What are the possible paths the sociology and what life style would they entail?

Hey Kevin,

I'm doing a PhD in sociology right now so I think I can tell you a bit about this and just let me know if you have any other questions about sociology. So first off, there's different paths depending on what you want to do and there's a lot of things you can do with sociology because it's the study of society (how people shape society, how society shapes people, etc.).

The three most typical careers people take with sociology are marketing, social work, research and teaching sociology (and people often combine research and teaching by being a professor, but you don't have to). There's a ton of other careers which sociology is incredibly helpful for, however, such as being a consultant, but sometimes you have to convince employers that sociology is helpful in these careers so take that as a forewarning. Now I'll go over the each of the typical careers (marketing, social work, research and teaching sociology) and the path they require. However, the first step for all the careers related to sociology is to go to college.

Marketing
This is a career you can do right after college and in a ton of different industries because every company needs to advertise what they're selling. If you're awesome at it and you move up in a company, it can pay really well. I think starting salaries right out of college are normally around $30,000 or $40,000 (or at least they were in 2007 in NYC). If you want to take the sociology path to marketing, you choose sociology as a major in college and then apply for jobs in your senior year of college (and it's helpful to try to do an internship during the summers at a marketing firm - sometimes internships don't pay though unfortunately).

Social Work
If you want to do social work, you do not necessarily have to major in sociology in college, but it could be helpful to take classes in sociology. Other majors that fit with social work are social work and psychology. Some states and social work jobs require getting a master in social work which requires going to a one or two year graduate program after college. Usually these programs cost money, but you can get a scholarship. I know less about social work, but can find out more if you’re interested.

Research and Teaching Sociology
So this I definitely have more knowledge about. If you want to do research, you can do this in via a number of career paths. The most typical way is to either become a professor or work at a think tank (a policy research organization) doing research. There are also some consulting companies and government organizations that hire sociologists to do research. If you want to teach sociology, you can teach at a high school or college / university. If you want to do both, being a professor can be the best of both worlds.
To do most of these careers, you need a PhD in sociology, which requires going to graduate school for, on average, 5-7 years or 3-4 years if you go outside the US (some of the research jobs and teaching at high school level only requires a master in sociology, however, which is typically a 2 or 3 year grad program). Grad school in the US is usually made up of spending the first two years taking courses and then the remaining years doing research so you can write one very long paper called a dissertation, teaching undergrads and doing research for professors. Some grad schools you have to pay to go to, some are free to attend (well, it’s more accurate to say that they waive your tuition) and then some are even better and waive your tuition and pay you a stipend to attend (anywhere from a few thousand to thirty thousand dollars a year).
Getting into grad school is very similar to getting into college. Instead of taking the SATs, you have to take a test called the GRE and you have to write an application, get references from your college professors and write an essay about why you want a PhD in sociology and what kind of research you think you’re going to do. You do not have to major in sociology in college and you do not have to go into grad school right after college. One thing you should do in college, however, is write a thesis (basically the undergrad version of a dissertation) in your senior year so you can get a feel for whether you like doing research and writing about your findings.

Let me know if you have any questions on this and I hope this was helpful! I’d also love to hear why you’re curious about going to sociology!

Anny

Sociology is a very broad field and sociologists end up in lots of different types of jobs. You can study all sorts of topics within sociology (such as the way organizations work, or race and gender issues, or inequality and social class, or education, or government policy, or families, or crime, or religion... and much more). Also, you can learn to use different types of research methods as a sociology major (such as statistics or interviewing). You'll also learn how to read texts carefully, write thoughtful, well-organized essays, and debate with your fellow students, which are skills you can use in all sorts of jobs.

There are sociologists working as social workers, public servants in government, businesspeople, teachers, political campaigners, and charity workers. Some sociology majors go on to do professional degrees like law or business, and some go directly into the workforce after they graduate. So the salaries they tend to earn, and other aspects of lifestyle such as how much they travel and how many hours they tend to work in a week, also vary a lot.

Some colleges and universities have sociology majors that are very general, and some are more geared toward one particular branch of sociology. For example, some have "sociology and social work" majors. You might like to ask the sociology department at the college you choose (or the ones you're considering) the same question about what their graduates do.