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I have a friend who got a job with CSX after majoring in communications. The language and critical thinking skills you learn in communications is gonna benefit you some way if you know how to apply.them.
I have a Communications degree. I wasn't particularly successful, but that's because I realized once I started working that I really don't care for the whole career thing much, lol. If I was way more motivated, outgoing, and active than I am I could definitely have gotten ahead, and in fact I knew many people from my university's program that ended up with great jobs - most in marketing, PR, sales, advertising, a few even in media.
The reason I chose the major is because I was always good at writing and language but terrible in math and science. So it had to be arts since I couldn't even handle the math required for a business degree, and I figured that communications would be a slightly more practical and applicable degree than just English. I had this hopeful idea of ending up as a copywriter for an ad agency, or in marketing, or working for a magazine or book publisher. Of course I vastly underestimated how few these jobs are and how competitive. I didn't realize that just being a good writer isn't enough, you also need to be a great people person and be able to sell yourself, which wasn't me. I also didn't realize that it's close to impossible to get hired as a full-time copyeditor or proofreader and be able to read and edit for a living - which was the one thing I felt I was good at and enjoyed doing. So here I am, SAHM and dreading trying to re-enter the job market at some point
I have two degrees in communications, BA and MA. Unlike many degrees, communications is a degree where you learn a lot of things.
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Originally Posted by plmokn
I wonder what the gender breakdown is. Is it 50/50 men and coeds? I doubt it.
Realize men are programmed to be the breadwinners. They have to chose majors that leads to jobs. Women may say that, but in the back of their minds, many women realize being the breadwinner is the second priority to being a mom. Get a degree in communications, get married, get pregnant, be a mommy. No need to major in engineering or something in relatively high demand. Same with art history majors - almost all women.
I never wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be a radio announcer.
Ouch! It is sad to hear that the communications degree ranks so low with you folks. I have enjoyed the fruits of my communications education.
BA - Communications (1995)
MA - Communication & Leadership Studies
My last 3 job titles:
Senior Vice President of Human Resources (Forbes Top 100 Co.)
Senior Vice President Global People Development
Chief Talent Officer (Forbes Top 50 Co.)
Don't knock it until you've got all the facts.
+1. My wife was a Communications major.
She's been very successful doing sales and marketing/meeting planning in the hospitality industry for the last 25 years.
This is not one of the majors I recommend to young people, unless:
1) They just need an easy BA, any BA. A lot of government and state positions are like this. Some state workers need "any" 4-year degree to advance to management. And before I get the haters going, it is an "easy" degree compared to the hard sciences and engineering.
2) They already have a solid sports career and a good "announcer" voice.
3) They have relatives in the TV/radio fields and are either very good looking or have solid camera or technical skills, plus work well under deadlines, year in and year out.
4) They have some other skill set that would make them an asset around a TV or radio station (such as ability to sell water to fish or sand to people who live at the beach).
5) They are rich and are going to college more to look for an educated partner.
All others should seriously rethink it as a major. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but I know more part-time retail workers with communication degrees (and huge student loans) than I care to tell you about.
Honestly, if you like this sort of thing, go to a real tech writing program (one where you also take some engineering classes) and get a degree in technical English. That's more likely where you will be writing manuals, doing grant writing, or other activities that companies will pay decent money to produce. Sometimes that's called "communication," but it requires a more technical set of skills.
An inquisitive question. Not knocking the major or anything, but looking at colleges, it’s apparently among the top 10 most popular majors.
If it’s one of the most popular majors, wouldn’t that mean the field is oversaturated? What is the usual goal for someone with a Communications degree?
Any here who are Communications majors? What did you learn?
What would make a person choose Communications as a major? What would be your interests?
For some people, a Communications major is just another generic major, and they won't go into that field. A friend of mine double-majored in Communications and art, and then went on to get two MA's: one in filmmaking and the other in art history. While in grad school she did film documentation for the campus museum, and PR film for some of their exhibits. As an Alaska Native, she's interested in documenting the traditions of Indigenous people in Alaska and around the world to assist in preserving or reviving art and craft forms at risk of being lost, and bringing them to the awareness of the general public. If you're interested in music (I see your username), you can be a film score producer and produce sound tracks for TV science series and other productions.
One thing communications majors can do is handle internet promotion for companies and print media. Not just web design, but managing a presence on FB, Twitter, etc. (I've seen recent job listings for this.) And look at all the specialized magazines on the market; a CMU major could be a travel writer, enviro reporter, political analyst, war correspondent. S/he could create his/her own niche. On the more mundane side, they write IT manuals, and the like, handle PR for universities or write for alumni magazines, or go into advertising and marketing. There's always a demand for marketing specialists, though that usually requires an MA. CMU majors can also go into sales. There are specialized courses for that.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 08-09-2014 at 12:22 PM..
Someone should tell two of my friends who got jobs as producers at local news stations straight out of college that there are no jobs in the field.
I know a guy who got a job producing the sound tracks for a weekly documentary series even while he was in college. He went on to work with prominent filmmakers doing their film scores, and produced some science documentaries of his own for PBS.
These are great success stories! However, for every two of those, I'll bet I can come up with 85 more graduates from communications programs who have minimum wage jobs in retail, fast food, or a call center.
To be fair, there are a couple of excellent programs but the majority of them produce grads with heads full of dreams and few marketable skills. I work with one on my weekend job who can't put together a coherent seven sentence press release, let alone one that is free of spelling and grammar errors.
I wish I could say that she can produce awesome how-to videos or really cool webinars, but she can't do that, either. She claims to know web design but hasn't heard of Dream Weaver or cascading style sheets (and why they shouldn't be used in many projects).
I'll stop here, but she's very typical of the communications grads I know.
Give me someone who has passed a 300-level technical writing course with a 4.0, and I can train him/her to produce at least a passable webinar in an afternoon.
[A webinar is a seminar that's online.]
Last edited by Meemur; 08-09-2014 at 01:00 PM..
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