I am currently in the in between phase of life... 22.. with a degree in English... not in any school of any kind for the first time. Working in a goddamn restaurant just to ride out the last couple of months of my lease before my first attempt at acquiring 'real' employment in the big city.

It seems most of you are just past the transition period... in real office jobs or what not. Where did you find work? What works?

Got my BA in 2004, just got my MBA in Dec and I'm still trying to find work.

Graduated in December 2010, had a job offer in August of 2010.

The faculty in my program are excellent resources. I got two internships through the work they do to bring companies to the UA campus, and one of those spawned a job offer.

lucky u

Its all about the networking they say. I feel super lame for ordering some 'student' business cards to whore myself out to prospective employers. They don't replace a resume mind you, but my counselor told me to get some made for an upcoming job fair. Fuck this real world shit.

Fuck this real world shit.

<b>

Its all about the networking they say.

This is true...it aint what u know anymore, its who u know.

I graduated in May and it wasn't until early-mid August that I got my job with the company I'm currently with.

I graduated in May 2006, moved 700 miles away a couple weeks after that, and started my job (which I did not have before I moved) a couple weeks after I moved. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

i graduated in 2002, interviewed a lot, for about 2+ months, got nothing, this was after the .com crash. so then i waited tables for 10 months or so before i found a temp job, which after a year turned into a real job. it was a long road.

i graduated in 2002, interviewed a lot, for about 2+ months, got nothing, this was after the .com crash. so then i waited tables for 10 months or so before i found a temp job, which after a year turned into a real job. it was a long road.

Your post gave me hope

<img src= "http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/hs266.snc3/23266_278982515422_2209_n.jpg">

I sent out 8 resumes over the weekend and I got rejection emails from every one of them this week...makes me wonder what's so wrong with me.

i imagine it's really hard. most companies aren't hiring.. even when we need work done, we look to contract w/ firms or individuals rather than hire them, because of the expense, and the commitment required.. exceptions about i'm sure, and it's always a lot easier if you're referred. by an existing employee, a headhunter, a personal contact, etc. applying cold is what you're left with in the absence of referrals, but as someone who posted a job opening and looked at the resumes that came in cold, it was kind of mind-bending. most of the people weren't qualified at all but sent it anyway, and it was fatiguing looking through all that crap.

it's also a lot easier when you have a specific skillset that's in demand. ie, a specific type of developer/engineer. or like a nurse or something. and even in those cases we always look to 'test drive' someone before we consider hiring them, which is easier to do for things like designers and developers..

have heart though. and as a stop-gap, a temp agency could be a decent option.

Just got a promotion into management. Been out of college since May. Gotta be willing to cut a few people's heads off tbh. Going to do this to pay for more education for more options.

To everyone who says college degrees don't mean shit - fuck you, you don't know anything. brb ballin' outta control with my English degree.

Congrats, duo. Proud 4 u, bro.

Party at my place. Cocaine for everyone. Especially you.

<3 u, bro

graduated with a bs in electrical engineering in may 2009, moved out of the country and of course had trouble finding work (and being picky) so i took the year off, worked at home depot, and started a masters in acoustics last fall. hopefully will be finished by august.

Haha, college

graduated with a bs in electrical engineering in may 2009, moved out of the country and of course had trouble finding work (and being picky) so i took the year off, worked at home depot, and started a masters in acoustics last fall. hopefully will be finished by august.

way2go, tim tim

ballin' outta control with my English degree.

so what did it give you in exchange for the investment?

Part of me wishes I had just tried to get a job out of college. Then I look at all my friends who have jobs and they're all really unfulfilled and just kind of killing time and I don't feel as bad. Granted, they're making a little bit of money while I'm spending some. but. : /

you have to develop your life outside of work, not every situation is going to be ideal.

you don't say

i just had chinese food

and by "life" i don't mean having drinks and eating out and blippity bibbity blah

Haha, life.

after i got my degree, it took me five months before i found a job. they said i would have a job before i finished my degree when i started, but in those couple of years, the market had changed. oh well. i did an online course about flash to keep busy. that was quite a waste of time looking back on it.

i dropped out of a music degree in 2004

did freelance web design for a couple of years

went back to school. economics. got a part time job at a web company in 2007. dropped out again, went full time. kept working there. been nearly four years now. can't name the company but it's pretty big news around these parts. who cares. anyway the lesson is you don't need a degree to get ahead in this industry so long as you can think

so what did it give you in exchange for the investment?

