Career Choice for college students.

Op Ed piece in last Saturday's journal entitled "Why do Women Shun STEM? It's Complicated".  The writer is a female professor of engineering.  She mentions a number of things, but she dwells on the effect of liberal arts faculty bad mouthing engineering and other STEM subjects to the students.  Women students get told that STEM subjects just lead to jobs in cubicles crunching numbers.  Which isn't true at all.  Engineering is very creative, engineers get to create new things with their own hands, work the bugs out, and bring them to market.  Beats selling life insurance or real estate all hollow.  I am retired after fifty years doing electrical engineering, it was fun, and it paid well. 
   As a college student, you need to decide on your career after graduation.  You need to do this early freshman year, by Christmas time at the latest.  Once you have picked a career, then you must pick a college major that makes you employable in your chosen field.   Career choice is tough.  As a freshman you don't really know what the ropes are, most of what you do know is vague hearsay.  What do  you really want to do to make a living?  So you talk to parents, friends, relatives, anyone about it.  One caveat.  Don't take advice from the faculty or your college advisor (who is also a faculty member).  Reason is simple.  Anyone who has pushed and struggled hard enough to become a professor of anything, is going to tell you that what ever it is that he/she is teaching is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  That's just the way people work. College faculty think their job is to train up students to become professors just like they are. 
   Couple of things to know.  First, teaching college isn't what it used to be.  Most college courses are taught by part timers (adjunct professors they are called) who receive miserable pay and no benefits.  And no chance of tenure.  Second, there are a lot of things taught in college that are of little to no worth out in the real world.  Majoring in "studies" (gender studies, ethnic studies, environmental studies, any kinda study) is a total loser.  Anthropology, sociology, astronomy, art history, music appreciation, are not much better. 
   One good trick, read a biography of someone who followed the career path you might be thinking of taking.