I believe the problem boils down to the difficulty of "validating your career-assumptions", aka discovering what you are both good at and interested in, that also has value...while in college.
After graduation, many students find out that they want to get involved in a field that has no relation to their major. This is a tricky problem because although college offers you time to think about what you want to do, it is not designed for you to test out what that thing may be. There are only so many times you can change your major before it becomes impossible to graduate on time, resulting in an added cost that is hard to swallow. Typically, students don't switch majors more than once - because of this cost associated with being indecisive.
Under the current educational model, a student must go out of their way to determine what practical career path is fitting for them, and then align their education to that, if that is even possible.
However, there is hope! One way to make your career decision much easier is to view yourself as the eventual product of a tech startup.
Just as startups have to design a product that will have the highest likelihood of customer fit, scalability, and value, you can do the same for yourself. For indecisive students that want to achieve career-fit right out of college, they should consider the following:
What industry is valuable?: For the sake of your future self, try to be aware of which industries create and capture a lot of value. This is a good starting point for both picking a major or, more importantly, what to be active in outside of your college curriculum. Aligning your interests with something valuable is a great thing to do, especially if you're able to discover what you are passionate about within these parameters.
Netscape founder and Venture Capital icon, Marc Andreessen, has this to say about finding the right market:
"I'll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup's success or failure.
In a great market -- a market with lots of real potential customers -- the market pulls product out of the startup. The market needs to be fulfilled and the market will be fulfilled, by the first viable product that comes along. The product doesn't need to be great; it just has to basically work. And, the market doesn't care how good the team is, as long as the team can produce that viable product.
In short, customers are knocking down your door to get the product; the main goal is to actually answer the phone and respond to all the emails from people who want to buy."
Life sounds pretty good for the product of that market, huh? Wouldn't it be nice for employers and others to be knocking down your doors because you are in the right market, and able to do a job that is in high demand and limited supply? The first step to being a valuable product is to choose the right market.
Understanding what others are not doing: When it comes to becoming educated and presenting a unique value proposition to employers (which should eventually be one in the same), this seems to be vitally important. Note: You will probably not be valued simply by being a unique candidate. More likely, the skills you acquire will ideally be in alignment with the needs of firm you are applying to - since you have sought after these skills out of your own interest and passion. This makes you unique because you have become specifically valuable for that position. Firms want to know how you will add value to their firm in the short and long-term, and if you have been acquiring skills that translate well, it makes their hiring decision much easier.
So for example: Students may find that being a sociology major might be a hurdle to get over if your newly-desired field of interest is tech. However, you can discover or create a role where you will add a hard skill (programming) to the soft skill (sociology) you have learned in college that can create and capture value beyond learning just the hard or soft skill. In this case you may have found an intersection that makes you both unique and highly valuable.
Facebook-backer, Peter Thiel, has this to say about competition and differentiating yourself:
"Too often, we seem to forget that it’s genuine accomplishment we’re after, and we just train people to compete forever. But that does everyone a great disservice if what’s theoretically optimal is to manage to stop competing, i.e. to become a monopoly and enjoy success."
What can you do (to get closer to career/market fit)?: The reason this question is so powerful is because it doesn't ask a probabilistically, like, "What are my chances of getting a job after college?".
That is limiting for obvious reasons.
Asking what you can do now puts the power in your hands with the information you currently have. The question also requires reverse-engineering steps to bring fitting employment closer to you:
You want to work at one of the few successful tech-based venture capital firms in the United States? Well ask yourself - will an undergrad degree in economics suffice, or will it take some additional skills and expertise? If so, what will it take to get that? And then what will it take to get THAT? Always assume graduating college alone will not suffice.
You may discover that the field that you originally thought was great actually offers a terrible lifestyle. This is something that you want to uncover repeatedly by "validatating your assumptions". The key to that is to quickly gather as much real-world data and experience as possible to allow for pivoting your career track.
Remember, even if you don't end up doing something you set out for, it will probably be because you found something better along the way. A majority of start-ups drastically change their original business model or product, so why wouldn't it be normal if you went through a few iterative stages yourself. It's always better to find this out when you are 22 than when you're 32.
To anyone concerned about their future: please put education in your own hands, because the only person that can truly help you, is yourself. Be curiosity-driven, be passionate, and blaze your own trail.
Trust that you are smart enough to figure it out for yourself.
LinkedIn Profilelinkedin.com/pub/patrick-stanley/12/548/363
My TED Talk: http://tedxgramercy.jit.su/speakers
I like quotes :-)
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