Hi all, I’m a rising senior with a 4.0 GPA and a strong record of academic awards. I’m passionate about technology, business, and math, but I’ve realized that I don’t particularly enjoy coding—so a traditional computer science path doesn’t feel like the right fit for me.
Given the current job market and my interests, I’m exploring majors like Informatics, Information Science, Data Science, or Engineering. I’m also considering whether a business degree would be a practical choice, though I have some concerns about the future of entry-level roles in areas like sales and marketing due to AI-driven automation.
Could you share any insights or guidance on which majors might offer strong career prospects that align with my interests and the evolving job landscape? Thanks.
Predicting the future is generally risky. Strangers can’t pick your career.
However, just a few things to think about:
Mathematics is a major that can be used in a variety of careers. I used to know a math major (bachelor’s) who then went on to get a master’s degree in acoustics. There is a lot of math needed to make sure that every seat in an auditorium has good sound quality, or on keeping your pickup truck quiet. Another math major I knew got a law degree. A few others became software engineers. Another went into machine learning. I personally with a degree in math then got a master’s in operations research. You might want to find out what operations research is. I describe it as “its fun and they pay you”, but then I always liked math.
And of course artificial intelligence and/or machine learning are possible majors.
With a degree in math, my first job was at a cyclotron. There is a lot of math in keeping a beam of particles moving at relativistic speeds aligned and focused. There is also a lot of math needed to figure out why some electrons are getting lost (also at relativistic speeds) resulting in strange sensor readings. We had a few cases where a packaged software product was producing strange results. Someone had to figure out what math was being used by the software package, and whether that was a fit to the problem that we were trying to solve (in a couple of cases it wasn’t, for somewhat subtle reasons).
A similar issue is likely to occur with more use of AI, for example for simple coding. There are going to times when the results do not look right. Someone who understands the underlying AI or ML or math is going to need to figure out what is going on.
My personal expectation is that some jobs might (or might not) be lost to AI, but people who understand this stuff very well will be in even greater demand than they are now.
3 Likes
Agreed that a math major leaves many options open.
Another major that fits the whole range of your stated interests is Industrial Engineering. This is a field that’s often overlooked by high school students because the connotations of the word “industrial,” in their minds, don’t align with what they’re looking for. But in reality, IE programs involve a blend of engineering and business, and often quite a bit of math and data science - which is to say, pretty much every area of interest you named. Different programs can have different emphases, and often there are multiple tracks available within a given program. As and example, a tippy-top IE program with multiple concentrations to choose from is Georgia Tech’s ISyE program: Undergraduate | H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (Note that Operations Research, already suggested by @DadTwoGirls, is one of the concentration areas.)
2 Likes
Duplicate accounts are not permitted on CC.