Published: Mar 24, 2017 8:06 a.m. ET
You might love watching reruns of Law & Order, but just because you get a kick out of watching people duke it out in a courtroom on TV doesn’t mean you should go to law school. Yet 25% of high-school students choose their future career based on something they saw on TV or in a movie, according to research from CareerBuilder.
Choosing a college major or career because it seems cool can backfire. A third of full-time workers come to regret their college major, CareerBuilder found. But by the time they realize they’ve made a mistake, doing a career reset is costly and complicated. Better to pick right the first time than have to start all over again in your 20s or 30s once you realize you’re not really cut out to be (or can’t make it as) a software engineer, salesperson, or screenwriter. But how to choose?
“There is a world of opportunity open to younger workers in business, technical and creative fields,” Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, said in a statement. To narrow down the choices, you need to consider both your own passions and the potential salary and available job opportunities, Haefner added. “The more informed you are about your options and what it takes to get to where you want to be, the better the outcome,” she said.