#college thoughts

[i-live-in-my-bookshelf]

Me missing classes so I can go to the library for studying for said classes is the most university-esque thing I did today

#college thoughts #university #academic #academia #core #study #studycore #learning #librarylife #library #english major #english literature #language #tumblr #autumn aesthetic #dark acadamia aesthetic #dark aesthetic #fall aesthetic #light acadamia aesthetic #aesthetic #cozy aesthetic

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Hi, fellow English major here! Sorry if this is personal - are there any career paths you’d recommend? I’ve thought either journalism or academia (might do a masters for either!) though I’ve heard college teaching is now super precarious.

Well tumblr just ate everything I wrote. Grr.

This is a bit of a hard question to answer and it's really complicated, without knowing why you're into journalism or why you're considering teaching. I don't know a whole lot about these fields, but what I do know is that they both involve research, collaboration, writing, the day-to-day is different, and you have to be kinda peopley. If that sounds like you, then some other options to look into would be research, analysis, or librarianship.

Higher ed/college academia is...going through some things right now. (I've got friends in that world.) It's largely down to two things - one, culture wars and two, the demographic cliff. I don't want to discourage you from that if that's where your heart is, but it's going to be a difficult ride. Tenure isn't a guarantee anymore, you might have to move around more than you've expected, budgets are getting tighter and they're coming with a million more strings, and hiring is a bit stagnant. The message I hear from my higher ed friends is that if you want to go into higher ed or academia, you better make sure you're doing it for the passion, not the tenure or the paycheck.

And grad school. Only go if you're absolutely entirely 100% certain you need that master's to get the career you want. The economy being what it is, the interest rates being what they are, costs and fees being what they are, how fast and quickly certain fields are changing because of tech, I don't know that the value is there anymore if you're on the fence or you're doing it because it's what you're supposed to do. Grad school will still be there in a few years so you can always go back to school.

If you're open to a more broader perspective of the English major's postgrad experience and advice, then

In this essay I will give you a nonanswer answer in three parts:

What do you like about studying English? Why did you choose English in the first place?

It's not about the English lit. It's about the soft skills.

In the end, it doesn't actually even matter.

Colleges, universities, career offices, and departments really struggle with career advice and career planning. They only know what they know, right, so they have a tendency to promote the obvious career paths because that's what their experience is -- English majors go into academia, history majors go into museums, pre-med majors go into medicine, etc. However, that's just one option. I think it's harder for these folks to know what's really out there because they're just not familiar with it, and that's why they rely so much on their alumni to fill in the gaps but it still leaves students in the dark having to find their own way out. (I do think it's changing, though. My friends in higher ed said that there's a lot more focus "beyond the classroom" to prepare students for the real post-college life and more diverse careers.)

So let's get into it.

What do you like about studying English? What made you choose English in the first place?

Is it the reading? Do you like the debate and discussion? Is it the creative process? Do you like writing? Do you like the analysis? The research? If you narrow down why you like English, it can be super helpful finding "non-traditional" career paths.

For example:

If you like reading, then look at publishing or editing.

If it's the creativity or the creative process, then consider marketing or advertising.

If you like the discussions and debating plot points, maybe you're a lawyer.

If you like the community of book world, then maybe you're a bookseller or a librarian.

If you like writing and the writing process, definitely look into journalism, but there's also content editing, communications, technical writing, ghostwriting, food recipe writing, etc.

If you like analyzing literature, look into being an analyst.

If it's the research, go into research or research librarianship

And remember, these are just super broad and high-level career paths. Within each career field, there's a million different options to narrow it even further. Like librarians or writers or advertising.

It's not about the literature. It's about the soft skills.

Colleges and college students often think that the only career options they have are the ones that deal specifically in the hard skills their coursework studies - English majors become writers or teachers, history majors become historians, geography majors become geographers and mapmakers. But the reality is that the people who do exactly the work that their major studied are few and far between. Most of us end up with careers that have nothing to do with what we studied. For instance, in my friend group (there's about 9 of us) only one actually does the specialty he studied for - he has a physics degree and he does physicsy stuff for a lab. The rest of us are all over the place, like

the Chemistry major now does IT sales.

the Geography major is the International Studies director for a midsized university.

the French major is an accounts manager for a higher education consulting firm.

And it's all about the soft skills. Those are what set us up for success. Off the top of my head, these are the soft skills you're practicing in your English major coursework:

Reading and reading comprehension

Writing

Writing for different audiences (eg. you know Professor X is really into symbolism so your papers for his class will focus on symbolism, which is different from Professor Y who wants you to talk about literary theory, which is different from Professor Z who's obsessed with victorian panopticism so you know you need to include Foucault and -- shoot, that's my PTSD escaping.)

