Realistic jobs with a liberal arts degree...

tennisdude42

tennisdude42

Rookie
I'm really interested in art (particularly writing,advertisement design,music,film) and humanities and am thinking about majoring in liberal arts, however, many people say that the lack of specialization will make it hard to find a job. Is this true? Any liberal arts majors here or anyone who knows one? Help :confused:
 
ollinger

ollinger

G.O.A.T.
Read a book called "The Wisdom of the Crowd." In essence, it tells you that when many people say the same thing, it is generally true.
 
M

mary fierce

Banned
You need to ask yourself this question: am I unusually creative? The fields you list as interests are all ones that demand not just the interest you profess but great creativity, unlike scientific, technical and legal work which really only require mastering a great deal of information and applying it wisely. If you are talented AND creative, you can likely find employment in those areas. If not, you may wish to reconsider.
 
Commando Tennis Shorts

Commando Tennis Shorts

Hall of Fame
Reminds me of a running joke we had back in college. When one of our friends would ask something like, "What kind of job can I get with a history/philosophy degree?", we'd say, "You can become a history/philosophy teacher." :)

Liberal Arts, though, seems to me to be something that you can hone and perfect through a degree, but it's not the degree itself that can get you a job, it's your skills. So basically, you shouldn't see your degree as a qualification for anything, just the skills you hone from it. My 2 cents.
 
YULitle

YULitle

Hall of Fame
mary fierce said:
You need to ask yourself this question: am I unusually creative? The fields you list as interests are all ones that demand not just the interest you profess but great creativity, unlike scientific, technical and legal work which really only require mastering a great deal of information and applying it wisely. If you are talented AND creative, you can likely find employment in those areas. If not, you may wish to reconsider.
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I have to protest. In particular, a lot of science and legal professions require HEAPS of creativity.
 
M

mary fierce

Banned
Noted; objection overruled. It isn't NECESSARY to be creative to have a very successful legal career; I'll introduce you to some of the tax attorneys and bankruptcy attorneys I know, and you can tell me if they're creative. And most research in science is very incremental, adding small twists to previously done work, which is not to say of course that the best people aren't creative, but merely that one can manage without it, especially in the more technical areas of applied science or engineering.
 
R

RedWeb

Semi-Pro
YULitle said:
I have to protest. In particular, a lot of science and legal professions require HEAPS of creativity.
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I agree... i write software, which I consider a science. The best developers are some of the most creative people you'll ever meet. Creativity must be combined with a skill or concrete knowledge.

As far as jobs in today's economy with a liberal arts degree, I'd practice the phrase, "Would you like the biggy fries with that?"
 
cucio

cucio

Legend
You can take the middle road. My GF and I are engineers and make our dough in that field. I play piano and got a Bachelor in Composition and Arranging, she is currently doctoring in Fine Arts.
 
Dedans Penthouse

Dedans Penthouse

Legend
Forget Goldman Sachs: TENNIS WAREHOUSE for the career "Win"

Send your resume to:

Tennis Warehouse
747 Jeff Buckley Blvd.
Stan Luis Musial, CA 90210
Attn: Chris Edwards, Director of Human Resources

Upon graduation, I was interviewed and subsequently hired by Tennis Warehouse. Granted, I forged the resume, lied my ass off during the interview, and once hired, had to pay my dues and prove my mettle in the mailroom for the first 7 years, BUT: I'm now TW's Associate Assistant Corporate Director of String Dampner Merchandizing, pulling down $24,500 annually, replete with a company Yugo, on-premise salad bar, full health benefits and more importantly, free access to all demo frames with room for career advancement: e.g., Mr. Edwards has promised me a "featured video slot" in TW's '2010' K-91 racquet review (pending my being certified NTRP 2.5).

And if that's not enough, their Christmas Party souriees are "Animal House" insane!

Go West young man! :cool:
 
Dedans Penthouse

Dedans Penthouse

Legend
Tennisdude, sorry for being facetious. That said: as for advertising, "Assistant Media Planner" is a common, out-of-college position in the advertising field. That's probably your most accessible "creative-field" avenue in an entry-level capacity. Grab a "media planner" type position, make 'em fall in love with your work; all the while keeping your eyes/ears open..

As for writing, music, unfortunately those are tougher nuts to crack without a contact. If you're not plucked as a direct "creative" hire, then my "pay your dues" (with a not-so-glamorous) scenario is something you probably have to consider from the onset. From there, if you can catch the eye, the ear (as an appretice) of a mentor--getting noticed---that may allow you to further nudge your foot in their door. In the meantime, don't get discouraged by the number of doors slammed in your face on the road to your eventual success. It's a very, very capricious world....things can go topsy-turvy, e.g. market's going soft, etc.

