A Major Decision: 3 Questions to Ask Before You Choose Courses for a Public Interest Career

by Ellen Reeves

category: Career Paths

Published May 21, 2009 @ 08:34AM PT

I've been seeing a lot of questions about  what courses or major someone should choose for a non-profit or public sector career, so I wanted to ask YOU some questions.

1. What area of the non-profit or public sector or government are you most interested in?

If you have a specific area of interest, then it's easy to tailor your course load and major. If you're interested in immigration or refugee issues, then take every course you can get your hands on about this topic, likely located in history or sociology or government or political science departments. If you're interested in  a particular country or population from that country, let that be your guide. If you can identify a particular agency you're interested in, find someone to speak with there and get a sense of what kinds of educational backgrounds and degrees employees have. Ask your college career service and alumni association to help. Ask your professors for their opinion on this subject. They're in the field and they are or know practitioners!

2. Do you want to work in another country or with a non-English speaking population?

If so, you need to study another language. But study isn't enough. You should try to live and work in the country or language you're interested in. Get an internship at an agency serving Spanish-speaking families if you're learning Spanish; see what travel grants may be available for studying Chinese in China if that's the population you're interested in.  You don't necessarily need to major in the language and culture but coursework will help. There are many programs which will take you to another country  to do community service and other volunteer projects.

3. Have you had any hands-on experience in your intended area of interest?

Taking courses is nice--and you will gain a lot of content knowledge as well as reading, writing, research, analysis, and presentation skills (I hope)-- but there's no substitute for getting a summer job, part-time term time job or internship. Get your feet wet and your hands dirty, to mix a few metaphors. You'll find out soon enough what floats your boat and what doesn't.

A final note: if you're thinking, "but I have no clue what I want to do" then reverse the process.  Which courses do you enjoy most? What content or skills you're learning are most interesting to you? When you read a newspaper or magazine, what do you gravitate towards first? These may all offer clues for the clueless. Good luck!