The Jeff Pulver Blog: Declaring a “Life Major”

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November 30, 2007

Declaring a “Life Major”

It has always been amazing to me how at a young age, just about everyone who attends university in the United States has to pick a major and make it their core focus for the time they spend at university. How does anyone at 18 or 20 know what it is that they really want to do for the rest of their lives?

How does anyone know what they really want to do when they are in school, and how do they know that they will really like / enjoy the profession they have chosen once they get their degree and enter the work force? It isn’t as if many of us are given the chance to be an apprentice and then make a decision for the kind of work we want to do based on our own life’s experiences. Maybe if parent, family friend or close relative is in that line of work, we know better what is involved, but never the details. Generally speaking we need make that decision based on our own idealist perspective on what the profession might offer us, but how many of really did know what we were doing? For many of us it was a quick decision to make, and once made, it cast us in our own job / professional boxes for the duration of the time we spend at school and for years thereafter.

Yes, the decision of what to major on for someone’s undergraduate studies is an easier one to answer if the plan is to go onto law school or medical school or business school or any number of other schools where one is getting a Masters and/or PhD... Still the decision to know what to major in should be a lot harder to make than what it is. Every decision we make has it’s on set of consequences, both intentional and unintentional and what happens next in our lives when we enter the work force is influenced by the decision we made at a young age.

Deciding on your first job when you leave university also can have a profound effect on the way you chart your future success. Of course to get there, chances are you were reduced to being an electronic document where you indicated your grades and accomplishments and maybe your life’s goals and desires. You were no longer the “you” that your friends knew, the “you” reflected by your social network, the “you” your professors knew. In the end, you got reduced down to being a number which got scored and compared against and eventually, you got notified about the opportunity to interview for the job you thought you were interested in.

Once you get that job, be in accounting, law, investment banking, it is expected that you have to “put in your time”, “pay your dues” and then after hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours of what can feel like meaningless work, you are given a chance to apply your brains and something that you actually learned in university. And while this is an extreme case, and everyone’s mileage will vary, it is something that does happen to a number of people.

And yes, eventually you will no longer be evaluated based on what school you graduated from, how well you did at school and/or if you went to school at all, but it generally takes some time to take the focus away from your education and onto your life’s work.

However, this is not typical of the life style of the start-up entrepreneur who is out there to challenge the status quo, who is self directed, self motivated and self driven to go out and change the world. When someone graduating from college asks me for career advice, I generally tell them to consider to follow their dreams, follow their heart and decide their own “Life Major.”

I define a “Life Major” as the thing I want to do RIGHT NOW. It is something I am passionate about, something I believe in and something I believe I can be great at. And something which may define the way others know of me…and not necessarily something I went to school for. Why settle for taking a job as a compromise which you don’t believe in when/if you can create an opportunity to do what you want to be doing. Where you have a chance to disrupt a marketplace, challenge the status quote and invoke fear in the established companies in that marketplace and identify a new space others will be driven by greed to be a part of.

And the thing is, we can decide our “Life Major” as often as we want to, and can decide to change our focus and declare ourselves to be focused in a new direction. So whether you are in a job and need a change or spent most of your adult life in charge of your own destiny, the opportunity exists at any moment, at any time to wake up one morning and decide that you want to in effect change majors and from that day forward you can change your focus and follow the opportunities to your new “Life Major.”

The hard part is actually doing it. But for those who experience this, it becomes a liberating experience and something that can have a positive effect because it allows us to finally do the things we want to be doing and gives us a chance to apply ourselves in a meaningful way, and get to do the things where we get to define our own world, generally with our own rules, rather than being dependent upon a system which has existed for a long time and has not evolved over time as the world has changed around it.

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And one day you make wake up and ask yourself…how did I get here?

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: college, Life Major, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

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Posted by jeff on November 30, 2007 07:10 AM | Permalink

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Hello,

Your article is very-very nice.

Posted by: NJ Technology at March 12, 2008 06:00 AM

I love this post! As a 23 year old (and life long) entrepreneur, standardized testing has always been a pet peeve of mine. I've never understood why public schools and state colleges try to force all of their students into the same box. Not only are we asked to choose our life path too soon, but we are asked to make these decisions with minimal information or experience. Once we get into college, we are not encouraged to actually learn anything, but rather use a series of "cram techniques" to memorize enough to pass a few tests. Real life application is rarely a part of college curriculum and there is (in my experience) never an attempt to teach students how to continue learning about things they are passionate about.

