Considering Changing Your University Major?

It is common for university students to find out they do not like the career in which they are matriculated at school. The best way to choose a new career is to find out more about yourself and choose a career that matches your personal characteristics. One of the most common difficulties in choosing a career is not knowing about the lifecycles of the career you chose and not knowing about your own lifecycle.

Lifecycles

For instance, the field of teaching algebra has a lengthy lifecycle. There are few changes in the field of algebra over the years. Those who make a career of teaching algebra tend to have a personal lifecycle of 15 to 25 years. They like things that remain without change. They are most happy in circumstances where there is little change. So, they are drawn into a field where the field and the content of that field does not change for many years.

At the other end of the scale, the field of application software development has a fleeting lifecycle. Most software development projects are only 10 to 15 months. So, the people who will thrive in the application software development field must have a fleeting lifecycle. This field needs people who want to start something, finish it, and then move on to the next task.

In between these 2 ends of the scale are those whose lifecycle is five to seven years. The majority of people fit into this category. These are the people who are the backbone of the labor pool in the USA. These are the people who merchandise, build, uphold, deliver, and provide customer service for most of the goods & services in America's marketplace.

Recognizing your own lifecycle can be simple. If you have a long work CV, you explore your history of positions and find the pattern that you have lived in your positions. Have you had a progression of positions which are in the 5 to 7 years time-frame? Is your work experience organized around situations where you are drawn into projects where you build or maintain? If so, you may fit in the five to seven year lifecycle group.

Have all of your positions been doing one thing? If you have spent more than 10 years doing the same work and you have maintained a level of comfort with the projects and content of your work, you most likely fit in the 15 to 25 year lifecycle group.

If your work CV is a long list of short duration positions which you start, complete, and then move on, you probably fit in the fleeting lifecycle group.

Which is best?

There is no group that is better or worse than the others. Each group fills a need in our economy’s work cycles. Some of these lifecycle categories fit better for certain careers or for certain positions.

If you are a student in university, you don’t have a history to look back on to find out your patterns. You need another way of understanding your patterns and making useful elections about your career. Before that, you should understand a little bit more about these lifecycle categories.

The Alarm Clock

Without knowing which of these categories you are in, everyone carries an alarm clock in their head which lets them know that their cycle is ending. They usually really like their labor and the others they work with, but they find themselves reading the ‘Help Wanted’ section in the newspaper. They start looking for things to be dissatisfied with about their job, the people, the location, the weather, or anything else they can use to think it is time to change their job. They start finding themselves needing to move on to the next labor.

This is the regular way we know that our labor lifecycle is ending, and we need to start a new cycle. But, starting a new cycle does not have to be a new job or career. If you know this is your group, you can plan for the shifts you make from one cycle to the next. If you catch this ‘alarm’ when it first starts to sound, you can make relatively small changes and reset your clock.

For instance, when you get a promotion on the job, your clock is reset, and your cycle begins again. When you get new kinds of tasks on the job, your clock is reset, and your cycle begins again. When you move to a different project in your company, your clock is reset, and your cycle begins again.

But if you do not make the break you need to make, when your lifecycle ends, you start to get depressed. And, the longer you wait to make the change, the stronger the break needs to be to reset your clock. If you need to make the break and you do not make it, you get depressed. The longer you wait before you make the break, the deeper the depression.

When you first notice the alarms that you need the break, the break does not need to be very large. New task assignments or redecorating your workspace are usually enough. But if you wait, you may need to change the company you work for or you may need to change your career.

What Can You Do?

This could be a predicament. Do you want to change your major because you really don’t like this career, or is it because you have ended your lifecycle?

You should obtain a career assessment using a system which helps you understand many of your characteristics including your lifecycle. With this kind of assessment, you can make reasoned choices about your major, your career, and your life.

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About the Article Author

Rodger Bailey, MS, has degrees in Anthropology and Counseling. He has developed The LAB Profile: a career assessment system which provides specific information about your traits on 40 scales, including your lifecycle. Also, read about his work with his Developmental Discovery System™.