Week 3: When I go to College

I want to go to college, and although I'm not going to declare my major until at least sophomore year, I could see myself possibly majoring in Communications.  If I do major in communications, some job opportunities that would be available to me are a social worker, a journalist or doing public relations for a nonprofit company.
If I were to be a public relations worker for a nonprofit company, after graduating as a communications major, I could either start as an unpaid volunteer, or begin work immediately in PR.  To be a PR worker, I would need to be social and organized, so openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness would be important.  My salary would fluctuate depending on the living expenses of my location.  For example, the salary of a job in Washington D.C. would be far greater than the salary of the same job in Georgia.  Because there are so many different types of nonprofits, the average salary of a PR worker depends on a lot of variables.  However, I found that $58,000 a year (before taxes) is the average salary of a PR director for a nonprofit company.
To be a social worker it's necessary to have a bachelor's degree in social work, and some sort of certification or state license.  The average salary of a social worker before taxes is $40,548 a year, but the minimum salary (depending on location) is about $29,000, and the maximum is about $60,000.  To be a good social worker you must be empathetic, kind, practical, intelligent and have low neuroticism.
As a journalist, I would need to have a bachelor's degree in either journalism or communications.  The average salary for a journalist (after taxes) is $34,530 as of 2010.  However, the salary of a journalist often depends on what publication they are working for- not their location.  Some journalists make as much as $100,000 a year.  To be a successful journalist, one must be intelligent, patient, curious, objective and be able to work both independently and with others.