How to Find Comfort in the Journey to Find the Career Best for You

Finding Comfort in Your Career Journey

KRISTIAN MASTERS

During this journey of finding the right career path, students face the challenges of balancing their priorities and feeling good about their next step. Applying for internships may be time-consuming and discouraging for students, especially when their dream employer tells them they’re no longer in the interview process. They also may feel that if they aren’t in the “best program” for their intended career path, they won’t have the same opportunities as the people who are in that program.

When thinking of how to approach the daunting task of finding an internship, job posting sites like LinkedIn, Handshake, or Indeed are typically a good place to start. Many big-name companies like Amazon, Boston Scientific, General Mills, etc. seem to be appealing ways to lead you to success. Although these are all probably great opportunities, the sick truth is that they are very competitive. However, there are many other ways to kickstart your career path. Anything that you can do to put any sort of experience on your resume is going to be beneficial no matter what, as long as you work hard and make quality connections. Finding an internship, no matter the company, is going to give you the experiences you need and a better understanding of the functions of a business to someday allow you to be a competitive candidate at your dream employer. Taking the time to understand that you have a long career path ahead of you to find your dream job, is going to make finding your first internship a lot less stressful.

There are many valuable links that the University has to help you feel more comfortable if you are unsure where to start. https://career.umn.edu/students is a good resource that helps find what careers your major can set you up for, different websites to find internships and job opportunities, and even ways on how to prepare for applying with resume and cover letter help and interview preparation.

Students, like myself, may feel that their major or program isn’t the “best program” for their intended career path. One example of this includes the Business & Marketing Education (BME) major in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) compared to a Marketing major in the Carlson School of Management (CSOM). CSOM is a prestigious program that US News ranked in 2020 as the 19th best undergraduate business program in the country, which makes it more selective than CEHD. Being a BME major in CEHD, I found myself feeling that my opportunities were going to be limited compared to those in Carlson. I was a bit discouraged by this but quickly learned about the opportunities the BME major had to offer. One thing that helped me find comfort in my major is that 100% of BME students have at least one internship. This helped me understand that no matter my major or program, I am going to be able to show what I have learned about marketing and start my career somewhere. CEHD also gives you all of the different paths your major can take you and I was comforted to know that there were dozens of different ways I could go.

It is also worth noting that if students work hard and follow transfer requirements, there are opportunities to transfer from CEHD to CSOM.

Ranked the 26th best Computer Science school in the country, the College of Science and Engineering is another very competitive program to be admitted to.

There are also two Computer Science majors here at school, one in CSE and one in the College of Liberal Arts.

I spoke with junior Wyatt Gustafson about his career path and how he managed the stress of applying for internships. Wyatt transferred from Indiana University into the College of Liberal Arts. He has decided that he wants to pursue a career in Computer Science but was not yet admitted into CSE. He talked about how finding internships was stressful because he was worried about employers not taking him seriously. After all, he was not in CSE. Wyatt used his resources with LinkedIn and Handshake, a platform run through the University, to try and find internships for the summer of 2021. He applied to many different companies when he finally received an offer that he ended up accepting. Although this position may not be his dream job, Wyatt said he understands that he is going to learn valuable skills that will give him opportunities to keep getting closer to his dream job. He has continued to work hard in school and was just admitted into CSE after the 2020 fall semester. Wyatt’s journey is an example of how students don’t need to be in the top programs or majors to land roles that will jumpstart your career.

Being able to feel at ease about your future is very challenging for many people. But now, you have the resources and knowledge of how to battle that challenge. Using your resources is going to help create a lot of opportunities. Make sure to remember that although your first job won’t be your favorite, the work you put in and the skills you learn will lead you to your dream job.

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