Creativity Can Turn Majors Into Careers

No matter how long a student stays in school, entering the "real world" is usually unavoidable.

And when the time comes to enter the workforce, transfering academic experience to a related job can seem challenging.

According to UC Berkeley Career Center counselor Jen Racklin, students often put too much emphasis on finding a career that is specifically geared towards their major.

"It's really common that students come in and say, 'here's my major and I want to know what I can do with it,'" Racklin said. "We start by shattering the myth that there are only certain things that you can do with (your major)."

Students with a major in the social sciences have a particularly broad set of skills that may be utilized in many different fields.

The American Political Science Association, for example, lists government, journalism, law and business as fields in which political scientists have had successfull careers.

Students with science-related degrees also have more flexibility in their career choices than they might think, according to Diana Bautista, an assistant professor of molecular and cell biology.

For molecular and cell biologists, common career choices include healthcare, research and education, she said.However, she added that there are also many options outside those traditional choices open to students with biology degrees.

"Certainly there are a lot of companies that don't do research but make tools for researchers and hire people with biology backgrounds," Bautista said.

Other careers that indirectly utilize skills acquired with a science major include marketing and technical representation, science writing and patent law, she said.

Similarly, students with a degree in psychology can go on to work in fields other than clinical psycology or academia. According to the American Psychological Association, psychologists have career opportunities in fields such as engineering, forensics and sports therapy.

Racklin said that instead of searching for a job that directly relates to a major, students should ask themselves what they want to do and what elements of their major they liked.

"Really, the major is not the career," she said. "You're not necessarily limited or confined by your major because employers look for not just your major but what else you've done with extracurriculars or internships."

But some students say they chose their major with a specific career path in mind and look forward to going into a directly related field.

"I've bounced around a lot in my classes," said senior Asa Enclade, an integrative biology major. "I've taken philosophy, music, history, and other subjects not in my major. But I've wanted to be a doctor since I was about five, and I'm always working towards that goal."

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