Looking to the future: Not just falling back onto a business major

I find that more and more college students are at a complete loss for their dreams of a future job.  When I ask what most of my peers want as a career, the response usually is "I don't know... something in business, I guess."

Many students who have recently graduated from an undergraduate study was the generation of students where "a business major could get you anywhere," and this sentiment has passed on to the next set of undergraduate students as well. But now, with everyone getting a business major, what can set apart all these fresh graduated students?

The world has a surprising amount of business majors who do not have a drive, or a goal for anything in their career.  The pendulum is swinging back, and employers are looking for people who specifically have goals for their company. Business majors are being pushed aside for English majors with leadership qualities and past experience.

My school, a business emphasis small college,  convinced me for one semester that "well, you need to be flexible, so why don't you just tack on a sort of business degree, okay?"  So for one semester I planned my life with an additional Public Relations degree.  And after the one semester, without even taking a PR class, I dismissed it.

I found that I really enjoyed spending my free time one on one with the Asian ESL students, helping them read through our heavy English text books and understanding American culture. I loved learning about new cultures, and have acquired many basic levels of languages over my whole education. So, I did plenty of research over the summer, and I now have a French and English major, and am taking classes that would be good for my future graduate education and ESL Instructor certification. And this summer I'm interning in China in helping teachers teach English to middle school students.

After this revelation, I began to inquire about my friends’ future careers and dreams. And honestly  it all came up bland.  I found that after persistence my friends' answers began to change.  A friend pursuing a business major has decided she'd be perfect as an HR for a small company.  An Asian Studies friend has told me she'd be happy opening a jewelry store and making jewelry her whole life,  and after encouragement is looking up jewelry making and contacting friends and professors in the art department of her large university.

I am calling all those who have a major but no passion to think about what they really love to do, and to pursue it.  The job field is looking for people who have goals, and are specifically interested in the open position.

So find you dream, and pursue it -- it's not ridiculous.  You can like Asian studies but want to do metallurgy,  and you can just find exactly what you'd like to do in your life.