Career exploration is often encouraged throughout our sophomore and junior year when we are further into our major. Although internships are a great opportunity to grow and expand our experiences, they can be difficult to find and manage with the rest of our studies. They are also mostly unpaid and therefore limit your time to work. To fix this problem, our college curriculum needs change.

During our freshman year, it should be mandatory to take a course that solely focuses on job shadowing and career development. Within this course, each student should shadow a minimum of five jobs throughout the semester to gain a better understanding of the future they hope to have. This knowledge would help guide their choice of major and would boost their confidence in what they are studying.

This course would help change the mindset that many college students have. Some of us are concerned about our major’s job prospects or have absolutely no idea what we want to do with the skills we obtain over the course of our four year degree. It could be reassuring for students to experience the job they hope to have once they graduate.

If you are exposed to a career or job that interests you, then you could create a plan to reach this goal. This would allow students to focus on their studying and worry less about the future. This would also decrease the number of individuals who change their majors during the last two years of college. Additionally, most, if not all, of their classes would be applied to their major requirements. With this positive mindset, college students would gain confidence and have a goal they can look forward to.

This year, I changed my major from elementary education to English. For most of my life I was convinced I would be an elementary school teacher. I took many education classes and still thought that this was the perfect career for me. I was assured by my choice and eager to start my life as a teacher. When COVID-19 hit and schools made the switch to remote learning, I chose to take the year off and volunteer at my local elementary school. After researching their website, I found several positions they needed to fill for the entire school year. I was hired as a substitute teacher for kindergarten through fifth grade. My role as a substitute teacher allowed me to gain hands-on experience in the field of education. I had the opportunity to teach several different grades and was exposed to a variety of different teaching styles. Each day I learned more about the occupation and created connections that I continue to carry into each job I pursue.

During this period of time, I learned that teaching elementary school was not the right fit for me. I wish I had found this out earlier in my studies. I wasted a great deal of time on courses that would not apply to any other major besides elementary education. Although this was discouraging, I was very thankful that I realized this before graduation. I cannot imagine how stressful it would have been to graduate with a degree that I would not want to use after a year of teaching.

I am sharing my story with you because I wish I would have been exposed to job exploration during my freshman year. This would have given me the chance to observe teaching positions and other jobs that may have interested me. If I had taken a course that promoted job shadowing, I would be more secure in my career path. I often feel like I am playing catch up because I devoted two of my four years to a career I no longer want to pursue. I know that many other students face this same frustration.

I hope that this article will help colleges, especially the University of Massachusetts, to rethink the importance of career exploration during one’s first year.

Julie Harrison can be reached at [email protected].