When I started my media production and marketing company, it was because I was fed up with the antiquated techniques that were being taught to me in my college marketing classes. Techniques that were supposed to guarantee us life long jobs in an industry that changes all of the time. I've seen former classmates go into big advertising and marketing firms and not last more than six months, because they never learned how to teach themselves. All they know how to do is regurgitate information. Forming their own opinions wasn't ever something they needed to do to get that 4.0 average.

I think you should be required to work for at least 2 years when you graduate high school. Then, you would at least have a little real world experience under your belt and be more equipped to make the daunting decision of how you will spend the rest of your life.

I enjoyed this post, Jeff.

Posted by: Jon Ray at December 12, 2007 04:33 AM

Jeff: Could'nt phrase it any better.
To support this insightful post here are some of the AvenueQ Song's lyrics:

"What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?"
--"
What do you do with a B.A. in English,
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree.

I can't pay the bills yet,
'Cause I have no skills yet,
The world is a big scary place.
But somehow I can't shake,
The feeling I might make,
A difference, To the human race.
---"
Lyrics are Copyrighted, Musical: AvenueQ.

Posted by: Gab at December 1, 2007 01:14 PM

"How does anyone at 18 or 20 know what it is that they really want to do for the rest of their lives?"

Answer: You don't have to! You're absolutely right that its really all about figuring out what you want to do "right now" and passionately getting into something. All your points are totally valid that people just don't know what's out there to do other than what your friends or family do.... that's the info problem Path 101 is trying to solve... and trying to help someone figure out "what's next" is what we're all about. Check out our blog... http://blog.path101.com We'd love to chat and get your feedback sometime.

Posted by: Charlie at December 1, 2007 11:44 AM

Jeff - Great posting! As a parent, I'm often amazed how many "big" choices kids are forced to make at a relatively young age. They agonize (or don't) over the choice, and in the long run it might or might not make any difference. But the damage it causes (in my opinion) is to indoctrinate them that "it's always A or B" - when the choices are laid out for them.

I'll give you an example. When a kid goes into high school in my town, he or she has to choose between art and music - they don't allow the kid to study both. Now I realize we're actually fortunate, these days, to have both in the school system - but doesn't that seem like a strange choice? Art or music? Why not both?

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that there are almost always more choices than you're told, and almost always more choices than you see. That's one reason why a good network of friends, advisors, mentors, colleagues, and family can be so helpful during those times when all of us feel boxed in by a prescribed set of "choices."

Always question the choices.

Posted by: Dr. Question at December 1, 2007 08:44 AM

I'm writing a blog post as a response to this, from the perspective of a recent graduate rather than a person in full time employment. You'll know when I post it.

Posted by: warzabidul at November 30, 2007 03:14 PM

ok jeff hmmm -
making life your major
i think there should be a subtext subtitle that should be the motto mantra of all education K-12, higher learning, and life learning educational structures and that should be - making life your major - education should be preparing you to be fit for life and making your life an art - we are all life long learners about life - the problem is we have been pretending we are zombies for so long we have begun to believe it is who we really are but we all know that we ain't dead yet and know deep inside all of us there is still us in us

geo@InsultantForHire.com

Posted by: geo geller at November 30, 2007 02:45 PM

Hey Jeff,
This is a great post and I forwarded in along to my cousin who is touring colleges right now. Even choosing a college is complicated.

Like linkerjpatrick, I too: "1.) I didn't truly follow my passion and 2.) I listened to others too much."

I was told to major in accounting. Bad choice. One of my passions at that time was radio production.

I was told that I could always do the things I loved, "on the side."

While in college I was a DJ at a college radio station. I loved that experience, but after graduating with a Management degree with a concentration in computer science, I ended up working for a big corporation in a programming job.

While in that job I pursued radio "on the side."

Over time that worked in to me becoming a producer and wacky morning sidekick for a morning radio show in Boston where I wrote jokes for the hosts, which led to a job writing jokes for Jay Leno.

I love your idea of "Life Major" and choosing "something I am passionate about, something I believe in and something I believe I can be great at."

I'm with you 100%.

