Terminalcoffee discussion
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What the hell am I going to do with an English degree? Britt: "forreal dough"
Why should I go to grad school? His argument was pretty convincing.And then what happens after grad school???
But not for English, I should clarify. The real question is... what do you want to do? What are some professional activities you might love?
Your institution should have career services offices too, right?
I worked in the library last fall semester, and I liked that. I might want to be a librarian. I don't want to do anything with journalism.I like the idea of teaching, but I don't like the reality of being a teacher.
Yes, we do, but services like that at UNC SUCK SO MUCH ASS. I love a lot of things about my school, but when it comes to any type of advising.....they aren't the best.
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Heheheh yeah I was an English major and I never wanted to teach, also never wanted to be a prof, too much BS. I became involved in multi-media stuff, where my English did come into use. Editing, proofreading, writing, research. But I have great organizational skills, so was able to manage lots of different creative projects, don't know if you have that. There is stuff out there. But ya know, if I had to do it all over again, I would have gone to librarian school after getting my BA.
I entered school as an engineering student, spent my third year wondering what else I might like, and eventually earned a journalism degree. Outside of the school, my only journalism work was an internship.Even when I graduated I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living. By working hard, keeping my eyes and ears open and making contacts, I eventually ended up with a career I enjoyed and that fit my talents.
Some people do better with the vision thing and know from the start what they want. I believe a vast majority are NOT like that, and tend to wander here & there. Keep working hard, but don't be in a rush to pigeonhole yourself in a certain field.
Your bachelor's degree in the humanities really doesn't commit you to any particular career path. It teaches you to read and to write and to think critically and to work independently and to make connections that may pay off in the future. I know very few people who are working in fields related to their undergrad degree.
Britt, what is your minor? Do you want to work for yourself? for other people? In a big corporation? Small business? There are a lot of corporations who are happy to take liberal arts graduates to train in a career. Property and Casualty Insurance Companies for one. They will want you to take insurance courses afterwards though. I imagine Life Insurance Companies will do likewise. Not necessarily as salesperson: claims people, policy writing, human resources...
what Misha said except: even if you do not know what you want to do after graduation, use internships to explore possible career paths that interest you. Also, volunteer positions count. My local township is looking for volunteers for various committees and I think I'll explore these after the New Year.
I do know some English majors who work in the corporate world - they needed a degree to get the job and moved up from there. So it isn't impossible.The thing you need is experience along with the degree. One thing it would be very useful to get experience in is grant writing. That's a big draw, especially for non-profits. It would help if you took a course in technical writing and business writing. And folks are right - the internship thing would be great. It would give you a lot of that experience you need.
My daughter has a doctorate in English and still didn't have much luck getting a job in academia. Now she is a technical editor for a large software company and making a really good living. Plus the product she's on is a video game web site so she gets to play video games as part of her job. She's in the corporate world but in a really fun way.Folks on the thread have asked the question, but I'll ask it again: What do you want to do?
have a happy holiday, britt. will post after the holiday. enjoy yourself!
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lots of good advice regardless of your major. I am going to share this thread with my daughter. She wants to be a doctor.....
Hello, Petra's daughter! Ignore any cursing in this thread or any other. She said she'll hurt us if we use foul language in your presence.
believe me, she has heard just about everything from this blue collar worker! no worries.
Sally, it's one of my most commonly used phrases IRL. When I say it, it's usually like, "Okay, forreal dough" dough = thoughAnd Kate, about what I want to do? I honestly don't know.
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Britt, I did not find what I wanted to do until I was 31. This is your time to explore yourself and the world around you. relax. take a deep breath.
99% of success comes from paying attention.
Watch an old movie. When two men meet each other, the conversation goes something like this:Man 1: "Hello, my name is Steve. I'm in plastics."
Man 2: "Hello, Steve. John -- I'm in advertising."
As a teen and a young adult that always bothered me, possibly because I didn't know what I was going to be "in." These people identified so completely with their occupation that it was the first thing they brought up when making a new acquaintance. It was also a big contributing factor as to why they were so miserable during retirement -- their identity was, by dint of age, taken away from them.
In my thirties, I realized I would never be one of those guys. My identity, I found, came from who I was 24 hours of every day, not from what I did for eight of those hours. Work? It was a means to an end, certainly not an end in itself.
At 40, I learned what that "end" was. It won't be the same for everyone, but for me it was family.
Find your own path; follow your own dreams; if you get lost, keep moving forward, exploring things around you with eyes, mind and heart wide open. You may not know where you're going, but one morning you'll wake up and realize, "I'm here."
