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College Major Thoughts
Coal
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
To make a long story short, I started out collge majoring in English. After screwing around and not going to school for about a year after two years of going, I'm ready to make a comeback and actually finish it up. However, I've run into a problem.
I don't know what jobs are available to someone with an English degree. I've heard it's pretty difficult to get a job with one, so there's that to think about. Also, I've looked into getting a Music degree instead, because music is something that interests me a great deal. However, there again I have no idea what jobs I could possibly look forward to with a degree in Music.
And here we come to the reason I made this thread: I'm basically looking for advice from those who have either gotten or worked towards one of these two degrees to tell me what I could possibly get into after school is finished. I don't want to spend 4 years doing something I enjoy only to not be able to do a thing in afterwards, you know? Any advice is appreciated.
I don't know what jobs are available to someone with an English degree. I've heard it's pretty difficult to get a job with one, so there's that to think about. Also, I've looked into getting a Music degree instead, because music is something that interests me a great deal. However, there again I have no idea what jobs I could possibly look forward to with a degree in Music.
And here we come to the reason I made this thread: I'm basically looking for advice from those who have either gotten or worked towards one of these two degrees to tell me what I could possibly get into after school is finished. I don't want to spend 4 years doing something I enjoy only to not be able to do a thing in afterwards, you know? Any advice is appreciated.
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If you're planning to just get a job rather than continuing to grad school some options for an English degree would be:
Copywriter
Editor
Journalism
Tech writing
Publishing
There are the more directly related fields, and in most you'll obviously have to start at an entry level position which may or may not actually closely resemble the eventual goal position. In more general areas, an English degree should give you an edge on any kind of communications job. You could become an elementary or secondary teacher (with the proper certification tests of course).
High School Music Teacher
Middle School Music Teacher
Elementary School Music Teacher
With the decline of orchestras, you have to be really fucking good to get somewhere with a music degree.
That is general music, not conducting or composing.
What I'm saying is make sure it's your dream.
Marketing is a pretty varied field. Applies to many careers.
A thousand times this.
I do this every time someone brings up "Maybe music?" but to illustrate that you should only do music if you really, really are sure, allow me to give you my schedule for a typical Thursday as a Music Major. This is an easy day with only two classes
8:00 - 9:15 AM - Class
9:45 -11:00 AM - Class
12:00 - 12:30 - Voice lesson(as Accompanist)
12:30 - 1:00 PM - Lunch!
1:00 - 4:00 PM - Work as a copyist for an archive
4:30 - 5:00 PM - Voice lesson(as Accompanist)
5:30 - 7:00 PM - Rehearsal(as Accompanist)
7:00 - 11:00 PM - Rehearsal(As Music Director, and rehearsal accompanist since I couldn't find someone who had the time and the ability to play for rehearsals)
11:00 - 11:30-ish PM - Production Meeting kind of, getting things ready for the next rehearsal, stuff like that.
11:30 - Whenever I'm done AM - Revisions of my score, working on any homework, doing any reading I have, then kicking back a few to counteract the adrenaline I have to run on to lead rehearsals successfully so I can get to sleep, and collapsing.
I am currently booked on this schedule or a schedule very much like it right into July. The last rehearsal might get pushed up an hour or two, that other rehearsal will be out mid-may, so I'll get to eat dinner, and Classes will be changed with working on revisions for the show I'm getting put up in NYC this year.
The only days I am done before 11:00 are Fridays, when I'm done at the retardedly early time of 3:00, and Saturdays, when I'm also done at 3:00.
This is the best possible schedule I could ever hope for. The only thing that could make it better for me is if all that time as a copyist was instead doing voice lessons or other accompaniment stuff.
All the time my email is filled with "Need Pianist" or "Accompanist for concert?" or "Voice lessons" or "Music director for show" or whatever the next gig I get is and every time I'm overjoyed to get them. Hell, this week I'm sightreading a performance, because the pianist who was supposed to play it can't do it for thursdays run, and I've worked with the group before. As I was typing this response, I got an email asking me to cover a rehearsal this Sunday, and of course I will(Also there's this hot flautist in the pit I'll be with so)
If you look at that schedule and say anything other than "Fuck yeah, Six and a half hours of playing per day? Fucking sweet", then a music major is not for you. I would never be playing as much as I do, and therefore not improving as fast as I am, and therefore sucking in relation to where I should be, if I didn't love every goddamn second of it. Also I have that awesome of a schedule because I am(understand that I need to be immodest here for a second and be realistic, normally I beat myself up over every mistake I make and refuse to admit any skill on the instrument) fucking brilliant at what I do. I'm not the best pianist around, but I'm certainly either the best or the second best Musical Theater pianist on campus, and I'm definitely up there in terms of Sightreading and learning quickly, plus I'm better than most pianists(including the performance majors here, mind you) at accompanying. Also I'm around equal to the other pianists in classical, it's not like I really sacrifice that much ground to them in total skill. You absolutely have to be the one people want to go to, and it has to be because you're better than the alternative. As much as I love some of my friends, if I have a choice between someone I know and someone who's better that I don't know, I will always work with the one that's better.
