Attending college is a significant investment, with the average private university tuition reaching $43,505 per year. Public state universities are the most affordable, but the average university in that category still has a $11,011 tuition.
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Despite putting a lot of money into college tuition and incurring debt along the way, not every student ends up in a high-paying career. Luckily, there is a way to increase your chances of success.
Money influencer Vivian Tu offers a career hack you can use before attending college to increase how much you earn in your lifetime.
The Career Hack
Vivian Tu’s career hack involves researching the median annual salary of each career in any potential major. She recommends using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook to obtain this information.
You can filter occupations based on your interest and see how the median annual salaries compare. The handbook also reveals how much you can earn in each sector. This career hack offers a good starting point, but earnings vary for each person.
Daniel “DanFromHR” Space, a senior human resources (HR) business partner director turned HR content creator said it’s better to be informed about the factors that determine your paycheck.
“Telling people to go to ‘glassdoor’ or ‘salary.com’ isn’t the worst advice, but it’s important to know that it’s just directional in nature. Instead, it’s much better to be informed on how compensation works and the six elements that factor into it — job family, job level, tenure, industry, location and job family and industry alignment,” said Space.
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How Important Is Your Major?
Space has worked in HR for more than 20 years for companies like Spotify, EA and Epic Games. He’s reviewed many applications and conducted interviews, but in most cases, he says it’s not important to choose a good major.
“With the exception of pipeline majors — medicine, legal, education — most majors have nothing to do with the ability to do most corporate roles since business majors like marketing, advertising, public relations, etcetera, teach academic theory as opposed to applied methodology. I hire new grads all the time and most of the time the majors really don’t matter,” he said.
Space isn’t the only one who has said a major isn’t the end-all-be-all. Adnan Rasool, associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, explained how conversations about majors have shifted in classrooms.
“The important thing to understand is that no one major can set you up for life. This discussion on majors is a marketing tactic and nothing more. There is no magic major,” said Rasool.
Rasool goes on to share what you can do to set yourself up for a good career.
“The thing that matters in college is experiential learning and the ability to build social capital. This is the stuff that gets you a job. If you have the right set of experiential learning opportunities like internships, travel studies, and work-study programs, you are more likely to build a better network, you are going to learn how to talk to people and most importantly be interesting. No one wants to hire someone who has no personality, can barely hold a conversation, and cannot speak in front of a crowd.”
What To Consider Before Selecting a Major
You still have to choose a major and complete it before graduating college. Vivian Tu’s career hack offers a good starting point, as you can look at the median annual salaries across multiple industries.
In some industries, you need the right major to advance. Even if a major isn’t necessary, going through college and learning relevant skills for your chosen field can help you be more successful.
Rasool offers additional insights to keep in mind before deciding on your major.
“College students need to mostly look for what they want to do, what their geographical limitations are, and what they really would like to have in the long run. This means, they need to see what kind of mentorship they will get, what kind of jobs are present in a region, and what kind of lifestyle they wish to pursue. For example, in a major city, studying agriculture might not be the smartest idea. It may be better to study something like nonprofit management or public administration. So, it depends. That is why mentorship matters so much, and sadly most students coming to college do not realize this.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Money Influencer Vivian Tu: 1 Career Hack You Need To Do Before Starting College
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