A salary, medical benefits, life insurance (for me AND my life partner), paid vacation, personal days, and power over minions.

i'm talking about your english degree. the company you work for made an investment in you not the other way around.

basically what I'm trying to get at is that you probably could have been working the whole time instead of school and you'd still be in the same situation. I'm not sure what studying Shakespeare taught you about how to succeed in business because my degree still hasn't done anything at all to benefit me, in fact, most of the jobskills I have are from high school and recreational computer use...

in fact, most of the jobskills I have are from high school and recreational computer use...

most of the jobskills i have are from jobs.

basically what I'm trying to get at is that you probably could have been working the whole time instead of school and you'd still be in the same situation. I'm not sure what studying Shakespeare taught you about how to succeed in business because my degree still hasn't done anything at all to benefit me, in fact, most of the jobskills I have are from high school and recreational computer use...
are you kidding? i'm a double dropout but i'd be a fucking joke without my undergrad education

yeah i did food service for a while so that didn't develop much of anything but a very deep loathing of Bennigan's

are you kidding? i'm a double dropout but i'd be a fucking joke without my undergrad education

I think it's different when you're an American that went to a terrible commuter school.

are you kidding? i'm a double dropout but i'd be a fucking joke without my undergrad education
that being courses in: economics, music, linguistics, philosophy, politics, statistics, history, etc.

those are all "HUMANITIES" but if i hadn't done them i wouldn't know how to think

I dunno man, i wasted a significant portion of my life persuing a degree that I apparently don't need especially since I can't pay for it and everyone's going to be living in FEMA camps in a few years because of the Obamacare Soviet Socialist Collective.

what were your teachers like trots

i had one really great one that knew practically everything and a lot of unqualified babblers and blowhards

i mean there were more good teachers than that, but I do remember at least half of my classes every semester didn't matter if you were there or not because nothing on topic was ever discussed.

fuck on topic

my best classes were when the teacher went totally off topic

but to be honest i hardly ever went to any classes. i'd skim the course readers and if they interested me i'd go for broke at the library

basically what I'm trying to get at is that you probably could have been working the whole time instead of school and you'd still be in the same situation.

but this is entirely incorrect. i imagine the job he's doing requires a BA.

i'd skim the course readers and if they interested me i'd go for broke at the library
except for the philosophy courses. there's not much in the world that's funnier than hearing the ellas of the world pontificate in front of an audience of 200 and having people (usually other students, but ideally and rarely lecturers) rip them to shreds

fuck on topic

my best classes were when the teacher went totally off topic

but to be honest i hardly ever went to any classes. i'd skim the course readers and if they interested me i'd go for broke at the library

yeah i did that too. trust me when Dr. Kimball went off topic it was only going to Idiotville.

i'm not saying college isn't beneficial but at this point it's really not a good return on an enormous investment. I mean unless you're getting some kind of professional training like engineering or whathave-you.

except for the philosophy courses. there's not much in the world that's funnier than hearing the ellas of the world pontificate in front of an audience of 200 and having people (ideally other students, but if all else fails lecturers) rip them to shreds

my professors were usually too nice to rip into people who said stupid shit. and sometimes the other students didn't care enough. it was fun when it happened though. and part of me thinks it was more fun to witness in smaller classes. because you could watch the dumb person get all flustered and embarrassed.

but this is entirely incorrect. i imagine the job he's doing requires a BA.

you imagine it is but you've already decided it's entirely incorrect.

shut the fuck up eulogy.

yeah i did that too.

i'm not saying college isn't beneficial but at this point it's really not a good return on an enormous investment. I mean unless you're getting some kind of professional training like engineering or whathave-you.

there are lots of ways to bring down the cost of the investment though. if you don't dick around in high school and/or have some initiative. foresight, brah.

