# What Degree Should I choose?



## SolitaryNight (May 14, 2015)

Hello,
I've going to sign up for uni, hopefully this month but I'm having difficulty choosing a subject.
I' m choosing a part time course so the options are limited...( Not to mention some are blocked out either because of my subject choices or because of my sheer unwillingness to do the subject (eg. Accounts...) 
Economics 
Business Management
Psychology
Sociology
Human Nutrition and Dietetics ( I'd have to do a couple of courses before starting this if I choose it.) 
Botany ( I'd have to do a biology course first, but if I do this I'd have a serious problem finding a job despite the fact that I love the topic.)
Business Administration ( What I was initially planning to take, the job that I have right now is making me think twice though. It's a nice enough job, but not very fulfilling. I'm being to lapse into my "lazy mode." I find it difficult to make an effort to go out of my way to learn new stuff or try to become more "accurate" as they say. Also, if I continue this path I'd have to specialize amongst Finance, HR and Marketing. Finance is a no, HR is too concentrated on the job market and I'd rather not have to deal with too many people which leaves marketing which my family says is unsuited my personality.)
Early Childhood Care and Education
I am an INFP.
I am sure I'm a 9 but I'm unsure whether my wing is a 8 or 1, I've been leaning to 1 so far. the rest of my fixes are 6w5, 4w5
My Socionics is EII

My (Potential) Career Goals.
Become a librarian
Own a bookstore/bakery.
Apprentice to a florist
Necessities (things that I will do at the side)
Open an online craft business
Learn how be a masseuse ( whether or not I turn this into a career depends on my performance during the training and if I like the work.) 
Publish and sell my own books.
If you think of any career suggestions, please post them.


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## Doktorin Zylinder (May 10, 2015)

Firstly, are you going to stay in T&T?

Economics probably isn't going to get you anywhere unless you're really good at math and pursue a doctorate in the subject. 

Psychology and sociology are dead ends in most cases. I know way too many people with degrees in these who are waitresses or baristas paying off their student loans because there aren't any jobs at the undergrad level. They're also full of people who just want to go to university because they are generally easy degrees compared to STEM.

Human Nutrition and Dietetics you can learn out of a book at the library without much trouble. I have a cousin who is a nutritionist and couldn't make money at it so she married rich and bought a fast food restaurant. :dry:

Early Childhood Care and Education is another "easy" area. I'm not sure what the teaching environment is there, but I was told they were still using corporal punishment in class on students twenty years ago by an acquaintance lived there.

Botany may actually be good for something, or at least something in the agricultural realm. If I recall, T&T has grant programs for starting farms and whatnot, cacao, mango, and the like. You may want to go a little broader than botany, though. Crop management, agronomy, aquaculture and fisheries, et cetera are areas you should look into. If you're good, you could be shipped to South America for work.

Business management and administration can be good if you want to run your own business. I don't think they are an ends in and of themselves, though. If you go this route, it would be advantageous for your personal business endeavors.

I'd say no to librarian, bookstore owner, florist, masseuse, and publisher.

Anything food related, like a bakery, is usually pretty safe if you're good at it because people need to eat and the online craft idea can be done on the side of a career as supplementary income. You can also write your books on the side. If I recall, INFPs have some of the lowest job satisfaction out of everyone. Just be careful you don't fall into a quagmire. 

Eat some shark and bake for me. I haven't been there in awhile.


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## SolitaryNight (May 14, 2015)

Yes I do plan to stay in T&T.
I am not good at Math and I have no intention of going into a doctorate for that subject so that's off.
...Self explanatory.
Lol. I better start reading then.

I believe they stopped/or at least are trying to stop corporeal punishment now but some people are against it. Things are a lot worse than they were a decade ago and they feel that the non violent approach won't be enough to get through to them.

Argonomy sounds interesting, I'll look into it. Aquaculture sounds interesting too but I'm not too fond of fish.I like the concept behind it though.

