Too many college students don’t know what they want to do for a living yet feel enormous pressure to decide quickly.

Choosing a major is simply too important of a decision to be done hastily or under duress.

Of all the students who come through my office door, this is the conversation that we have most often:

“What do you want to do in the short-term after you graduate,” I ask.

“I’m not sure,” he or she replies.

“That’s OK,” I say.

The student stares at me with surprise.

Finding an intellectual home

I study human memory, so I find my own to be particularly interesting. For reasons that escape me, I have an especially strong geospatial memory. That is, I am particularly adept at remembering where things happen.

Almost everything else, however, I forget.

Accordingly, I remember the exact spot where I decided to return to college (for what led up to that moment, you can read here).

It was spring 1991, and I was driving my ‘91 Jeep Wrangler Renegade south on Missouri highway 45 near Beverly. My then girlfriend (now wife) was riding with me, and I told her that I wanted to go back to school to become a psychiatrist. In what turned out to be an incredible stroke of luck, she was extremely supportive.

So began my desire to continue my education.

My years as a pre-med student

I was soon enrolled in Johnson County Community College and had learned much from the pre-medical advisor. I’m obsessive like that, and I quickly memorized all the things that one must do in order to garner admission to medical school. I sought out friends with medical school ambitions, enrolled in science courses, and anticipated a bright future.

Navigating some changes in fate, a year later I lived in north Scottsdale, Arizona, and continued my pre-med courses at Paradise Valley Community College.

Although my mind excels at places, I cannot recall exactly pushed me toward the brain. As a high-maintenance teen, I had some run-ins with psychiatrists, so perhaps I merely wanted to do it better. But this focus waned rather soon, especially as all the advice suggested that medical school applicants faced a tougher battle if they declared a specialty during the application process. So I began to explore all possibilities.

Interestingly I made it that far despite the fact that I really don’t like being around sick people. Even then I found it incomprehensible that some M.D.s specialized in infectious diseases, and this was still the era where there was great fear of health professionals contracting HIV from patients.

The road not taken

One day in the library, I was pursuing either the New England Journal of Medicine or the Journal of the American Medical Association, and I ran across an image titled something like “images in clinical medicine.”

It was an extreme close-up, and I couldn’t tell what it was. So I read the caption. This photo involved parasites and a body part that I’d rather not explore on anyone.

That gave me pause.

In very close temporal proximity, my still girlfriend (now wife) had the cold or flu, and we headed to the physician in search of a remedy.

Lots of people must have been sick, as the waiting room was packed with illness. After some wait, Em went back to see the practitioner, and I sat there alone.

And then it dawned upon me: some poor physician was going to have to see almost every one of these not-so-beautiful people in some state of undress.

In an instant, I was out. I admire health care workers, but I was not destined to be one. I love everything about the theory of medicine, but the practice is not for me.

Career exploration

When you have things figured out — and then you don’t — it can cause a crisis. This did, and I enrolled in a career exploration course at PVCC. It was a great experience, and tests such as the Strong Interest Inventory were quite helpful.

This is the time I began asking all of my professors about their Ph.D. experiences, and I was lucky to have community college professors with doctorates from research universities.

Heavily political at that point in my life, I settled upon political science, and I took several classes that I quite enjoyed.

Law school seemed like the logical option, and I largely stayed on course, transferring to New Mexico State when Em and I had amassed two years of credits.

I change my mind a lot

For some reason, I didn’t really feel the love for law school, and I wasn’t sure what I’d do with a degree in political science. I was overly practical in those days.

Arriving in Las Cruces, N.M., in May 1994, I enrolled in two Summer II classes: Judicial Process and American Military History. Both classes were fun, but I still felt adrift.

As I’ve written before, I poured over and over the course catalog looking for a “better” major.

My parents ran a radio station before I was born, and they have waxed poetic about it my entire life. I grew up in their subsequent advertising agency, and we spent many evenings and weekends in a production booth. I made newspapers as a child, and so it’s quite fitting that I ended up a journalism major. Media are in my blood, so to speak.

In the end, I graduated with almost 40 more credit hours than necessary. But here’s the point: I never regretted a single class (well maybe the poetry one). I learned so much about the world and about myself, and I’m glad that there was no ridiculous pressure on me. If I had hurried to graduate, Id be doing something today, but it wouldn’t be what I do now, and I love my job.