you imagine it is but you've already decided it's entirely incorrect.

shut the fuck up eulogy.

as a general statement, yours is entirely incorrect. because there are lots and lots of jobs that require BA's. maybe i'm wrong about duovamp though.

sorry i'm not a goody two shoes that got straight as in fucking high school

so now i have to pay for it forever. that's really super fair. fuck you.

my professors were usually too nice to rip into people who said stupid shit. and sometimes the other students didn't care enough. it was fun when it happened though. and part of me thinks it was more fun to witness in smaller classes. because you could watch the dumb person get all flustered and embarrassed.
sorry, i misspoke. edited. mostly it was other students given the opportunity to destroy. either way, i loved it. never participated myself because i wasn't comfortable arguing publicly back then. NOWADAYS THOUGH

i mean besides the fact that we're still talking about owing tens of thousands of dollars even if i had a scholarship or two.

sorry i'm not a goody two shoes that got straight as in fucking high school

so now i have to pay for it forever. that's really super fair. fuck you.

well maybe you shouldn't have gone to college then. seems to work out for some people though. so stop bitching about it already.

oh yeah BTW i owe tens of thousands of dollars for no qualification and i don't regret it at all

well maybe you shouldn't have gone to college then. seems to work out for some people though. so stop bitching about it already.

you're really honestly pissing me the fuck off right now.

little rich boy didn't even pay for his Notre Dame degree I imagine, that's why it's so awesome to have.

you're really honestly pissing me the fuck off right now.

well that was an odd edit.

it's because i'm twitching.

little rich boy didn't even pay for his Notre Dame degree I imagine, that's why it's so awesome to have.

i had plenty of opportunities to go to school on the cheap or for free. because i didn't dick around and wasn't a miserable shithead in high school. i don't have undergraduate debt, no. but i don't need to apologize for that. but the fact remains that had i been situated differently, i could have gotten a BA for free from a couple decent places. because i thought college was important.

"a miserable shithead"

i wish i could hit you right now

I majored in Mass Comm with an emph on Radio Broadcast, and a Gen English minor. So I was supposed to get a job in radio production after I graduated... what one usually does is move to, say, Rinkydink, Iowa and get a job at a tiny station, and work your way up to the major stations in major cities. But did I do that? No! I moved back to Minneapolis and instead got turned down from all the major stations because I had no experience from KFUK in Rinkydink, Iowa. So I ended up working temp stuff, customer service, debt collection and so forth just to pay the bills, and got too comfortable with that and possibly preoccupied in playing in shitty bands, and forgot I was supposed to be finding a job in my field. Then I fell in love with a girl, knocked her up, and by then it was too late because honestly there's no money in radio, not enough for a family.

It's too late for me. Save yourselves.

"a miserable shithead"

i wish i could hit you right now

way to promote that culture of violence bro

I've only learned to deal with my depression in the last few years, being a teenager you aren't really equipped to deal with the fact that you want to fucking die and you don't see the point of anything.

did you forget that already, by the way?

hot potato

I've only learned to deal with my depression in the last few years, being a teenager you aren't really equipped to deal with the fact that you want to fucking die and you don't see the point of anything.

did you forget that already, by the way?

shit dude, this is a good way of putting my situation in some ways. thanks

if i was as smart as you are Luke maybe i'd feel like i made the right investment

hahahahahahaha faggots

I've only learned to deal with my depression in the last few years, being a teenager you aren't really equipped to deal with the fact that you want to fucking die and you don't see the point of anything.

did you forget that already, by the way?

no i'm just trying to make the point that you can't extend your personal circumstances to the entire world and get all shitty about everything because things don't work for you.

eulogy i suggest you go take a look at the bounty of statistics about the tens of millions of gen y college students working in jobs that don't require a college degree, because I'm honestly sick of linking them to you every goddamn time.

you absolutely refuse to accept anything that is outside your perception of the world, even if there's so much evidence pointing to the declining relevance and rising cost of a bachelor's degree.

i mean this all grew out of you constantly arguing that no one should ever go to college because it's a giant waste. it might have been a waste for you. there is a massive difference.

