By Linda Nguyen, PhD MBA
Some young fellows at work recently reached out to me to ask about how I got started in my career and it got me thinking about my beginnings. While everyone’s path is not the same, here’s how I chose my major. I hope my experience will help you in deciding yours.
Choosing a major
Choosing a major is a daunting task whether you’re in high school or university because the major you choose has implications down the road. It determines which classes you’ll be required to take, which students and professors you’ll be learning from and getting to know, and can set you up for future opportunities. Luckily, the choice of major you make is not set in stone and you can change it as you get to know yourself, your passions, your likes and dislikes better as time allows. However, note that the longer it takes you to decide on a major the more it might cost you in time and money if you have so many credits and years left to finish a major degree. After you receive your bachelor’s, you can pursue positions that capitalize on the experience you gained with your degree or go an entirely different route.
Consider these questions as you think about which route you’d like to take.
What is important to you?
My mom is a dentist and being raised in an immigrant Asian household, one of the lessons embedded in me while growing up was that degrees cannot be taken away from you. My parents were on welfare when they first came to America, but they worked multiple jobs to get us out of poverty. My mom tested into foreign dental training to do an accelerated two years of dental school in America (she was a dentist in Asia before coming to the US), pass the boards exams, and eventually open her own practice. As her success grew, she would travel to volunteer with Operation Smile to provide dental care to those in need, often times taking me with her to assist.
If you had knowledge, you had the ability to provide for yourself, your family and give back to the community. My American dream became to obtain a terminal degree, the prestige that came along with it and the opportunity to give back to society using my knowledge and skills, just as my mom had done to provide for the family on her own. What was most important to me when I was younger was to be have financial independence through my profession, whatever it may be.
What makes you stand out?
Being raised in an immigrant family and having practiced Tae Kwon Do for most of my life, I had a lot of determination and discipline. I knew that to be a star, I’d have to work hard to persevere. I worked hard to do well in all of my classes and extracurricular activities. My memory was fortunately excellent, helping me to remember a lot of facts to gain foundations of knowledge quickly, and I was eager to learn and apply what I learned. I was good at learning and enjoyed it, whether it was a school subject or a move in Tae Kwon Do.
What excites you?
What I did notice was that biology came easier to me than the other school subjects, in part because so much of it interested me, from learning about how DNA replicated to genetics to how molecular pathways would work in the cell. My natural interest in this field of science fed my curiosity and lust for life.
What opportunities do you want to pursue in the future?
Since I knew I wanted a terminal degree be it and MD, DMD or PhD, it made sense to complete a major that would fulfill a lot of the pre-medical requirements at the same time. Thus, I landed on biology for my major.
Accidental Discovery of Ikigai
Without knowing it at the time, the factors I used to determine my major are much like questions one might ask oneself for finding their ikigai, or sense of purpose in life. When I would find myself spending hours in lab on nights, weekends and holidays or struggling with quantitative and analytical chemistry or organic chemistry, I reminded myself that I was doing this for my love of science and to be able to give back one day. My ikigai, my north star, these romantic notions of having a career in science and giving back to science helped me continue forward when times got hard and in the end, I obtained three degrees in biology; one biology degree in undergrad and two diving deeper in graduate school into cellular and molecular biology. My studies served as stepping stones to the career I have today.
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