Journey Map

This is the journey map of my friend Sarah's decision to major in Accounting. When I first started this journey map I thought I wouldn’t reach any discoveries since Sarah isn't "purchasing" her major. I thought I would be simply telling a story. But throughout completion of this map I realized that just because something isn't up for sale, doesn't mean people aren't trying to sell it to you in other ways. Professors, programs, and parents all try to push students towards picking a major. Professors often tell you about upcoming information sessions and teach you about the industries. Programs tell you that the University of Texas program for a certain major is rated number one in the country. And simultaneously, our parents try to push us towards the major that they think will be best for us. All these influences can make choosing a major particularly confusing for students, especially since we all believe it is a major life decision. This journey map reveals what it was like for one student (and probably some others as well) to make this decision and what influenced her to make it.

 

About Sarah:

• Current accounting major
• Senior, graduating in Dec 2015 (2 years left)
• Outgoing, friendly, considerate, fashionable
• Decisive, organized
• Uses a lot of common sense in thought processes
• Goals in life: achieve success and have a family

A Visual Representation: Sarah's Journey Map

 

More about her journey:

During High School

When Sarah was a junior in high school, she was already feeling pressure to think about her future career (yet it seemed so far away). When considering her interests, she knew she enjoyed working with numbers, but she didn't want to be a math teacher. Early on, her dad kept mentioning accounting, but she didn't know anything about accounting. This time period can be considered her "What is?" phase because she was evaluating what she already knew about herself.

Her senior year she signed up for accounting as an elective. She immediately enjoyed it and how accounting let her play with numbers. So when it became time to submit college applications, she chose accounting as her primary major and general studies as her second option. To learn more about accounting, she talked with her cousin (who is a CPA) about what his job was like. Her interest was piqued and she became more confident in the idea of studying accounting. Senior year is likely Sarah's "What if?" phase because she is envisioning herself as an accounting major and the benefits it would provide, and although she chose it on her college applications, she still has some doubts about it and wants to explore more.

First Year of College

Unfortunately, Sarah wasn't accepted into the business school but she made it into The College of General Studies. She knew she would apply again at the end of the year, but until then she spent more time researching the accounting industry during her first semester. The biggest influence at this stage was her friends, who kept telling her that she was too much of a people person to enjoy a career in accounting. This made her concerned about her decision, and at this point she began diverging, or looking for other options. She interviewed with the CFO of a bank, who reassured her that accounting jobs can be social or non-social, can still be fun, and are not the typical desk jobs everyone assumes they are.

At the end of her second semester, she found out once again that she had not been accepted into the business school. She could still apply next year, but the rejection made her question whether she really wanted to keep pursuing accounting as a career. She decided to come up with a backup plan in case she was rejected again. Her interest in oversea activities made her think International Relations may be a good major for her.

Second Year of College

During the summer before sophomore year, Sarah read Steve Job's biography. Reading about the innovation at Apple made her fall in love with Apple and their strategy. She knew then that she would want to work in industry accounting rather than public accounting. Still not sure if she would be accepted into business school, she decided on Special Event Coordinating as a backup major since she really enjoyed planning events for her organizations.

Third Year of College

In the fall she was accepted into the business school. During her first accounting course, she continued to enjoy the concepts that she had studied in high school accounting. During lecture they analyzed Apple's balance sheet, and she "thought it was the coolest thing ever". At this point in time she began converging in on a final decision and her confidence level rose because she loved how accounting connected her love for numbers and innovative companies. This occurs during the "What wows?" phase, when she literally had a "wow" moment and everything clicked into place. Now she had to decide whether she wanted to study accounting through the traditional BBA program or apply for the MPA integrated program.

During the second semester a professor who had completed the MPA program really helped Sarah increase her confidence about her major choice. She met with Sarah during office hours to discuss the different areas of accounting and what typical jobs were like. At this point on Sarah became entirely focused on ways to help her achieve her dream job within accounting (business organizations, internships, resume work).

Senior Year (Today)

Sarah did an internship at a local accounting firm, which was her own version of "testing" her choice. While getting hands-on experience with accounting, Sarah was in the "What works?" phase and was able to evaluate her previous decision that accounting sounded like a perfect fit for her. She learned a lot during her internship and at the end felt it was a "tease" and made her want to delve even deeper into accounting.

Although this isn't Sarah's last year in college, she is officially classified a senior. Now when you ask her about her confidence she claims she is "110% confident" in her choice. Although her primary focus was always on accounting, she had some doubts along the way which were created by influences such as her friends and rejection.

What I learned:

• Journey maps can be created to better understand the path to making a decision and the factors that most influence someone, in other words, it allows you to walk a mile in your customer's shoes
• Journey maps can also invite you to feel empathy for someone, because as you learn about their journey you begin to see their pain points and gain points as they learn and make decisions
• By mapping when the customer is feeling positive or negative (confidence level in this example) you can find areas that need improvement in the purchasing journey
• While this journey map was made for one specific person, I think it would be helpful to make multiple journey maps for people in the same major and compare their decision experiences, so that you can create a journey map for a specific subset of people
• Almost all decisions can involve sales (i.e. when deciding where to major you are influenced by programs and when you are deciding where to work you are influenced by benefits companies offer)