Did I make a mistake with my education?

[FredJung]

It seemed you didn't care what degree you got only that you heard from somewhere you will make money with your education alone. You were misled or simply misinformed. You had no focus and majored in history because you thought you can get jobs in law or medicine. A BA in history doesn't get much and usually they go to law school.

A college degree is good and you have more options that most. But if you think you can get the great job with that alone, you are in for some hurt.

You need to consult with a career counselor and they will help you look through your education, skills, and experience to know which job is right for you. It seems you are just shotgunning your resume to any job and you have no focus. Focus down to the job that fits you. Then you go from there. Don't make your job search like your college career where you had no focus and did whatever with no plan.

[OK_Kinda]

Originally Posted by g89

you can still get an entry level analyst role from Deloitte/Accenture/EY/PWC/etc (50k-65k).....you'll just have to be more aggressive (not just submitting a resume/cover...preferably calling or emailing the recruiter via linkedin) <<<<<Although I was already in the industry...Besides the companies I listed above I got plenty of interviews from the likes of Fruit of the loom,Garmin, Qualcomm, AMC Theaters, Starbucks, Amazon, Subaru of America, Oracle, Nike, Nvidia....you just have to be in aggressive in your point of contact

I havent seen anyone else mention LinkedIn. My bachelors is in Marketing. I dont have my masters (yet - i had a SURPRISE baby so thats pushed back a few years. I cant weigh in as far as your field of study but i can tell yoi that with your masters you shouldn't even have to settle for 15 an hour and i agree wholeheartedly with being more agressive, reaching out and most definitely using LinkedIn. I used it to hire in a past position and whike the endorsements have become somewhat of a joke, the testimonials you can get from people who can attest to your skills, accomplishments, work ethic and overall value to a company can be priceless when searching for a career. Dont settle for a "job" with your masters. You went through that so you could pursue a CAREER. Check linkedin for past associates willing to endorse you. Really polish your profile up there. Including a link to my LinkedIn profile is what i was told set me apart from everyone else and the reason i was called to interview for a position that they were set on hiring someone with their masters for. I am GRATEFUL, too. In the end it was four candidates. Two had their masters and two of us our bachelors. I honestly credit the advocates from my past jobs who wrote on my behalf.

**Pardon poor punctuation and capitalization, etc. I have a new phone without swype and a baby sleeping comfortably on top of half of my arm.

[snowtired14]

Originally Posted by SoundNinia

Hi all, I wanted to write this post as I am frustrated with the job situation as of late and I wanted to also get some feedback as well.

I feel like I have done something wrong. I have been looking for a good, professional position for a while now and it seems that when I turn in cover letters and resumes that they just disappear into the abyss. I have been to the local career center and have had my resumes and cover letters looked over several times, so I know that that is not the issue.

When it comes to my education, I have an Associates degree in Business Administration, a Bachelor's degree in History with a minor in Spanish(I am fluent btw) and a Master's degree in Public Administration that I got last year. I am smart, articulate and I feel that I would be an asset to any company that would have me.

It is just so hard for many to get a good position. I remember as a teenager, I used to walk in and apply and BAM! I had a job, many times, on the spot. Now, it's send a cover letter and a resume only to never be heard from again.

Maybe my expectations are unrealistic, I thought in early 2000 that get a bachelor's degree in business administration netted a person around 60k. It seems though that I was grossly mistaken as a lot of people end up making 30k at best and to me that just seems low, although I do live in the South. Last night, I applied for a position that wanted my master's degree. Salary? 40-50k.

I knew that I wasn't going to be rich with Public Administration, but it seems that the only jobs that pay "decent" are labor and blue collar work. While I don't mind getting dirty or working, I had back surgery last year, making these kind of jobs difficult to do. Sometimes I feel that maybe it is my education and I have started to regret all my degrees, although I talked to a old MPA classmate last night (he makes 31k), he assured me that he wouldn't trade his education in for the world. At this rate, I feel like I will have to take something..anything! And I am tired of having all this education and making less than 10/hr.

Did I make a mistake here? or is it the fact that there are too many people with degrees out there?

