Life after college?

I'm 23, have a single semester of college left and am terrified of what awaits me after graduation. I majored in journalism, even though I dislike writing and am not very good at it. And all of my course requirement classes focused on print journalism. So now I'm trying to fix things with my New Media minor and am getting into video production. It is another thing I'm not very good at but I'm doing my best to turn my college time into something fruitful. My biggest worry is that I haven't made the most out of the time I've had at college. Sure I'll have a degree, but I feel as though I haven't really learned anything. I'm scared. I need some wise words from you duders.

Not to be harsh but, any particular reason you chose to invest in a degree in a subject you neither had passion for nor has excellent job prospects? =/

For what it's worth, I don't think it's at all rare to leave university/college feeling like you still know nothing and being scared shitless now you have to supposedly act like an 'adult'. People just figure it out, I guess.

In a lot of career paths the real learning definitely doesn't start until you get your foot in the door with a job (certainly the case in my field of programming). So I guess the best advice to give is make good use of your time; always be trying to acquire and improve on skills that will make you able to do whatever it is you want to do (once you know what that is :p).

You'll have a degree, so no matter what it'll show you have committment and drive.

Life after college is great. Just learn to appreciate whatever job you end up in, and get used to not staying late up doing homework.

Well, I really wanted to get into broadcasting. But my university didn't really have a major the suited that so I went the journalism route in hopes of being an anchor or TV reporter. After an internship at the local news station I realized that I didn't want to be a journalist as I'm terrible with writing and most anchors do their own reporting so it seemed.

The main reason I wanted to get into broadcasting was that everyone back in highschool said I did very well at the televised announcements. So I figured I'd try and stick with that.

I'm lucky enough to have picked a major in exactly what I love (software engineering) and stuck with it and now have a great SE job, but...

...is exactly right.

Life after college isn't about how you planned your life up to that point, it's about proving you have the drive to put in the hours and do the work. Not a person who can claim that has had their life go perfectly, and speaking now as a person who finished 95% of his master's degree before going "this is dumb and not helping me, I'm out", the goal is to turn that busted-ass stuff into ammunition for the future. You might have to work more to prove yourself (and I'm still paying off those goddang master's degree loans), but college is about "proven capable of hard work, meeting deadlines, beating out pressures, etc." as much as (and if not, moreso than) it is about "is already trained on the perfect skillset".

Man I have a Master's degree in a very specific field and after actually getting a job in said field I decided it was really not for me. Now I'm working at a job I could have had right out of high school and it is very depressing. I just feel like I wasted several years of my life that I could have been culling job experience. Life after college sucks man.. you'll be ok though.

I'm not going to lie, life after college is far worse for several years. Unless you are one of the lucky few who have a job ready and waiting immediately, that period of uncertainty while you look for a career is rough. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it and tell you that your particular degree will open a bunch of doors. It won't.

However, all is not lost. There's always the option of grad school if you truly feel you aren't ready, but you ought to try to make it in the real world first. Even if you don't catch on somewhere, being humbled makes for some great perspective. In your search, be proactive, patient, and persistent, and don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. You'll get blown off by multiple companies. You'll probably blow an interview or two yourself. It's not fun, but if you keep plugging away, someone eventually will give you a shot, and then it's about making the most of it.

Once you catch on with someone, no one cares where you went to school or what you majored in. They care about your work ethic and your willingness to learn and improve. If you can demonstrate those two things, you'll have a damn good chance of sticking and excelling in virtually any field.

It's not all roses when you get settled in, either. Your priorities will change dramatically. You'll absolutely cherish free time you used to take for granted. Video gaming time will take a huge hit. You'll finally be able to afford a bunch of cool shit, but will sadly realize that you don't have as much time to properly enjoy it. And if you have a kid, multiply the time constraints by about four times.

Adult life isn't all bad, though. Working hard, earning money, and buying badass shit you want is just about the most rewarding thing there is. And if you can find someone special to spend your life with, you'll understand your purpose. Basically, you'll learn how to appreciate all the great things in life on an entirely different level because you'll have gone through a bunch of bullshit chasing your dreams, and if you can make those dreams a reality, you'll have won life.