Posted by: steve Garfield at November 30, 2007 09:59 AM

This has been one of my greatest frustrations in life. By nature I am a "big picture" person and choosing a so-called major was one of the most difficult things I ever did and for the most part I think I made a mistake because 1.) I didn't truly follow my passion and 2.) I listened to others too much. That being said I am sort of working in my major now or at least a form of it. My major in college was Mass Communications. At the time the Internet as we know it was not around and neither had the personal computer really taken of. Yes, we had PC's and Macs back then but that was they day with the original Macs cost over $3000 and PC were DOS based boredom. Earlier on I thought I wanted to major in biology, then I thought about English. I think deep down I wanted to major in Art but I made the mistake of thinking Art major were "fruity", couldn't get a decent paying job or were just plain weirdos and I didn't want those labels on me. If I could go back in time I would major in Art and minor in computer science and in particular computer aided design.

I hate the whole major/minor system. I would be willing to bet most people out there hate it as well if they were truly honest.

I would love to see at least an option of providing a series of "mini-majors" which would take a shorter time to complete. For example if I wanted "Communication Arts" to be my "life major" I could take a series of mini-majors that could fit within the umbrella. For example I could concentrate on visual design classes for a year or so as a mini-major and that would include classes in drawing, painting, photography, etc. Later my attention could shift computer design and I could take classes in Illustrator, PhotoShop, CAD, Special effects, etc.

After a while if several of my mini-majors could fit under a larger umbrella I could receive a new kind of Masters Degree. The great thing about this is one would not have to go through 4 years of college or even stretching it out to 5 because of failed classes or switching majors.

finally I think the first of college should have an option of taking "life" courses that would include cooking, personal finances, basic law (for stuff like consumer rights, wills, etc.)

I did take one art class in college, (Photography) and I was the photographer for the student newspaper. I loved those college experiences and thankfully that is one of my greatest sources of income or it supplements my web and print work.

Posted by: linkerjpatrick at November 30, 2007 08:57 AM

Jeff, I got into some hot water some time ago when I suggested pursuit of an education should be approached like a business. As long as kids in the U.S. rack up tens of thousands of dollars "to get an education" they would do well to understand the cost/benefit of the decision. Your appeal to consider passion as part of the equation is extremely valuable - if not the most valuable component. Concepts of education and career are marketed to youth as complete packages, yet we eventually discover the power of living comes from personal fulfillment in the pursuit of our dreams and not a piece of lambskin or a title.

Posted by: Brian at November 30, 2007 08:57 AM

Jeff: Your post is very timely as this is something I've been meditating on for some time.

I've never been the kind of person who ever said "I want to be X when I grow up." Perhaps that is because, at different points in my life, I've wanted to act (theatre major for 2 years in college); be a librarian (which I still consider myself as I have the degree + frequently have long debates about value of mixing folksonomies and taxonomies in enterprise KM systems).

There is a part of me that has envied folks who COULD say, "I've always wanted to be a lawyer," and then they go on and live their lives being a lawyer. There are societal expectations (good & bad) that come with that (hey, just look at the Sony Reader adds about 'sexier than a librarian..." sigh)

At any rate, what I want to do is experience as many things in several places - it has been hard for me to articulate this, but I am going to use your phrase "Life Major" for a while to see if it helps me articulate the fact that I don't want to fit into some box or cube and never leave...

Something that I've been thinking about, too, is the notion of myself as a brand. Like it or not, I have one, and, unless I start "owning" it (paying attention, feeding it, promoting it, etc.), I'm never going to do those things I want to do which includes learning new things, being challenged, arguing with folks, etc. Not sure if I will be an entrepreneur outside of a company or organization in the short term but, should I be successful in developing/honing my brand, perhaps I will get there. Something to chew on.

As an advocate of lifelonglearning (though I hate the phrase itself), I look forward to continuing conversations via Twitter, your blog, and elsewhere.

Posted by: Ami Chitwood at November 30, 2007 08:44 AM

Great post Jeff. I just tallied up my career and found I've worked in no less than 7 different areas since I graduated from college nearly 20 years ago.

Now I'm on the threshold of starting my own business my 8th career field. It is the first one that is completely unrelated to my major. And it is the first that is pursuing my "life major". I'm fired up, excited and a little terrified all at the same time.

I couldn't agree with you more. Pursue your passion!

Posted by: Chris Cree at November 30, 2007 08:36 AM

And if you fail to act, then one day you wake up and say, "Where did my life go?" rather than "How did I get here?"

Life's a journey, because the destination is always death. May as well enjoy the ride!

Posted by: Christopher Penn, Financial Aid Podcast at November 30, 2007 08:19 AM

November 30, 2007

Declaring a “Life Major”

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