How College Majors Translate into Careers

College is education – nearly everyone knows that. However, it’s an education that works to drive students toward and motivate them to find a lifelong career. At Concordia Nebraska, an emphasis on vocation in regard to one’s career is especially profound. Choosing a certain major, program or certification is definitely connected to discovering one’s future work vocation, but how?  

Vocation can mean a lot of things to different people. For the purposes of this article, it will refer to the career that one has or the major role you play in your everyday life. In other words, it’s a professional or “work” vocation, or the way that you live out Christ’s calling for your life through your job. But – that’s getting too far ahead. First, let’s look at how the major you choose in college informs and supports your future vocational pathway.  

Starting long before your freshman year of college, people will ask you what you want to be “when you grow up.” As we age, that answer changes – in early childhood, the answers might be a little more fantastical, as if you could eventually major in “princess studies” or “superhero higher education.” Move into middle and high school, and the answers become a little more concrete, despite still possibly being the result of some high hopes. Wanting to be a teacher? That’s more like it. A pop star? Possible, but statistically speaking, not very likely.  

Then comes the time when that question carries some more weight – usually sometime during high school. What you “want to be” when you “grow up” becomes “what do I want to choose as my life path in, let’s see...just over two years?” By then, you’re well aware that college exists, majors exist and alternatives to higher education exist. The question is: which one do you choose, given that this decision is going to make or break the entire rest of your life?  

Spoiler alert: It won’t -- really.  

The thing is, college majors are more flexible than you’d think. You’re not locking yourself into a super-specific lifelong job once you choose a major. According to CBS News in 2024, over half of recent college graduates don’t work in the same field as the one in which they obtained their bachelor’s degree. The statistics change for those who hold graduate degrees, but bachelor’s degrees are far more common.  

Don’t let this discourage you, either! Just because many college grads don’t work in the field of their major doesn’t mean that they made a poor decision or that they are working a less-than-desirable job. Chances are, you may find a career to which God is calling you and that you love that may not be related to your college major.  

Graduating with a bachelor’s degree opens many opportunities for further study or career placement, but general education requirements and the openness of many majors means that students gain general skills as well as major-specific knowledge. Many employers are looking for employees with critical thinking skills, interpersonal prowess or good time management, not necessarily whether employees who can remember every element on the periodic table or the descriptions of all the various theoretical approaches to psychology.  

So how do college majors translate into careers? The answer is: in many different ways. For some, their major leads them to pursue graduate study in an even narrower, focused field and become a highly educated professional. For others, their education supplies them with the skills necessary to pursue a traditional 9-5 job or a nontraditional career. For others, their college degree may enable them to become stay-at-home dads or moms, proficient homeschool parents or Sunday school teachers. The options are truly endless.  

So next time someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up – or, more realistically at this stage in life, what you’re going to do with your undergraduate degree – you can be confident in telling them wherever God calls you to be. That place may be unexpected. It may change over time. It might not always be comfortable or feel natural. But staying firm in your faith and knowing that you, through your vocation, are bringing glory to the Lord, which will bring a peace beyond all understanding.  

Concordia University, Nebraska is a Christ-centered community where students, faculty and staff build on the firm foundation of faith in Jesus Christ. Fulfill your vocation and discover your calling at Concordia – learn more about applying here.