As a student, it took me a long time to realize that my hobbies were actual jobs that I could possibly have in the future. I had my eyes set on a science or technology career purely because I felt like nothing else was worth my time until I discovered that creative writing could be an actual degree. I then discovered a plethora of other majors and jobs I could’ve pursued, and my mind was completely blown. But the first question I thought of was directly related to my current education: why wasn’t I aware of these opportunities sooner?

According to the Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC), the top five careers in 2020 are front-end engineer, Java developer, data scientist, product manager, and DevOps engineer; in 2010, the top five careers are actuary, software engineer, computer systems analyst, biologist, and historian. These careers were ranked by median salary, job satisfaction rating, and the number of job openings on Glassdoor, a website for users to anonymously review companies or search and apply for jobs. Jobs have been adapting to a technologically advancing world, and as more computer-focused jobs open up, schools and educational facilities should also help students towards these opportunities. Jobs like digital forensics, narrative designers, and data janitors will continue to become more important as technology continues to grow, but as of now, these types of jobs aren’t introduced to students.

I feel as if careers like teaching, engineering and scientists are the most common jobs introduced and talked about in schools, but it’s hard for us to pick our interested job field when we don’t know much of them. Part of a class’s curriculum, at least towards the end of high school, should be to introduce students to jobs or careers that relate to the subjects being taught. In my Early Childhood class, this is what we did and I couldn’t have been more grateful. I learned about many jobs that helped children from children’s book authors to child psychologists. Of course, certain subjects will cover varieties of fields such as STEM subjects, but at least giving students options to discover their options should be a possibility.