This Interactive Job Chart Shows What Your College Degree Actually Gets You

Ever wondered if you are really pursuing the right major in school? Concerned that all of your college debt might not land you your dream job? You needn't worry any longer as Ben Schmidt, an Assistant Professor of History at Northeastern University, has created an interactive chart that will help you figure out whether or not your fears are justified.

Schmidt's Sankey visualization shows how college majors tend to translate into real-world professions. He used census data from the American Community Survey to generate the chart, which you can look at either by popularity of job or by popularity of major.

On the left of the chart are the most common college majors. On the right you'll find the most common professions for graduates of these majors. Colored lines connect the jobs to the degrees. The width of each stream connecting the job to the degree reveals how many people with that major are in that field, and the color of the stream shows whether that's more or fewer people than expected.

Clicking on a specific major shows all of the most common fields that individuals with that major enter. Check out the biology field below (click on the image to see the full-sized version).

As you can see, the most common field for biology majors is Med-Physicians and Surgeons. The next most common is EDU-Post Secondary Teachers.

You can view the chart sorted by broad fields like Engineering or Arts below, or you can head over to Schmidt's page to view the original in all its glory and find out if your major is set to land you a job in your ideal field or if it seems you have taken a wrong turn.