Duly noted, I may follow through on that.

Ouch. Harsh. I'm still going to do the masseuse training though. It would be helpful personally.

Meh. I'll scrap everything, narrow down my options and do some research. Thanks for the advice. b '_' 
Sure.


Any other suggestions?


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## Gman1 (Mar 3, 2015)

Psychology could be an interesting field


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## Doktorin Zylinder (May 10, 2015)

Massage therapy can be hard on your body. Back a few years ago, I was talking to my masseuse and she said the average career span for massage therapy is six years. It's no wonder ever couple of years I end up getting a new one when I'm at the spa. 

Pretty much anything, nowadays, needs math in one form or another. At least with agronomy, it's relatively limited. You won't need tensor calculus or anything like that. Fish are fine, you'll get used to them. Aquaculture also deals with shellfish and whatnot and a lot of the time it's just the testing of water and and adjustments. If you get good and end up traveling to set up fish/shellfish farms, you can just get other people to handle the fish for you.


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## Delicious Speculation (May 17, 2015)

I started college as a fine arts major. I also thought I was going to be an attorney with a bachelors degree in something other than political science. I ended up getting my degree in linguistics/Spanish and went on to get a science-based masters degree. My career is a mix of biology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Perfection, if you're someone like me!

My advice? Take a year to decide what to major in. Try lots of classes. For any degree, regardless of major, there are required classes. Take those first. They will help you find out what you want to major in. 

Science, mathematics, and engineering are attractive courses of study, but they're not fun for everyone. If you don't like what you're studying then you won't benefit as much. Social sciences are very interesting - Sociology in particular - but it's hard to turn a degree in social sciences into a career unless you do a minor in something more marketable. Business administration majors are everywhere, but the classes do help for a variety of careers. Early Childhood Education is also probably a better choice than social sciences.


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## C3bBb (Oct 22, 2013)

I might be biased but healthcare is a pretty rewarding field. If you decide to do psych I think clinical psychology could be a really interesting track with good salary and plenty of intellectual stimulation so you won't be bored.


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## SolitaryNight (May 14, 2015)

agwood said:


> Psychology could be an interesting field


It is an interesting field, which is one of the reasons why I like this forum, it addresses one of my favorite areas in it.



Doktorin Zylinder said:


> Massage therapy can be hard on your body. Back a few years ago, I was talking to my masseuse and she said the average career span for massage therapy is six years. It's no wonder ever couple of years I end up getting a new one when I'm at the spa.
> 
> Pretty much anything, nowadays, needs math in one form or another. At least with agronomy, it's relatively limited. You won't need tensor calculus or anything like that. Fish are fine, you'll get used to them. Aquaculture also deals with shellfish and whatnot and a lot of the time it's just the testing of water and and adjustments. If you get good and end up traveling to set up fish/shellfish farms, you can just get other people to handle the fish for you.


Yesh, you saved me from a scam then. The place I was eying had 3 years as the minimum amount of training. I guess I should blame myself for not doing any research.
I know, luckily( or unluckily) I got shoved into a checker job for a few months so it would be good math training. Unfortunately the universities have no course specializing in Agronomy. 
Fortunately a good bit of the topics are introduced as electives in Biology. It won't be specialized but it's something. Aquaculture actually is a subject so I'll give it some thought.


CleverCait said:


> I started college as a fine arts major. I also thought I was going to be an attorney with a bachelors degree in something other than political science. I ended up getting my degree in linguistics/Spanish and went on to get a science-based masters degree. My career is a mix of biology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Perfection, if you're someone like me!
> 
> My advice? Take a year to decide what to major in. Try lots of classes. For any degree, regardless of major, there are required classes. Take those first. They will help you find out what you want to major in.
> 
> Science, mathematics, and engineering are attractive courses of study, but they're not fun for everyone. If you don't like what you're studying then you won't benefit as much. Social sciences are very interesting - Sociology in particular - but it's hard to turn a degree in social sciences into a career unless you do a minor in something more marketable. Business administration majors are everywhere, but the classes do help for a variety of careers. Early Childhood Education is also probably a better choice than social sciences.