Fourth Estate

Although I loved my work at the student newspaper and the courses, I wasn’t enchanted with the actual life in industry. I tried so hard to embody my believe that “money follows love, not the other way around,” but I failed.

Low pay and terrible hours clouded my passion for journalism.

I lasted two years.

Grad school seemed like the best option, and off I headed for the A.Q. Miller School at Kansas State.

And there I met my future mentor (and department chair here for the next 45 days), Bob Meeds. That meeting might never have happened, but it did, and the story turns out well.

There were other fluky twists and turns, and I changed my mind several times, but I was allowed to explore my interests.

Take life where it goes

The point is that my education really was about the journey and not the destination. I followed my intellectual curiosity where it went. I made bad guesses and got to correct them.

If I’ve learned anything during my many missteps, it’s this: You’re not who you’re going to be when you’re 18.

For one thing, your brain’s frontal lobes are strongly involved in social judgment. They’re not fully developed, on average, until about age 25.

Thus, it’s not an adage. You really aren’t who you’re going to be when you’re 18.

And this is my problem with tuition increases and graduate quickly incentives. College cannot be about a factory. Taking 18 hours a semester to graduate faster is a disservice. Packing in summer classes and eschewing an internship or study abroad also is a disservice.

Within my own department, we have made systemic changes that have the side effect of making it easier to become an advertising major if you decide that along the way. Although that was not the intent of our changes, it is a happy side effect.

Data show that most people change careers in their adult lives, and the rapid pace of technological change seems to exacerbate that rather than diminish it.

It’s a shame, to me, that we seem so destined to truncate what should be the best intellectual journey of most people’s lives.

Reach out

But for the reader who comes across this feeling lost about not being able to find a major, let me say this:

Relax. Your answer is out there. If you’re at a two-year school, you likely have a course on career exploration. If you’re at a four-year school, you likely have a career center. Ask to take the Strong Interest Inventory by name. It will show how you compare with people who are really happy in their jobs for a host of occupations. If you’re still in high school, talk to everyone.

Mostly, talk to your professors. Not one, but five, or ten. Ask about their choices. Cumulate their advice. Look for overlaps. Look for your truth. Find your passion.

And if all that fails, send me an e-mail. There’s lots of links on the right to help you find me.

Really good people gave selflessly of their time along the way. I always try to pay that forward.

But if you force yourself into a box that feels uncomfortable at 20, it’s going to be miserable at 40.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of advertising lately. It started with Jason Falls wondering “Is the future of advertising public relations?”

Falls was kind enough to incorporate my response into a guest post on Social Media Explorer.

This inquisition into the future of advertising continued with my interview with Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts.

Always the optimist, Roberts says advertising is the most fun it has even been.

Never one to forget a topic quickly, I’m launching a semi-regular series on the future of advertising. I’ll attempt to have a new post here each Tuesday.

Special thanks to the first interviewee, University of Oregon Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising, Deborah Morrison, Ph.D.

Morrison is a distinguished educator and researcher, and you can find her former students working in the top advertising agencies in the world.

Dr. Morrison’s research encompasses creativity and social responsibility, an often overlooked aspect of paid persuasion.

If you’re looking for a career in advertising, Morrison can help. She is the co-author of Idea Industry: How to Crack the Advertising Career Code, which is available at online booksellers, including Amazon.com.

1) How optimistic are you about the future of paid advertising?

Morrison: Optimistic, yes. But fully aware that we’re in a shift right now. Reinvention of business models and new creative approaches are part of the quest for solutions. We’re already finding new ways to communicate brand messages + conversations … this will increase. Paid will still happen but we’ll see innovation.

2) What is the most interesting trend you see in digital media?

Morrison: Though so much is happening, I see a real value and investment in the ability to produce and disseminate quickly. That we are all content producers and carve out a name with our work on so constant a basis is pretty amazing. Anything is possible. It also says that the bar for paid content is higher.

3) What lessons from advertising past can we apply to the future?

Morrison: It all tracks back to compelling stories that offer authenticity and meaning to our lives. The best stuff, the most resilient and memorable all had heart — humor, insight on the human condition, wisdom, honesty — and that should still be the flag that good work carries.

4) How do you see advertising education changing?