Oh hey, one more thing: I'm a music Composition major. That's right, I play up to 7 hours of piano a day(I think my longest day was 11 hours straight on piano) and I'm not a piano performance major.
Basically what I'm getting at here is if that sounds like anything other than paradise, you really probably should look somewhere other than music.
Obviously it's not all bad, I don't want to scare you away if that does sound pretty good, since I know I kind of have a negative attitude if you're looking from the outside.
The great things about it is that if you do really want to do that, well, hell you're doing what you love all the time. I've never run into anything that I love as much as writing music, and the only thing that approaches is performing, followed by directing. There's just this inexplicable joy that comes from it, for me at least. Also, musicians are really good at making friends really fast, and since you'll probably be spending time with other musicians most of the time you're taken up doing stuff, you end up with incredible friends, all of whom have a ton of things in common with you, since you're all basically leading variations on the same life. It's just wonderful, all around. You're a part of a great community, you do what you love, and hey, it makes you look real cool at parties.
But it is a lot of work. Crazy shitton amounts of work. Plus you pretty much can't "decide" to go into music suddenly in college unless you've had training since you were 6 and just never thought it was your "main" thing until college(I never would've considered myself a pianist before, and every once in a while consider adding it as a second major for performance), since if you can't read music, and play your instrument pretty well already, you're probably screwed as per getting into the music school.
So boiled down: It's a wonder, wonderfully beautiful life as a music major, but a stupidly tough, busy, hard, and stressful life as well, and it's one that you'll need to be already pretty damn good in to get into it.
Finally, Fuzzy is..... well pretty damn close to being completely wrong. For Education majors, the jobs they're looking at are... well, music education positions. Performers can do loads of things depending on their connections, what they specifically like to do, all that jazz. Same deal with Composition majors. History majors, yeah, they'll probably pretty much be teaching Music history at a university, but it's the same as with Art history or really any fields history major. Also they won't be entirely stuck, there is some heavy research still being done, but most of that is of course done by college professors. Really once you pick a facet, you're probably going to be doing something in that facet of the general profession, but it's not like you're entirely pigeonholed into one job, unless you're really closed minded about what you want to do.
It really made me want to stay an English major, to be honest. Lots of options, and can segue into many other occupations (like a lawyer or something).
I've seen posts like that before and I am always nodding my head so hard it feels like it's going to fall off. I am a music education major, and the most stressful part about my schedule is how often I have to switch modes. I can go from sitting in class to singing to playing trombone to playing cello and I just have to get lucky and squeeze in some time for meals. I bitch and moan about how little time I have constantly (just today I shuffled my entire schedule to accommodate a Saturday morning choral rehearsal, teaching cello students for four hours straight on a Friday) - and you know what? I'm doing what I love, so it doesn't matter.
If you're not willing to devote yourself 125% to whatever facet of music you decide you want to pursue, people will notice this and you will not succeed. Even if you do, you may still fail. I've always thought, though, that I'd rather fail at doing something I love occasionally than succeed at doing something I hate all the time. A profession in music, be it education, composing, performing, or what have you, is all about bouncing back and trying again, regardless of what happens.
It's worth noting that a lot of those professions are indeed compatible with an English Major, but will be beat out by people with more appropriate degrees. Sure, you can get a job in HR as an English Major - just don't be surprised when the Sociology major/Business minor beats you out for it.
There are definitely some careers that pander particularly to an English degree, like copy editor, publisher or, naturally, English teacher. A lot of the options on that list are not that type of career.
Generally, an English degree is not as bad as people make it out to be, but if you are know what you want to do and are not so interested in the theoretical and literary aspects of an English degree so much as the preprofessional element, it may not be the degree for you.
Case in point: as an English (or Philosophy) major, you're actually much better prepared for a job in law than you probably realize. Law is very much about reading comprehension and logic, so those majors' skills transfer over very well - much better, in general, then any knowledge you might have gotten in an undergrad law course.
Basically, as long as you're into humanities or the arts, just do the major that you enjoy the most. You're learning skills, and that's what's important. Professional knowledge will come from internships, on-the-job experience, and grad school.
Speaking of, be sure to get active about joining campus groups and getting good internships NOW. It's your extracurriculars and internships that most employers will be looking at, not what's printed on your degree.
I chose Business (Economics, more specifically), and there really isn't a day that goes by where I don't think back and wish I'd have chosen something I'm passionate about. I really wanted to get my degree in Engineering or History Education, but I didn't and ended up being one of thousands of business majors looking to get a job in that vague world known as "business". I could go on and tell you about the "dues" that you have to pay to get to the salary level you thought you'd make right out of school, or I could type something about the hundreds of resumes you'll shell out without a single interview, or I could even put a little something here about nepotism or why your bosses will always be less intelligent than you are. But I won't.
Bottom line to this rant is to pick a major that you won't regret. Even if it's Music. If you like how it makes you feel, do it.
I once worked at restaurant with a server who had a masters in history.