Current Events > English Degree useless?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Even if ur really good at it and its fits ur strengths better than a STEM degree?

It's not useless, but you're going to have a harder time turning it into a career if you're not interested in teaching.
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College is all about getting a good internship that leads to a job. It's probably easier to get a good internship if you have a STEM degree, but you can get a good internship with any degree.
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If you want to teach and/or write or go on to law school, then go for it. Otherwise forget it.

My cousin got an English degree and couldn't find a job in South Carolina. He ended up as a teller in a credit union after graduating. He left that job after quite a few years and is doing something at GE as a contractor now.
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You can always teach English in Japan. Isnt that what everybody wants? The weab dream.
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There are three things you want to consider when choosing a career path.

1) Do you like doing it?
2) Are you good at it?
3) Are companies hiring for it?

Generally speaking, you want to have a 'yes' on all three for the best chance of getting a job. Two out of the three is okay, but it may still end in failure depending on which two you have. The problem is when you have none or just one out of the three.

A lot of people get stuck at 1. They like to do something, but they are not honest about their ability to do it or what jobs are out there for it. And people who think they have all three come to realize they misinterpreted the parts of the job they liked. I know a guy who loved playing video games and was good at them so he wanted to make video games for a living. Well, he had 1 and 2 down, and companies were hiring for it, but he had the strangest idea that he would be making all the games he wanted and playtesting them and have a good time, when in reality he was just stuck coding someone else's video games and was miserable.

TC, you say you are good at English, so you have 2. Do you have 1 and 3? Do you like doing it? Can you see yourself doing it for a long time? Who is hiring for it? You may want to look up employers that hire people with English degrees.

For me, I was encouraged to become and architect. There are many jobs available and I was pretty good at it at the vocational high school where we took an architecture class. But I hated doing it. I considered doing it just because I was good at it but realized I would hate my life for it and passed.
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My dad has an English degree and he makes good money as a sales manager for some company and is upper middle class.

for a lot of degrees, the value is really in what you do while you're in school. the connections you make, the things you learn, the skills you develop. English is one of those degrees.

calling those degrees "useless" is missing the point of them entirely, and largely missing the point of university in general
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Any degree is useful if you use it right. An english grad can be a teacher, writer, journalist, editor, go on to business school for an MBA, or even branch out into things like PR, HR, management, etc. Look at the broader communication skills gained from the degree rather than solely what you'd study. Every company needs people who are skilled communicators.
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With liberal arts degrees in general - get really good at interviewing b/c you will have to sell yourself big time.
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Captain_Qwark posted...

Are you in like the top 5% of your class? Or do you think you could be? Then go for it. Otherwise choose something else and write/study literature as a hobby

Hurp
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RebelElite791 posted...

Captain_Qwark posted...

Are you in like the top 5% of your class? Or do you think you could be? Then go for it. Otherwise choose something else and write/study literature as a hobby

Hurp

he's right even though "5%" is a bit extreme. Most people that major in something like that do NOT "know how to use it right."

You can easily be a teacher, writer, journalist, go to business school without majoring in English. Teaching English at the collegiate level is like the only smart reason to pick it
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No major is "useless"

but it's a really fucking stupid major to pick unless you're extremely talented or well-connected.
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RebelElite791 posted...

Any degree is useful if you use it right. An english grad can be a teacher, writer, journalist, editor, go on to business school for an MBA, or even branch out into things like PR, HR, management, etc. Look at the broader communication skills gained from the degree rather than solely what you'd study. Every company needs people who are skilled communicators.

what an absolute load.

Majoring in English doesn't make someone a skilled communicated or writer. It doesn't really make you skilled at anything. You can gain communication skills from a wide variety of majors that can land you a job people actually way.

CasualGuy posted...

You can easily be a teacher, writer, journalist, go to business school without majoring in English. Teaching English at the collegiate level is like the only smart reason to pick it

Teaching ESL, teaching or researching linguistics, going into collegiate administration for either of those fields, being a single-subject teacher and not wanting to major in libs.

And I'd argue that most people who major in anything don't know how to use it right.
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Comfy_Pillow posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Any degree is useful if you use it right. An english grad can be a teacher, writer, journalist, editor, go on to business school for an MBA, or even branch out into things like PR, HR, management, etc. Look at the broader communication skills gained from the degree rather than solely what you'd study. Every company needs people who are skilled communicators.

what an absolute load.

Majoring in English doesn't make someone a skilled communicated or writer. It doesn't really make you skilled at anything. You can gain communication skills from a wide variety of majors that can land you a job people actually way.

