NationStates Jolt Archive

I've been reading the threads on decision making/college majors. My question now to college graduates: After college, did you find a job in your area of study?

I majored in English, but I'm now a paralegal. My sister majored in Psychology, but she works for Nintendo. My friend majored in political science, but she works as a part time music teacher/barista/baseball umpire.

I'm just curious. :D

I'm a history graduate, and unlikely to do anything associated with history ever again...

Kind of, but not really. I majored in international relations and French, and now work at a law firm. It's civil litigation, which has nothing to do with what I studied in college, but I plan to go to law school and concentrate on international law, so it's sort of a nice little segue.

History.

had a job at a historical site. Currently work in R&D for the lighting industry (mixing research and electronics training).

I'm wondering why this is. I know it's an individual choice, but I'd like to see some statistics on this.

Personally, there aren't a lot of job options for an English major in my town (other than teaching *shudder*).

I majored in computer studies (network, troubleshooting...) and I will be getting a job in my field because I had a practical and not a theory-based education.

I'm wondering why this is. I know it's an individual choice, but I'd like to see some statistics on this.

Personally, there aren't a lot of job options for an English major in my town (other than teaching *shudder*).
Hmm... jobs for English majors. My dad was an English major, and he ended up in the Navy then the State Department. One of my roommates from senior year was an English major, and she went on to get her masters. Now, though, I think she's working for some Kaplan-like organization.

I was a History and Anthropology double major and now I'm in law school. So I will be doing what I learned for my professional degree, but not my undergraduate degree.

Classics graduate here and no, I didn't go any further than the bachelor's degree. Somehow, through various strange wanderings, I became a computer programmer. Go figure. Still, I think studying Greek and Latin and history and all in college was the best thing I ever did.

I majored in computer studies (network, troubleshooting...) and I will be getting a job in my field because I had a practical and not a theory-based education.

Having worked in IT for the last 25 years, I'd be very interested in how practical you find your education to have been. Will you let us know after your first couple of staff meetings? (Mostly kidding, of course ... :D )

I majored in Choral Music Education and minored in Traffic Safety because I realized that, my love of choral music notwithstanding, full-time employment doing only that would be rare. I figured I could teach Driver's Ed, too. Then I discovered that Drivers Ed is where retiring teachers go to spend their last earning years still drawing paychecks from the district. In short, I was going to have to wait until a whole bunch of people on the waiting list to teach 15-year-olds how to drive died or left.

I taught part-time (first at .4FTE, then up to .6FTE as I built interest in the program), but couldn't get out of my mother's house on a fraction of full time and couldn't find a small second job to supplement my salary -- and either way, I couldn't get health insurance or dental/vision. So I stopped teaching for three years and became a civil servant at my county auditor's office. I worked in Vehicle/Vessel/Business Licensing and did one year in Public Records. You came to me for car tabs, boat decals, marriage licenses, pet tags, and even if you wanted a license to be an "adult entertainer" (trust me, I'd have refunded some applicants' fees tenfold if they promised to keep their clothing ON).

The work itself was easy enough, but the petty bureaucracy and the lording over people of people with even the tiniest amount of power or seniority was making a meal of my sanity. I was in counseling for the second 18 months of my stay there. So I quit and went to grad school and got my master's in Choral Conducting so that I could broaden my job search to include colleges. And that's why I'm in North Dakota now. I'm in my second year at a college in Bismarck. The places one must go to stay in one's field can be very surprising.

In short, it's certainly possible to work in your collegiate career's subject, but it is almost never easy.

I got an Associates in Music, but I did more music before that than after. But I was a buyer for a record store buying for the Jazz, Classical, Vocals, Blues, New Age, and Cajun/Zydeco sections. Pretty much everything but Country, World (though sometimes) and Rock/Pop. It earned me very little.

I got a Bachelors in Film & Digital Media and more or less immediately started doing set work on TV and Film (primarily reality shows, sadly). The most devastating part is that I found out that I really didn't need that degree to do what I was doing. But I'm still glad I have it.

I also have a graduate degree in Playwrighting but I haven't really written a play since I've graduated. Before I graduated I had written about a dozen which had even more productions. But a it's taken a year out of college for me to realize that no one is going to ask me for a play anymore and I have to actually write them on my own and hustle them on my own. So I've finally started writing again.

I haven't considered looking for work outside of my field. I do, these days, long for the security of a 'regular' job instead of freelancing. I'm killing myself to live slightly worse than how I was when I was a buyer at a record store. But I still want to work in the field I studied.

I also specialized in screenwriting in college, but in all reality it's like I majored in buying lottery tickets...(though the guy who took over my playwrighting residency at my community college, a residency I more or less created, just became a finalist in a major screenplay competition and is starting to get offers. I'd be more jealous (I am a little) but he really is amazingly talented (I directed his second play). It's just been the hot poker to get to writing.)