College students should base their choice of field of study on the availability of jobs

in that field.

While it is indisputable that what we choose to study in college potentially lead to

our career path in the future, the availability of jobs in that field is not the only
reason we should consider.
First of all, I agree that to major in the field which is popular in the job market can
save you the cost of finding jobs. Since high unemployment rate becomes a global
phenomenon, job market has been fiercely competitive. Many college graduates
spent years sending resumes and interviewing hundreds of time in order to get a job.
Therefore, with a specialized background that meet the corporates’ demand can
benefit a lot. However, only factor in the job availability when choosing the field of
study is hazardous. With the advent of new technology, the job market’s demand is
ever-changing. It is not guaranteed that the job popular today will still be popular
tomorrow. Some experts predicted that many once prominent job will enter the
unmanned phase during this century, including accountant, doctor, or even lawyer.
Human might be obsolete in the workforce of these fields. For example, since the
computer system can automatically check the financial statement, there’s no need to
hire an accountant to calculate the income balance or record the cash flow manually;
since medical robot can perform surgery more precisely than human hands, the
doctor will eventually be replaced by artificial intelligence; since software can review
documents in a fraction of time and with a minimum cost, lawyers and paralegals will
no longer able to be billed out with that service. To conclude, in this fast-changing
world, four years of college is quite a long time, and it is unlikely that the job with
most availability in your freshman year will sustain until you graduate. Thus, if
students only choose their field of study base on the job availability, the result might
fail their expectation.
Some people might argue that what if we can precisely predict the market trend, and
thus, the most wanted job in the future? Given the fact that we have such predictive
ability, it is still too short-sighted to only focus on the job availability, regardless of
our unique potential, which is our talent. Take the renowned Taiwanese film director,
screenwriter and producer Ang Lee as an example, who started from a jobless, stay-
at-home dad to a two-time Oscar winner. Lee chose to study theater and film
production, even though he actually thought about studying computer science to
find a job after years of unemployment coupled with many unsuccessful attempts to
make his first commercial movie. Had it not been for his perseverance toward what
he was talented at, Lee might have become an ordinary software programmer
instead of a world-acclaimed director.
Another aspect that students should put much emphasis on is their interest, since it
is only with the interest that one can fully commit to the job. Take me as an example,
I’m exactly the one who decided the field of study solely based on the job availability.
Since economics is a really fundamental and general subject that can lead to a
plethora of careers, I chose economics to be my major and kind of being self-
deceptive that I could ignore what I truly love, which is movie. However, after several
internships in business I was totally overwhelmed. Without passion, I couldn’t be
self-motivated, and I weren’t able to gain any sense of achievement with those jobs.
Eventually, I decided to pursue my dream career and dedicate the rest of my life in
the field that I truly love. And that’s why I’m here, taking GRE Test in order to apply
for the MA of Cinema &Media Studies in States. However, sometimes it comes to my
mind that if I had chosen the field of study based on my interest, I wouldn’t need to
take such detour.
For the above reasons, I believe that students should choose their field of study not
only base on job availability, but also their talent and interest.