I went to college for THIS?

[NoFuture]

When I was in high school everyone assured me that when you go to college and do well you end up with a good job. In fact, the ONLY way to get a good job was to go to college and do well.

Well, WTF? I'm a secretary! I barely make a living wage.

My degree was in communications. I thought maybe a cool PR job where I travel the world (like my friend from high school has) or working in publishing (like my freshman roommate now does) or SOMETHING. But the only job I found when I graduated (in DECEMBER- I really thought I'd have an edge entering the job market a few months ahead of the May/June rush of grads) was as a lousy secretary! My mother is a secretary. She never went to college. Why did I waste four years and put myself tens of thousands of dollars into debt just to end up a secretary?! Why didn't someone tell me that my degree would be useless? That even when you make Dean's List every semester- every SINGLE SEMESTER end up at a job where the description reads "high school diploma or equivalent preferred, not required."

So I guess my crisis centers around my job. I have a good apartment in a cool city and I'm getting married to my high school sweetheart next year. If it wasn't for my horrific job and outrageous student loans I'd be living the American dream.

To compound things, I may have actually found what I want to do with my life but I'd have to go to grad school to do it. Grad school! Where am I going to get the money to even take the GREs let alone pay for grad school!

[MOS9904]

Did you take the first job offer you received or did you hunt a little bit?
GPA never really matters when applying for jobs, just that you have the degree.

Bostons market has become much better over the last year, if you dont like where you are---have you been looking for another job?

[wannabewriter]

I live in the Boston area, too, and there are no jobs (except healthcare, every single hospital needs nurses). If this makes you feel any better, I have a graduate degree and I can't get a job doing anything. At this point I'd be happy to be a secretary (honestly) but, no, I'm overqualified!!! For everything else, I'm underqualified!
Hey, at least you've got the relationship part done.... that's what tortures a lot of twenty-somethings.

[kitalyn414]

oh man... i've been there, and i'm STILL a secretary. i don't know what to tell you except that it gets better. just try to keep in mind that you won't be a secretary forever. i've kind of come to terms with the fact that i have to start at the bottom in my industry, so in that sense... i'm not really qlcing anymore.

and if you know that you really want to go to grad school, you can make it happen. it sounds like you had great grades, so you could probably look into grants and all that. then supplement with student loans. i know it may not sound like a great idea to go into more student loan debt, but it really is an investment in your future and your happiness. so if you really want it, i say go for it.

[wordsmith]

Relax, your degree isn't worthless. It's a timing/circumstances matter, is all. I'd never be sorry that I invested in my education, if I were you.

[joneshen]

Well, WTF? I'm a secretary! I barely make a living wage.

My first real job out of college was being a secretary. I didn't mind it too much, even though other people thought it was weird.

[personalegend]

Originally posted by wannabewriter
[ At this point I'd be happy to be a secretary (honestly) but, no, I'm overqualified!!! For everything else, I'm underqualified!
Hey, at least you've got the relationship part done.... that's what tortures a lot of twenty-somethings. [/B]

Seriously! The over qualified/under qualified dilemma! I have the same problem. I can't wait until we are all in our 30s and look back at this and laugh.

[kimmer23]

i know this sucks, but hang in there. everything WILL eventually work out and fall into place (not quite that simple-but with a little bit of effort) i felt the same way 2 yrs ago. things felt pointless at one time...

just hang in there!

[winneythepooh7]

Welcome to the club. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I have a Master's and 6 years of experience under my belt and still can't find a good job~~the places that do call I am overqualified for and the good jobs don't call. All my friends who are communications majors are either unemployed or working as secretaries or working making like $25-$30,000 a year or "interning". Something's gotta give eventually....................

[NoFuture]

I've actually spent quite a lot of time looking for other jobs but now that I am an "experienced" secretary all I get offered are other secretarial positions. In fact, I start a new secretarial job next week. Slightly higher paying, slightly more challenging, but likely to bore me just as quickly as my current job.

I took one of the first jobs I was offered because I was in a new city with no friends or family and my graduation money only got me one month's rent. I needed money and benefits FAST. Moving home was not an option.

(Incidentally, to the person who mentioned that all there is in Boston are healthcare jobs- that's what I do, sort of. I'm a secretary in one of the city's hospitals. Currently for an outpatient clinic, soon to be the assistant to a surgeon. I should have been a nurse! The nurses in my department make SO much money and they get to do meaningful work.)

*sigh* Well, I'll just hope my upcoming secretarial gig is a bit more fulfilling... At least I can sit in on surgeries from time to time...

[tartytwenty]

Around here, nursing is a hot market too. They make good money are always in demand. Some places want a contract to make sure they get to keep their nurse for a year or two. I would do it, but faint of the heart. Looking through my community college coarses, doesn't seem like it would take too long to conquer. Then,I think, I'm not 100% sure, that's there special programs to help repay loans if you become a nurse because our country is in serious need of them.

But all that blood and gore...think I'd faint!

You could look into nursing...quite the career change however. But it's an option. I have a degree in Telecommunications Management (phones, pcs, networks) and often feel that going back to school for something else is no big deal. Doing it now is the time to do it.

