Saddleback College hosts a weekly ‘Choosing Your Major’ online workshop

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Saddleback offers virtual online workshops every Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. to encourage students to access career planning resources. 

Career guidance specialist, Donald Mineo, hosts a virtual workshop every Thursday to display the resources Saddleback has to offer students when exploring their major options. The workshop gives details on how students can use these tools to research the majors, jobs and schools that accommodate their academic goals. 

Students can access these resources through the Career and Re-Entry tab under Student Success on the homepage of the Saddleback website. Once this is accessed, students can view many different options on navigating their career and academic goals, from self-assessment tests to help decide strengths to indexes of colleges that fit different majors. 

During the workshop, students can ask Mineo questions regarding their current major. If they are undecided, they may also receive help choosing a major. Students can also use the chatbox to voice questions and work together if certain information was missed. 

The workshop revealed that almost 60 percent of students currently attending Saddleback are undecided. These majors must eventually choose a pathway before receiving a bachelor’s degree at a four-year university. 

This workshop gives students the tools to help decide which major they would like to pursue. Amanda Fuller, a workshop attendee, gave some insight into the benefits of the workshop. 

“I think this workshop has helped me navigate how to use the Saddleback website to its full advantage,” she said. “The workshop has given me insight into my career goals and options for navigating what is available for my major. Also, what I would need for a certain job choice.”

Donald Mineo also gave some advice on how undecided students may tackle some of the problems when choosing a major. 

“In order to transfer within four years, usually it’s important that you stick to one major,” Mineo said. But in reality, people, on average, change their majors at least 5-6 times before their junior year of college. Often, this is why a 4-year degree can take up to five or six years to complete, especially high unit majors.”

Later in the interview, Mineo gave suggestions on how students can figure out what major they should pursue. Students have had trouble deciding their major, Mineo gave suggestions on how students can fix this problem. 

“There are many activities anyone can do during their lifetime, to decide on a college major;” he said. “Take assessments in your skills, interests, abilities, values and personality and learn what types of career titles are out there in the world of work. Additionally, reviewing college courses with our counselors and making a plan or opening MySite and making a transfer plan in the My Academic Plan or MAP.”

Additionally, Mineo discussed how important researching possible outcomes for different majors could be for students. Without proper research, students may face difficulties completing their degrees and finding jobs that suit them. 

“It’s very important to research your own career or pathway,” he said. “Sadly, I joke that people put more time and energy into researching their next iPhone or new car than they do their own career.  Everyone may think or even worry about their career, but without doing actual research, those ideas or worries do not get solved. Learning about different industries or career pathways, you will know who are the major players in that field.”

Saddleback College offers more weekly workshops, and students can find various topics hosted by people in the career advancement profession. After signing up for the meeting, students are guaranteed a spot in the following virtual workshop. Every class covers the same material and almost always has other students there with questions. 

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