Again, the music/film segment is especially tough getting in at first. You may have to settle for a "media planner" type position for starters. Good luck.

p.s. Fed-Ex your resume' to Tennis-Warehouse. ;-)
 
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ollinger

ollinger

G.O.A.T.
When I attended Rutgers in the early 70s, the "Rutskeller" cafe in the student center basement often featured a bearded Dylanesque guy in the corner strumming his guitar, singing, and mostly being ignored while people chatted or read. People would look at him and mumble "oh, Springsteen again." That is how you will get started.
 
Teyko

Teyko

Banned
There is not many jobs that call for liberal arts. If you get a degree in liberal arts I would suggest intending to go for your PH.D or a professional school: Law, Medicine, etc. after you graduate.
 
r2473

r2473

G.O.A.T.
tennisdude42 said:
I'm really interested in art (particularly writing,advertisement design,music,film) and humanities and am thinking about majoring in liberal arts, however, many people say that the lack of specialization will make it hard to find a job. Is this true? Any liberal arts majors here or anyone who knows one? Help :confused:
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Major in liberal arts. Have fun. Just be prepared to go back to "tech" school to earn a "get-a-job" degree. I majored in philosophy, economics, and german language. Spent my final year studying in Frankfurt. Partied my ass off all those years AS WELL AS reading some really great philosophy (and other liberal arts material).

After traveling around for a few years, I went back and got my CPA and now do accounting.

Getting a job ain't all that cool. Don't be in such a hurry. You have your entire life to work. And when you do start in the professional world, you will be a whole lot more interesting than some guy who has only studied accounting and always wanted to be an accountant his whole life.

But no, you won't get a worthwhile job with a philosophy degree only.
 
Admerr

Admerr

Rookie
Don't always listen to the majority. Yeah you can earn a Business degree in Marketing, but you don't HAVE to work in Marketing. I personally studied "Sociology" in college. I started as a Business major, switched to International Studies, back to Business, and finally finished in Sociology due to a certain Professor. I am about to begin a new career as a Medical Recruiter. Some people would ask how did I turn Sociology into recruiting? It's all about how you apply yourself. My new boss studied Biochemistry, and now he is in business management overseeing recruiters. Don't limit yourself to what you studied in college. Half of us don't even know what it is that we truly want to do until you get out into the real world and get your ass kicked around a little.
 
tennisdude42

tennisdude42

Rookie
Read a book called "The Wisdom of the Crowd." In essence, it tells you that when many people say the same thing, it is generally true.
Click to expand...

Wth? Many people thought Blacks were equivalent to property and many people voted for Bush...twice.

So some of you are suggesting that I get some technical training aside from my liberal arts degree? What would be a good combination?

Also, the main reason I want to major in l.a. is that it has less boundaries and more room for creative thinking. what would be a job that's both "specialized" and has few boundaries?
 
cucio

cucio

Legend
Look, TD, as soon as someone is paying you a salary there is heck a lot of boundaries attached. Your creativity will end up inside a nice plastic box with a ribbon and a price tag.

Even if you are Bruce Springsteen, you think the guy is not sick to the point of puking of having to play "Born in the USA" every single damned gig?

As one friend of mine likes to say: "There is no such thing as a good job. The proof is that people are being paid for doing them."

If you love music, for instance, I'd recommend you to stay away of professional music. Money taints everything. Professional studio musicians perform for pop stars or radio/tv commercial jingles as a 9 to 5 job, and while they are doing so they are grumbling and wishing for the session to end to cash their check in and get together with their music pals to jam in a club for peanuts (and a drink.) The music people pay for listening is rarely the music musicians would like to get paid for playing.

If you are creative you will find creative ways to prepare a sandwich. Any job will give you options to apply your creativity to a certain extent.

Instead of reaching for the moon and trying to find the perfect job perhaps you could settle for a job that is in high demand, well paid and doesn't take too much of your time and energy so you can dedicate a decent amount of free time to be creative with no boundaries whatsoever. It is a different target, more modest but easier to achieve.

As others said, if you are not dead set on a path yet, your choices at this moment are not that important. You can always correct your course, switch subjects, go back and start something different... aim loosely towards what you think could be interesting and rewarding for you and from there on play it by ear.

Ask around to the people you know that you think it could be worth emulating how they got there. Ask the schools you are considering about the usual prospects for their graduates.
 
