Your major in college become your career?

[Robyn]

As a freshman in college now, I have been catching up with general studies (I didn't use much math on my Mission, but I did use quite a bit of English with translating sign language and stuff) and figuring out my major. I'm thinking of computer science but I'm not excited with the requirements of higher math levels that I'm probably never going to reach.

During a class we watched a presentation showing different people who are successful with their careers yet their majors are quick surprisingly not related. I found this interesting and the point is that even though you may major in one field, that doesn't mean you will end up working in it.

So comes the discussion. For those who went to college and work/have worked, what was your declared major and is your current/past profession relevant to that?

[wildmaven]

Nov 8, 2014 11:06:17 GMT -8 Robyn said:

I did use quick a bit of English 

Not enough, apparently.

I went to school over 30 years ago for Nuclear Medicine and have been working in that field ever since. 

[icyheart16]

I first majored in early childhood education and the switched to general business. I am now work in Family Support/Social work.

[coolcoolcool]

I know someone with a masters in physics who works as a database admin. I'm working towards being a teacher and have a degree in math and computer science.

You never really know where you will end up until you get there. You will figure things out though. Just do what you enjoy.

[Graham]

I don't know many people in RL that are following the career they studied at Uni. There's differing reasons, obviously. I think the only one is one of my closest friends who studied engineering and is now the creative and technical lead for a company creating shock absorbers for motor racing vehicles.

I studied (but didn't finish yet, via the Open University) a Law degree...but now I'm a web designer.

[Inkjet]

I never went to school and instead, choose to learn in the field. I'm in entertainment as a stage hand, so it's not hard to learn OTJ.

I have entertained the idea of going and getting a degree in film though, I seem to have a natural knack for editing.

[Ajay]

Nov 8, 2014 11:06:17 GMT -8 Robyn said:

As a freshman in college now, I have been catching up with general studies (I didn't use much math on my Mission, but I did use quite a bit of English with translating sign language and stuff) and figuring out my major. I'm thinking of computer science but I'm not excited with the requirements of higher math levels that I'm probably never going to reach.

During a class we watched a presentation showing different people who are successful with their careers yet their majors are quick surprisingly not related. I found this interesting and the point is that even though you may major in one field, that doesn't mean you will end up working in it.

So comes the discussion. For those who went to college and work/have worked, what was your declared major and is your current/past profession relevant to that?

This is a great topic.. I'm a freshman in college now also so i'll be reading through the replies. I'm studying Computer Systems Technology, and the highest math class I'll need is Precalculus, unless you consider computer-based algorithm classes math. I'll be done with my main math classes after this semester.

[Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM???]

For a CS degree Robert, you probably need some calculus I'm guessing....it's really not that bad. The precalc class is much harder lol. Anyway, I am majoring in general science right now just for my associates from a 2 year, and I do work in a specimen collection laboratory so I guess it's related. I'll soon be graduating and transferring to the cytogenetics department, and after a few months of settling in there I will continue to work on my B.S. in biochemistry. So yeah.

[Ajay]

Nov 8, 2014 16:48:36 GMT -8 Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM??? said:

For a CS degree Robert, you probably need some calculus I'm guessing....it's really not that bad. The precalc class is much harder lol. Anyway, I am majoring in general science right now just for my associates from a 2 year, and I do work in a specimen collection laboratory so I guess it's related. I'll soon be graduating and transferring to the cytogenetics department, and after a few months of settling in there I will continue to work on my B.S. in biochemistry. So yeah.

For Computer Science in my college yeah Calculus is required. Probably the same in most other colleges.

[Shady]

In the UK, you choose your degree at the beginning rather than picking courses then picking a major. I studied biomedical science, and now I'm a biomedical scientist. Most people I went to uni with don't do what they studied though, with the exception of those on my biomedical science course. Most of us work in the field now.

[coolcoolcool]

Calculus is pretty much a prerequisite for a lot of higher level computer science. You can't do stuff like artificial intelligence or graphics without it.

[Phaelyn]

Nov 9, 2014 11:03:04 GMT -8 coolcoolcool said:

Calculus is pretty much a prerequisite for a lot of higher level computer science. You can't do stuff like artificial intelligence or graphics without it.

Yeah -- not to pull this thread too off-track, but at my university, you're required to take Calc. I and II, statistics, and linear algebra for a computer science degree. Need to take some sort of discrete math as well, though most places put it under a CS heading instead of MTH, in my experience. I was actually under the impression this was pretty standard list of CS math requirements, as it's the same as the reqs for a degree at the community college a friend of mine goes to. 

[wildgoosespeeder]

I am going into Game and Simulation Programming (GSP). Although it is a specialized form of programming, I can take that knowledge and apply it to general programming. So like game developer to software engineer or something like that.

[Tumbleweed]

I didn't go to college right after graduating high school. I went about 10 years later and got an associates degree in Administrative Business Management but I currently had a job that I loved so never pursued a higher degree. My job was quality auditor and trainer for Kodak and I loved it because I loved traveling all over the country and on some occasions, the world. I worked at that most all my life and I suppose my college classes were somewhat beneficial to the job I was doing but it wasn't want I had wanted to do when I first started college. When the film & photo industry died I eventually lost my job and got a job as a HR manager on the promise I'd go back to college to study the HR side of management. I ended up with a bachelors degree and currently have that same job. I'm not particularly happy with my job but it pays the bills. So I guess one could say my associates degree helped me have something to fall back on many years later and got me in the door to a job that was in management but it took a little shift to another type of management.

[Bennett 🚀]

Nov 8, 2014 11:06:17 GMT -8 Robyn said:

As a freshman in college now, I have been catching up with general studies (I didn't use much math on my Mission, but I did use quite a bit of English with translating sign language and stuff) and figuring out my major. I'm thinking of computer science but I'm not excited with the requirements of higher math levels that I'm probably never going to reach.

During a class we watched a presentation showing different people who are successful with their careers yet their majors are quick surprisingly not related. I found this interesting and the point is that even though you may major in one field, that doesn't mean you will end up working in it.

So comes the discussion. For those who went to college and work/have worked, what was your declared major and is your current/past profession relevant to that?

Your CS program must be a bit more math oriented if it's requiring high-level math. My CS program only requires Calculus 1 or lower, but I'll end up taking Calculus 2 at some point too.. Calculus isn't as hard as it may sound with all the big words like differentiation, integrals, limits, etc. It's just jargon lol