Are Majors All That Important In Getting A Job? Sometimes They Are, Most Times They Are Not

College students are often asked what they are majoring in. It is one decision that could be the difference between getting a job and not getting one and getting it easily or having to struggle really hard to get one.

Education experts say that an unwisely chosen major could mean a waste of time. It does make sense to choose a major that could help you get a job and help clear the student debt as soon as possible. It would do well to remember that the country is still not out of the woods and that the job market continues to stutter and that your student loan, however miniscule, is a contributing factor to the upwards of $1 trillion loan debt in America.

Every year job analysts and recruiters compile a list of which majors have the best job prospects. They decry students who opt for such unconventional majors as anthropology, zoology and medieval history. They say that architecture and clinical psychology majors are likely to remain unemployed, whilst petroleum engineering majors could rake in as much as $178,000.

Is it really all that vital, that choosing a wrong major could break your career and choosing the right one could make it? This is what hiring managers say:

They believe that the major listed on the job-posting ad is more relevant if it is an entry level job and would definitely be on the employers top criteria’s for eligibility. A few years down the line it won’t make much of a difference as your abilities are more or less known and progression will be based more on your proven credentials rather than your academic ones.

However, some hiring managers say that more than your major it is more important where you have studied and what is your GPA.  Elle Kaplan, CEO of Lexion Capital Management said, “If you go to a great school, have risen to leadership positions in your extracurricular activities and have achieved a very high GPA, that matters more to me than the particular major you chose.”

Jeanine Hamilton, founder and president of Hire Partnership, a full-service staffing and workforce solutions firm based in Boston said that the skills learnt were more important than the major. If the major is unconventional but if it has taught the candidate skills that would help him with the job, which was more important than the major itself.

Majors are important but not the be-all and end-all of all career paths open before a candidate. Without doubt a candidate looking for an engineering job would be favorites to land one if he had a major in engineering. Another major-specific job would be computer science-based positions such as programming. But even if jobs are relatively easier to get in major-specific careers, they limit options in other fields.

Just having a major is no guarantee of a job. It is just one more piece of information on your resume. The first thing to do is to accept that you cannot change the weapons in your armory and have got to get a job with whatever major you have, irrespective of  whether hiring managers think it is relevant or not.

First thing to do is to get yourself an in-person interview and tell them that the major that you have has taught you skills that would help you at the workplace. Talk about your work experiences or internships, your extracurricular activities, your volunteer work, your GPA, your skills and your competence.

If they stand convinced, your major will hardly make a difference.