Sophomore Ryan Kielczewski has already crossed off the first big item from any college student's to-do list: choosing a major.
It took some doing, too — deciding to scrap veterinary medicine (he realized he didn't love biological science), contemplating business school (he started taking the pre-requisites) and settling on economics (Econ 101 grabbed his attention and the broad applications of the discipline hooked him).
"Economics is so involved in every decision," he says during a break from a full day of classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There's opportunity-cost every day in every single thing you do."
But nailing down a career plan? That might be an even trickier challenge.
"Some people do already have it planned out, but, to be honest, I really don't," says Kielczewski.
And that uncertainty is part of the reason Kielczewski enrolled in the College of Letters & Science's new academic- and career-planning course this semester.
L&S created Inter-L&S 210 Taking Initiative to help second-year students from across the college's disciplines sift through the wide array of options in front of them — from classes to majors to careers.
As UW-Madison's largest school, L&S offers 65 undergraduate majors and 39 certificates, which affords students plenty of possibilities. Choosing the best fit, though — and tying it to a future career — can be challenging, even for the most driven students.
And, as Professor Greg Downey noted at a recent lecture, the most popular majors in L&S (and on campus as a whole) — biology, economics, political science, psychology and history topped the most recent list — don't necessarily lend themselves to obvious, ready-made career paths.
Greg Downey, the Evjue-Bascom Professor in the School of Journalism and the School of Library and Information Studies, previously created an internship course for students across the College of Letters & Science.
Downey's course asks students to assess and reflect on their strengths, and then connect them to classes and majors that will lead to careers that draw on and enhance those strengths. On a recent afternoon, nine students in one of the course's discussion sections split into small groups to share "Challenge-Action-Result" statements — examples of specific challenges they've faced, actions they took and the results. They're textbook selling points to use in a job interview to showcase applicable experiences and skills.
Throughout the semester, the students will conduct informational interviews with professionals, create LinkedIn profiles, and write resumes and cover letters targeted to a specific opportunity. Students also have access to alumni mentors who Skype in from across the country to provide insights from their own career journeys.
Tony Carroll (M.A.'80, Public Policy and Administration), a corporate lawyer and business advisor based in the Washington, D.C., area, recently told one class to make connections and build personal networks through service opportunities and community work.
"Do something that shows you can lead," he advised, after answering questions from the students about interview strategies and the importance of internships compared to part-time jobs.
But the idea isn't to simply replicate a job seekers workshop. Downey wants students to find connections between classes and better understand how to draw both abstract, conceptual knowledge and concrete, pragmatic skills out of their liberal arts educations, regardless of their majors.
— Professor Greg Downey
Each assignment, reading and lecture ties into the course's core themes of critical reflection and narration, which guide the students as they shape their personal brands. By the end of the semester, they'll develop 2-minute elevator speeches that articulate those brands.
"One thing we're trying to do is give students a scheme, a language and a set of tools for talking about what they've done in the past, what they want to do in the future, what they think they can bring to an organization, and to be able to really communicate that," Downey says. "They're going to have to tell and constantly re-tell this story about themselves, to themselves throughout their careers."
Kielczewski is still in the early stages of writing his story. His academic interests aren't limited to his soon-to-be-officially-declared economics major — he's enjoyed sampling classes from across L&S (a music course on symphony orchestra was one of his favorites) and he's become more interested in the political scene since arriving in Madison from his lifelong home of Ann Arbor, Mich. He wonders if he might use his economics training in a political setting.
"I'm kind of trying to figure it out right now," he says.
He's enrolled in the right course for that sort of exploratory thinking.
"Everything's so job-related these days. Everything's just leading up to the job and how to get one, and it's so hard," he says. "So why not take a class like that?"