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Another history major, eh? I'm in law school now, I fear I may have stumbled from one bad degree to another. My wife is an auditor - She was hired before she graduated... How nice that must be...
On a positive note for today's job scene, the "reality" show biz seems to be doing pretty well - just make sure to polish up your whining and being-a-selfish-jerk skills to increase your chances of being hired.
On a positive note for today's job scene, the "reality" show biz seems to be doing pretty well - just make sure to polish up your whining and being-a-selfish-jerk skills to increase your chances of being hired.
Supportive? My parents were the same way with me and my siblings, I consider it more apathetic than....supportive.
Maybe YOUR parents were apathetic, but mine are quite the opposite - they've always been supportive, almost to the point of smothering and controlling us well into adulthood.
I still remember my first day of college at UOP (as a transfer student), where I'd chosen to go based on their Music Therapy 5-year MS program... within hours I realized that wasn't the right major for me, but I was afraid my parents wouldn't pay private school tuition for an English degree. So I called my father in tears, and basically said "you decide what I should do, since it's your money." His answer was that he only wants me to be happy, and if studying English at UOP would make me happy, that was fine by him. I switched classes the next day, and 3 years later graduated with honors in English. No regrets on either side, since it led me into a solid career which I thoroughly enjoy.
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In terms of "not liking math", when I started college I didn't care about mathematics. I didn't care much about science either. I started studying music and anthropology (and then the intersection of the two), but at some point I took a Logic course offered by the Philosophy department and by "accident" discovered an interest in mathematics. I switched my course of study and ended up spending 5 years as an undergrad and graduated with a ridiculous amount of units. My point? Kids come into college with large biases, biases that don't necessarily serve them well. Liberal arts degree programs almost entirely shield students from having to take any serious course work in other fields as a result they never get a chance to see the fields for what they really are..... Indeed, they may live their entire lives without knowing what math, science, etc are really about.
Interestingly, later as a graduate student I once again, by accident, discovered an interest in computer science. I discovered, like previously in the case of mathematics, that it was not the boring subject I once conceived.
Don't most schools require general ed courses, which include math & science? I know mine did! I took the required lab science, even picked one that sounded vaguely interesting (as it involved animals) - still hated it, and literally had to beg the professor for a passing grade. I also took a few math and computer classes, and did well but simply did not enjoy them. I'm glad things worked out for you, but I was definitely more well-suited for a liberal arts degree. Everyone's brain works differently, so what's good for one person may not be good for another... otherwise we'd ONLY have people working in technical fields, and the fields of teaching, creative arts, history, etc, would all be dead by now. What a sad world that would be, IMO.
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No danger of being outsourced, but there is a danger of being outdated.
Nah... we've evolved as a profession for centuries, and have yet to be "outdated" from society. Thirty years ago libraries had card catalogs, now we use OPACs (Online Public Access Catalogs); thirty years ago we checked out books by stamping a card, now we scan their computer-generated barcodes & print a receipt; thirty years ago you had to walk into a library for reference assistance, now you can email or IM/chat with a reference librarian online; thirty years ago we basically only offered books & a few classical music records, now we check out as many DVDs as books, have an extensive eBook collection, and half our visitors only come for the Internet usage. And so on and so forth. As long as we're willing to learn and grow, which we generally are, there's little chance we'll be outdated in the foreseeable future.
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How is that? People don't walk around with their employment status on their forehead. You'd have to know two pieces of information, the size of the local employment pool for computer related fields (both employed and unemployed) and then the number of just employed. Not sure how exactly you can derive that information from living in the community....
Just from paying attention, knowing LOTS of people in the field, and listening to them complaining about how tough it is to find a job. As I stated above, it's never been something I bothered to research... I was simply making an observation, but I should know better than to make personal statements on CD without a hundred articles to back up the comment. Maybe it's still a decent profession to enter, but I can see with my EYES AND EARS that it isn't what it used to be (and I've lived here on & off since 1983).
I found this thread during one of the many "English degree is worthless" Googlings I've taken to doing in between job searching just for, let's call it "****s and giggles." I just wanted to put my own take on things out here.
