What a bachelors degree can do for you

[rmelton]

How many jobs are out there that simply require a bachelors degree of any kind, rather than a specific degree? Are there jobs that require a certain skill but would still take someone with an unrelated degree and train them? I'm hoping that with my degree in history and political science, I'll be able to find a job that would bring me in because I have any college degree. I would like to do that until I'm sure on what my next career move should be.

[grneyedmustang]

Yeah, retail. :cry:

[rmelton]

Originally posted by grneyedmustang
Yeah, retail. :cry:

Is this what happened to you?

[grneyedmustang]

But on the serious note, have you thought about teaching or working in a museum? I heard the museum thing is a pretty cool job. Or how about trying to work for the government - I had a friend who worked for the state Senate? She loved her job.

[grneyedmustang]

I was in a similar situation. I have an undergrad degree in Psychology. The only places I could find upon graduation were "Management Trainee Programs" (mostly in the service industry) or jobs such as "child support enforcement". I later ended up going back to school to get a masters in IS, but that field is bottoming out too. That's a different story for another thread.

[gluegun]

I think that the majority of employers out there are more concerned that you have any bachelors degree - the specific major is less important. What line of work are you interested in?

[rmelton]

Originally posted by grneyedmustang
But on the serious note, have you thought about teaching or working in a museum? I heard the museum thing is a pretty cool job. Or how about trying to work for the government - I had a friend who worked for the state Senate? She loved her job.

Well, what I'm thinking about doing now is taking a year after I graduate to just think about life and things, and what I want to do, and then make my next move. But, at the top of my list is going back after I graduate to get my high school teaching certification in history and political science. The only problem there is that it isn't a very high demand area for teachers, but I would be ok with working a regular job until something opened up. I'm also considering elementary ed, but that would take longer to be certified in.
As far as museum work, I heard that you often need a masters to work in museums. Do you know this to be wrong or true?
And government work is something that is on my radar, but not too strongly at this point.

[rmelton]

Originally posted by gluegun
I think that the majority of employers out there are more concerned that you have any bachelors degree - the specific major is less important. What line of work are you interested in?

That's my problem, I don't quite know what I'm interested in. I know that I want to have a job that helps people and makes the world a better place. Pretty idealistic I know, but also very possible, it's just a matter of finding what way I want to accomplish that. Money isn't very important to me. I've never had it, and have gotten along fine. As long as I'm able to pay the bills and have a bit of fun, that's all I need.

[gluegun]

Perhaps you should look at jobs in the non-profit sector. Www.idealist.com is a good place to start.

[rmelton]

Originally posted by gluegun
Perhaps you should look at jobs in the non-profit sector. Www.idealist.com is a good place to start.

Thanks gluegun. :) It looks like it could be very helpful to me.

[GetMeOuttaDC]

if you want an office job, try being an administrative assistant - usually, they can get extra responsibilities and work their way up fast/

[winneythepooh7]

I agree with GG. Don't take this the wrong way, but it is going to be difficult to find a job with your degree. A BA is like a HS diploma these days, especially when it is so generalized. Look at all the threads in the work forum and you will see that even people with Master's degrees are having difficulty finding a job in their specialty and making ends meet. I think colleges don't train their grads well enough for this aspect of the "real world".

[maxwell78]

Originally posted by winneythepooh7
I agree with GG. Don't take this the wrong way, but it is going to be difficult to find a job with your degree. A BA is like a HS diploma these days, especially when it is so generalized. Look at all the threads in the work forum and you will see that even people with Master's degrees are having difficulty finding a job in their specialty and making ends meet. I think colleges don't train their grads well enough for this aspect of the "real world".
AHHHH!!!! It's official! haha.

All us lowly political science majors are destined for a life under a bridge! :D

[GetMeOuttaDC]

max - not under a bridge! You are welcome to sleep on my couch. :)

I actually changed from international relations/poly sci to business because I was scared of the same fate... I have seen so many brilliant people I went to school with who were poly sci types who are permanently broke (and terminally bitter for the most part) And no offense to you all, but it makes me wonder how these majors stay so popular amongst college students!

