What Are You Doing After Graduation?

[Greenday]

I hate getting this question. I have no idea. Just like most graduates, I don't have a full-time job waiting for me. I don't have money to sit on. I have a job I that doesn't have anything to do with my major waiting for me, but I can't do that for the rest of my life. I just can't.

Usually I'll just reply with, "Well, I have a 12 week internship that will officially end my requirements for my major..." but that never seems to be a good enough answer. Yes I'm scared shitless about what I'll be doing come September. Thanks for pressing me on it.

[muses_nightmare]

I know how you feel. I'm moving back to my small hometown after I grad, and desperately hoping there's a job there, or that I can work freelance.

But in the end I have no idea where I'm going careerwise.

[Hobbs]

I'm going to Vandenburg and then...I dunno yet

[AdminAssistant]

I used to get a lot of, "So, what are you going to do with your degree?" My reply was either, "I'm going to put it in a nice frame" or "I'm going to roll it up and STICK IT UP YOUR ASS."

[Boozy]

I used to get a lot of, "So, what are you going to do with your degree?"

I still get asked what I'm going to do with my degree, and I graduated about 10 years ago.

Apparently my entire life isn't considered "using my degree." Personally, I think it's rather small-minded of people to assume that a liberal arts degree is useless if you're not working in the field, like teaching or something.

[Fryk]

Here, here, Boozy! I still get this, and I graduated 13 years ago. It turns out though, that my degree is almost worthless, unless I want to get back into the "church thing" (It was from a christian college, something I kick myself in the ass for every morning).

[AdminAssistant]

No degree is "worthless" because no education is "worthless." True, some degrees provide better job opportunities than others. Since he's in the hard sciences field, I'm sure Greenday will be able to find a job in his field. The arts and humanities...it's a bit harder to find a job that directly relates to your degree. But the skills that you learn in gaining that degree can help you in a lot of different jobs.

I'm in theatre. The vast majority of undergraduates in theatre departments are acting majors. You want to know how many become professional actors? Very few. Many go on to law school, the seminary, or to a MBA program...the opportunities are limitless. Because of their training, acting grads have excellent public speaking skills, which gives them a leg up in all kinds of different professions. I decided to stay in the academic world, and I hope to teach, but if the market stays as it is, damn straight I'm going to be looking at all of my skills and seeing where I could excel outside of the university.

[Giggle Goose]

I know how that is...I usually told people that I was going to stay at my full-time gig and "see about" going to grad school. But I couldn't help that people would think I was a loser just because I didn't have a job lined up or I wasn't already accepted into a grad program

(PS: I have both of those things now, not even 2 years later, so don't let any doubters get you down).

[Hobbs]

No degree is "worthless" because no education is "worthless." True, some degrees provide better job opportunities than others. Since he's in the hard sciences field, I'm sure Greenday will be able to find a job in his field. The arts and humanities...it's a bit harder to find a job that directly relates to your degree. But the skills that you learn in gaining that degree can help you in a lot of different jobs.

I'm in theatre. The vast majority of undergraduates in theatre departments are acting majors. You want to know how many become professional actors? Very few. Many go on to law school, the seminary, or to a MBA program...the opportunities are limitless. Because of their training, acting grads have excellent public speaking skills, which gives them a leg up in all kinds of different professions. I decided to stay in the academic world, and I hope to teach, but if the market stays as it is, damn straight I'm going to be looking at all of my skills and seeing where I could excel outside of the university.

I know a fellow cadet who's got a theatre degree. He's one of the most annoying people I've met. He's always got this know-it-all attitude about himself, especially when it comes to military affairs. Now, he's had the same training as I, but he also talks down (I think it's subconscious) to people w/ technical degrees, like he knows more than them.

Needless to say, we all like to poke fun at his degree.

[Red Panda]

I ask people this because I am normally curiouse to see if they are continuing their education or getting a job. Its not meant to be judgmental I'm just curiosu

[jackfaire]

I I have only completed some of my college and am paying off my debts before I go back but I have used everything I learned in college the degree is basically just a pretty receipt the knowledge is what you apply on a daily basis so they can just bite me.

Heck I am almost 30 going back to school and I still don't know what I am going to do with the degree I will get.

[AdminAssistant]

Needless to say, we all like to poke fun at his degree.

If he's being a prick, then why don't you just poke fun at him, and not the rest of us?

I grew up with a guy who went to college and got a BFA in Drawing. After graduation he joined the military, and recently retired from the Army Rangers. (Which I suppose will only result in you mocking those in the Army.) There's no reason someone with an arts/humanities degree can't honorably serve their country. In fact, some are arguing that increased arts education results in greater cultural sensitivity, something important to those in the military.

I ask people this because I am normally curiouse to see if they are continuing their education or getting a job. Its not meant to be judgmental I'm just curiosu

It's one thing to be curious; I never minded that. I hated those who were judgmental. As in, "Why would you get a degree in that? You can't do anything with that!" Actually....yes, yes, I can.

[Hobbs]

I grew up with a guy who went to college and got a BFA in Drawing. After graduation he joined the military, and recently retired from the Army Rangers. (Which I suppose will only result in you mocking those in the Army.)

Rangers do a lot more to cause ridicule on themselves than I ever could.

We make fun of him b/c he comes up w/ BS reasons why his theater degree makes him better-suited to the Air Force than other degrees.

I'm a humanities major, btw...

[insertNameHere]

In two days I will have official been out of college for a Year and what am I doing? Working a mimimum wage part time job that gives full time hours and "promises" of advancement opportunity. I hate when people look down on me for my job, I went to college I can't help that the economy sucks pretty bad, either help me network and find a job or get off my ass. I don't think that is to much to ask of those people. But really don't let them get you down, it just makes your life suck

Of course not training me for higher positions is gonna bite my boss in the ass because I have recently gotten some suggestions for jobs and where to be looking as soon as something better comes I will complete the self fulfilling prophecy of me leaving. The grad school thing is sounding good as the military is even not needing people along with I don't think my personality works well with being told what to do constantly I like to ask questions.

[Arcade Man D]

I know exactly what you guys mean about that question being annoying, even though I'm in a degree program with just one eventual option, really.

"Well, after I finish my associates degree at the CC, I'll transfer to Keuka for my Math Education bachelors, then based on how the job market for high school math teachers looks, either go into the field and work on my Masters while I teach, or go straight to grad school and get my Masters immediately and get my permanent cert."