Is it possible to move to SF and survive? (job openings, transfer)

[Garfieldian]

Originally Posted by nr5667

I have to ask, do you even know what you want, or would put up with?



An English degree isn't about being proficient with the language, it's about literature (and of course, the critical thinking skills that go into analyzing it). Everyone is supposed to have proficient grammar upon graduating college with any degree.

Ultimately, you need to find a way to make the English degree compliment your other marketable attributes, it really can't be your sole marketable attribute, unless you want to be an English teacher.

Not necessarily. English degrees have specializations in New Media, Publishing, Creative Writing, Rhetoric, Business as well as Literature. If you did not specialize there are always post bac certs in technical writing, ESL, teaching, etc.

It also matters what school you went to and the education level. Most of the "liberal arts" people who complain about jobs frankly went to crappy schools and probably also had weak gpas, like a 2.3 from Sacramento State in Communications or something.

Most majors are just a concentration, so you took 12 or so 3-400 level classes in a specific field, while the other 60-70% of your classes were mostly ala carte and GE requirements. Thus pointing out again, why the school you went to matters and will open doors just as much as the "degree". Employers know the caliber of student that goes to Stanford is going to be much higher in general than somebody going to a Cal State, no matter WHAT they major in, they are probably smart enough to pick up new job skills. Of course fields like law, medicine, psychiatry REQUIRE a specific degree... Just getting a typical office job with room to advance a 4 year from a stellar school will put you in good company.
There is a big difference in the marketability of somebody with an English degree from say, Stanford, and one from Cal State or even Oregon in this case which isn't a top tier school and generally only has regional reputation.


Anyway, I am not sure what the OP exactly wants...if he doesn't have something to offer a company, then yes you are probably going to get a crappy office job, no matter WHERE you go, much less San Francisco. If not and you think you have a better idea, then try to go into business yourself.
The system is actually quite fair, we just have a lot of complainers in this country who want a free hand out. You don't get the SF lifestyle by lounging around like a hippie, there is a reason the hippies and street kids live well, on the streets. Bay Area is a hyper competitive market, much more so than anything in Oregon, and as much so until you get to New York or DC.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by love roses

Backing up yankeemama, who I don't know, but this guy is trolling the Austin forum as well claiming to be a newly graduated teacher. He's doing the same thing there, only laying out a list of totally ridiculous Texan stereotypes and asking if he could survive living in Texas and is Austin really an island in a sea of craziness.

oy vey

[Curmudgeon]

Not at all. You move there, you die!

[mayorhaggar]

Crap, now everyone is going to know that we're all zombies. BRAAIIIINSSSS!!!

[gone down south]

I just don't get why people troll internet boards.
What's the fun in it? How much time do you have to have on your hands?

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

This guy has been trolling the forums the last few days with crazy hostility. First, Portland, San Francisco, Austin, back to S.F. He made an inflammatory comment that all asians are rude. I called him on it and he got hostile and resorted to really nasty name calling. He is here all of a sudden so maybe someone needs his meds. I am not kidding, actually. He sounds manic and delussional. Just giving a heads up.

]

This is right. On the Austin thread, he said he was a teacher. He is hostile and insulting wherever he wrights. You all shouldn't spend a lot of time arguing with him.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by gone down south

I just don't get why people troll internet boards.
What's the fun in it? How much time do you have to have on your hands?

It's actually very rare. What really happens is that internet kiddies single out people with whom they disagree and then start calling them "trolls".

And if that person fights back when called an ignorant douchebag loser (for having that disagreed-with opinion), then he or she is "argumentative" in addition to being a "troll".

Get my drift? See how it works?

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by G Grasshopper

This is right. On the Austin thread, he said he was a teacher. He is hostile and insulting wherever he wrights. You all shouldn't spend a lot of time arguing with him.

Yes, but me wrights reel gud. And me is a teecher.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by gone down south

Why did you come here if you weren't willing to listen to the advice given?
Take the emotion out of it and go back, re-read the comments given. We've all tried to be honest and forthcoming with you, I'm sorry that you took our general comments as personal attacks.

I can disagree with some of the advice given, and that doesn't mean I didn't listen to it. In fact, consider the ridiculousness of what you just said--how can you disagree with something you didn't "listen to" (you meant "read', since there's no audio component to these posts, but I won't mark you down for that) in the first place? If I expressed disagreement, I obviously must have read it!

It's this sort of bad writing and fuzzy thinking that I could help to cure if I were hired--for virtually any position.

Some people have tried to be honest and forthcoming, as you put it, and some just put their sneer-face on and said nothing helpful at all. I refuse to believe that because I'm over 50 and "only" have a Bachelor's degree in English, that I'm useless, unemployable trash. Even if several people here tell me so.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by Garfieldian

Not necessarily. English degrees have specializations in New Media, Publishing, Creative Writing, Rhetoric, Business as well as Literature. If you did not specialize there are always post bac certs in technical writing, ESL, teaching, etc.

Anyway, I am not sure what the OP exactly wants...if he doesn't have something to offer a company, then yes you are probably going to get a crappy office job, no matter WHERE you go, much less San Francisco. If not and you think you have a better idea, then try to go into business yourself..

I do have something to offer a company. I can write well. I can think critically. I can analyze data. I can read and interpret documents for nuanced comprehension. I have a strong work ethic. I have a highly developed sense of personal responsibility.

All of the above should be at least suggested by the fact that I have graduated from a major university with a BA in English--and with a 3.93 GPA I might add. (And to answer some of the more combative stalkers on this board, I do have an Oregon teaching credential as well, and have been contemplating teaching elsewhere--not in SF, though, as I'm well aware that the local districts are not hiring.)

And as far as "not listening" to responders, I did say that I understood what people here were saying, that the job market, and SF in general, was dominated by fresh, young, naive (if illiterate) internet kiddies. So the value that workers like myself bring to the table is discounted in the hiring market, just as it is being crapped on by so many posters here.