In middle school, for the career development class I was in, we did a project about teaching the class a career path we were interested in. I researched accounting (because that was the only thing that I knew about business wise at the time, and as I researched, I thought – wow this is so boring!
During senior year of high school, I struggled to decide what I wanted to major in. I was torn between biology, engineering, and business. I loved biology during middle school and was good at it, but when I took AP Bio, I wasn’t having fun with it. I also thought that I wouldn’t be able to make a good amount of money with just a bachelor’s degree, and I didn’t want to be in school any longer than necessary. I was interested in crafting skills (woodworks, computer aided design, etc.) but I didn’t feel like I fit in with all of the other stem and robotics students, being an African American. By the very end of the year, I was pretty much into business. Even still, I would have some fantasies about me wearing a suit and tie and talking about business. I fell in love with the idea of being a business owner – an entrepreneur.
So, I went off to college – undecided, taking both biology and business classes. Freshman year I decided that I definitely did not want to continue the path with biology. So, I kept my business path going. But economics was so boring! So again, I questioned my major and career choice. Maybe I should go back to a STEM related discipline, I thought. Since I was undecided, I went to an event for people who were undecided, and I ended up going to the psychology table. I was immediately interested, just realizing that I love analyzing why people think the way that they do. So, I continued with psychology and business – then COVID happened…
COVID unmotivated me, I naturally did well in psychology because of my general interest, but business was completely losing me. Accounting, business law, info tech for business, all of these were boring to me, and I knew that I didn’t want to go further into school with psychology, so I was still unsure. And being broke during covid, all I wanted was a source of high income.
During covid, I somehow found this one YouTube video by Dan Lok talking about high value skills and he talked about copywriting. I was immediately interested but didn’t want to buy a $1000 course. I later found another video by Improvement Pill, which talked about high income skills to learn during the lockdown, copywriting and digital marketing. So, at that point, all I could do was wait until my junior year when I could take my marketing class.
Unfortunately, since I was bored of my other business classes – I didn’t do so well in them, and in the fall of junior year, the School of Business rejected me from their program. I switched my major to psychology and kept business as my minor – this would prevent me from being able to take any advanced marketing courses, I could only take the intro level course.
On the first day of BMKT310 – Marketing Principles, I fell in love with it, the instructors and the environment – this was an aspect of business that seemed fun! I wanted to be a part of it. We learned about the marketing mix (aka the 4 P’s), how Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs affects buying behavior, and the importance of branding. That was my favorite class.
Now, I am a senior. Even though I love being a Psych major, I still want to begin a career in marketing, and like I said before, I am only able to take the intro course. So, I began to take it into my own hands and teach myself marketing principles…