General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: About college majors. A lot of people blame students for choosing impractical majors [View all]Nikia
(11,411 posts)in ability or enthusiasm for any 4 year degree. For most majors, there are a substantial number of people not getting jobs in their field and being below average without having a job given to you will probably mean that you don't get a job.
Having gone to a liberal arts college where there are is a high post graduate rate and salary, I recommend a few things for the prospective liberal arts major. Go to a college that focuses on liberal arts without too many majors in "practical majors". Go to a college with a good reputation. Be involved with activities on campus and hold important responsibilities within those organizations. Be sure to network with your professors and classmates, especially the ones who will probably be successful. Get a good internship. Learn all the basic computer applications whether or not they are formally offered at your college. If you have work study, try to get a job in admissions, administration, or an academic department rather than food service or janitorial work. If your academic department offers research project or thesis, be sure to do that.
Visit your college career center. If there are job fairs or job recruiters on campus, be sure to go. This is to help you find a job after graduation. Take advantage of it.
If you want to go to graduate school, decide if you want to be a university professor or get a vocational master's to increase your job prospects. Liberal arts majors are appropriate for law school, most business schools, library science, and many other programs. Be aware of prereqs for these schools that you can take as an undergraduate.
If you are not going to graduate school and find yourself with only non college degree requiring job offers, try to get jobs where you might be able to advance. As a college graduate, you are more likely to advance into management in chain restaurants and chain retail stores than non college graduates. A clerical job at a large company that does something that you are interested in might be a job that could open bigger doors. Some of these companies might offer tuition assistance that might help you get a MBA or other master's degree that they might find useful.
If you are interested in working for a non profit organization, volunteering might be a good step for getting a foot in the door. If you need money and cannot get a job that leads to advancement, get one hours that will make it easy to volunteer.
If you can get a seasonal or temporary position in a field that you are interested in, choose this over a dead end job that you are not interested in. It will pay off in the long run.
If you major in a liberal arts subject, you do need more of a plan than more vocational majors. It is possible though to get a good job with it.