"A job people actually way"

Well clearly you weren't an English major.
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Four years of college just to justify singular-they.

Why?

RebelElite791 posted...

Comfy_Pillow posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Any degree is useful if you use it right. An english grad can be a teacher, writer, journalist, editor, go on to business school for an MBA, or even branch out into things like PR, HR, management, etc. Look at the broader communication skills gained from the degree rather than solely what you'd study. Every company needs people who are skilled communicators.

what an absolute load.

Majoring in English doesn't make someone a skilled communicated or writer. It doesn't really make you skilled at anything. You can gain communication skills from a wide variety of majors that can land you a job people actually way.

"A job people actually way"

Well clearly you weren't an English major.

lmao the lowest form of rebuttal.

Yes, I wasn't a tool throwing away 30k on a useless major. I actually wanted to (and now do) make money

Comfy_Pillow posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Comfy_Pillow posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Any degree is useful if you use it right. An english grad can be a teacher, writer, journalist, editor, go on to business school for an MBA, or even branch out into things like PR, HR, management, etc. Look at the broader communication skills gained from the degree rather than solely what you'd study. Every company needs people who are skilled communicators.

what an absolute load.

Majoring in English doesn't make someone a skilled communicated or writer. It doesn't really make you skilled at anything. You can gain communication skills from a wide variety of majors that can land you a job people actually way.

"A job people actually way"

Well clearly you weren't an English major.

lmao the lowest form of rebuttal.

Yes, I wasn't a tool throwing away 30k on a useless major. I actually wanted to (and now do) make money

Well anyone paying 30k for most degrees is an idiot yes. If you can't get scholarships you should go to community college for the first 2 years.

But yes, surprisingly, degrees focusing on writing and communication tend to produce good writers and communicators.
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RebelElite791 posted...

And I'd argue that most people who major in anything don't know how to use it right.

good majors don't really require you to know how to use it properly. That's what makes them good majors. They just get you employment for good money with little extra effort.
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WizardPowers posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

And I'd argue that most people who major in anything don't know how to use it right.

good majors don't really require you to know how to use it properly. That's what makes them good majors. They just get you employment for good money with little extra effort.

You keep telling yourself that.
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RebelElite791 posted...

But yes, surprisingly, degrees focusing on writing and communication tend to produce good writers and communicators.

I'd be willing to bet English degree holders are overall less competent (or at best exactly the same) than the average college grad. Even at writing/communicating.

http://michiganfuture.org/01/2018/google-finds-stem-skills-arent-the-most-important-skills/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/20/the-surprising-thing-google-learned-about-its-employees-and-what-it-means-for-todays-students/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d2edc432b517

And I say that as an auto engineering student
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RebelElite791 posted...

WizardPowers posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

And I'd argue that most people who major in anything don't know how to use it right.

good majors don't really require you to know how to use it properly. That's what makes them good majors. They just get you employment for good money with little extra effort.

You keep telling yourself that.

I...will? Because it's true for the most part.
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Honestly, just get a STEM degree. Youll be more successful. Degrees like English, Asian Studies, Philoosphy etc are a waste of money

Comfy_Pillow posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

But yes, surprisingly, degrees focusing on writing and communication tend to produce good writers and communicators.

I'd be willing to bet English degree holders are overall less competent (or at best exactly the same) than the average college grad. Even at writing/communicating.

lol
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_REDDIT_ posted...

Honestly, just get a STEM degree.

I'm not entirely certain that STEM degrees aren't just gloried vocational training, and I even have one.

_REDDIT_ posted...

Honestly, just get a STEM degree. Youll be more successful. Degrees like English, Asian Studies, Philoosphy etc are a waste of money

Alright this account is kinda good
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It doesn't even need to be STEM. Majoring in English is just fucking stupid. I'd be legit shocked if even 20% of English majors found a job that utilized those skills as all / were related to the field.
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_Squirtle_ posted...

I'd be legit shocked if even 20% of English majors found a job that utilized those skills as all / were related to the field.

It's also just one of the fastest degrees to acquire, for those jobs that just want some kind of unspecified bachelor's degree.

And again, there are very specific fields that require majoring in it.
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RebelElite791 posted...

_Squirtle_ posted...

I'd be legit shocked if even 20% of English majors found a job that utilized those skills as all / were related to the field.

It's also just one of the fastest degrees to acquire, for those jobs that just want some kind of unspecified bachelor's degree.

And again, there are very specific fields that require majoring in it.

those kinds of shit jobs everyone hates?

and really how many fields can you get in ONLY through majoring in english besides being an english prof
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