How an Internship Caused Me to Change my Major

It was the winter of 2018.

I had just finished up a tough semester consisting of Computer Science, Calculus, and Physics classes.

I didn’t think hard when choosing Computer Science as my major. It’s just what everyone around me was doing.

Well, that or Pre-med. And I wasn’t doing that.

I applied for an internship at Experian, the credit reporting company. I received an invitation for a phone interview. On a rainy day outside the student union building, I took the call.

“You mentioned testing in your resume. What experience do you have related to this?”

“Umm…I uhh…” I mumbled a moderately cohesive answer.

After the call, I knew I blew it.

However, in a pleasant and shocking surprise, I got the offer.

I stumbled my way through the front door on my first day in a brand new dress shirt. Security guard at the front door. My own cubicle with 2 monitors. Everyone at least double my age. It was a lot to take in.

I worked there for a full year as a software engineering intern.

To keep a long story short, I realized that being a programmer wasn’t what I wanted to do.

It’s not that I didn’t like the company culture, my co-workers, or my wages.

I just couldn’t see myself in the chairs of my coworkers, years down the road.

That semester, I changed my major to Marketing.

People think it’s because I had started a clothing brand and I was particularly interested in Marketing.

The truth is, I wanted to be in the business school and Marketing fit best into my course requirements for graduation.

However, I have started to realize that I do like Marketing.

Marketing is all about helping people find value in the product or service that you are providing. Once they understand the value that it adds to their business or life, they will make the decision to become a customer.

As I near graduation in this upcoming spring, I’ve also realized that I am more of a creative oriented person. I like to write, help people, ask questions, and solve problems.

It’s been a long journey finding myself since I was a freshman majoring in Computer Science.

However, I’m so grateful for all the experiences I’ve had that have led me to where I am today.

Each struggle re-orients me onto my predetermined path. All I have to do is pay attention to what lesson I am to learn.