[Sagiquarius]

No Future you are singing my song. I also got a degree in Communications and expected to be doing something really cool and exciting, only to find myself doing customer service for a bunch of ingrates. It's the same old song when you go for a job in the Media field, you need experience for the jobs but can't get jobs so you can gain the experience.

We're in the same bot because I too wonder what the hell it--my college "experience"--was all for. Because it certainly has not allowed me access to some world of endless opportunities. All it has done is put me in thousands of dollars in debt. I feel like I went to a club and higher education was some smooth talking slimeball who slipped me a date rape drug, took me home had his way with me and left me wondering what happened.

But you're in good company here

[ourhands]

I am in the same boat as all of you...

I got my degree in psych and thought I would be at a hospital with my own paitents and along with a psychiatrist...or something intense like that...

That of course is crap because while i do work with the psychiatrist on my locked unit, until recently i was never asked my opion on the paitents and usually never told what the plan is for the paitent.

I recently voiced my opnion that i want to be a part of the team, and my boss said that I was being negative and that I was too new to be making negative statements about the workplace. All I asked for was more responsibilty...and all she said was 'well you are more expierenced than the other workers, but we can't give the unexpeirenced works more than they can handel'. So I took it upon myself to become more involved, but now all my coworkers hate me...i can't win!

meanwhile I am cleaning up after paitents, taking them out to smoke, and with the elderly ones...wiping their asses...I am always saying, did i really go to 5 years of college to do this crap work???

Until I either go back to school or switch professions, I remain underpaid and over quallified...

-maria

[NoFuture]

Originally posted by Sagiquarius
I feel like I went to a club and higher education was some smooth talking slimeball who slipped me a date rape drug, took me home had his way with me and left me wondering what happened.


LOL. This is the BEST way I have ever seen to describe the "college experience."

[InbetweenDays]

Oh jeebus, I completely feel you. I've been thinking "I went to college for this?!?!" for the past 3 months. I'm a paralegal at a big NY law firm, and they essentially treat you like a 5 year old.. they have some of the filing systems by color to make sure that eveyone can do it and no one gets it wrong. Wasn't I qualified to sort by color when I left pre-k? I've figured out the kinds of things I'm interested in life, but eveyone tells me there is no career in what I like, aside from being a professor. That appeals to me, but my family essentially said being a professor is a worthless. ugh...

[WeirdBrake]

That appeals to me, but my family essentially said being a professor is a worthless.

That's funny. So far the most positively influential authority figure in my life, aside from either of my parents, was a professor.

[ibgski]

hi guys...mainly a lurker here, but the subject of this thread is EXACTLY how i'm feeling right now.

I'm yet another communication graduate who hopes to be working in the media field, yet right now I spend my day working in a glorified customer service position with an insane boss that just today yelled at me for touching her orange folders.

apparently orange folders are off limits to all those who wish to remain alive...who knew?

Anyway, I just had to join in because I'm working really hard right now to find a new job that I actually use my degree in and I could use a little encouragement!

[wordsmith]

Originally posted by WeirdBrake


That's funny. So far the most positively influential authority figure in my life, aside from either of my parents, was a professor.

Yeah, same here.

[InbetweenDays]

The most influential person in my life has been a prof of mine, I actually aspire to be like him. My parents don't see it as a career that would make money though, and thus discourage me from it. :cry:

[personalegend]

It seems that professors can make a pretty good living actually, depending what college you work at. Especially if you get tenure. But I guess it depends what is a 'good living' to you. I think anything over 100,000 a year is a pretty great living. I think my professors made something like that in the UC system.

[InbetweenDays]

My idea of "a good living" isn't that high, essentially enough that I can feed, educate, and put clothes on any family I may choose to have. So it's no matter of money. My family on the other hand is fairly well off, and puts a lot of value on appearance and prestige of job. What I'm going to do with my life has been a rather heated topic in our family. My ideals (professor, human rights law, international conflict resolution/mediation) are pretty much looked down on by the rest of my family, and they kinda not so subtly hint to my parents that they shouldn't financially support me on anything aside from getting my law degree.

[Ambrose]

I think there is A LOT of misunderstanding about the academic profession and parents or anyone else who discourages you from it most likely came from a generation that didn't place that much emphasis on education. Times are changing and our generation has learned that sometimes we need more than a BA to get a job where we can live comfortable and support our families.

I've known a lot of excellent professors who made great impacts in my life and they were also well compensated for it by their institution. I'm a big believer in it all depends on what type of a professor do you want to be. I've known professors both in undergrad and law school that just sit back, coast through, don't want to be bothered and just teach from the teaching manual. Hell, I could take the teacher's manual and do it myself and probably learn more than what they're "trying" to teach me.

On the other hand, I've had professors who are absolute genius in what they do and it shows. They take on scholarly endeavors outside the institution, write articles or books, conduct lectures to their peers and become widely recognized in their field as leaders and experts that others rely on. That's the kind of professor that you should aspire to be and the rest will follow.

Realize that there's a generational gap when looking at these issues, especially when it comes to academia. The world is changing and what worked for our parent's generations doesn't really work now. Our world is much more different and they should step back and realize that what we deal with is much different.

I say follow what you want to do and become the absolute best you can be at it. I know that sounds cliche, but it's the truth. Be willing to work to be the best at what you're doing and the rest should fall into place.

:)