<p>My kids, sadly, are both more oriented to the verbal than the quantitative. I say sadly because my daughter, who’s graduating from college with a degree in business has found that the fields in the most demand are accounting and finance within business, and of course engineering and science. She’s not great in math and hopes to find something in marketing or human resources. </p>
<p>Now my son, who’s better in math and science than she is, says he really wants to do something in the social sciences. He’s a really good debater and very interested in foreign affairs, politics, etc. I’m just afraid it’s too competitive a field. I think academia is impossible to break into, law is really bad too. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Environmental science or environmental studies? Combines policy and some science, although it still takes work to find a career there. No simple answer.</p>
<p>My D1 is also particulary verbal (and only so-so at math, but she has a lot of discipline and elbow grease). She is a political science major. She hustled for some really great internships in DC this semester (junior year) and also for the upcoming summer, so hopefully she will be well positioned with experience and network contacts to find a job next year.</p>
<p>One thing she did is teach (though the BreakThrough Collaborative) for a few summers in late high school and college. She was a natural in front of the classroom, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she returns to teaching someday.</p>
<p>I suggested that my son do a second major in something like math so he could teach but he has absolutely no interest. I think it’s really difficult to get a job teaching also unless it’s math or science or special ed.</p>
<p>For S, how about something in grad school towards urban planning, regional planning, or natural resource management. Quantitative skills and presentation abilities count in those fields. (sample career: zoning administrator or city manager for a city or village…) Suitable undergrad majors are many, including: political science with emphasis on state/local government.</p>
<p>For D, while I don’t know business careers well at all, my instinct is to advise her she only needs ONE job so don’t worry about where there are more or fewer jobs, just press on persistently in marketing until she lands something. </p>
<p>A person can only prosper in areas where they have skill sets, passion and inclination. We can’t remold our kids into the economy to the most likely areas. Sometimes the best strategy is to teach them to develop all they have to the maximum and persevere right there for the more rare opportunity.</p>