College students should base their choice of a field of study on the availability of jobs in that field.

The speaker asserts that college students should base their choice of a major on the availability of jobs in that field, which I partly agree with. And I insist that job is last consideration to take into account when choosing a major, over which talent and interest precede, as discussed below.

Undeniably, talent is prior to any other considerations, as the premise for success. In the increasingly complex job market with more and more graduated students flood into the society, the contemporary generation is facing with much fiercer competition than ever before. Unemployment rate is at all-time high in powerful nations such as China and America, under this circumstance, what the society mostly need is talent. Whatever a profession is, as long as somebody has more talent in it than others, he or she would have opportunities to succeed, even if lagging behind others at the start line. Somebody may contend me with the opt-cited saying that “Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration” which we are taught during our teens. However, what the society lack least is talent as well. And admittedly, people nowadays work more diligently than ever before, which could be demonstrated by the workers’ long overtime and high frequency of part-time job. Everybody exert his or her own 99 percent perspiration at every opportunity, therefore the pivotal element for success was drew back to the 1 percent inspiration. Choosing a profession where your talent lies would serve you to climb to the top of the career mountain.

As to the interest, it is another critical factor that influences our study, and finally impacts our career. Just like another oft-used saying says “Interest is the best teacher”, interest arouses passion; passion arouses more preoccupation; and preoccupation arouses finally more response. It is interest that guide us to our long-term goal of life, while the benefits it bring to in the short-term is not much—interest may not contribute one iota to our grade average or help us survive the current academic term. However, comparing to those pragmatic students who would cut whatever corner are needed to optimize their scores, students who earnestly pursue intellectual paths that truly interest them are the ones that come away with a lasting and meaningful education—a deep understanding of knowledge and a sense of mission about the area of fascination—which lay a solid foundation for the later career to be more competitive. Actually, interest and talent mentioned above are related to each other. Talent enables outstanding, and in turn, outstanding makes more confidence and interest. The process seems to follow a kind of compound interest law, which greatly enhances the competitiveness in one’s career. Notwithstanding the low availability of job in typical careers, a talent plus interest would still overcome all the obstacles on the way.

However, it is still reasonable to take the availability of job as one consideration under the circumstance that one have neither discovered his own talent nor found his own interest. It would be better off for them to choose a field where many job positions are available to make sure the security of steady income after graduation instead of continual concerns about where the next payback would come from. I wager that everybody must have gone or will go through such a period of losing direction. However in my experience this sense would be ephemeral, invariably giving way to the disillusion someday. Then it is still not late to change our track of life in that every episode on the way is valuable to memorize and learn from. Just consider myself as an apt illustration. When I entered university, I chose Process Equipment & Control Engineering as my major simply for its high employment rate after graduation, nevertheless I find myself not good at chemical apparatus and equipment processing. It is in my sophomore year that I began to minor finance by chance that I found that finance is my true love and want to dedicate myself into it after graduation.

All above, job is only one aspect when choosing a major. The most important is to find what really fascinate us and deserve us to struggle for it at any cost willingly and happily.