That's sage advice. I'd listen to Phil.
Britt, do you want a career (which usually means 50-60 hr. weeks) or a job, where you might have a private life? My son saw me pour time into a career and decided he wanted a job with lots of spare time to enjoy life.
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Sally wrote: "My friend Holly majored in Antropology and now works at a law firm. She had to go back and get a two year degree after graduating from CU in 2000 with me."Sally, re-read this and you'll realize the restraint I'm exercising in not making a snarky comment. Merry Christmas, my friend.
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Hey, Britt. Maybe you're like me. I never did figure out what I wanted to do. I'm retiring next year and still not sure. What I have figured out is that I want to just keep learning. I've had a good career for the past 16 years but even it revolved around learning new technologies all the time and it gave me the resources to persue other avenues of learning. To me that's the best thing about being a writer. You don't have to be pinned down to one thing.Also, I have a dear friend who every decade reinvents herself. She's been a rancher, a facilities manager, a couple of other things that she was before I knew her and now she has a business writing grant applications for non-profits. She's one of the happiest people I know.
You've gotten lots of good advice here (I loved Phil's posting). You've got a couple more years in school and a lifetime to mull it over. The great thing about being alive in these times is that you can be and do so many things.
Have a great holiday!
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@Phil - that is funny that people get associated with their jobs. Most people don't have a clue as to what I do for work, and when they find out they are usually a little shocked as I don't seem to come across like a typical accountant I guess.@Kate - I haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up either,
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I'm all for forgiving mistakes, too, Misha, particularly random spelling errors. And let me chime in also to thank Kate for the lovely card. It's on my mantle.
Hey, Jonathan. I got a little bit excited knowing my card was on a mantle in New York. I guess I still believe that that is where all the really cool kids live!
Kate wrote: "Hey, Jonathan. I got a little bit excited knowing my card was on a mantle in New York. I guess I still believe that that is where all the really cool kids live!"Not true! RA lives in Wisconsin; Larry lives in Omaha; you live in Washington State...why, I could go on and on listing everyone from TC.
I have a friend who dreams of living in NYC.
I would encourage you to think about grant-writing and working for a non-profit. I did that for many years (have a journalism degree) and enjoyed it a lot. The grant-writing is an extremely marketable skill, as is fundraising.
There are one day and three day courses for grant writing where you get a certificate, and the libraries around here do occasional seminars for the basics. I learned how to write grants just by writing them, and offering to read them for others. Some small and staffless non profits would be happy to have someone write for them, if you find someplace to volunteer. My friend Paul learned through writing grants for our songwriters' association.
Misha wrote: "How did you get into grant-writing, Cynthia? I often think when I'm ready to get out of journalism that I'd like to move into the non-profit world."I learned from my boss at a local non-profit and learned fundraising from a fabulous fundraising consultant.
My brother took classes in grant-writing from a college in New York City (the New School, maybe??) and now is a fundraising muckety-muck at the Central Park Conservancy.
I've always heard non-profits pay badly. True or false?
My son's school just hired a grant writer. She's being paid 10% of what she brings in, with a few small caveats. Basically, her total pay will be decided by her own success.
RandomAnthony wrote: "I've always heard non-profits pay badly. True or false?"It depends on the non-profit. You'll probably never get rich working for one but some of the larger ones pay a decent salary. There are also some that pay thier execs exhorbinant salaries -- one of the reasons to be careful where you give.
RandomAnthony wrote: "I've always heard non-profits pay badly. True or false?"Like Kate says, it depends. The jobs can be quite stressful. After I successfully wrote and defended a half-million dollar federal grant for our Homeless Youth Centers, I didn't think I'd ever want to write a grant again.
I have a friend in Amherst, MA who works as a grant writer and also for a non-profit as a volunteer. She was the director of the women's crises service while I was their volunteer public speaker. I recently reconnected with her recently through facebook. She really enjoys her work but she says there are plenty of deadlines. But she makes a decent living and enjoys what she is doing and that's the important part. If you want to connect with her, Britt, let me know.
But anyway, yeah, I have no idea. When I was a freshman, I got a sheet with a list of possible jobs, but I don't know where that is. An english teacher that I'm close with (he's in grad school right now) told me not to go to grad school for English. He gave me a lengthy informative rant about it, and I would copy and paste it here if I had his permission, but he said basically, just don't do it because the academic job market is in the toilet, and it has been for years, and grad schools don't want you to know this.
My family still has that mentality where if you go to college, you're gonna get a great job when you graduate, and that's not the case anymore. So I really....don't know what to do.