Morrison: Slowly. Ad education — most of academe for that matter — isn’t good at being visionary. We’re slow to react, and often faculty are slow to learn. When it does happen in the right way, we’ll see creativity and strategy working together in smart alignment. It won’t be about “click here” classes, it will be the wise confluence of using the interesting skills students come in with, adding a strong dose of critical thinking and creativity, and then training faculty to be proactive about what the profession needs. I hope we can do it.

5) What advice do you have for students graduating in a recession?

Morrison: The advice that a great creative director — Joyce Thomas of McCann — told me when I asked the same question: be indispensable. If you’re a writer or art director, be creative and strategic and ready to produce work of meaning that solves business problems. If you’re a media planner or account planner, be creative and ready to invent. If you’re an account person, be a specialist in collaboration and getting great work produced. The “yes we can” attitude isn’t just a campaign slogan, it’s a way of life. It comes down to operating beyond obligation.

You can follow Deb Morrison on Twitter!

The media landscape will likely change more in the four years that current students are in college than ever before. They need help to be ready. It’s like stepping on the fast-moving sidewalk at the airport when you’re first learning to walk.

We’re working in the classroom to have them ready, but we need the complement of your real-world skills.

If you reach out, you will pay it forward. But there’s also payback because you’re going to be working with these young people. You’ll be training them … or training their replacements if they don’t work out. It’s in both of your interests for you to give back.

Reconnect with Your Alma Mater

Some of you will look back on college as the best time in your life, and some of you will be less nostalgic. No matter which, the place that trained you now trains the next generation.

Just letting the department know what you’re doing will be helpful. Having your name and address means they can call when they need your expertise. They might want to feature you in the alumni magazine. At Texas Tech, our Mass Communicator is a very professional publication, and I love reading about our former students.

Guest Present in Class

The single best class that I’ve ever led featured me in the audience. Texas Tech graduate and Hollywood director, producer, and writer Andy Fickman spoke to my class in Fall 2007.

They sat captivated listening to the Texas native talking about leaving Lubbock the day after graduation to find work in Hollywood. Tech doesn’t even have a film program, and he was competing against USC and UCLA film grads.

But Fickman’s Game Plan was the No. 1 movie in the country after it opened, and he brought street credibility that professors just don’t have.

Last spring break I went back to Las Cruces to speak to one of my former professor’s classes at New Mexico State. One of the great days of my life. It was incredibly fun to stand in that same room where I had learned so much.

I’ve already hit up several of my new Twitter friends to guest speak in my class via Skype this semester, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Thank you, and please keep it up.

And let me add the caveat that this applies even if you were a philosophy major in college. Find the local university department that corresponds to you and pick up the phone.

Talk to a Student Group

Even if you’re speaking to a class, you can still reach out to a student group. Or perhaps you just cannot get away during office hours. Each academic department has a student group in my college of mass communications. I know that our Tech Advertising Federation group or chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America would love to hear from you.

And students are more likely to engage with you outside the formal classroom environment.

College surely seemed like a long time while you were in it. But when you count up the hours with a calculator, they are precious few. Most of my students will spend more clock time thinking about advertising during a single 10 week summer internship than all of their advertising classes combined. It’s just the math.

We need help preparing them for the internship and the eventual career.

They’ll look up to you, and they’ll listen to you. Usually your advice overlaps quite nicely with ours. When they hear it from a second source, they’re likely to take it seriously.

Connect through Social Media

Students already dominate Facebook. A few program already are heavily involved on Twitter, and I assure you that Texas Tech will be in 2009. Get to know them.

From the many friends I’ve met on Twitter during the past month, I will return to the classroom more energized than I’ve ever been — and I’m a high energy guy.

Students would benefit similarly from your knowledge.

Simply interact when they follow you. If you see in their bio that they’re a student, you might reach out. Some students will be intimidated to just contact a professional afraid they’ll come across as an annoyance or a pest.

Lastly (You Knew It Was Coming) Write a Check

University finances are suffering. When you or your parents (for young readers) went to college, the state legislature picked up 80% of the tab, and tuition paid about 20%. It was affordable for students.

Now the politicians pay only about 33%. That’s a lot of money to make up. Students now pay for about 33%, close to double what they used to pay. And that leaves 33% that must come from grants and private donations.

Our college has been blessed with several large donors. But even a $25 check helps fund scholarships for students. And private money can help cover bills that public funds cannot cover. I’ve been amazed by how many things have to be paid for.

