skillset, then you might want to consider getting a degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Management and Administration, Marketing, Sales, or International Business.
While you don’t need a degree to be an entrepreneur, a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship will help equip you with all the business skills you need to develop original business ideas, innovate products, and identify potential business opportunities. One of the reasons stopping someone from becoming an entrepreneur is that they don’t know where to start. A degree in entrepreneurship will teach you the basics of what you need to know to start your own business ventures.
3. Making People Happy, Healthy, and Productive
Although there are many careers that help people become happier, healthier, and more productive, the field of human resources is one that pays particularly well and has a large impact on people’s lives. In any organization, human resource personnel helps to hire the best people and ensure that employees like their jobs, get their health benefits, and perform well at their work. As gatekeepers for an organization, they review resumes, help in the development of policies, and deal with a wide-range of employee-related issues.According to salary.com, human resource majors can make close to six figures in the following positions: Compensation & Benefits Manager, Recruiting Manager, and Human Resources Manager.The median salary for a Compensation & Benefits Manager is $94,978, for a Recruiting Manager is $88,916, and for a Human Resources Manager is $87,184.
How to Decide on the Right Major
Deciding on a major that will result in personal satisfaction and career success can be difficult. This is because there is a lot of information to sort through in order to make a life-changing decision. If you find yourself bewildered on choosing the right major, you’ll benefit from working with a degree-to-career matching service, which works by narrowing down a wide range of possible degrees by linking degrees with job titles and potential employers. These services are available through universities and private companies.