Wow, where'd my post go? :confused:

i advise everyone not to get a bachelor of arts. what terrible advice.

Wow, where'd my post go? :confused:

i dunno but i def. saw it.

im taking a few various classes a semester because i enjoy them, im not striving for a degree at this time, if ever

i think people forget that college should be a learning experience rather than a huge path for monetary gain

eulogy i suggest you go take a look at the bounty of statistics about the tens of millions of gen y college students working in jobs that don't require a college degree, because I'm honestly sick of linking them to you every goddamn time.

you absolutely refuse to accept anything that is outside your perception of the world, even if there's so much evidence pointing to the declining relevance and rising cost of a bachelor's degree.

you realize i'm not the one making a blanket generalization, right? should everyone go to college? no. does it work for some people? yes. is it necessary for a lot of jobs? yes.

but you can keep stomping your feet and shitting your pants about it. i don't really care.

and yes, underemployment is a problem. because of the recession and because there are probably too many people getting degrees. does that mean no one should get them? no. that's all i'm saying. it's not a controversial point.

if i was as smart as you are Luke maybe i'd feel like i made the right investment
okay then give me the facts and i'll tell how you should've played it

there's nothing to be done now but change my identity to skip out on the loans.

if i was as smart as you are Luke maybe i'd feel like i made the right investment

also what the hell i've never said anything "smart" on this board

i'm talking about your english degree. the company you work for made an investment in you not the other way around.

basically what I'm trying to get at is that you probably could have been working the whole time instead of school and you'd still be in the same situation. I'm not sure what studying Shakespeare taught you about how to succeed in business because my degree still hasn't done anything at all to benefit me, in fact, most of the jobskills I have are from high school and recreational computer use...

I was actually asked how my degree is relevant to the job I wanted in my interview. I explained how I thought it was. An English lit degree is not to be po-poed, Brendan. You may not think learning how to read and write on an expert level give you anything but factual knowledge, rather than skills in developing critical thoughts and analysis and communication. But you're not the person who hired my stupid lazy ass. Meanwhile, on the factual side, rather than skill side, I got to learn a ton of crap about stuff that interests me. win/win imo.

I guess I'm saying that no set of skills you pick up for any degree is ever utterly 100% completely irrelevant. Although I'll give you that some people have no interest in improving themselves, and college was to them a daycare center with easy access to sex and alcohol.

i graduated in 2006 with a degree in elementary education. but i worked through college at starbucks and panera. after 1 month of post-graduating, i quit both and then i worked at an IT consulting firm as a secretary basically because my boyfriend's firm needed one. while doing that, it freed time/worry to let me get a teaching job and interview constantly and go to job fairs. getting a teaching gig at a public school is difficult in chicago without knowing people. eventually, i got a job at a lutheran day school and worked there for half a year.

then i got sick of stupid parents complaining when i asked their children to write a full sentence. so i applied to a korean government english program and moved there. did that for 6 months, but realized it was a joke. so i got a job at an international school, luckily, in seoul, and worked there for almost 2 years. then i moved to albania to work in a different international school. and now i'm lined up to move back to seoul for another international school gig in about 3 weeks.

i find my work online at various school websites and apply directly, then interview over skype quite often.

most of the jobskills i have are from jobs.

most of the jobskills i have are from GOD.

beat that motherfucker.

peabody doin cool stuff

i wonder if he has time to play blackops six hours a night.

He'll have more than enough free time to kill amongst the rubble of Bucheon's crumbling skyscraper apartment buildings once the noble North invades and deals devastation to Imperialist America and her South Korean sycophants.

um i don't think north korea could deal devastation to lechtenstein at this point

honestly i think as soon as the army crosses the border they'll be like HOLY SHIT THANK GOD WE'RE OUT OF THAT FUCKING HELLHOLE! Where do we sign up to take asylum? AND FOOD GIVE ME FUCKING FOOD!!!!

peabody doin cool stuff

not right now actually. i'm in Virginia taking care of my invalid mother. but i'm outta here feb 22, so, yay. but i had to leave albania after only 6 months. it was very sad.

not right now actually. i'm in Virginia taking care of my invalid mother. but i'm outta here feb 22, so, yay. but i had to leave albania after only 6 months. it was very sad.so what is your opinion of Albania? What did you like/did not like? What do you think of Albanians? Was it better/worse than what you had expected? What surprised you the most about the country? Would you recommend people to go to visit the place?

are you here this whole time and wait for geography to pop up

i read that your average american college student has never had to write a 20 page paper and spends like 3 hours a week studying

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-01-18-littlelearning18_ST_N.htm

Four days.