[gluegun]

My boyfriend has a Poli Sci degree and he does very well for himself. His first job out of college was with a finance firm. Now he works in technology. If he can get hired with a Poli Sci degree then you can. Of course you'd have to resign yourself to working for "The Man". What I'm trying to say is that you DO have options. I stick by my original statement that most employers aren't concerned with specific majors.

[maxwell78]

Originally posted by GetMeOuttaDC
max - not under a bridge! You are welcome to sleep on my couch.
Awww. ;)

I'll take it. :D

[winneythepooh7]

I also think a lot of it has to do with how your resume is written. If you have a slammin' resume you can at least get an interview for a lot of jobs. (Well, IMO). This should count for something, hopefully towards actually GETTING the job.

[gluegun]

And of course, more than anything, it is all about experience.

[rmelton]

Well, I know that with what I will graduate in, I won't have as many options as a lot of others, which I was horribly stressed out about at the beginning of this semester. That was when I dropped journalism. But, I'm handling the uncertainty of it all a lot better now. I do think that the high school history teaching thing would be good for me. it would be a high time commitment, but it would be rewarding, and I'd have summers off. That would rock. But, it's a matter of actually finding any openings in h.s. history teaching. But I've been really fortunate, because I go here to Iowa State, paying out of state tuition, but I've had a full ride scholarship the whole way. I will have made thousands of dollars attending university, because if I graduate a semester early, I get to keep the last 5,000 dollars of a scholarship. So I won't have to worry about loans. So, I think I might take some time off and then go grab my teaching certificate, which would take me about a year or a year and a half. But I'm still not sure yet.

[winneythepooh7]

Good luck, but remember, history teachers are not in high demand. Primarily, it's ESL, Special Ed, math and the sciences that are needed in teaching.

[wordsmith]

Actually, you can get a teaching job in pretty much any subject area if you look in the right places.


I agree with GG. Don't take this the wrong way, but it is going to be difficult to find a job with your degree. A BA is like a HS diploma these days, especially when it is so generalized. Look at all the threads in the work forum and you will see that even people with Master's degrees are having difficulty finding a job in their specialty and making ends meet. I think colleges don't train their grads well enough for this aspect of the "real world".

Actually, I think it greatly depends on where you are, what you're looking to do. I don't think this is true across the board. I've only got a BA, and I've gotten every job I've applied for, pretty smooth sailing. And in my areas of expertise, too.

[Empressallie]

good for you wordsmith! And reassuring too...for those of us still in undergrad

[wordsmith]

In all fairness, though, I've been at my current employer for over three years, now, so when I was hired here, it was slightly before the economy was QUITE so far in the toilet. I may not have been competing with as many people.

But, then, I don't know. We had a writer position here that sat open FOREVER. Jobs ARE there, even in a shit enconomy. You just might have to be flexible.

[rmelton]

Originally posted by wordsmith
In all fairness, though, I've been at my current employer for over three years, now, so when I was hired here, it was slightly before the economy was QUITE so far in the toilet. I may not have been competing with as many people.

But, then, I don't know. We had a writer position here that sat open FOREVER. Jobs ARE there, even in a shit enconomy. You just might have to be flexible.


Where in "da cornfields" are you?

[winneythepooh7]

In NYC the economy is pretty shitty. And I know for a fact that employers won't hire you just because you are qualified or hold a certain degree. I know in my agency they hire, especially in my program, based on the "right fit". We do a group interview for all potential employees of our program. All of us are there. If we aren't feeling it with you, you ain't getting the job. Simple as that.

[and1grad]

How many people are in this group interview? I'm not really a fan of the group interview. It should be just the applicant and whatever management would oversee that person.

[winneythepooh7]

I work on a team which consists of myself, another SW (who is the Director), 2 peers, a nurse and a Psychiatrist. All of us (well usually not the doctor since he is so busy) are there during the interview. I think it is only fair since we have to work so closely as a team. You can pick up immediately who isn't a team player. Also, who we hire impacts the team tremendously so therefore, we should all be present during the interview.