Hope some of this helps and wasn't too cliche and cheesy.

Best of luck in law school. It sucks.

@acidbrandon18: I felt exactly like you at the end of college. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. I'd type a lot more but I'm on my phone.

I do suggest trying to find a job ASAP, though, as that will help alleviate a lot of stress and give you a bit of money to do stuff with.

It can definitely suck for a while. I started my master's because I couldn't find a job and needed to either do some random job or get into school again to put off my undergrad student loans. And in a lot of ways, that was an expensive waste of time, but as long as you're doing something and can turn that into experience that feeds into a more desirable job, you're on the right path. Sometimes you just have to grind it out for a bit.

It's very helpful that you have internship experience. Too many college kids do nothing during those 4 years and so they have no experience in anything except drinking. Do NOT just dump right into grad school just to fill the void. I think people who go straight to grad school (unless that's been their goal since they started their degree) make a terrible mistake. You need to find a career, give it a couple years, and then know if you need to go to grad school or not. The only exception to this is people who set out to be lawyers since they were freshmen, accountants who want their CPA, or people who planned for it long ago. The worst thing is when seniors decide to go to grad school because it's something to do. If you don't like journalism, you won't like grad school in it either.

I would say just search for business positions that require only a college degree but in no specific field. Lots of companies just want to see that you're teachable, so they do t care what it is in.

Jobs are not supposed to be fun, especially out of college. They are supposed to provide for you. After a few years, you'll discover a lot about what you want and don't want. Then, getting your next job or getting a masters will be a more informed decision. But paying the bills comes first.

Well what do you WANT to do, really. You majored in a liberal art and you don't have a passion for and are not good at (as you proclaimed). If you know that you want to go into media or news anchoring, put your energy into that. Don't feel that you are obligated to continue investing into print journalism just because of past investment. There is no past because you can't go back, and there is no future because you're not there yet; there is only present and the opportunity to make decisions now.

TL;DR - find out what you desire to do, invest your time into that, regardless of your past investment.

As someone that went straight intro grad school, I'd probably agree with this. It wasn't particularly necessary straight away for me, and by the time I got further into my field I had already forgotten stuff I studied 5 years before that could have been useful.

Just like I recommend going to a community college for two years to decide what you want to do, I also recommend going into the field for a couple years before deciding on the necessity of grad school.

But again, I have it and that shows commitment and drive.

I'm loving life after college, I was fortunate to get a job only 2 months after graduation though. I found I have much more time to devote to my hobbies, and the job is a just a thing I do for money.

Get ready to bust your ass. Your first priority should be figuring out what you actually want to do with your life. What are your hobbies? What do you enjoy doing? Can you make a career out of it? Unless you have parents who don't mind you moving back in with them, once you graduate you will have to take whatever job you can land. Try to use any connections you might have to get one. Remember, it usually not what you know but who you know.Also, grad school might be a good option for you. I originally wanted to go to law school but realized what a terrible idea that is after graduating. Now I'm going back to school for computer science and am pretty happy about it. It's not the end of the world but it won't be easy. Time to hustle.

Use the hell out of all the placement services your school has available. You should be able to walk out of graduation right into working for a living.

I graduated last May with a degree in mechanical engineering. Just got hired and start work next month so it took almost a year for me to find an entry level job in my field. You may find yourself looking for awhile so be prepared for that.

I graduate this semester and I'm 21. Having a degree in anything will practically raise your chances of getting a job, and past work experiences help. Make sure you get something that will help your career and is something you don't mind doing for most of the week. Good luck!

There's some good advice in here, I don't have too much more to add but if you do have parents or someone who is willing to let you stay with them after you graduate, don't be afraid to make the most of that until you have secured a steady job and started to build up some savings. Not everyone has that opportunity, but if you do there's nothing bad about taking it. I graduated with a Master's degree in mathematics and ended up working primarily in video production because it interested me more than the maths-related jobs I found, so there isn't a necessity that your career has to follow your study. Simply having the qualification really does count for a lot with many potential employers.

