True Life: “ I Have a Useless Degree”
I have a full-time job, work 40 hours a week, have my own place, drive my own car. For a while it looked like I’d be a career intern, but when I finally signed an actual contract detailing the terms of my salary, I could hear Webbie in my head, “I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T.”
A year later, try B-R-O-K-E.
Every time another friend posts a Facebook status about her upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, or how she’ll be on Miami Beach in T minus zero, I wish I would have stuck with that damn business administration major. What the hell kinda job offers unlimited vacation time to new employees – and how do I apply?
Just in time for graduation season, The Daily Beast compiled one of those photo galleries with a tweet-ready headline you can’t ignore, “20 Most Useless Degrees.” I figured it’d be a quick read, something to breeze through, chuckle at and forget. But I never made it past the first click: #1 was Journalism.
It would have been easier to digest if it hadn’t confirmed what I already suspected. From a median starting salary of $35,800 to a mid-career figure of just $66,600, it looked like I’d be starring in my own reality show, “Hardworkin’ Welfare Wives,” for the rest of my career.
My law school and pharmacy friends had $20/hour internships and the promise of jobs that would start in the six-figure range. Instead, I “followed my dreams” on a masochistic journey to save the world with the noble journalistic truth. When ever-important early education majors also make the list of lowest-paying degrees, the “I do it for the love” philosophy seems less and less logical.
A recent study by Georgetown found that people with a college degree earn 84 percent more over a lifetime than those with only a high school diploma. The other half of that, though, was that what you major in is more important. But as I see another “Just touched down in LA!” tweet, I’m thinking I might have made the wrong choice.
I have to agree with everyone who says your college degree is what you make of it. Don’t let self-pity get you down, some people wish they had the opportunity to go to college. So what you don’t build a career in your field of study…most people who have built successful careers started out with very different educational backgrounds.
Use your skills and gifts to your advantage and network.
This article resonates with me as it did with so many. I write because I love it but when I thought of career, i thought of money. I actually did stay with the business administration major, but I had regrets. Maybe I should have chosen journalism?
But then when I think about the life I want to have, and the fact that I want to be able to provide things for my children that I didn’t have, I think I made the right decision. You don’t need a degree to write. You just write. But any young person, who wants to be better at their craft would do what you did. I respect you and it to took courage to “follow your dreams”. I’m gonna say you can still have it all and still be a writer. You’ll probably be better because of your journey! Good luck and thanks for this article!
My Bachelor of Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University has done me no good so far. Top honors etc, and I’ve been looking for 6+ months. “They” tell you (in the military) a good career punctuated by a B.S. from ERAU will help land a lucrative second career. What a joke. I’m 300+ job applications and still looking.