Subjects to Study (and the Careers That Go With Them)

Choosing a major is a big decision. Before you settle on yours, try to answer these 3 questions:

1. What do you truly enjoy?

2. What kind of career can you pursue with this major?

3. Do you have any work experience in this area?

Let's take a look at each question in detail.

1 What You Truly Enjoy

The first rule of career advice is: do what you love. It might sound idealistic, and maybe even impossible — especially if your current job is a real nightmare. But loving your job is very possible. All you have to do is plan correctly.

Don't start by thinking about jobs that are practical. Start by making a list of what you do in your free time. What are the activities that you can get lost in? What's one activity that you enjoy so much, you often lose track of time while you're doing it? The only way to find long-term job satisfaction is to be honest with yourself, and recognize your fundamental preferences. Otherwise, you might spend your whole life hopping from one boring job to the next.

2 Careers You Can Pursue

Got your list of favorite activities ready? Now strip those activities down to their core competencies. In other words, what is your mind doing while you're busy having fun? Finally, think of real life jobs that share similar, core competencies. We've made a chart to give you some examples.

Activity You Love	What Your Mind is Doing	Jobs with Similar Competencies
Shopping	Hunting for interesting pieces, comparing prices, pairing items that go well together	real estate agents, decorators, paid search analysts, retail buyers
Playing team sports	Measuring results, coordinating moving parts, visualizing pieces of a system	physical education teachers, personal trainers, engineers, skilled tradesmen
Going to parties	Meeting new people, processing multiple cues and signals, moving around	nurses, business managers, social workers
Watching movies	Following a story line, making assumptions and predictions, empathizing with characters	teachers, marketing and public relations professionals, counselors, writers

Even if your only true pastime is sitting on the couch, watching TV, you still have interests that can be channeled into a satisfying career. Let's say you like to watch crime shows. You might be fascinated by legal work or criminal justice. If you enjoy reality television and all the complex relationships that develop, maybe you'd be happy working in counseling. If you love video games, why not study computer animation and gaming technology?

It's true that fun jobs are often quite competitive. Not everyone will get a chance to play professional sports, or qualify to work as an astronaut. Still, all of these dreams have broad and accessible offshoots. (Astronauts and science teachers share a lot of interesting job components.) Take the time to really learn about your ideal job area. That way, you'll recognize an opportunity when it presents itself.

3 Work Experience

Lots of people think it would be fun to own a restaurant. Restaurant owners eat great food for free, design their own menus, make sure everyone has a good time…what's not to love? But if you've ever actually worked in a restaurant, you know that there are plenty of things not to love. It's very difficult to train and manage a quality wait-staff, customers are fussy, the profit margin is very narrow, the hours are very long, and someone has to empty the grease trap when the dishwasher calls in sick.

That's why work experience is important. Work experience inserts a bit of reality into the "do what you love" philosophy. In a perfect world, our dream jobs would be nothing but fun. We could work as ice cream tasters, personal shoppers, movie critics, and more — just by doing the activities we know and enjoy. In the real world, jobs can be similar to our favorite hobbies, but they will always involve some challenging aspects or boring grunt work. We can't anticipate what the downsides will be until we've sampled our chosen field in some capacity.

So try not to choose a major until you've actually interned or volunteered for an organization that supports a relevant work experience. If you want to study floral design, visit your local florist, and ask if you can help out — or even just watch — during a busy season, like Valentine's Day or Mother's Day.

The other good thing about volunteering or working part-time to test a major is that you'll develop connections. The supervisors that you work for might help you get promoted, after you've completed your online degree. They can also write letters of recommendation if you decide to pursue graduate study.

Arts & Religion

You already know that college degree-holders earn more money than high school grads, but you don't want to study teaching, or nursing, or computers. So what should you do? A lot of people face this same question. Luckily, an arts, humanities, or religion degree works like a skeleton key; it can open every door there is! Just promise you'll remember us when you're famous.

See More in this Section: Arts & Religion
Business & MBA

We'll keep this blurb short and sweet for you no nonsense, business folks: the ROI on your BS or MBA is fast and proven. These programs really do help you succeed—either at your current job, or the one you're working towards. Now go make it happen.

See More in this Section: Business & MBA
Computers & Information Technology

We'd like to give a shout out to all you computer people, who make everything possible. (Pause for thunderous applause.) It's no secret that an IT degree is marketable. The only possible drawback we can think of is that your friends bug you for computer advice. (But you can turn this into a good thing—just start charging them.)

See More in this Section: Computers & Information Technology
Education & Teaching

Studies and surveys show that teachers are among the happiest, most satisfied professionals in the workforce. You'll use your creativity and your compassion to shape students' lives. It's definitely a patience-tester, but teaching offers great job security and convenient hours for parents with school-aged children.

See More in this Section: Education & Teaching
Healthcare & Nursing

Your mother was right; you should have gone into medicine. Don't worry, it's not too late. Job opportunities in nursing and healthcare continue to grow. Better still: with a Master's degree, healthcare professionals can earn exponentially more. Medicine's tough, and the job can sometimes get stressful, but those are the breaks when you're a literal lifesaver.

See More in this Section: Healthcare & Nursing
Science & Engineering

If you're good at building, testing, developing, and designing things then… wow, that's impressive. (To be honest, we're a little jealous of your left-brained abilities.) So don't let these skills go to waste. The world needs you!

See More in this Section: Science & Engineering
Social Sciences & Criminal Justice

Being a "people person" is more than just a compliment. Lots of us wish for an opportunity to do what we love, while students who pursue politics, law, criminal justice and sociology create their own opportunities. Besides that, this is one degree path where there's never a dull moment.

See More in this Section: Social Sciences & Criminal Justice