Not to add too much to what these people are saying, but I graduated about 2 and a half years ago with a degree in Drama. Since then, I have moved to a new city, and I am currently living hand-to-mouth and contract-to-contract. However, I think the best way to get a job in these turbulent times is to just be open to them. It's like you're a prism, and jobs are a ray of light. You just gotta reflect that shit.

At any rate, best of luck! don't get discouraged. Everybody has their own journey.

I think there is a lot of good advice here, but the best of it is that just because you majored in something doesn't mean you have to stick with it. It sucks that you turned out not to like what you majored in, but that happens. Instead of feeling bad for wasting money, try to get some experience in fields that do interest you. Maybe you'll just be the dude who gets the rich executive his coffee, maybe you'll even have to do it for free, but don't get more schooling until you know for sure you will need it for the job you actually want to do.

And I'll second the guy who said that there is no shame with moving back in with your parents or rooming with anyone who will take you in. Pride isn't going to pay back your student loans. It isn't going to pay your rent or put food on the table. Take whatever help is offered with humility and the intention to return the favor should that person ever need it when you are in a better position.

I majored in journalism, even though I dislike writing and am not very good at it.

It's hard enough to get a job these days, but if you don't have a passion for a subject you may be going for the wrong field. I mean, that's the idea behind going to college. Is being able to say "I want to do this or something like it for the rest of my life and I started by learning everything about it they can tell me."

I find it strange you would go for a degree you don't even sound like you want to do (considering college these days is more and more meaningless anyway).

The thing is, because of the world economy, people are more focusing on making their own way. While different it's become very similar to the great depression when a lot of jobs were travel based and people would go door to door selling different tools they invented, or new ways of making food that was more cost efficient. These days people seem to be making jobs for themselves in order to fit what modern day "needs" are and that fits in with what they want for themselves. The things they love and want to share with the world.

The reason I mention this is if you don't even want to write, but you're getting a degree in it, you may never actually get a job doing that. What with people doing things they have strong passions for outside the normal grind (of joining an established corporation or business- and maybe in your case a dieing medium) to make something of their lives. What even makes you interesting enough to hire for a position you don't really care about? Or to go beyond that: what makes you interesting enough to listen to as a reader if you don't even care about what you're doing when/if you do do it?

I don't believe people need to be especially good at anything. These days there is an audience for the craziest things; anything really. There is a way to get yourself out to anyone at any time and anywhere in the world. The way you attract those people, though, is by being passionate about what you do. No matter how good or bad at it you may think you are (the more you do something the better you get at it anyway).

I don't know. That's just what my perception and experience in the world thus far has shown me. Everyone's walk through life is different. It disturbs me to think there may be yet another writer out there trying to take jobs from people who legitimately enjoy writing when they themselves could not care less about it- especially because so few people like to even read anymore. The thought is kind of sickening to me.

@acidbrandon18: feel better 'cause i'm 26 and in the same boat as you, feeling scared about going out into the real world and what not. college was a good experience and it would be nice to keep going to school but you should know by now more school isn't the answer to everything. it took me so long to graduate cause i transferred and each school had their weird requirements i had to fulfill. colleges got there own agenda and they're not about giving you what you need as fast as possible. they wanna keep you a certain amount of time 'cause its a business for them.

anyway, 23 is young as hell by any measure so get out there and do w/e you feel like doing whether it's what you studied for or not and you'll be well ahead of me. also, get rid of this idea about i'm not good at this or that. do what you wanna do and keep doing it and get better at it. i've realized that i'm not someone with a gift or an enormous talent for anything (at least i haven''t found it) but i think it's like that with most people. just put your time and passion into what you're into and it's impossible not to get better at it.

I just got received an AA in Journalism and am trying to find something career-wise without having to go back and spend another 2 years in college getting my BA. You're lucky you've got a degree, it's pretty much the baseline to find a job now.

That said, what worries me about your post is that you have no passion for writing. While I certainly have no room to give you sage advice, I can share with you what I've learned from my experience.

