Managing income risk is something that has been a priority of mine since the start of high school. I began trying to figure out what markets had more demand for employment and based classes I took off that. Though I used to want to do Engineering and didn't give that up until Freshman year of college, I believe I have still been able to manage my income risk pretty well even with the change of plans. I wish I could have managed to get a double major, but things did not work out for me in that respect.
I chose to major in Economic because there is always a use for an economist. It is also a very flexible degree that can be applied in many different business related fields. I plan on exploring the job market quite a bit when I graduate. I am very interested in working in a major city outside of the Midwest. I also would like to have a job in business but outside of economics, but I realize that I will need to prove that I can be useful in other fields through internships or taking sufficient classes on the same topic. In order to manage income risk in that perspective, I am taking classes in other fields to figure out what I want to do beyond economics. I am also studying abroad in Belgium next semester and taking classes in economics, which I believe will be incredibly helpful in my job search. Having knowledge of different systems of economics could make me a much more intriguing candidate for positions.
The job market is and will always be incredibly competitive, which is a very good thing in my opinion because people will always be working their hardest to get or keep a job. One thing I do is take classes that I believe will not only work towards credits for graduation, but will also teach me a lot and show employers that I am diversified in my education. That is one of the main reasons I took this class. I am going to work for an organization in the future, so having knowledge about how things work from the outside could prove to be very interesting when I am inside of one.
I have two older brothers who both majored in engineering fields here at the University of Illinois. They both managed income risk extremely well by getting involved in the campus community, working internships that have good reputations, and studying abroad. They are both working very steady jobs and have already began working their way up the ranks of big name engineering firms. Neither of them has encountered any big surprises, which I believe is because they managed income risk perfectly. They both had many job offers right out of college and had their choice of employment. My big take away from their experience is that college is the critical time in your life to build your resume and that your first job could be crucial to how your entire career plays out.
Speaking to what you said in the last paragraph, the first job does matter, but it need not be decisive. Students who had the misfortune of graduating in 2008 and 2009, when the economy really was in the doldrums, may not have had good opportunities right out of college. But if they are talented and well trained, the market should still want them when demand picks up.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, some of these things are matters of fit and it is a two-way match, like in the intern matching we did earlier this semester. Sometimes it turns out not to be a good fit, but a different match works quite well for you. Staying in a bad match tool long is not a great solution, unless there is no other match available.
On whether the Economics major (you left out the s in Economics) is a steady producer of good jobs - these things change over time and adjust to supply and demand, just as you have been trying to do. If being a History major is no longer good preparation for a job, would be History majors will instead do Economics.
I want to note that there is more to income risk management than choice of major and the particular elective courses you take. Even in that limited area, depth of understanding probably matters more than scope, especially if you can convey that to the potential employer. There is a lot of buzz these days about employees showing both creativity and the ability to collaborate. Depth of knowledge might speak to the former, while a successful project you could showcase might speak to the latter.
But getting the first job is just a beginning and there is income risk to manage beyond that. What ways might you do that? I wish you had spent some time considering this question.