[and1grad]

Shouldnt whoever is in charge there know who would work well with the team w/o the entire team being there, especially since you work so closely? I think having a lot of people at the interview puts the interviewee at an incredible disadvantage. Is this part of the goal? Do you all decide who gets hired or is that (the Director?)'s decision?

[Kitty]

I honestly don't believe that a degree matters all that much. You can probably break into almost any field. I was an American Literature major and everyone would ask me, "so, you're going to become a teacher?" and it REALLY pissed me off.

I now do marketing which isn't really related at all. I also got interviews for PR, human resources, law offices, etc..

You can tweak your resume in your favor. Also, a lot of companies just want to make sure that you do have a BA/BS and it doesn't really matter what it is in.

I'm a firm believe that you can eventually turn your degree into anything you want and that having a BA/BS matters!

[winneythepooh7]

The team has major input into the decision. We work very closely in an extremely stressful program. We gotta mesh. Since we are so close-knit, my boss and I feel that it is good that we are all there so the potential employee can get to know us and we can get to know them. I think it is a good thing. We work closely with 2 peers (translation=former "clients"). A LOT of people are uncomfortable with this, especially because outside of their training program and their own life experience, they really have had no formal education in working with clients with severe mental illness. My boss does an initial interview over the phone, and if HE feels the person is like 90% gonna get the position, then he calls them in to meet us for the follow-up "interview".

[wordsmith]

Originally posted by rmelton
Where in "da cornfields" are you?

Rural Illinois. So, da soybean fields, too, actually.

[rmelton]

Originally posted by wordsmith


Rural Illinois. So, da soybean fields, too, actually.

I see. Well, Ames, Iowa isn't necessarily rural Iowa, but it's close.

[ce607]

I too think there is a lot you can do with a bachelor's degree. I'm getting my master's now because I have to (as a public-school teacher) but before this I never had any trouble getting jobs, and neither have my husband, my brother, and his wife, all of whom have bachelor's degrees and excellent work experience - they're in journalism, computer science/finance, and publishing.

[wordsmith]

Originally posted by rmelton


I see. Well, Ames, Iowa isn't necessarily rural Iowa, but it's close.

Ames is positively cosmopolitan compared to where I'm from! Anyplace with a college or university is! ;)

[lynseymay]

i must say this is a very interesting thread. when I first started college I was a womens studies major, but I started to freak out my junior year not knowing what I wanted to do with that and took an intro to computer science class and ended up loving it and switching my major half way through my junior year. It was tough but I managed to get through it. 2001 was the worst year to graduate NO ONE could get a job I was unemployed for six months because all I had was a BS. but know I realize that if you have a degree regardless of what it is, you can get a job if you do your resume right. I recommend really going over your resume by as many people as possible it'll really help. Point out skills like quick learner, those sorts of things things you don't learn in school.

[Sesamebabe]

I had a very bad experience with just having a BSBA (Bachelors of Science of Business Administration) Degree and I am still bitter about it to this day. It seems that if you do not have extra debt and those 3 extra letters after your name (MBA) you can barely get an interview in a tough market, particularly in business IN Boston.

Background - live in Boston and graduated in the top 10% of my class with a triple business major from a large private University in Boston. This private university has a unique class structure system that I was very familiar with (getting a triple major is quite a feat with the way their system is set up). As a senior at the university, they hired other seniors for a position to assist other students in all grade levels with completing their graduation requirments, mentoring, couseling etc. in the business school I attended. I always thought I would love a position like this because I am highly organized, very outgoing and I already knew the system in and out.

Fast forwrad to 1 year later - graduated from this university into a terrible job market in 2000. Worked retail to make ends meet while looking for a career job. A position opens up at my university, in the very business school I just graduated from, and it is the same position open that they used to hire seniors for. In the requiremenst they say "Must have MBA". I thought to myself - hey, this job defenitly does NOT require and MBA and I am also a top graduate of this school and already know the system, they will at least review my resume., right?

