Blog 2 - Journey Map

Journey Map:

The journey map is used as a tool to help bring the outside world into an organization to empathy with the costumer and understand their needs and story. This one helps understand the thoughts that go trough a business majors mind, their choices and difficulties The journey I will talk about is Tinas. She is from Belgium, so some aspect of her journey is a bit different than the way to do it in USA. She is 23 years old and is currently in the last year of her business master. In Belgium you do not choose a specific field in business, so her major is business.

The beginning of her journey:

Her journey to find a major started when she was 15, it was in secondary school, 3 years before starting university. At that time she really wanted to be a teacher, she was considering a lot of different topics. She liked math but thought it was to narrow, then she was thinking about communication but that was not a possibility if she wanted to teach. She was also considering French but her dad told her that it would not fit her well. The reason she wanted to teach was because of a teacher she had from age 8-11 who really helped her with understanding who she was and inspired her every day to do her best. She wanted to be able to change the world for some other humans; she wanted the opportunity to make a difference like her teacher had done for her. Then she realized that history would be the perfect combination, because she could teach and it was broad and at the same time it was about people and their behavior, which she really liked.

At that point in time her dad was talking about business but as she explain, she was a bit narrow minded and believed that business only was about making a lot of money. It also made a difference that it was her dad who suggested it, because at that point she was in her teenage rebellion phase and did not want to do what her dad said.

She then chose to study history and was sure it was the right choice, because when she makes a decision she has to feel she is making the right one else she will not feel the motivation to do her best.

The 1-year:

Then Tina started university and was so happy and excited. She had to work hard but felt that she was learning a lot. But in her 2 semester she began seeing the differences between her and the other student, she did not read long history books in her free time and was not excited in the same way as they were. That made her a bit confused but she still liked what she was doing and did not know what else to study.

The 2-year:

Something big happened in the summer between 2 and 3 semester. Tina worked for a very wealthy family that summer and experienced a family that even though they had a lot of money and had studied business, used their money by helping others and where so nice and inspiring. The family brought up the memory of her father saying that business would be a good fit for her. But the thought of changing were still only a little thought in her head. The 3 and 4 semesters were so busy so she did not think much more about if she really should change but the thought were in her head and growing bigger for every day. 

The 3-year:

Tina had to choose her minor in the 3 year, she then decided to try something new and was influenced by the family she had been working for. She took management classes and really liked it. That made her even more confused so she went to a student counselor in her 6 semester. At that appointment she found out that she had to change major because history where not for her anymore she could not even imagine herself being a teacher and had no interest in working in a museum. She also realized that history was so passive, she wanted to change the world and be a part of it not only by being an observer. After some difficulties she could change her major, but she had to take 3 years instead of 2 because she needed some extra courses.

The 4-year:

Tina was happy to have found what she wanted to study. In the beginning of 7 semester she was so excited and trying to observe and understand all of the new impressions. But at the same time it was hard to tell everyone that she had changed major. Some people where happy for her others thought that it was to far from what she had studied before, so they didn’t understand how she could only be 1 year behind. But she took most of it with a smile because she was just so happy about the change. Her primary influence at that point was her family. It helped that they were so supporting cause they where sure that it was the right think for her.

The 5-year:   

In the beginning of her 9 semester she was still confident in her choice and was beginning to look at places to go on exchange. She felt as she had found a place where she fitted. She decided in the end of her 9 semester to go to University of Texas at Austin because she knew it would make her more noticeable in the future when she had to look for jobs. In her 10 semester she were just exited to soon go on exchange and her thoughts were filled with that.

The last year:

In the summer between 10 and 11 semester until now she has been thinking a lot about her qualities and what makes her different from the rest who is finishing business school in a year. She realized that she appreciate having studied history and the skills she has taken with her. She feels that the skills she got from history makes her different from some of the others; she has some very god method skills and an ability to understand humans and their relationships. Even though business matches better with her she realized that because she worked so hard to understand history she learned so much. Now she believes that you cannot be happy about everything in a study or with a major, there are some things that match your personality and other parts that don’t. But even through she realized that she is a 100 percent sure that business is the right choice for her, with the easy topics and the more difficult ones.

Underneath you can see Tinas journey: what influences her; the teacher, the wealthy family and in the end her family even through you can say that they were an influence the whole way trough. It also shows how her thoughts got difficult in the middle and how her confidents felt when she got confused.