 I would have loved to try my hand at a fine arts course. There aren't any here though.. ( Woes of living in a small third world country.) When I was choosing my subjects my mom actually hinted towards linguistics since I was talented in English and I was fairly good in Spanish. I regret not trying that route now... its never too late though! I like sciences. I don't get bored studying them even though there a little tedious at times. I haven't been good at Math since kindergarten and the first 2 years afterwards. Engineering never crossed my mind. I'll do my best to try as many subjects as possible but its very costly and I'm a bit afraid of what the university will say if I keep changing my subject. I won't be paying my fees after all ( the majority of it the paid by the government.) Minor courses are fun, if not expensive. I like kids well enough but I don't want to go into Childhood Education.
There are lot of things that I can begin self teaching myself also. Loads of options. Thanks you for widening my horizons. Ah, this will be difficult.


Senshu_Ben_Gone said:


> I might be biased but healthcare is a pretty rewarding field. If you decide to do psych I think clinical psychology could be a really interesting track with good salary and plenty of intellectual stimulation so you won't be bored.


 I agree, healthcare is one of the reasons why I had human Nutrition and Dietetics as one of the subjects I'm interested. I think that studying the effects that food has on our body sounds like a fascinating thing,( especially while using medicinal herbs.) If I'd be able to help people with that knowledge it would have been excellent. I have a similar fascination for psychology, however, most of the psychology jobs in T&T are focused on counseling. I'd have to do more research to find my niche.


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## Delicious Speculation (May 17, 2015)

SolitaryNight said:


> I would have loved to try my hand at a fine arts course. There aren't any here though.. ( Woes of living in a small third world country.) When I was choosing my subjects my mom actually hinted towards linguistics since I was talented in English and I was fairly good in Spanish. I regret not trying that route now... its never too late though! I like sciences. I don't get bored studying them even though there a little tedious at times. I haven't been good at Math since kindergarten and the first 2 years afterwards. Engineering never crossed my mind. I'll do my best to try as many subjects as possible but its very costly and I'm a bit afraid of what the university will say if I keep changing my subject. I won't be paying my fees after all ( the majority of it the paid by the government.) Minor courses are fun, if not expensive. I like kids well enough but I don't want to go into Childhood Education.


Aaah, the US university/college system is a bit different. We have to take so many courses in various areas in order to fulfill general education requirements on top of our majors/minors. Fine Arts would have been fun to continue, but as a degree I think it's appropriate only for a select few who have a real shot at making it into a career. You can pursue art on your own for a fraction of the cost. 

If science and languages are your thing, they can both be used for a lot! English and Spanish are widely spoken in a lot of areas. They will also help immensely if you're in any kind of healthcare capacity. There aren't many Spanish-speakers where I work, but I have done a couple of speech/language evaluations in Spanish. You never know when you'll need them. Your English looks great to me. Good luck.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

Doktorin Zylinder said:


> Human Nutrition and Dietetics you can learn out of a book at the library without much trouble. I have a cousin who is a nutritionist and couldn't make money at it so she married rich and bought a fast food restaurant. :dry:


I'm sorry to go a little off-topic, but that's really funny. 

@SolitaryNight, Can you find an entry level job at a library, maybe just part-time? I'm working as a library assistant right now. I could see an INFP 9 loving it. It's very peaceful and soothing. The downside for me is that I mostly do organizational and maintenance tasks - I don't really get to make any decisions or analyze anything - but that's just because I'm a helper. I think being a head librarian would be pretty cool. The thing about being a librarian in my area of the US is that there are not a ton of jobs and they don't pay much, but our head librarian seems to love her position and makes ends meet even being single with a handful of kids.