WRONG!!! They actually would not even look at my resume and proceeded to tell me that even hough I was a graduate, they would not even LOOK at my resume. Translation in my eyes = Your degree that you just $100,000 at this institution is not even good enough to work at the very university that gave that degree to you in the first place. MESSED UP!!!!!

Needless to say that this university will NEVER EVER get a dime out of me and when the fund raising call comes to my house I tell this story over and over as to why I will never donate. My university ttook my money and then screwed me when I needed help the most. Funny thing is that this universities alumnae network is terrible, gee I wonder why.

Sorry if the negativity came through in this, but seriously, that was a serious wake up call into the power of an MBA. I unfortunatly refuse to give into stupid societal pressure, so I started my own business instead, that way I won't feel forced to have to get my MBA (I can't afford it anyways with all the loans from my undergrad degree). Also, in the business world, when I talk to my freinds who are getting their MBA, they say that they aren't really learning anything different - so what is that MBA really worth? It just seems to me like another hoop to jump through in order to be considered "elite enough" for an open position in today's job market - is it really coming down to letters after a name instead of personality and experience???

[WeirdBrake]

That sucks, Sesamebabe. Let me tell you, the legal profession is the ultimate example of how the degree has an importance unsupported by reason or common sense. You simply can't practice law without a J.D. from an ABA approved law school. You aren't even allowed to take a bar exam without a law degree. Yet law school itself teaches you very little that prepares you for law. Funny, huh?

There's no reason the legal field should require three more years of schooling after college. In the old days, law was a profession you got apprenticed to, like locksmithing. Even today, America is one of the few countries that treats law school as a graduate program instead of an undergraduate one.

The first year of law school does give you somewhat of an introduction to core legal concepts and methods (in a convoluted way, though). But the courses in the second and third years are either 1) totally useless as far as any educational or practical value for the profession; or; 2) nothing you couldn't learn better by getting actual experience.

But hey, schools are businesses like any other.

[winneythepooh7]

While I agree that schools are profit-making businesses, I think there are certain professions that NEED to require a Master's degree (ie. my own). You learn a lot of things in graduate school for Social Work that you don't get with a BA (or less). I've seen people playing the role of a therapist that really have no clue and end up doing A GREAT DEAL OF HARM TO THE CLIENT, and the main reason for this is because they have not had professional education. I am sure that those of you who have been in/are going through therapy can totally understand why I say this.

[Sesamebabe]

I agree in certain professions that higher education is necessary, specifically professions dealing directly with people i.e Doctors, Dentists, Science/Research, Social Work, Psychology etc. But business is more baout dealing with processes and strategy, not really people and most stuff cannot be taught through school, only through experience - that is why in my opinion that I am totally under the assumption that requiring an MBA to move up is nothing more than a financial conspiracy among the corporations and colleges. If you don't have an MBA they say they can't pay you more, even if you have the proper skills and experience. Sucks.

[rmelton]

well, do employers take into account your college gpa much along with your bachelors, or no?

[winneythepooh7]

Originally posted by rmelton
well, do employers take into account your college gpa much along with your bachelors, or no?

I don't think this is an important thing. Common sense, and street smarts are more important then "book knowledge" if you know what I am saying. Book and classroom knowledge isn't the same as what you actually learn and put into practice in the field. I think that is what was meant by employers wanting an MBA in order to pay more $$$$.

[molsen81]

A BA is not equivalent to a HS diploma unless you're a person with only a HS diploma and want to downplay higher education. I see a great future for you. You can use your history background to gain employment with a museum or a historical site. For example, if you live in New York, you can be an Admn Exec for the Statue of Liberty. Political Science can lead you to gov't jobs in the management and elected department. Examples are: county and/or state comptroller, district commissioner, county clerk, county treasurer. If you can add a Master's to that political science, you can eventually run for office. Don't let anyone discourage you. Spend a great deal of time when searching for a job. The jobs requiring a BS or BA will not be listed in the local paper or on the internet. You have to investigate.

[maxwell78]

Originally posted by Sesamebabe
My university took my money and then screwed me when I needed help the most.
That's exactly how I feel. :frustrate