Writer's Block: School Ties

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

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I've posted on this before, but - what the heck - I'll do it again. My undergrad is in Political Science and I don't use it in my career at all. I was given the advice to major in what interests you and the career will follow. That advice probably works well for some people, but it didn't for me. So I went and got a Master's in Human Resources, got in a job in HR, and that's where I am now.

Comments

[nytshd3.livejournal.com]

the whole major in what interests you and the career will follow made sense in my head when i was a teenager, but as an adult it seems like a bad plan... unless what you're interested in is, say, accounting, or teaching, or engineering. for stuff like english, history, psychology, etc... there's not many jobs you can get that truly utilize those degrees, and even fewer that don't require advanced degrees. its even the same thing with the sciences. you might love biology or chemistry, but with anything less than a master's, there's not a lot you can do.

i wish our high school (and all high schools, really) would do a better job helping students get an idea of what they might like to do career-wise. i think that could have definitely been a one semester class, with some aptitude testing, some real life people from different careers, maybe even having us do research/write papers on different jobs and/or industries.

of course, the stuff i was interested in at 17 is not the same stuff i'm interested in now so i'm not sure how helpful it would really be. but i think it would have helped.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

Amen to all of the above. One other thing that I wish had been impressed upon me: I wish it had been made utterly clear to me that you have to think about supporting yourself financially, and what sort of careers you might want to pursue, and what sort of classes might help you with those careers.

I mean, I knew in the back of my mind that I wasn't going to live with my parents. It's just odd that after going to one of the top high schools in the country, plus college, we never walked out of there with a sense of needing a career path and having hands-on training that someone would hire you because of.

[nytshd3.livejournal.com]

yes! i agree 100%! even if you don't sit us down and tell us about a very specific job, at least talk to us about commonly used/needed stuff for jobs. talk to us about realistic ideas about salaries and budgeting and the kinds of jobs that are in higher demand and stuff that transfers well between different jobs. maybe even bring in people from certain majors to talk about the jobs that they got and how their schooling impacted it. tho maybe that would be disheartening :)

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

But it would be realistic. I can't help but to feel cheated that most of what I learned for my career was on the job, as opposed to in school, despite having attended a top 'college prep' high school and college. (Sorry to be repetitive on that point, but it just kills me, especially thinking back to what tuition at both institutions cost!!)

[nytshd3.livejournal.com]

i totally agree. hell, even if they don't do it at a high school level, make it a required class first semester at college. what good does it do to go to a college prep high school and a fancy college if you're getting what's essentially a useless degree? i know some of their argument is you're a well-rounded person, you learn critical thinking skills, etc. well, great. how about teaching us some shit that will help us get a real job?