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## SolitaryNight (May 14, 2015)

CleverCait said:


> Aaah, the US university/college system is a bit different. We have to take so many courses in various areas in order to fulfill general education requirements on top of our majors/minors. Fine Arts would have been fun to continue, but as a degree I think it's appropriate only for a select few who have a real shot at making it into a career. You can pursue art on your own for a fraction of the cost.
> 
> If science and languages are your thing, they can both be used for a lot! English and Spanish are widely spoken in a lot of areas. They will also help immensely if you're in any kind of healthcare capacity. There aren't many Spanish-speakers where I work, but I have done a couple of speech/language evaluations in Spanish. You never know when you'll need them. Your English looks great to me. Good luck.


 Spanish is quite useful in my country as we're only a short boat ride away from Venezuela and there are multiple Spanish speaking countries in the Caribbean.Thank you for the compliment and the advice, it's been helpful.



angelfish said:


> I'm sorry to go a little off-topic, but that's really funny.
> 
> @SolitaryNight, Can you find an entry level job at a library, maybe just part-time? I'm working as a library assistant right now. I could see an INFP 9 loving it. It's very peaceful and soothing. The downside for me is that I mostly do organizational and maintenance tasks - I don't really get to make any decisions or analyze anything - but that's just because I'm a helper. I think being a head librarian would be pretty cool. The thing about being a librarian in my area of the US is that there are not a ton of jobs and they don't pay much, but our head librarian seems to love her position and makes ends meet even being single with a handful of kids.


Yes. As soon as I'm finished with this job I intend to join a program that offers you at least a year's experience in a starter job of your choice. It's up to your employer afterwards to decide if they want to keep you on for a longer period, send you to another branch or drop you completely. It's a good chance as any to get my foot in the door.There aren't a lot of head librarians here so they're in demand. The only issue is getting a permanent position to rack up some years of experience before I tackle my master's which I'd only be able to do after I get my associate's and bachelor's. I need my master's to become a head librarian.
P.S It was rather funny wasn't it?


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

Your list of degree ideas is too broad. It's like walking into a supermarket and asking us to tell you what you want.

The question is: What do _you_ want?

Also. All your career goals don't even remotely require a degree qualification.


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## SolitaryNight (May 14, 2015)

HAL said:


> Your list of degree ideas is too broad. It's like walking into a supermarket and asking us to tell you what you want.
> 
> The question is: What do _you_ want?
> 
> Also. All your career goals don't even remotely require a degree qualification.


I suppose what I was going for was:
I place ideas in the center of a room
You guys have at it
I choose what seems to be the most reasonable one amongst them afterwards.
I suppose I was expecting to wait for the lull after the big sale to walk around and see what's in demand.( Or choose what's left over...)So yeah your probably right, but the question of what I want is the problem situation in the first place. I don't know what I want. There are subjects I'm okay with but I'm not comfortable with just choosing an idea and settling on it if I'm not absolutely sure if that's what I want. I have no idea what the course would contain or how it would be executed or how to apply it to my job search on the long term stretch.
Point taken, but there's no guarantee that I'd be able to start on my dream job immediately.The degree would be a safety net to keep me on the job market until I catch the next lead.( And a way to quiet all the people who are pushing me to do it.) Besides the information would be useful, I want to learn.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

SolitaryNight said:


> Yes. As soon as I'm finished with this job I intend to join a program that offers you at least a year's experience in a starter job of your choice. It's up to your employer afterwards to decide if they want to keep you on for a longer period, send you to another branch or drop you completely. It's a good chance as any to get my foot in the door.There aren't a lot of head librarians here so they're in demand. The only issue is getting a permanent position to rack up some years of experience before I tackle my master's which I'd only be able to do after I get my associate's and bachelor's. I need my master's to become a head librarian.
> P.S It was rather funny wasn't it?


Lol, yes!