Pretty sure that employing albinos is ticking some kind of diversity box.

so what is your opinion of Albania? What did you like/did not like? What do you think of Albanians? Was it better/worse than what you had expected? What surprised you the most about the country? Would you recommend people to go to visit the place?


Albania was a great place for me to live, all things considered. It is beautiful, warm, sunny (not in the winter though...although it is warm, it's just cloudy and rainy). I was in Tirana, the capital city, and it's a clusterfuck. But it's pretty small and incredibly safe (except when there are protests where civilians are killed...like a few weeks ago)...as a decently-paid person living in the city, I was able to have a fairly nice apartment and able to eat out and "go out" often. Albanian people are eager to chat and it's easy to make friends. My favorite thing to do was to walk around the ring road of the whole city...it would only take about an hour. Some silly things like electricity and internet were not always working, but that's not really a big deal, to me.

I was surprised how many people spoke English. It made learning Albanian tough, because no one would speak it with me. But that's typical of lots of English-learning countries. Sadly, I left before I really got into Albanian.

I would absolutely recommend visiting Albania. I have lots of favorite places and things to see, and I will for sure go back in the next few years. Balkans!!!!

i read that your average american college student has never had to write a 20 page paper and spends like 3 hours a week studying

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-01-18-littlelearning18_ST_N.htm

yeah i never wrote a 20 pager, my senior thesis was 15. I think they should be word count rather than pages since you can fuck around with fonts and squeeze out more for less work. And yeah, even when I was doing really well in school I didn't spend all that much time studying, I went to class most of the time and highlighted a chapter or two that helped. I knew and still know a fair amount of students that will shut their entire life down to go to school and they tend to be the ones that are successful after college but I just couldn't do that. But then again, I really didn't have to, more often than not I would just not really even apply myself at all and get a C and at the time I had this screwed up mindset that said that that's better than working just a little bit to get an A.

hey alex, what happened with getting me a job?

your criminal record is not clear, dude. :( it's so dumb.

I'm not a criminal :(

what peabody is trying to say is: you're mexican

what a frigging homophobe, right

<font color="dab9ea">I graduated in Aug. 07 with a BA in English Lit and Lang. too. I planned on teaching high school English and enrolled in a teacher certification program. It took me a year to finish the teacher cert. program, not including my internship. In the meantime I subbed at various schools for a couple of months, and then got a job as a teacher's assistant at an elementary school. It was ridiculously hard finding a teaching job, so many teachers are out of work here. After working as an assistant for 2 years, an opening came up at the elementary school and the principal hired me as a Kindergarten teacher. I stayed there a year and was moved schools at the beginning of this year and now teach 2nd grade.

So yeah, it wasn't a cakewalk. Two years until I found a serious post collegiate job.</font>

jesus fuck you wanted to teach high school and ended up with kindergarten and second grade?

i considered going that route in order to teach high school and would have shit my fucking pants if i'd had to teach kids that young

jesus fuck you wanted to teach high school and ended up with kindergarten and second grade?

i considered going that route in order to teach high school and would have shit my fucking pants if i'd had to teach kids that young

<font color="dab9ea">Honestly, I was just so grateful to have a job, I didn't even care it wasn't the grade/age I wanted to teach.

Ideally I would love to teach high school (my sis in law teaches high school Eng. and loves it) but I've been in the elem. sector for almost 5 years, changing is kind of intimidating now, although I am certified to teach pk-4 and 8-12 eng.</font>

yeah i couldn't have bitten the bullet on that one. i could never ever ever deal with a group of kids that age. ever.