as someone with a bachelor’s degree in english, i am inexpressibly tired of people telling me to get highly specific jobs that often require highly specific degrees. “just go write for a magazine!” you need a journalism degree for that. “just teach!” you need a teaching certificate, and also fuck you. “just go work at a tutoring place!” tutoring children with learning disabilities, which make up the majority of the clientele at those places, requires not only a teaching certificate but a specialized master’s degree. “just go work at a library!” you need a master’s degree in library science to be a librarian. it is actually a highly skilled and extremely competitive field. you don’t just “go work at a library,” you train for years in the vain hope that you will get one of handful of available jobs. “just go work at a library.” the nerve. the unmitigated gall. “just go work at a library.” ugh.
alright listen up. i had no idea this was going to be the most popular post i ever made, and i’ve gotten some really nice comments and some pretty condescending ones. let’s get a few things straight:
first, this post is based on MY experiences and MY research in MY geographical area. i don’t know if it really is any different in big cities, small towns or elsewhere in the world, but where i live this is how it is.
second, this post is not about my burning desire to work in a library. i honestly don’t want to, it’s just something that’s been recommended to me ad nauseam.
thirdly, i don’t KNOW what you can do with an english degree. if i knew that, would i be having all these jobs recommended to me? i don’t have a job! i haven’t figured out what i’m doing with my life! i don’t KNOW!
and finally, several people have expressed their confusion about why i or anyone would get an english degree if there are no jobs for it, and i find these comments to be especially tedious.
i. was. told. there. would. be. jobs.
english is the only thing i’ve ever been good at, so i knew that’s what i wanted to study. it was my passion, and i was assured that following your passions was what college was about. i went to a meeting for prospective english majors freshman year and the head of the department told us all that he was constantly getting requests from employers who would tell him “send me all your english majors!” he told us if we majored in english we’d have the critical thinking skills to do whatever we liked. we’d be in impossibly high demand.
these were all, as i have found out, baldfaced lies. BUT, not in the way you think.
it’s true, english majors are not in as high demand as the department head led us to believe. but you know who is in incredibly high demand? NO ONE! there is no major that makes you imminently employable, not a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree or a doctorate. you are equally unemployable with a business degree, or a law degree, or a degree in marine biology. you could have a degree in any STEM field and you’d still struggle to find a job. the only difference between those degrees and an english degree is where you’re told to “just get a job doing x.”
we are in an employer’s market right now. there are more people than there are jobs to be had, partly because none of the baby boomers will fucking retire, but also because of all the people who have to work two jobs to make ends meet because nowhere pays a living wage anymore. no one is safe, nothing is sacred, and if you think “well if you’d only gotten a different degree this wouldn’t be happening lol” then you need to pull your head out of your ass and look around you my friend. this is not a result of our poor choices. we did not do this to ourselves. it was done to us, by the ivory tower shit-heads who line their pockets with our student loan money.
So this has been stuck in my head ever since I heard it three days ago.
this is the polar opposite of Everybody Knows Shits Fucked
i didn’t know this til i looked up the video on youtube, but this dude is a super cool and accomplished musician! his name is Rushad Eggleston–wikipedia describes him as “an innovative musician who has changed the way the cello is played,“ but according to his personal website he’s a “cello goblin & otherworldly jester currently touring earth”
hard pill to swallow: there are some things that are not meant for you. you will meet people that are not willing to stay. there will be times that you will fail. but don’t be discouraged because alongside, you are meant to be something, you will meet people that will stay, and most importantly, you will get better.
So if a teenager is at school for roughly 8 hours, and they are doing homework for 6+ hours, and they need AT LEAST 9 HOURS OF SLEEP FOR THEIR DEVELOPING BRAINS, then they may have 0-1 hours for other activities like eating, bathing, exercise, socializing (which is actually incredibly important for emotional, mental, and physical health, as well as the development of skills vital to their future career and having healthy romantic relationships among other things), religious activities, hobbies, extra curriculars, medical care of any kind, chores (also a skill/habit development thing and required by many parents), relaxation, and family time? Not to mention that your parents may or may not pressure you to get a job, or you might need to get one for economic reasons.
fadeslikewhispers 