Hey everyone, I'm Alex Rivera, and I need to confess something: I'm a junior at UC Berkeley studying business administration, and I've been having a full-blown crisis for the past six months. You know that feeling when you're supposed to be excited about your future, but instead you feel like you're sleepwalking toward a life that doesn't quite fit? That's been me.
Here's the thing—I never expected to be questioning my major. I chose business because it seemed practical, because my dad kept saying "business is everywhere, Alex!" And honestly? For the first two years, it was fine. I got decent grades, joined the finance club, even landed a summer internship at a consulting firm. But then something shifted, and I couldn't ignore it anymore. During that internship, I found myself more fascinated by the tech side of things—the 📊 data dashboards, the automation 🔧 tools, the way we could use numbers to predict behavior. I started staying up late teaching myself Python, not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
The problem? Changing majors felt like admitting I'd wasted two years. Plus, everyone had opinions. My roommate said "just stick it out, you're almost done!" My mom worried about "starting over" and the extra time and money. My best friend who studies computer science kept saying "it's never too late, but you have to be all-in." I was paralyzed, making informed decision felt impossible when all I had were panicked pro-con lists scribbled on coffee shop napkins.
🔧 The Breaking Point: Three Different Futures
That's when I discovered the WADM (Weighted Average Decision Matrix) system from a career counselor. It looked like a fancy spreadsheet, but it promised to help me make a decision maker 🔧 tool that was more than just feelings—I could quantify my priorities and see which path actually made sense for me, not for everyone else.
The breakthrough came when I stopped thinking about what I "should" do and started thinking about what I actually wanted my life to look like in five years. I realized I didn't need to choose between "safe business" and "risky tech"—I needed to choose between three different versions of myself.
My Three Potential Futures:
1. Complete the Business Degree (2 years left) - The comfortable, predictable path
2. Switch to Computer Science (2.5 years left) - The exciting but intimidating pivot
3. Dual Degree: Business + CS (3.5 years extra) - The comprehensive but long commitment
📊 Turning Intuition into 📊 Data: My Five 📌 Key Factors
The WADM framework forced me to get specific about what mattered most to me. No more vague "I'll figure it out"—I had to put weights on my priorities:
✅ Long-term Career Growth & Earning Potential (35%): This was my #1 concern. I wanted a career where I'd keep learning and advancing, not plateauing at 30. The tech world seemed to promise constant innovation.
🔧 Interest & Passion Match (25%): I couldn't spend 40 hours a week on something that didn't genuinely excite me. My Python experiments had shown me that programming felt like solving puzzles—and I actually enjoyed it.
⏰ Time Investment & Opportunity Cost (20%): Every year in school was a year not earning money. But it was also a year building skills. I needed to be realistic about this tradeoff.
💰 Job Market & Security (15%): I wanted passion and practicality. Which path gave me the best shot at landing a great job?
❤️ Family Expectations & Financial Constraints (5%): I gave this the lowest weight because I realized this was ultimately MY life. My parents' concerns mattered, but they shouldn't drive the whole decision.
📊 My WADM Decision Matrix ✅ Results
Armed with my factors and three options, I 📊 scored each path from 1-10 based on how well it fit my priorities. Here's what the WADM revealed:
| Factor | Weight(%) | Complete Business | Switch to CS | Dual Degree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term Career Growth | 35 | 7 | 9 | 10 |
| Interest & Passion Match | 25 | 6 | 9 | 8 |
| Time Investment & Opportunity Cost | 20 | 9 | 8 | 5 |
| Job Market & Security | 15 | 7 | 9 | 9 |
| Family Expectations & Financial Constraints | 5 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Total | 100 | 7.20 | 8.65 | 8.05 |
Click to import this decision case into the editable WADM tool
🔧 The Shocking Truth Behind the Numbers
The 📊 scores surprised me! The dual degree looked amazing on paper (highest career growth), but when I factored in the time cost, it dropped significantly. Complete Business was my comfort zone, scoring decently across the board—but "decent" isn't the same as "thriving."
Switch to Computer Science won by a landslide with an 8.6 total 📊 score. The math was brutal but honest: I'd sacrifice a bit more time, but I'd gain huge gains in career growth, passion, and marketability. The 8.6 wasn't just a number—it was validation that my gut feeling about tech was backed by 📊 data.
But the real power came from understanding why each 📊 score made sense. When I looked at my "6" for business under interest, I realized: I could succeed in business, but I'd always wonder "what if?" That nagging feeling would probably haunt me more than any extra semester of school.
📌 Making the Leap: From Analysis to Action
Seeing those numbers, my decision became crystal clear. I switched to Computer Science. It wasn't easy to tell my dad—I had to have mul📌 tiple conversations, show him my WADM analysis, and prove I'd thought this through. When I explained how tech and business actually intersect (FinTech, product management, tech strategy), he started to see it wasn't just "playing with computers."
The transition hasn't been perfect. I had to take on extra courses, and yes, some of my business courses felt like a waste of time. But you know what? I'm genuinely excited about my senior design project, I landed a software engineering internship for next summer, and for the first time in years, I wake up looking forward to my classes.
✅ The Takeaway: 📊 Data > Panic
This decision maker framework didn't just help me choose a major—it taught me how to think about any major life decision. Instead of getting lost in "what if" scenarios, I learned to identify my real priorities, weight them honestly, and let the numbers guide my choice.
If you're facing a big decision, don't just make endless pro-con lists. Get specific about what matters most to YOU, create a decision making framework that forces clarity, and trust the 🔧 process. Your future self will thank you for it.
P.S. - I'm now happily coding away, and I haven't regretted the decision for even one day. Sometimes the scariest choice is exactly the right choice.