SuperJimmy

SuperJimmy

Rookie
tennisdude42 said:
Also, the main reason I want to major in l.a. is that it has less boundaries and more room for creative thinking. what would be a job that's both "specialized" and has few boundaries?
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Self-employment to an extent. Boundaries exist due to budget and time constraints. You'll find that just these two contraints will have a negative impact on what you can do in other areas as well...causing even more boundaries, and so on and so on.

But really, it depends on your future plans. Do you plan to go to grad school or just stop with an undergrad degree? In grad school, you will have a much more focused specialty, and doing LA as an undergrad really wouldnt matter. If you plan to just stop as an undergrad in that major, I think it is very risky. It's like that stereotype people who majored in philosophy didn't really do anything in college. Sure, someone can pull out the name of this one person that did well with a philosophy degree (one of my Engineering professors got his B.A., M.A., and PHD in philosophy before studying any engineering, but ultimately got a PHD in electro magnetics like 10 years after his first PHD)...but for every one person with a success story, there is probably 10 or 100 people that didnt do so hot.

If you are truely passionate about something and GOOD at it, you can find good jobs in just about any field, and it doesnt necessarily have to fit in with what you majored in. But I would say be practical about it as well. For example, if you absolutely aspire to become a waiter, I mean actor, that's fine. But be willing to accept a much higher chance of financial hardships, as opposed to say, a civil engineer. One thing I will say though, is that probably most people are in jobs they don't love. They may "like" it, they may be neutral to it, or they may even hate it, but it's a tradeoff they made to become more financially stable and live a lifestyle outside of the workplace they want to live.
 
G

Gh0st

New User
r2473 said:
Major in liberal arts. Have fun. Just be prepared to go back to "tech" school to earn a "get-a-job" degree. I majored in philosophy, economics, and german language. Spent my final year studying in Frankfurt. Partied my ass off all those years AS WELL AS reading some really great philosophy (and other liberal arts material).

After traveling around for a few years, I went back and got my CPA and now do accounting.

Getting a job ain't all that cool. Don't be in such a hurry. You have your entire life to work. And when you do start in the professional world, you will be a whole lot more interesting than some guy who has only studied accounting and always wanted to be an accountant his whole life.

But no, you won't get a worthwhile job with a philosophy degree only.
Click to expand...

I'll second this advice. Don't be in a hurry to grow up and get a job. Enjoy being young and do things now while you can. When it comes time to settle down, you'll be a different person and have a better idea of what you can do to earn a buck. Just don't confuse working with living. Most of us work because we have to, not because we want to. Unless you are unbelievably talented, you most likely will not earn a living doing something you love but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy your life. Work to live, not live to work.
 
hankash

hankash

Rookie
Cucio is right on when he said, "Look, TD, as soon as someone is paying you a salary there is heck a lot of boundaries attached. Your creativity will end up inside a nice plastic box with a ribbon and a price tag."

I'm a B.S. major in Civil Engineering from a top engineering university and am having a difficult time finding a job as well since most engineering jobs I find require experience and it's hard to be the first one applying to jobs. Even if you're qualified, there are hundreds and sometimes even thousands of people applying for that one position you are going for.

So while applying to jobs, I decided to learn HTML and CSS to create a new website for new or recent grads like ourselves who are having difficulty finding jobs. It's called avantgrad.com{/B} (a play on the words avant-garde), and I'm looking for some help with it. So if it sounds interesting, and you think you can contribute something to it, shoot me a message. The only thing is, I can't pay anyone since I myself do not have much (but references are also important in the job hunt though).

It's tough to feel disenfranchised, but the worst thing you can do is give up, because then you don't give yourself a chance at all.
 
RealityPolice

RealityPolice

Rookie
No matter what your degree, take a Technical Writing class; if you're majoring in "liberal arts," take as many tech-writing classes as you can. There's always a demand for tech writing, and if you're good at it, you could eke out a decent living as a freelancer.

In the 90s, the stat was floated around that 70% of college graduates get jobs in fields unrelated to their degrees (across all disciplines). If that still holds true (and if it held true to begin with), it's something to think about.

I started in the sciences (astronomy) way back in the Eighties, added a BA in creative writing early this century, and am now starting a PhD in linguistics (which is considered by most to be among the liberal arts). Your academic career is likely not going to end up the way you expect. Whatever you do, choose something that you'll be happy doing (something else to think about in this economy: choose something that'll reward you in ways besides money, because salaries and employer loyalty may not be enough). If you're majoring in something where salaries are not traditionally high, make sure you want to make that tradeoff. I'm fine with not making a huge amount, given that my work seems to mean something in my chosen field.
 
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