My degree was chosen with the following reasoning: I love designing websites, I'm really interested in writing and the creative side of computers, but I want a career that is quite solid and secure.

This was around the time of the dot com crash.

I went to Uni and studied Multimedia.

I missed a lot of the design subjects due to illness and follow up appointments with the doctor, and never really felt like I knew what I was doing with the design side of thing. I did an Industry Based Learning year of full time (paid) work with the horse racing industry, working on their websites.

Since I hated it there, lots of office politics, and I was increasingly bored with the work, and I never felt competent in the areas I was interested in, and had no idea where to go to get competent, I decided to see out the degree, but not work in the field.

I think I felt so behind the 8 ball, that I'd never catch up or something.

I took 6 months off after completing my degree, then went back to do a graduate diploma in English Literature. This I loved. I still have about 2 subjects to go, which I'm doing part time.

I began looking for work in publishing, and got my current job by looking in the publishing section of the jobs websites.

My job is technically publishing, I guess, but it's more closely related to the Not-for-Profit sector. The mission statement of the company is to increase philanthropic giving in Australia.

It's exactly what I needed, and exactly what I'm interested in, and I would never have known where to begin to look to find it.

My advice, go with what you're interested in. Learn and love that, and work it to your advantage. The jobs will be much better if it's in an area that you believe in.

I went back to school at 32. After being accepted but before registration I went over the catalog until I about wore it out.

There were lots of things I found interesting and that I could have done well at. Theoretically. I was leaning towards law but only a bit more than several other possibilities.

Then one day I was shoot at some food thumbing the catalog again and came to a department that I hadn't investigated to that point.

At that instant, just seeing the title on the page and I knew, I mean really knew, that was my major. Hell, it was more than that. It was what I needed to do with my life. It felt completely right.

When I was in those classes at school everything was right with the world. I felt so at home that I never wanted to go home. It would have been OK with me to just stay there and work all day, every day. I was happy, and content.

Now, circumstances intervened and I was unable to complete that course of study. It weighs on me to this day even though I have taken it as a hobby and still hold out some fleeting hope of making money off of it one day. I do know this, if I never do but am able to do my own projects and do them well then I will be OK with that. Not thrilled, but OK.

I guess what I'm saying is don't rush your choice. Find something that really speaks to your soul, that awakens that sleeping giant within, and follow that to your last breath.

It took me a while to figure it out (hell, some would argue I still don't know what I want).

I always wanted to be a writer, since I was quite wee. I also got all interesting in the weird psychological things. (I used to read "depressing" books that were things like autobiographies from people with different mental disorders.)
I also had a passing fascination with a DNA lab we did in high school, which is how I would up doing a triple major for a while in undergrad (English/creative writing, psychology, and biology). I dropped bio after failing so hard it made a sound and wound up double majoring in the other two.

I went to the career services center when I was a senior due to the fact that my father was alllllllllllllllll over my ass because I was going to graduate with NO IDEA what I was going to do with my fancypants degree. Dude told me to go look up some jobs and see what looked interesting (note: wasn't exactly all that helpful). I did some poking around about librarianship and was all like 'oh fuck me this sounds wonderful.'

I applied to 2 schools but my undergrad grades sucked. (My class rank is 333/336. Yeah.) Got turned down at both of them. I went to Trinity on a whim (mostly because I really didn't know what I was going to do with myself since everything in my life had always been dictated by a school schedule, so I was a bit lost). They accepted me after talking to me for about 5 minutes. I went there for 1.5 years and wound up with a shiny Master's degree in administration (with a concentration in federal programs management). I really don't feel like I learned diddly there, but it was mildly entertaining to interact with all the professionals who were attending classes. I feel like I learned what works for women's casual office fashions, heh.

I rapidly applied for jobs coming towards the end of that program, realizing OH SHIT I NEED TO GET A JOB ASAP because at that point in time, I was managing an ice cream store and doing inventory at night in various places around the east coast. I applied for a shitload of gigs at a shitload of places. I got an email from the peeps at LSC and the boss there said he liked my resume and that everyone else wanted to meet me. I rolled in, took a tour of the building, chatted with everyone for about half an hour or so, and had an offer by the end of that week. And that's where I currently am, at a lovely archival library (kinda) where books go to rest for a while. I love my job. I'm also taking non-degree LibSci classes at one of the schools that denied me before and am planning on applying again for Fall 2010 admission. (Really, it'll be for 2009 but I'll be deferring for a year to go backpacking around Europe.)

So yeah, I took a while to come around. I didn't have this career in mind when I picked what I was going to study in undergrad, but I suspect it was always kinda there, hanging out in the back of my mind, it just took a weird set of circumstances before I would acknowledge it.

Goddamnit, preview is there and I should really REREAD before I hit post.

At any rate, I really realized that archives and libraries are where my black little heart is meant to be while taking this class and doing all the reading and research and while doing these weird projects at work and learning how to catalog photographs and awards and what the fuck is in this cabinet? oh shit it's microcards from the 1950s that no one has seen since the 1980s! and such. But right now my life is solid. In a few months, all the shit in the world is going to hit the fan and we'll see how everything works out after that.

