I’m a college student and would like to know if you see a lot of graduates who end up pursuing careers not related to their degrees. If so, why do you think this is? – Melissa

Kate: Just the other day, I posted a job to hire a relatively recent college grad – one with two years’ experience. Within two hours, I had received more than 200 resumes. I had your question in mind as I looked through them. You’d be surprised by the number of resumes with an entertainment major – areas such as media or film. I imagine that they majored in what seemed interesting, then after being out of school a while, realized they had to eat. As a person doing hiring, I don’t mind that they majored in something different from what we do here, whether it’s biology, philosophy or film – but I want to hire those with experience, and most had very little.

Dale: Two things are at work here, Melissa. First, those students probably chose media majors because they keep hearing “follow your passion” and “do what you love.” Good advice, of course, but also quite misleading if you expect to find a job where you’ll spend all your days being blissful. The reality is, even when following your passion, much of your day will be devoted to tasks you find tedious, if not objectionable. (If you are, for instance, an interior decorator, you might spend more time doing tasks such as marketing and accounting than you actually do decorating.) So, students are set up for disappointment. Secondly, students can choose majors only from what they know exist. Most people are aware of less than 1 percent of existing jobs, and for people who haven’t had careers, it might be only 1 percent of 1 percent.

Kate: So, naturally, young people tend to select careers they see around their neighborhoods or that they see on television. Here’s an exercise that can broaden your options. Get your newspaper’s job listings, as well as the “Job Bank” book for the nearest metropolis. (The latter is a listing of all the major employers and is available at your local bookstore or library.) Then, start going through the jobs and companies. I did this with my No. 2 son after his freshman year in college. He put a minus next to the industries he felt no connection with (accounting, apparel, arts, automotive) and a plus next to the ones he was interested in (architecture, charities), then did the same with jobs within those industries. He narrowed his list and eventually settled on medicine. He landed an internship at a hospital, where he’ll get to see the job options up-close. If all goes well, by the time he graduates, he will not only have a realistic idea of the job he wants, but enough experience to get it.

Best of the month

Dale: We get marvelous mail from people who read our column, and one letter in particular inspired us to try something new in our monthly review of our best of career resources.

Kate: We’re passing along suggestions from Jeanine Botta, who wrote in response to comments about handling phone calls from hiring managers:

“There is something practical that job hunters can do to avoid sounding unprepared: Keep a ‘script’ of your two-minute pitch near the phone, along with a list of answers to questions a caller might ask and a bullet-pointed list of one’s strengths and achievements. I’m not suggesting one read directly from the script, but having it handy can be a big help. I also would suggest that if a call comes at an inappropriate time, tell the caller how glad you are to hear from him and ask if he minds if you take the call in another room. This gives you a few seconds to regroup and prepare to sound your best.”

Dale: Thanks to Jeanine for her insight, and to all of you who shared your experiences.