Options

Javich recently expressed some dissatisfaction (discouragement?, angst?) about his current major and it got me thinking. I remembered a conversation in front of a classroom full of honor students at college where I insisted that I would be a physics prof in 10 years. The biology prof at the other end of the conversation had previously shared statistics showing that most people go through a lot of careers/occupations in their lifetime (average 7 IIRC). In the end it didn't matter that I couldn't say which branch of physics. In the summer before my senior year I started seeing chemical engineering as more interesting, but couldn't stay with that for more than 3 years either.

After leaving school I've moved through job descriptions that varied enough I'll be surprised if I don't hit the 7 different occupations mark before I'm 15 years in. It will take that long only if I don't count grad school or things before that.

Now I may wind up with a high number because I get bored easily, but looking at my brothers and brothers-in-law, at least half have had multiple occupations. Even those I know that have stuck to a single occupation the longest have often done something else on the side.

So instead of the question about a major being: "What am I going to do with my life?", a better question might be: "What's interesting now?"