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What to do if you don't know what to do
Four helpful tactics to figure out what to study at uni.
Does that make you feel a bit better?
In every Year 12 group there are a few people who can reel off their five-year plan and tell you exactly where they want to end up, resulting in you feeling pretty impressed with them and pretty down on yourself. Truth is though, only 28% of Year 12 students have a clear idea of what they want to study.
So the question on the lips of most Year 12s is 鈥渨hat should I do with my life?鈥�
Here are four tactics to help you figure out what to do if you don鈥檛 know what to do.
1. Do what the majority do: choose a course that interests you鈥� and then see where it goes.
That鈥檚 right, a whopping 40% of students just like you take a bit of a punt on something that interests them, without thinking too much about where it鈥檒l end up. Doing this, you'll likely end up somewhere cool, have a good time getting there, and learn something important about yourself along the way.
Courses with broad subject ranges and double degrees can be a good place to start if you鈥檙e taking this approach. Some of these include: degrees, degrees, general business degrees and degrees.
2. Turn to your motivators for help.
3. Look at the end game 鈥� what career do you really want?
We know, we know, you鈥檝e been asked this a million times. But there's a chance you don't even know your dream career exists!
Here鈥檚 a pretty comprehensive list of degrees on offer at UOW and their corresponding careers鈥� including where some of our grads have ended up. One writing grad is now working as a copywriter at Uber. (鈥淲hat鈥檚 a copywriter,鈥� you ask? !) A marine science grad currently works for the Australian Antarctic Division (cool!) and a law grad is creating change at the Aboriginal Legal Service Limited.
Another thing to consider are particularly with the changes COVID-19 has made to the job market. It's not all doom and gloom though, especially knowing that UOW grads experience a higher chance of securing full-time employment than the average Australian uni student, and are also some of the most employable within a global context too.
4. Do a personality test.
Something similar to this was created during World War II by a mother and daughter duo (Myers, Briggs), and has remained a popular tool among students and employers since. The idea was to help post-war women entering the industrial workforce for the first time, to find employment that suited their personality.
Once you finish the test, your results reveal potential career paths for your personality type (as well as some relationship hot tips and A-list celebs with similar traits)! Although considered pseudoscientific in some circles, it could help make things that little bit clearer.
Note: if you鈥檙e especially amazed by or critical of drawing conclusions from personality types, you might be interested in studying for .
These tactics may help you pave a path that makes sense for you right now. But it鈥檚 also important to note that nothing is ever locked in. If you change your mind later or discover a new path, it鈥檚 okay to transfer between courses. You may even be able to get credit for subjects you鈥檝e already completed and count them towards the course you transfer into.
With over 360 courses and 17 different fields of study, you鈥檙e bound to find the perfect course for you, right here at UOW.
We hope this has been helpful!