First off, to make it in journalism, you really, really need to enjoy writing. I work a 9-5 and when I come home, I write freelance Android reviews for a gig I managed to score. I also created my own gaming site to act as an active portfolio as I work and gain experience. What I've noticed from most employers is that just getting out there and having referential experience in writing is just as important, if not more so, than having a degree. A lot of this experience you'll gain either posting in your personal blog, building your own site, volunteering pieces for a site, or finding freelance work online or locally.

Secondly, you really need to enjoy writing and be good at it, but being good at writing is slightly subjective and depends on what kind of content you'll be producing. You need to have immaculate grammar everywhere, but I've noticed websites tend to be more loose with the rules than traditional print media. If you're reporting news then you need to be factual and straight to the point. If you're writing anything else then you just need to be able to say something interesting.

Writing nowadays is a lot like photography. The internet, as a platform, acts like a smarphone camera -- it gives everyone access to powerful tools, at virtually no cost, that allows anyone to think they're good at it. The fact that you don't think you're good at it gives me a positive impression because you're critical of your work, and probably willing to take direction and improve on it.

The internship you've had is great, and getting a writing job is based around highlighting the things you've already done. My advice to you would be to start creating the kind of content you want. Having a journalism background and transitioning into something like video production is easier than you might think. Just think about what you like and do it.

I guess my main advice is to do what you love. Journalism careers typically don't pay well, and you have to put in a lot of work to get recognized. If it's something you already know you don't enjoy then don't waste anymore time trying to pursue it. You've got a BA, you've got experience, go make some stuff to show potential employers your video production skills, and impress someone!

College is a good way to transition from high school to the real world, it's almost like real world light.

Honestly everyone finds a way. You'll find a solution for yourself pretty quickly. My only advice would be to not bite off more than you can chew (aka don't commit to an expensive apartment without a consistent job to back it up) and don't forget to enjoy it. Even when you're not in the ideal of conditions remember to have fun, keep up with your responsibilities, and everything will work out.

In a few years you'll look back at being scared and worried about 'life' and wonder why you ever worried.

I never went to college so I never got hit with this problem. :P

You've got lots of time to figure it out.

Don't worry, be happy.

If you've got good people behind you, supporting and believing in you, then it's not so bad. Keep your head up, duder.

I think people have mentioned it before but be open to just about anything when it comes to work right out of college. Don't be afraid to take any job and just having money in your pockets and work experience is very important. I think most people will tell you they didn't find a good job or their career choice right off the bat but worked several before they found something they enjoyed. I was at my cousin's baby shower a few weeks back and I remember I was talking to one of her friends and she mentioned she works for a tech company even though she had previously went to school to become a veterinarian. Weird stuff man.

@acidbrandon18: Well let me tell you a story!

Throughout my entire life all I did was draw and for a long time all I wanted to do was be a comic book artist. At the end of High School though I become a little too practical and was scared to apply to an "art" college for fear of having a useless degree after graduation. Somewhat arrogantly I assumed I could always learn to draw better on my own while I study some real profession. So I chose to go into architecture, for which I had little interest but it was a respectable job and tangentially related to drawing. Throughout my studies I got a side job in one of the many minimum wage professions and because I wasn't a drop out or a dope head I quickly advanced and became a manager after working there for a year. I made the fatal mistake of working full time at my job and going full time to college which meant I didn't have any time left over to do any sort of internships - but still I assumed since I was an A student and all the professors praised my designs etc I would simply apply and get into some office after graduation. Well here comes the end of college and what do you know the recession hits in full stride. While I'm throwing my cap and picking up my diploma most architectural offices are laying off 50% of their experienced staff. No one is looking to hire anyone, much less someone fresh out of school with no experience under their belt. One thing to note is that architecture students are basically glorified draftsmen after graduation - your only discernible skill being the ability to use AutoCAD which comes in handy simply because most firms are run by the old men that have a need for young kids to transfer their floorplans over, hastily drawn on a napkin, into a program they want nothing to do with.

In this fertile world of employment I spent the next two years working my dead end job which became increasingly more depressing as I realized I'm a college graduate interacting on a daily basis with kids still in high school or dropouts with minor misdemeanors or even time served. Life does work itself out though. Eventually I moved, went through some office jobs of the data entry variety before ending up as a graphic designer in an advertising company. Ultimately what I do now is closer to what I've always wanted to do than if I was doing architecture work as every once in a while my job does call for some freerange creativity.

