Got the Wrong Degree for the Job You Want? It's Not Hopeless

Let’s face it, many of us are not too bright about career matters in college. There are a lucky few who have their whole future mapped out and a passion for a particular profession, but many young people simply stumble into an interesting major at university and remain unsure exactly how they’ll use it in the real world. This is what happened to me and I was even encouraged in not worrying about it by the good folks at the career office who told us that a great GPA was more important than the subject of the degree.

But then what happens when you get out in the real world, take a few jobs and finally realize what you actually want to do is miles from what’s written on your diploma? Job site Monster.com has suggestions for how to handle the problem:

• Focus on Transferable Skills. These are the skills you can easily transfer from one job or career to another. If you’re a biology major who wants to work in communications, your transferable skills might include the research skills you gained in your biology lab courses. You can use them to gather, analyze and make sense of information before you write about it. Or the analytical skills you developed when researching your biology papers. They can be used to determine if the information you’re gathering is accurate and legitimate.

• Supplement Your Wrong Degree with the Right Experience. As a biology major, for instance, you may not have even considered doing an internship with a PR firm or publishing company. But that doesn’t mean you can’t pursue such an internship even after you graduate. As any employer will tell you, appropriate experience will make up for the wrong degree or even surpass the right one. For example, you could combine your biology background with your interest in gaining communications experience by pursuing an editorial internship with the National Wildlife Federation or offering to write content for a scientific publishing company’s website.

• Look for Exceptions to the Rule Maybe you’ve heard from other people, “You have to be a communications major to become a writer.” Not so. In practically every field, there are exceptions to the rule. In all but the most strictly regulated fields, there’s no such thing as the wrong major. So if you find yourself thinking you’ve taken the wrong educational path, think again.