Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm planing to graduate either spring or summer of '14. Starting to regret my major and realizing it was not practical (albeit interesting). I am interested in social work/ human services but most jobs want you to have a masters and the dreaded 2-3 years experience. I've also considered advertising though its unrelated to my major but I will have a Bachelors. If anyone has some advice for me, please post. I'm a dead end here. I'd like to relocate to a city after graduating, I'm willing to move anywhere. What are some jobs that one can get with a BA in crim/soc?
Also, my gpa isn't the highest due to difficulties with foundation courses my first 2 years. So I don;t believe I could get in to grad school right away.
Prison counselor but consider applying for corrections officer positions, then move into the treatment side once you have your foot in the door. Probation or parole officer is also an option but competition for these positions are much higher.
You may cringe at the thought of working in a prison, or the thought of starting out in a position you are, at least in terms of education, over qualified for, but corrections officer is a good way to gain entrance to a field that your degree can allow you to advance in fairly quickly, depending on the agency.
I'm planing to graduate either spring or summer of '14. Starting to regret my major and realizing it was not practical (albeit interesting). I am interested in social work/ human services but most jobs want you to have a masters and the dreaded 2-3 years experience. I've also considered advertising though its unrelated to my major but I will have a Bachelors. If anyone has some advice for me, please post. I'm a dead end here. I'd like to relocate to a city after graduating, I'm willing to move anywhere. What are some jobs that one can get with a BA in crim/soc?
Also, my gpa isn't the highest due to difficulties with foundation courses my first 2 years. So I don;t believe I could get in to grad school right away.
How will you relocate with no money or job? I am going to assume that you start college around 2010? Why on Earth would you still chose to major in something so useless after the crash and the horror stories of people not being able to find jobs? You reap what you sow.
If you change your major now you will end up going for 2 more years anyway so why not finish and then move on to your Master's degree? Not all social work jobs require a Masters degree, graduate, get your job, get your experience, start working on your masters as you work and in 3 years you have your 2-3 years experience and your Master's and then you can start working on getting higher paying jobs. It's how pretty much everyone you will be working with got to where they are.
Aside from the very obvious Law enforcement, you could/should look into careers that require a college degree but not a specific degree (i.e. we are only looking for computer science majors atm). That would mean positions in sales, temping, insurance, insurance underwriter etc... As you admitted your degree is not very "practical" and rightly or wrongly in many employer's eyes Criminology and sociology will take a back seat to the Accounting, the finance majors etc... Thus OP you must be willing to be flexible, that means applying for work outside your degree, it may mean taking a 100% commission job, possibly working retail/fast food. You should also look into internships, while so internships require you to be a current student or a recent grad, there are internships that do not-these may be unpaid or underpaid but you have to start somewhere.
I would also hit up friends, family, relatives, see if they have something- anything. Often having that inside connection, that reference will do you more good than any degree. Since your degree is not really practical you will need to build up experience, references-probably 9/10 that will get you the job and not the degree. You need something to boost that "useless" degree in order to be hirable to employers.
The bottom line is :
Do not let your choice of major restrict you to "I only want to do something with criminology/sociology", do NOT spend months on end unemployed holding out/only applying to that perfect entry level position. There is nothing wrong working jobs that don't require a college degree until you find that ideal position. Unemployment gaps kill the resume- nothing says "don't hire me" like prolonged gaps of unemployment and no it does not matter if you spent every night and day looking for work during that gap- unemployment gap are resume killers- if you need to volunteer, intern, work some minimum wage job to fill that gap then do it. Family, friends and temp agencies are your friends. Look at organizations like Dfyus or whatever child welfare organization your state has, look into hospital social workeretc...
Aside from the very obvious Law enforcement, you could/should look into careers that require a college degree but not a specific degree (i.e. we are only looking for computer science majors atm). That would mean positions in sales, temping, insurance, insurance underwriter etc... As you admitted your degree is not very "practical" and rightly or wrongly in many employer's eyes Criminology and sociology will take a back seat to the Accounting, the finance majors etc... Thus OP you must be willing to be flexible, that means applying for work outside your degree, it may mean taking a 100% commission job, possibly working retail/fast food. You should also look into internships, while so internships require you to be a current student or a recent grad, there are internships that do not-these may be unpaid or underpaid but you have to start somewhere.
I would also hit up friends, family, relatives, see if they have something- anything. Often having that inside connection, that reference will do you more good than any degree. Since your degree is not really practical you will need to build up experience, references-probably 9/10 that will get you the job and not the degree. You need something to boost that "useless" degree in order to be hirable to employers.
The bottom line is :
Do not let your choice of major restrict you to "I only want to do something with criminology/sociology", do NOT spend months on end unemployed holding out/only applying to that perfect entry level position. There is nothing wrong working jobs that don't require a college degree until you find that ideal position. Unemployment gaps kill the resume- nothing says "don't hire me" like prolonged gaps of unemployment and no it does not matter if you spent every night and day looking for work during that gap- unemployment gap are resume killers- if you need to volunteer, intern, work some minimum wage job to fill that gap then do it. Family, friends and temp agencies are your friends. Look at organizations like Dfyus or whatever child welfare organization your state has, look into hospital social workeretc...
Great replies. I have temped in college (though again, office work, not related to my major). But I will continue to be flexile upon graduation.
Have you gone to career services in your school? They should give you some help.
Don't let the idea of a graduate degree dissuade you. The time goes very quickly.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
