Single, White Unemployed Female: Pick Majors Based on Your Interests, not on Job Opportunities

“Oh,…that’s…nice,” “Are you planning on teaching?”, and my personal favorite, “What are you going to do with THAT?” Though I have tremendous respect for anyone who wants to become a teacher, people make it seem as though it’s my only option once I graduate.

I guess my major, especially with my Creative Writing concentration, can be commonly classified as a “bullshit major.” I avoided becoming an English major until my junior year due to this preconceived notion.

Other majors that may fall under this category include, but are not limited to, Classics, Religion, Anthropology, Art and Theatre. We’ve all seen the Facebook groups, such as “I Picked a Major I Like and One Day I am Going to Live in a Box,” where those of us with the bullshit majors unite.

Our choice of study doesn’t sound all too practical, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: there really isn’t a practical major.

Sure, a business degree sounds like it can translate into a better job than an English major, but to be honest, most people don’t end up having a career that directly has to do with what they studied in college. Just looking at profiles of friends who have graduated on Facebook will prove it.

Now, it sounds like I’m basically saying you’re not going to use your major in the real world unless you become a professor or something directly related to your field. You may be working for a consulting firm when you were a Sociology major in college, but it doesn’t mean you’re never going to use what you’ve learned here.

Case in point: though Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, didn’t graduate from college, he did take some classes. He happened to sit in on a Calligraphy class, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, right? Well, Jobs took what he learned in that class and applied it to his computers, which is why I have the option of typing this article in a wide variety of fonts.

I don’t plan on going to get an MFA in Creative Writing when I graduate, but the writing skills I’ve acquired from my various classes will come in handy in the real world. You’d be surprised how many people can’t write for the life of them, so a strong writing background is something many places look for when interviewing future employees.

That Sociology major you might be hesitating to take on because it doesn’t sound practical is actually something that could be used in a career in journalism, business or politics, among many fields.

My advice: major in whatever you like. You’ll be passionate about what you’re studying, and when grad schools and employers see and hear that passion, they’ll want to accept it or offer it a job. With this economy, I may be very well living in a box next year, but it won’t be because of my major.