It’s April. You know, the cruellest month for English majors. Time to leave the archive, graduate, and move on.
This blog has heard a lot of my voice. Now, it’s your turn. And there’s a little money in it for you.
Looking back, what would you tell yourself? That is, imagine back when you first graduated with a MA or PhD or even BA in English. What would you tell that person?
It could be philosophical advice. Career advice. Or a general comment to someone about to leave academia.
What would you tell someone, right now, about to graduate with a humanities degree? Or two degrees? Or three?
You don’t need to be an expert and maybe you are still figuring things out for yourself. But what is the best advice or lesson you have learned trying to find a career with a humanities degree?
$20 bucks to the person with the best answer.
This will be sent via Paypal. I’ll send you an email and let you know if you won. So use a valid email address when you comment.
You have until the end of April to add your voice, share your view, and give a little wisdom to those about to graduate.
I recall the April before I graduated. At the end of that March I had finally realized that academia was a dead end. I spent April:
talking to an air force recruiter (somehow I figured learning Arabic was a way to “use my degree” in English and Philosophy lmao)
looking up youtube videos on how to raise sheep, buying seeds, and fantasizing about being a self-sustaining peasant in the woods
rolling my eyes at my professor’s lecture on the Freudian elements of Frankenstein (Freudian elements of Frankenstein??? seriously??) then angering professor. She assigned surprise quiz as a result of my bad behavior. Got a zero on quiz as I had long ceased doing reading assignments by then.
Watching anime at the computer lab for hours each evening to kill the last few weeks of time on campus.
Living on fast food
Planning with my fellow (jobless) philosophy major friends to buy land in the woods of Oregon and start an ecovillage
If I could give advice to someone in a similar position (dragging their feet through the last month of a college degree that has lost its value overnight,) I would say that college may not lead anywhere but it’s still a hell of an easy life to lead. So enjoy that last month and worry about learning the fundamentals of sheep husbandry and selling yourself to a different career AFTER you’ve left campus and you actually have a taste of what the outside is like.
Thanks George.
It’s some good advice. You are entered!
James
It’s important to remember failing is OKAY. We’re young. We can bounce back. There’s not one defined path in life but endless possibilities. Endless ways to be happy in life. And one job, one path, does not determine that.
I prevented myself from graduating by failing to make up a single class. I had done the math and knew I would be a few credits short, but I finished out that quarter and promptly took three additional years to get my degree. Three long years of knowing that I had put in the time and that the only thing standing between me and that paper was me.
I would tell myself that the future would always be uncertain and to go ahead and take the additional loans if it meant getting my degree that year instead of “sometime” in the future. Not only does an incomplete degree look bad on resumes, but so does a three year lapse in your education.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for the tip–definitely, finish the degree!
Finish your degree. Find a corporate job. Make some money for awhile. See what it feels like to have a savings. And, then decide if this is what you really want to do. Because there is no money on the other side of that PhD. Only a love of words and a desire to share it.
My advice is two-fold:
(1) Always, always, always give yourself permission to walk away. I’ve been a reluctant academic all my life, and for me that’s been a good thing. I re-evaluate at the end of every term whether or not I’d like to stick around. If I answer myself in the affirmative, I approach the next term with renewed vigor. If I answer in the negative, well then I take the advice I’ll put forth in #2. I think completing one degree is the ideal time to do this sort of self-check.
(2) Keep your options wide open. If you’re applying for graduate programs, great! But your English degree can be useful in other ways. The State Department, Google, many non-profits and think tanks along with private sector employers hire folks in the humanities. Sign on to versatilephd.com and see what others are doing with their humanities degrees. Network. Even if you’re accepted at Harvard for your PhD, you should be keeping an eye on non-academic jobs in case you ever find your enthusiasm for the academy lacking. You never know.
I would tell that person one word (with a lot of elaboration, cause that’s how humanities folks roll). I’d simply say TRUST.
Trust your instinct to stay or go. Trust that the people around you who truly care about you will not criticize your decision to leave academia. Take a risk and trust that if you fail, you’ll catch yourself first—because surviving an MA or PhD takes guts and prepared you to catch yourself in failure. But most importantly, trust in yourself that you are a worthy person who by virtue of having an advanced degree in the humanities are marketable, hirable, and well-qualified. After all, humanities creates humans.
