For my journey map to picking a major, I interviewed my good friend and roommate Lexi. Lexi and I met at Ignite Texas Retreat when we incoming freshmen at UT. We were both thinking of being business majors, but had no idea what college would be like, much less whether or not we would actually enjoy business. In the end, (spoiler alert!) we both ended up deciding on Marketing, where we are happy to be today, in our fourth year. I have actually stayed very close to Lexi throughout our college career, so I know a lot of the ups and downs she went through deciding a major. However, going through this interview, I gained a lot of insight into her thought processes behind her milestones to making her final decision.

Here is a visual representation of her process in a journey map:

Now I will explain her milestones, influences, and changing confidence levels in more detail.

Lexi first thought about the need to pick a college major in high school. She was very confident that she wanted to go to UT, but it naturally followed that she had to decide what she wanted to study. In this very first step, the number one thing that influenced her was her experience working with the Texas Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital. She really loved the thought of working with kids, and especially with prosthetics – her cousin was being treated for scoliosis, and she was so impressed with the hospital staff there. Based on this influence, she thought she would do pre-physical therapy or pre-med, although she did not feel confident that that was something she wanted. Before college started, she decided she would consider McCombs (her dad influenced this decision), and her backup idea was Biology, to be a foot doctor (she is not sure where that idea came from!). Her confidence was still not very strong, she just thought maybe she would be good with money.

Our first semester is where Lexi and I met, and she was Business, undeclared. She was very unsure of this decision, and she was VERY close to changing to physical therapy. Her influences were exclusively her friends, and she had a lot of trouble comparing herself to other people’s experiences. In her 2^nd semester, she took psychology, which further influenced her to keep PT and option, because she really enjoyed it. Of course she still was not sure of her decision, but did not want to go to school for a ridiculously long time – she considered combining the two fields and doing hospital administration. To accomplish this, she ended up minoring in pre-med.

That ended up being short-lived, because her 3^rd semester, she dropped pre-med, because she really started to enjoy her business classes. She still however had no idea of what she wanted for a career path. The following semester, she was still loving classes, and decided that Marketing was a good place within the business school to work with people. So that understanding of marketing was her primary influence, besides her classes.

The following summer, she worked with PPI marketing, which she absolutely LOVED. She had an excellent experience doing events marketing/sports marketing/negotiations/partnerships. This really strengthened her confidence in Marketing as her career path.

Her final milestone that confirmed her decision in her mind was her second internship experience with Southwest Airlines. She told me all about her experience traveling and having an absolutely wonderful time first of all. She worked within the Community Programs and Engagement Department, and it confirmed to her that she could do something good and of service to the community with her marketing degree. Thissycology, which further influenced her to keep PT and option, because she really enjoyed it.e exclusively he made her confidence all the more strong, and also made her excited for what her future held. It really ended up feeling like the best of both worlds for her – remember back to when she wanted to help kids in hospitals, or in some way be able to benefit sick kids. With her position at Southwest, alongside online marketing, she also gathered donations on behalf of the airlines for children’s charities. It really brought everything full circle, in her opinion.

Lexi still doesn’t know what her full time position will be, but she is excited to look into her options this year as she closes in on graduation.