I have a BA in English with honors from Centre College (very popular college right now; one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges as ranked by US News & World Report and #34 on Forbes' list of top colleges), publications in magazines and experience working with various editing software including InDesign. I've been unemployed since I graduated (into the 6th month now). I've almost run out of money and no one anywhere will do me so much as the courtesy of sending me an automated rejection email. My life is nothing but jobs boards and I eat, sleep and **** resumes and writing samples all day and all night. The only thing I can do is be thankful that I have no debt because my grandmother left enough money to pay for my education when she died.
I've asked everyone I can think of for advice and it's all been worthless. I've sent letters to the American Association of Publishers, emailed their staff for a little help, anything. Everyone from HR staff to former professors has been useless.
This, I think, is reality. Did I realize it would be this hard for me to find a job with my degree? Nope. No one warned me. I knew it would be difficult, but this is absurd.
Last edited by OneBlackbird; 11-05-2011 at 11:07 PM..
Reason: typo
I found this thread during one of the many "English degree is worthless" Googlings I've taken to doing in between job searching just for, let's call it "****s and giggles." I just wanted to put my own take on things out here.
I have a BA in English with honors from Centre College (very popular college right now; one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges as ranked by US News & World Report and #34 on Forbes' list of top colleges), publications in magazines and experience working with various editing software including InDesign. I've been unemployed since I graduated (into the 6th month now). I've almost run out of money and no one anywhere will do me so much as the courtesy of sending me an automated rejection email. My life is nothing but jobs boards and I eat, sleep and **** resumes and writing samples all day and all night. The only thing I can do is be thankful that I have no debt because my grandmother left enough money to pay for my education when she died.
I've asked everyone I can think of for advice and it's all been worthless. I've sent letters to the American Association of Publishers, emailed their staff for a little help, anything. Everyone from HR staff to former professors has been useless.
This, I think, is reality. Did I realize it would be this hard for me to find a job with my degree? Nope. No one warned me. I knew it would be difficult, but this is absurd.
Go back to college for your PHD. You'll get a stipend to live off of, a PHD, and hopefully a better opportunity by the time you get out.
I am majoring in Communications, and according to some people, that's a useless major but my goal is to become a wedding planner one day, so since it's relevant to what I want to do in my life, I feel it's worthwhile. My plan is to first become an event planner for a hotel or company (I will live ANYWHERE) and then once I get experience/testimonials, I can open up my own business. As for experience before I enter the "real world", my school has a campus activities board that I plan on joining but you can only apply in September, so I have to wait until next year.
I really don't like college at all and I don't need a degree to be a wedding planner, but it wouldn't even be an option for me not to attend college so...
Last edited by traveler92; 11-06-2011 at 12:17 AM..
Maybe YOUR parents were apathetic, but mine are quite the opposite - they've always been supportive
Call it whatever you wish, but I wish my parents weren't supportive of whatever me and my siblings decided to study in college. Indeed, it hasn't ended particular well for my siblings.I will not make the same mistake. I will not support, on any level, a decision to major in one of the Humanities.
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Originally Posted by gizmo980
Don't most schools require general ed courses, which include math & science? I know mine did!
The general ed requirements of your typical university are very weak. As I've been trying to say here, taking 2 watered down science classes hardly provides one with a good understanding of science. Typically there are no mathematics requirements, at least at 4-year universities.
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Originally Posted by gizmo980
I also took a few math and computer classes
What exactly is a "computer class"? Like, how to use a computer? That isn't computer science. What mathematics courses? Courses like "College Algebra" are totally unrepresentative of serious mathematics.
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Originally Posted by gizmo980
Nah... we've evolved as a profession for centuries, and have yet to be "outdated" from society.
The relevant technologies are all recent, so this provides little solace. What task of a librarian do you think cannot be duplicated by a machine?
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Originally Posted by gizmo980
Maybe it's still a decent profession to enter, but I can see with my EYES AND EARS that it isn't what it used to be (and I've lived here on & off since 1983).
Talented folks in computer science are some of the most in demand individuals in the country, indeed, they can easily make more than doctors, lawyers, etc.
On the other hand the market is flooded with people with Humanities degrees...
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- just make sure to polish up your whining and being-a-selfish-jerk skills to increase your chances of being hired. 
Maybe it's still a decent profession to enter, but I can see with my EYES AND EARS that it isn't what it used to be (and I've lived here on & off since 1983).