Anyway, that program sounds great! I don't know much about how it works in your country, but generally in the US there are very few non-academic requirements to get into most master's programs (in other words, here you would not need to worry about any years of experience - I was just suggesting the experience to help you see if/how you like it while you make some money). Here typically all you need is a bachelor's degree and a decent score on the verbal section of the GRE to apply to library science master's programs. That's all just riffing off your idea of becoming a librarian. 

Becoming a bookstore/bakery owner is a very different track requiring a different skillset - strategic planning, management of people, management of stock, physical store maintenance, marketing, etc. Personally, I love that kind of stuff. But I would caution that if you're more into the books and culinary art than the management, I wouldn't recommend shooting for ownership, unless you personally know someone who is a small business owner and you are familiar with and aspire to their role. My own experience is that typically the owner role - which at first is typically simultaneously the manager role, at least until you are able to pass on management to someone else - is less about the quality and content of what you are selling and more about negotiating resources such that business flourishes.

As for apprentice to a florist - cool idea, I worked in a floral department for a while and thought it was a lovely job. Quite niche. Slammed at holidays. Lots of customer service focus, lots of decorative creativity. I don't know how much you would like being a florist at least as far as I have experienced it if you aren't fond of dealing with many people. I would imagine there are more creative positions where you don't have to speak to people as much, but I don't know much about the world of floristry in general or how that job outlook is. 

Now, back to your school question - if you haven't figured out what you want to do yet, can you just start with the "core" requirements? Here we generally have to take a certain amount of English language, a math course, a natural science lab course, a social science, two foreign language courses, and so on. If there is no penalty for switching degree subjects, you could just choose the least restrictive one and start working on the courses that you will have to take regardless of what subject you pursue.


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## rustarl112 (Jul 9, 2015)

Horrible at making money


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## ae1905 (Jun 7, 2014)

SolitaryNight said:


> Hello,
> I've going to sign up for uni, hopefully this month but I'm having difficulty choosing a subject.
> I' m choosing a part time course so the options are limited...( Not to mention some are blocked out either because of my subject choices or because of my sheer unwillingness to do the subject (eg. Accounts...)
> Economics
> ...


If you look at current trends, aging baby boomer populations and health care are two you can reliably assume will continue to be important in the years and _decades _ahead. So nutrition and diet is one area in your list that aligns with these trends. It also fits in with the food and environmental movements, the ideas of sustainable food production and natural foods. So it has wide application beyond the older segment of the population.

I see the good doctor above says a relative couldn't make nutrition and diet pay, but maybe there were some other complicating factors at work? I'd talk to her to find out and research the field to see what kinds of work and incomes are available.

But from the pov of future-proofing your career choice, you could do much worse than this area. And it's the kind of work where you will have some degree of autonomy but still work closely and in a personal way with individuals and small groups of people. The nature of the work is also collaborative which will suit your e9 need for harmony.

But I don't work in this field and know no-one who does, so do your own due diligence.

Finally, I also agree with another poster that you can afford to explore your options at this stage and even make some mistakes, so you don't need to make a choice right off the bat. 

Good luck!


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## ae1905 (Jun 7, 2014)

There are two other trends you should be mindful of. The first is automation. Look around in any field you research and determine to what extent machines and computers are already replacing people, and will continue doing so. Talk to people in the field to get their opinions. Research the industry journals and the companies designing and building the robots.

The second is globalization. Don't choose a field where your job or your work can be sent overseas to countries where people with your skills can do your job but for much less pay. Like automation, you have to be forward looking and imagine what can happen.


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## nO_d3N1AL (Apr 25, 2014)

Based on your type and your goals, I would definitely not recommend Economics (I'm graduating in 2 days xD). I would say it's difficult to choose between Business Management, Psychology and Sociology. However, given that you're on this site and also because it's broadly applicable and will undoubtedly be interesting and useful, I'd say go for Psychology


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## joshman108 (Apr 14, 2014)

Doktorin Zylinder said:


> Psychology and sociology are dead ends in most cases.



Am sociologist: can confirm.

You can get research jobs... not sure the success rate though.


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