You may not be able to endow an entire scholarship in your name, but every dollar helps the next generation get a better education.

That’s it. Five simple things you could do. Is there something I’ve missed? I’d love to read your comments about ways you’ve engaged with the next generation.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com

If you want a career in interactive media, you’ll have to be interactive and proactive. Daisy Whitney tells you how to build your media career by building your brand. More importantly, she shows how hard work and dedication lead to success. And for those scoring at home, Daisy is the second expert this month to advise not just meeting … but beating deadlines.

DAISY WHITNEY is a new media rock star. She’s omnipresent, and she’s everywhere with quality content. In her answers below, she credits some of her success to luck, but it’s clear that hard work, dedication, and talent led to her success. Daisy earned a degree in Art History from Brown University, making her path to new media the road less traveled.

She is the new media reporter for TVWeek and produces the New Media Minute (featured above) and an audio podcast. In addition she regularly writes for numerous other publications, including Advertising Age.

Her predictions for 2009 caught my eye, and thankfully she shared her time and advice with us:

1) One of your predictions for 2009 is an increase in mobile marketing. How do you think consumers will react to this increase? Isn’t it the one place left free of advertising clutter?

DAISY: I expect ads on mobile phones to be non-intrusive (think simple overlays on a small part of the screen) and will likely be super-targeted to you and even your location so the hope is you’d want the deals being offered!

2) You make a prediction of consumers dropping traditional cable TV and satellite services for online viewing. After the Internet killed newspapers and with the advent of satellite radio, is television simply the last old medium to die?

DAISY: I’m not convinced TV is going to die just as I’m not convinced papers are either. I think cable operators will be challenged to make their services relevant, and in time they will be forced to evolve and base their business models on being dumb pipes for broadband service. Broadband will reign supreme, and cable operators can deliver that. They will find creative ways to tier their broadband price offerings to make money in the future.

And TV won’t die! We as people love entertainment. Networks and studios are being forced to evolve and offer their programs in new ways and find new ways to make money on their shows. But we will always want content. The smart networks and studios who are nimble and fast will make it.

3) You make a prediction about Grey’s Anatomy. Hasn’t that show just about “jumped the shark”? Seriously, don’t you think that Denny needs to go away?

DAISY: I’m a Grey’s apologist, so it hasn’t jumped the shark for me! Many people think it has, but I love the show as crazy and weird as it is this season. I was loving the Denny storyline at first because I LOVE LOVE LOVE Denny, but now it’s time to do something with it. But I don’t have a problem with Ghost Love in general! I am all about the suspension of a disbelief and never have I expected a hospital drama to be realistic. Remember, this is a show where people get impaled on a regular basis and where doctors perform never been done before brain surgeries after a patient checks in that morning! So realism isn’t what Grey’s is about.

4) You seem to be a renaissance media expert. What advice do you have for college students today who want media careers?

DAISY: If you want a career in media you need a plan to become a brand. Don’t confine yourself to one medium. Develop skills for print, audio and visual. You need to be conversant in all three and you need to smartly promote and propagate your own stories across media. No one else is going to look out for you, so make yourself an indispensable industry resource.

Seek out speaking engagements, post comments on like-minded sites, get involved in social media relentlessly. Never miss a deadline, and in fact, make a commitment to file all your stories early as this will impress your bosses and enhance your job security.

5) How did your multi-platform career get started?

DAISY: Like most things in life I was in the right place at the right time. I was covering technology for TVWeek before it became sexy, back when it was racks and servers and traffic systems. That served me well when the iPod revolutionized video entertainment in 2005 with the iTunes-Disney deal. As I covered new media more I made a decision to actually use the services I wrote about and to write about the usage. Readers enjoyed those reports, knowing that I walked the walk and talked the talk. Because I was covering the transformation of entertainment, it only made sense to do the same with my own career and to also embody the changes I was writing about. I had been actively speaking at conferences for four years, so when my husband suggesting launching a video podcast in Sept. 2007, it made perfect sense.

My first few episodes were awkward, and my delivery was stiff, but I learned on the job and quickly was able to refine my on-camera skills. One thing led to another and I also actively pursued new opportunities, so now I produce on-air reports for KNTV’s “Tech Now,” host and produce the New Media Minute and host an audio podcast This Week in Media.

Links

• Learn more about Daisy on her Web site.
• Follow Daisy on Twitter.