When you were a kid, did anyone ever give you a box of sticks and ask you to create something with them? Usually an art class, make a turkey, or a house, or something, it required creative thinking to come up with a design then figure out how to put it together. No different here, you have a box of skills and talent, you have to figure out how to make something with that. So the jobs on the internet don't fit? What can you do? What's a perfect job? Come up with a design for that job, then figure out how to get there or how to get someone to hire you to do it. Perhaps you start by volunteering and building credibility, or taking a lower wage job to build experience, keep refining the map to get to where you want to be. You have a lot of education, so I'm pretty sure you'll be able to put it all together. As I see it, many years ago (in my heyday) there were a surplus of jobs but unfortunately today there is a surplus of labor. That requires you to think outside the box, most advice you still get today was more applicable to the workforce of the 70's and 80's. One thing to remember, the education alone doesn't guarantee you a job (like it used to), you have to use everything you can offer to convince an employer that you're the right person. It's tough but the tough keep trying. Best of luck to you.

[SoundNinia]

Originally Posted by FredJung

It seemed you didn't care what degree you got only that you heard from somewhere you will make money with your education alone. You were misled or simply misinformed. You had no focus and majored in history because you thought you can get jobs in law or medicine. A BA in history doesn't get much and usually they go to law school.

A college degree is good and you have more options that most. But if you think you can get the great job with that alone, you are in for some hurt.

You need to consult with a career counselor and they will help you look through your education, skills, and experience to know which job is right for you. It seems you are just shotgunning your resume to any job and you have no focus. Focus down to the job that fits you. Then you go from there. Don't make your job search like your college career where you had no focus and did whatever with no plan.

I was misinformed and when I got my associates and bachelors at the time, it was around early 2000. I told my folks about what I read on the internet, but at the time, my mom said that anybody could write anything and well, I believed her as that made sense. I wish people did value a history degree more though.

Unfortunately, I was always told and pushed to get an education as once you have an education, NOBODY can ever take that away from you, or at least that's what my family said. They are right, nobody can take it away from me, but that doesn't mean that people have to value it either. I will try to speak to a career specialist at my university this week, but the last time that I went, they were not that helpful.

Originally Posted by DPolo

1rst Question, you had no idea what Business Administration is like, what it pays and what are the typical day to day... Did you ? I mean if you did not, then you made a mistake. Should have done more research before coming your money and energy into a degree.


Question #2: I know there are people with issues, but every one has a degree. You can not get the $10 an hour job you have without it.

If you consider your resume, and by that I mean what you offer employers and how are those skills valued.... Those skills are not that valuable. Your Education is your credentials, but you also need skills. Marketable skills.

Marketable skills like what?

Originally Posted by joe from dayton

I don't think you chose the wrong degree; I think you overvalued the degree/s that you did get. Business degrees and MPAs don't mean companies are going to throw money at you; you have to start at the bottom, just like everybody else. Volunteer at a large NPO; it will give you something for your resume and, it may turn into a job or, at least, a good job reference.

I probably did overvalue the degree. An MPA isn't really a bad degree, but like you said, you have to start off at the bottom and get your foot in the door. I will look into volunteering, but the only issue with that right now is that I have bills to pay and free doesn't pay the bills.

Originally Posted by jaypee

"So I switched to Spanish" ... why Spanish?
"and finally settled on History" ... why History?

I think you bounced around without truly thinking about what skills you are aquiring that would be marketable/useful in the real world (instead of areas of studies that don't involve math that will net a degree).

Did you do any internships while you were in the MPA program?

I switched to Spanish because in that stupid college catalog that I had, they also said that you could get jobs in journalism, law, translator, or business and that businesses are looking for people with an international focus or something like that. Funny thing is that after the recession, all of that was changed. When you look at a history or spanish degree, hell any degree, it doesn't tell you what they are suited for or what jobs you can get with it in the catalog.

I originally transferred to spanish because again, hey business! I liked the classes and I figured as a backup, I could teach spanish, however, my university sucks(if you can't tell already) and their foreign language classes were on a rotation because they only had 3 professors for 9000 students which is ridiculous. The university just did not promote the foreign language department. I got my undergrad a while back now and the campus size has almost doubled and it is STILL like that, with only 3 professors, and 15,000 students now.

My minor was History and I realized that I was running low on loan money so it was better to graduate with a degree than no degree at all. It was too late for me to go back to business, so I went with someone that I was interested in, but where all my classes transferred and History fulfilled both of those requirements. I do like what I studied and it was interesting, but I just feel that people don't value it as much as say a Spanish or English degree.