MAJOR DECISION STUDENTS HAVE TO TAKE JOB MARKETABILITY INTO ACCOUNT WHEN PICKING COLLEGIATE PATH.

Byline: Barbara Correa Staff Writer

Woodland Hills High School senior Michelle Gruzman has known she wanted to be a doctor since the ninth grade. ``I was a figure skater for 10 years and I broke a lot of bones,'' said Gruzman, who is sending applications to major in pre-med to eight colleges this fall, including University of California, Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and San Diego State University.

And although the medical profession would seem to be a safe bet in terms of future earnings potential, Gruzman says she's worried about the economy and whether her major will lead to financial success.

``The pay concerns me,'' she said.

Amid Southern California's worst employment slowdown in a decade, this might be a good year for prospective college students to give a bit more thought to how a major will translate in the job market four years down the road.

Projections about the most secure majors for the future from college admissions directors and career counselors throughout the region may come as a surprise.

Despite state budget cuts and threatened layoffs for teachers, education continues to earn a bullish forecast. ``You're always going to need teachers because our population is growing,'' said Olivia Rosas, director of admissions and student recruitment at California State University, San Bernardino.

She adds that a lot of the teachers facing furloughs in the recent cutbacks weren't fully credentialed, the key to financial success in the field. And while teaching has a reputation as among the lowest paid of professions, public school teachers in California earn an average $56,283, the highest in the United States, the National Education Association reports.

Other majors that should lead to job prospects in coming years are nursing and health services-related study, computer design and graphics and certain business disciplines, such as accounting.

Patricia Gordon, career services director at Cal State San Bernardino, said gerontology and services related to the aging baby-boomer population looks like a good bet for future job security. Other growing areas of the services industry, particularly hospitality, look strong. ``We're getting hotels like Marriott recruiting on campus,'' she said.

``Southern California has done well because it has such a large population and a lot of people decided to travel here in California instead of elsewhere,'' said Dr. James Burke, dean of the Collins School of Hospitality Management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, an undergraduate program that trains students for hotel and restaurant management jobs.

He said the economic downturn hasn't had a big effect on restaurants and demand, particularly at corporate eateries, is booming. Another area with management jobs, private clubs also were largely unaffected by the downturn.

``The largest class in the last five years entered this fall,'' he said.

In terms of going where the money is, traditional stereotypes about pre-med and pre-law as the best route to financial gain still apply.

The top-25 list of highest-paying occupations in California, from the state employment development department, is dominated by medical specialists and legal professionals, with median wages topping out at over $145,000.

But the top 25 is also peppered with other jobs: chief executives, engineering managers, marketing managers and several specialties in the information technology field.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' national list of industries with the fastest wage and salary growth through 2010 puts computer and data processing services at the top. That's followed by residential care jobs, health services, cable and pay television services, personnel supply services and warehousing and storage.

Banking on information technology as a stalwart during weak economic times, more incoming college students are heading to technical institutes like ITT, which has campuses in Sylmar, San Bernardino, West Covina and Torrance.

Enrollment at ITT Technical Institute campuses was up more than 20 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, parent company ITT Educational Services Inc. reported last month.

Part of those gains reflect students' concern about the weak economy and job prospects, said Michelle Huggard, director of ITT West Covina. ``Here, they definitely have a career in mind,'' she said.

And even though the IT sector suffered massive layoffs two years ago, it's now seen as back on track for growth in the region.

Aside from traditional information technology disciplines, ITT West Covina offers majors in digital entertainment and game design, computer aided drafting, a recently introduced information systems security major and automated manufacturing technology, for which employment prospects don't necessarily depend on a strong manufacturing sector.

``I can think of three or four (manufacturing technology) grads who have very good jobs - things like systems technicians. Because it isn't necessarily manufacturing. A lot of it is robotics.''

Promising majors have shifted over the years, said Huggard, a 12-year veteran of ITT, from electronics with aerospace applications to more sophisticated and specialized training in industries that are booming locally, such as game design.

Still, as with any major, young people looking at technology as the winning ticket still have to have an aptitude and an interest in it.

``During the dot-com explosion we had a lot of people go into computers who had no interest,'' said Ed Morton, director of the career development center at California State University, Long Beach. ``Accounting people switched to computers for a while, but now that's bounced back. ... we get a lot of people who choose things that happen to be hot at the time but then they come back after a few years working in it and say, 'I don't like it.'''

He said students deciding on a major should be thinking about how it will help them pay the bills. But they also have to have a passion for their course of study, or it won't translate into money-making for very long.

One way to do that is to minor in something related that may be more marketable. ``If you major in English, maybe minor in journalism or technical writing,'' he said.

The main thing is to give choosing a major some thought, which he said most freshman and sophomores just don't do. ``Once they get here, they don't clearly evaluate what relates to a career,'' he said.

A lot of kids come in with what Whittier College assistant director of admissions Greg McCandless calls the ``high-school paradigm,'' in which career choices consist of doctor, lawyer and engineer.

Part of his job includes breaking out of the paradigm and helping students realize what they can do with a major.

``Sometimes the humanities get glossed over because people think if I major in history, I have to teach history. But we see a lot of history majors become consultants or go into the political spectrum,'' he said.

Students also need to choose a major based on how employment patterns have shifted from the single-company career to careers spent at multiple companies and possibly evem multiple occupations.

``Being a liberal arts college was a problem for us ... it used to be a stigma, but now there's more of an attraction. You're not going to do the same thing for 40 years,'' McCandless said, and liberal arts offers a flexible training.

That's also why business administration has remained one of the most popular majors - it's seen as applying to a multitude of job positions.

``The heavy focus on technology in the last few years didn't take into account that if you can do the computer programming, that's great,'' he said. ``But if you can write the manual, maybe that's even more marketable.''

Most high school seniors, however, have more urgent worries than picking a marketable college major. One of them is getting into the school they want, and then trying to figure out how to pay for it. Gruzman, the aspiring doctor, said her primary financial concern has nothing to do with how much she'll make after college. ``I'm more worried about tuition costs,'' she said. ``If they go up more ... it's already ridiculous.''

Barbara Correa, [phone]

barbara.correa(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

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Drawing:

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Warren Huskey/Staff Artist

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HIGHEST-PAYING OCCUPATIONS

SOURCE: America's Career InfoNet, based on California Employment Development Department data