With graduation arriving this semester, many Sinclair students are taking their majors into consideration while preparing to enter the workforce. Some students consider whether their degree in their current major will land them a position in the work force. Other students consider whether their degree will fulfill the requirements to begin their dream career.
Today, there are increased opportunities for employment. At this time last year, three million job positions in the United States remained vacant. Fortune, a part of TIME, published information regarding the top hiring career fields of 2015.
Marketing managers came in first place with net job openings of 22,996. Following closely behind were software and applications developers, needing over 21,000 positions filled.
Eric Mayrer, Business Administration major at Sinclair, is confident that he could secure such a job position. He intends to work in Asset Management in the banking industry.
“I also have chosen this path because I wanted a career that was both dynamic and challenging,” said Mayrer. “I get bored doing the same thing every day. In finance, each day is different because the market is constantly changing and you have to constantly be changing right alongside it in order to stay ahead.”
Registered nurses came in third place, needing over 19,000 positions filled. Industrial engineers, network and computer system administrators, web developers, medical and health services managers, physical therapists, speech pathologists and sales managers ranked in the top ten.
Angelia Jackson, Business Entrepreneurship major at Sinclair, owns her own business, Right Touch Cleaning Services, and intends to branch out. Jackson chose to not transfer to a university.
“I’m already satisfied with what I have, I’m not trying to impress anybody else or go after anything, I’m just trying to please myself,” said Jackson. “My dream is just to be comfortable in what I’m doing and like what I’m doing.”
Brenda Bowles, student at Sinclair, is double-majoring in Biology and Psychology. She has no qualms about finding and keeping employment. She calls herself a “planner.”
“Anything that doesn’t happen, I have a backup for it,” Bowles said. She explained that she is also building a background in American Sign Language to have a safety net as an interpreter.
“I was always raised to do what you love because you don’t want to be stuck in a job that you hate going to every day. What I would love more than anything is to work with animals and make the world a better place for my children,” said Bowles.
According to the Pew Research Center, the unemployment rate for adults ages 18 to 34 decreased by 4.7 percent from 2010 to 2015.
Josh Smith, Biology major at Sinclair, is not worried about job security for himself. He intends to find a career in the field of Ecology. He explained that he could secure a research position in an academic setting, with a private company, or with a grant for independent research.
Smith feels he could keep a career position in research due to its changing nature. “The only reason why people lose their job security is because what they learned has become outdated—but if the job is a research job, then your job is to incorporate that into the new experiments,” he said.
Smith’s dream career is to conduct research on his own farm. “The farm isn’t to have a place to research, and the research isn’t so I can have a farm. They’re just two coexisting dreams,” Smith said.
Regardless of how Sinclair students choose their major and plan for their career fields, we can all be certain that opportunity does exist. However, Bowles believes the college experience requires some soul-searching.
“I do recommend college for everybody. For me, college has been something to explore who I am, and I feel like that experience should be given to everybody, no matter what you do in life,” said Bowles.