I realize it is sappy, but the culture of fear in academica keeps/kept me from going outside of academia.
Know that your degree does not define you. (This is true of all degrees, but this advice goes out especially to all the PhD types out there worried about the identity loss that goes along with leaving academia. You still get to be you, just a potentially happier and better fed version of you.)
No one cares more about your education/career than you do. You have to be your own champion/cheerleader. There are no easy paths or “right” answers. Everything feels like uncharted territory (and it is). Take the opportunity to grab the random $20 when it comes your way, and live it up humanities-student style (with used books, of course, or decadent cocktails).
Imagine the perfect job where you get to be at your best everyday, in a place where you want to live and working with people who compliment your unique personality. Keep applying to places and don’t give up until you find your fit.
I am graduating in May with a BA in English and Political Science. I have a perfect position at Texas Tech University where I will be supervising student leaders beginning in July. I will be attending Graduate school there for Counseling and I’m particularly interested in the ways that creative writing can be used as a form of therapy.
Go out and do it. Sell your skills, not your degree. Prepare to be getting someone coffees — everyone has to start somewhere. Don’t think you need an “education” to learn workplace skills (ie: you don’t HAVE to go back to college). Learn from the industry you want to be in. That’s how everyone else does it.
I’d say to myself as a fresh BA graduate:
Use the critical and research skills you learned as an undergraduate before deciding to go to graduate school. Get informed about one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. Do the following:
1: Question all authorities. Don’t assume that because your teacher says that there are lot of jobs with a history or english degree mean that there are. Don’t buy empty claims from faculty who say that retirements are creating lots of new faculty job openings. Talk to sessionals who are looking for these jobs right now, not those who landed a job thirty years ago.
2: Put your research skills into practice: research graduate school and the job market. The information is out there – both quantitative and anechdotal. Read blogs, the Chronicle, and impartial studies (and not those commissioned by higher ed associations.) Draw your own conclusions about whether graduate school is worth the time, effort, and cost.
3: Make a plan B: talk to non-academic employers and do information interviews about how employable you will be with an MA or PhD. AQre you likely to get a job with just a degree? If not, are the risks worth it? Make sure you have a plan in place and are not making any foolish investments that have no ROI.
Thanks for all the great advice so far. Some real insights in there. Wish I had more money to give out!
James from selloutyoursoul
Don’t be ashamed of your “impractical” background. An education in the humanities is not a “waste”–it’s good for you as a person, which (while it won’t guarantee you a job, especially at the entry level) will pay off in the long run in the form of your writing and critical thinking skills, which will be better than those of your colleagues who studied “practical” fields.
It’s a great big myth that what you go to college for determines your work history. Lots of people change careers, even engineers and managers. Changing directions, or taking time to find a direction, is not failure. For that reason, as well as because the entry-level job is the hardest to get for those of us with fewer hard skills, take every opportunity to get even little bits of work experience in different fields and to grow a variety of skills. Versatility is the best safety net.
Pretend you are out on the job market, looking for employment. Look for a job you really, really want. Then determine the skills/experience you need to land that job. Job ads will typically list these requirements. Then go out and obtain those specific skills/experience/networking contacts.
Take one representative job ad that really interests you, and work on obtaining the skills/experience necessary to qualify for that job. If what you are doing now or plan to do in the near future does not give you those skills/experience necessary for that job, then you need to ask yourself whether you are spending your time and money wisely.
Everything you do now and in the near future should make you a better candidate for that one job.
This assumes that the job will be still available after you obtain the skills/experience necessary to be an excellent candidate for the job. Therefore, it is important that you choose a job that you believe will still be in demand after you obtain the desired skills/experience.
Ten years after getting my MA degree I can give you this advice:
Don’t wait any longer to pursue your dreams. If you want to be a writer, to travel around the world, to work overseas, to start your own venture, don’t wait until you are 30, until you have this or that advanced degree, or lots of savings, or work experience. When we grow older, we tend to be more cautious. What seems easier to do in some years, could be more difficult, because we develop resistance and we get afraid to take risks.
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