From my experiences, my advice is to make getting a degree, any degree, your priority. Not having a degree is a concrete ceiling in many companies; it says so right there in their HR policies. If you are that unsure of what you want to do (nothing wrong with that), then go with something you know that you will complete.

I wandered into my career. My undergrad was in Spanish, because I loved learning languages, and I was good at it. I taught Spanish at a high school for 3 long, depressing years, and then got my butt into grad school. I basically picked something else I liked, linguistics, and proceeded to take ages to finish my master's degree, off and on. Took some time off in the middle and temped. Got placed at an agency that did public health work (reproductive health, specifically) in developing countries. Learned that I really liked public health, and reproductive health especially. Since my job was in their small library, I had a chance to really read up on the journals. When I (FINALLY) finished my MA in linguistics (whew! SO not me) I parlayed my experience into a health educator position, also doing outreach in the latino community in my area. So I went from Spanish teacher to grad student to sex educator. I love it.

I flunked out of school, which led to me to pursue a career in jobs.

I started with one strong idea of something I was interested in. As I pursued that, other, related ideas opened up, and when I was interested, I pursued them. Little by little I ended up in a really interesting career. If something interests you strongly now, just follow it. It's very hard to know what you want to be doing in 10 years, especially if that thing is something you haven't yet heard of, or in a field that doesn't yet exist.

I did all this in a different age, so forget what I did.

However, considering the current economic uncertainties, I think those who get a very strong liberal arts and sciences background will be flexible enough to adjust to the opportunities that will undoubtedly surface over the next four or five years while you're in school.

Study what you want. Excel. Don't worry about career yet; things will come into focus eventually.

Game design is one of those BiPolar careers, there are moments of bliss with moments of sheer "what the hell am I doing?"

Today I was making a map using the Unreal 3 editor, and as I was shaping a spiral staircase, I kinda felt a moment of zen.

Contrast that with my flash class, my professor continues to pile on homework, I think I'm juggling about three assignments with vague due dates. I also can't get into two highly essential but small classes, because they filled up 10 days after registration opened. I should have been faster, but damn, only 15 spots for one class that's a prerequisite for half the degree.

No, it didn't in the end. I decided that I preferred making a living wage and not working 80 hours a week. Being a blue collar grunt has it's advantages, but the chicks don't dig it as much as my previous work.

I still have no idea what I want to be but I am really good at picking up new skills and talking to people so I go with that. I studied political science, religion, and philosophy.

Oh, and computer networking.

...my advice is to make getting a degree, any degree, your priority. Not having a degree is a concrete ceiling in many companies; it says so right there in their HR policies.
Second this - as someone in their 40s without a degree, it's apparent that, if I were to seriously pursue a career, I would suffer for the lack of a degree - any degree will do, as long as you have one.

I'm currently anxiously awaiting the outcome of my application to gain a scholarship for a post-graduate qual, but got an e-mail yesterday asking me to confirm that I have no tertiary qualifications, so things don't look good for me. Again.

Unless you have your heart set on being a doctor or solicitor, get a degree in anything that interests you and that you can do well in.

I majored in American Studies, which basically meant I got to take any classes that interested me as long as they had "American" in the title. But then I sort of didn't graduate. Long story, that.

Strangely, it didn't stop me from becoming a newspaper reporter and eventually newspaper and magazine editor. (This, it seems, is easy enough to do if you take low-paying internships every summer.)

However, considering the current state of journalism, I'd steer very clear of anything that would lead you down the thrilling, wonderful, boring, disastrous path of a journalist. Unless you find someone really, really rich who can support you in the style to which you'd like to become accustomed.

(But I do think that the key to developing a career is in getting the best work experience possible while you're in school. The degree is important, yes, but the resume is what gets you hired. That or connections.)

After deciding on a school because of its strong Communications program and extracurriculars, I realized I was really interested and good at graphic design. And I also discoverd I hated Communications courses. But I got caught up in something else I was pretty good at (writing, with an English backing) for an actual degree.

In a conflux of random factors compiled over five years of strategic post-collegiate meandering, my degree probably was the tipping point to get me into a related career path (copywriter, right now).

My feeling is that no thing is ever going to get you anything but every little bit helps.

I can't speak for a specialized university system, but with a liberal arts education you pick up enough information to be competent in just about every field that interests you... The problem is that you heavily rely on connections to actually enter any of those fields for pay. That's why internships are absolutely key.

And yeah, to follow up on what brina said... Use the time you have in college to be a starving-whatever without actually having to starve. Submit work to magazines/journals/festivals, start a little business, join the amateur circuit.

I think that answers your questions with some bonus material. Good luck!

Thanks for responding, everyone! It's extremely appreciated. I'm going to focus on the type of school I want to attend more than anything, because I'm not completely decided on exactly what I want to major in.

We'll see what happens. I think sometimes I think I need to figure things out altogether—the big picture an all that—rather then work it it out as I go; not always the best idea.