So don't be too scared. You might go through an awkward transition period between leaving the relative safety net of an educational system and feeling the full brunt of the real world but unless you really don't try at all, everything has a way of working itself out one way or another.

I graduated in 2010, still don't have a permanent job. Have fun with that. No platitudes from me, sorry.

DO NOT LET THEM DRAG YOU OUT OF THE SAFE WOMB OF COLLEGE! You'll be thrown into the fruitless real world where there are no roads and no path to your future. You will stand in the barren crater of wherever you land as the expanse renders you frozen and hopeless with nothing to look toward, only the miserable lives of the others who have tried to live in this desolate hell. Don't make the same mistakes I did!

The economy is quite bad still, so I can't really give you false sense of comfort. But parts of your post bother me. It's fine if you don't like writing, but you qualify it with the fact that you're "not very good at it." And with regards to video production, you're "not very good". I don't really know how to take this; no one, with very few genius exceptions that I don't care about, is good at anything without lots of practice and targeted effort. So you should take comfort in that, because you can get to be good at the things you want to get good at. Your concern about not having learned anything in college is also excessive concern about the past; you can't go back and change it. What you can do is use your remaining time to for sure have learned something. I hope you won't take my words harshly; basically what I'm saying is, you can't go back in time, but you can spend time and effort to learn and get good at the thing(s) you want to get good at.

I'm disappointed in you people. Why hasn't anyone posted this yet?

Never have a "permanent job." Always be looking for the next step in your career.

@acidbrandon18: I can relate to you in that I majored in journalism (technically, mass communication) even though I didn't really have a strong interest in writing as a reporter. To add to that, I'm also a very shy person, so the prospect of being a full-time journalist has never been my goal. Even so, I did work on my college's paper as a copy editor and a writer, and I continued in print media after college as a freelance writer for a local paper. I did eventually burn out on freelancing, but that was only after I felt I had done basically every kind of story one can do without getting deep into investigative journalism. Despite not being passionate about reporting, I found that it really helped my confidence to know that I was able to go out and interview complete strangers.

It doesn't sound to me like you really need a confidence boost for social interaction, but considering your interest in broadcasting, performing work that demonstrates that you can interact well with people is a plus. Also, since you've take up learning video editing, you might consider applying for some entry level PR positions. Those are likely to have you mix things up between writing and video editing/production.

This was my song back then. Ha, screw your feelings

Hey, man; I got one of those all-important, life-altering humanities Degrees™ and went right back into the Army - into an enlisted position with an educational requirement below a full high school diploma actually

I literally could've dropped out of high school nearly a decade ago and been where I am today, although my pension would've been slightly smaller

such achievement!

@giantstalker: Why couldn't you go in as an officer?

I graduated with a physics masters degree and got pretty much the exact job I wanted within 6 months. I too was wracked with fear that I haven't got everything out of my degree. However, I think you can forget how unique or special your skills are when you are surrounded with people with the same skills. Applied correctly, there will always people who want you and your skill. Furthermore, your degree is pretty much just a key to get an interview for the job you want, just go for the jobs you are passionate about and employers will see that passion and hire you. Hopefully.

It took me a year and a half after college to find a job, and it was a place that mostly hired high schoolers. I spent around 9 months working in that field, before deciding I couldn't take it anymore, and now I'm working a temp data entry job at a bank that I also think I'll end up hating.

However...

I just bought a Gameboy Micro and a copy of Advance Wars 2 off of Amazon to play during my breaks.

So it's not all bad.

Honestly, if you have anything that resembles a work ethic and are able to suck it up and do what's required, you won't be terribly bad off. Find a hiring agency, convince the person on the other end that you aren't a total fuckup, find some boring office work that is farmed out to temps precisely because of how boring it is, and try and make a living.

I'm living with my mom now, and have for the last two years. Maybe if this job goes well I'll be able to move out, but I ain't holding my breath. The government puts a multi-year (is it 3?) grace period on student loans for a reason: you likely aren't going to be able to pay that shit off and still survive for quite a while.

Very, very, very, very few people get to do stuff like Jeff and co. do on a daily basis. The "struggling artist" concept exists for a reason; creativity is vastly undervalued by our current employment climate. Do what you can, realize that it will probably suck for a while, and hope that it gets better in the future. If you're young, childless, and (relatively) single it isn't impossible to survive on your own, but you'll have to make sacrifices in order to do so. The rules aren't gonna change anytime soon, so I'd recommended to just try and make the best of a bad situation, at least with the knowledge that most everybody else is going through it as well.

Oh, and finally; a liberal arts education is something you do to better yourself intellectually and emotionally. You won't learn anything particularly useful. Anybody who told you it'll get you a career doing anything was probably high. I wouldn't take mine back, not for a second, because I'm more articulate, intelligent, and hold myself in higher regard than I did before, but my particular degree hasn't done anything for me career-wise. It's just another one of those things they leave out of the promotional materials.

@acidbrandon18 said:

So looking back now, do you wish you had chosen a STEM degree instead of journalism? Something that would have been far more difficult but that would have given you better career prospects?

As someone who is still in college and have some of the same fears, I can only tell you what others have told me: your degree doesn't decide what you do for a living. My dad managed a team of software engineers for most of my childhood and he said his favorite employee had a degree in anthropology. So you can always use the degree you get to show your hard working and can spin it to get a job in most areas and after your first few jobs your work experience is more important than what you studied in college.

I appreciate all the responses. I actually wrapped up my Journalism major about two semesters ago and have been focusing on gen eds and my New Media minor. It was during my internship where I realized I didn't want to write for a living. I was actually offered a full-time web production job after the internship. I went into the first interview and was given two police reports and was told to make a story for the web out of them. This was after I had finished all my Journalism Major's requirements. And I totally choked. I forgot everything. The classes I had taken had me at most write five stories in a semester. Most of them were peer-reviewed. I got A's in all of them. But here I was. Staring at a computer monitor. Trying to write something interesting about two gang bangers getting arrested. I turned in the story and was never called back. I was alright with it though. I wasn't expecting to get the job. It was offered to me during my final day of internship as one of their web producers was moving on.

However, I was able to spend time with a camera guy and some commercial producers. I really enjoyed that. So much so that it pushed me to want to produce and edit video. I actually help produce videos for the school newspaper. They are kind of shoddy as my skill level is rather low, but they are something I could put on a resume. If I graduate and land a camera man gig I'll be pretty satisfied.

I just assume everything will work out and hope for the best.

@acidbrandon18:

You're probably better at writing then you're giving yourself credit for. Also, though college can be really helpful and important, ultimately it's just a start for a career and learning. Everything continues once you start working. Is there a job with you're degree you're interested in? If not, speak with a professor you like, your school counselor and/or someone who works at your school's career center (if you're school has one).

I know you're in a scary situation but keep in mind that most people will feel that way after college, it's completely normal.

Try to stay confident and when you eventually start taking job interviews (especially if it's nothing focused on actual journalism) try focusing on what general abilities and skills you've aquired having studied journalism. Like thorough research, being persistent, trying to get to the bottom of things, being able to analyze stuff etc. Also think of a reason why you wouldn't apply to actual journalism job "Turns out I suck at it" is not a great answer. Try something like "I think THIS particular job is interesting because...and my journalism skills would translate very well because..."

As for life after college, it's better and worse at the same time. I definitely feel like I have much less spare time but also there's nothing better than finally getting paid and standing on your own two feet, so look forward to that.

Spending 4-5 years studying something you hate with a last second backup plan for something you dislike for career fields that are hard to get into or make any money in seems to have been... Unwise. You better be pretty and marry some rich man or woman just like all those Philosophy and Art majors out there.

Journalism isn't bad, you could have picked much worse. Most degrees in the Arts factuality is pretty much getting a degree to work at a coffee shop for the rest of your life. You should be fine man, but i can never understand someone getting a degree in something they have no interest in....