Analyzing different kinds of information and knowing the methods/tools (for instance, analyzing poetry is very different from analyzing scientific research)

Doing research (knowing how and where to find information)

Vetting sources

Speaking about and defending your work

Taking, incorporating, and giving feedback

Working on deadlines

Collaborating with people

Attention to detail

Organizing information

And guess what? This is the day-to-day work that all of us do in our careers. These are the tools necessary for success in pretty much anything: project/program/product management, sales, consulting, contracting, IT, business, HR.

So if you're having trouble finding work in a classically English field like journalism or academia or you can't figure out if you're qualified for a position, use these soft skills. If they show up in the description of duties/responsibilities, you're qualified! Apply! Don't focus too much on the job title or the company.

Take Kate for an example. Her degree is in art history, but she's never worked in a classical art history field - i.e., she's never worked in an art museum and she isn't having conversations on Remembrandt vs Van Gogh. But she is using her degree anyway - her attention to detail and her research skills means she shows up prepared every day, her knowledge of color theory means the photos she gives us of her family and their appearances are pleasing to look at, she can communicate easily to different audiences (eg outdoorsy clothes and casual attitude for Scouts vs coatdresses and formality for Westminster Abbey).

In the end, it doesn't actually even matter.

It really doesn't. Particularly for a humanities major, the more you lean into your soft skills, the easier it'll be to find a career path that works for you. Some examples...

If you like working with people, you love organizing things, and your attention to detail is *chefs kiss*, you might be a project manager and project managers are everywhere.

If you like writing, talking to people, and you're a planner, maybe you're a communications specialist or a speechwriter.

Maybe you like writing and you like doing research, but you don't want to go to grad school, look at becoming an acquisitions specialist or a contracting officer.

If you're into language and linguistics, maybe you're a book translator or an interpreter. (Just don't work with Omid Scobie!)

This is where I think college advisors struggle. They tell students to be open to possibility, but they don't tell you what possibility is. I remember going in for career advising and the conversation went something like this:

Me: I don't want to teach but I like writing and research. What can I do? Dr. S: You can do anything you want! Me: What does that mean? Dr. S: You don't have to teach! You can do whatever you want! Me: BUT WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN.

(Dr. S was later fired for drunk driving with students in the car so...she probably wasn't the best person for the department to appoint as the career advisor. Or Department Chair.)

It took me until about two years ago to realize what Dr. S meant by "you can do anything you want." She (and a lot of the people at my university) just didn't know how to explain what they meant. I think part of that is because "soft skills" wasn't really a thing a lot of people were talking about 10, 15 years ago outside a corporate environment, and it does seem to be changing now, and universities have begun teaching and showing students how to connect coursework, sports, clubs and student activities, and volunteering to soft skills and "business"-minded concepts.

Just be open to considering career paths that aren't traditionally lit-focused, like business or IT. It'll be the soft skills that set you apart and help you be successful, not how well you can you can argue symbolism or read seventeenth-century poetry or recite Shakespeare. Leave it for your hobbies.

So here's an example of what I mean by being open to other career paths. As I mentioned before, I do have a B.A. in English and my focus was modern American fiction. I went into college thinking that I'd be a writer or do something in movies - I was going to be either the American JK Rowling, the millennial Meg Cabot, or the female Aaron Sorkin. (Reader, I was not and will never be.)

But in reality, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I looked into publishing, high school teaching, college professorship, creative writing, scriptwriting, but nothing was panning out. Eventually I signed up for a summer internship program with the federal government (my parents were feds) thinking "at least I'll get my internship credit and know what NOT to do". The internship ended up being with a research library, I absolutely loved it, decided "this is it, I'm going to get my MSLIS and be a librarian and do research and write research papers forever!" (MSLIS is Master of Science in Library and Information Science). They invited me to come back again the next summer, which I accepted, and my dear amazing supervisor (let's call her "Marian") somehow convinced the bosses to pull me on full-time when the internship ended and to support my grad school coursework.

Went directly from undergrad to grad and hated it. 15 years ago was an interesting time in the library world; it was right when the field transitioning from information to data so it was less about working with research and more about organizing and using data. In effect, it was moving away from the world of books/information ("Englishy" type stuff) and moving fully into the realms of data and computer science. Not what I expected and for someone who was on the research librarian track, having to take classes on data analysis, computer science, website management, and HTML coding, it was torture. But that was where the industry was going so get on board or drop out. Meanwhile, the research library I was working in was also changing. We were changing from being a library and doing research to being a repository of databases and facilitating access to research. The bosses got wind that I was looking to jump ship and said:

"She's got a really weird brain full of really random stuff but ask her a question about something she looked up 3 years ago and she can remember exactly what it was, where she found the information, how it applied to whatever you need, and the exact notebook she wrote it down in. She knows how to get information from people so let's make her a sub-project manager on this new database tool with Bob to see if she's as good as Marian says she is and maybe we can steal her from the librarians because they're all retiring soon anyway." (I'm paraphrasing here but yes, they specifically wanted me because I have a crazy attention to detail.)

So I abandoned the librarians (they were all retiring anyway and were like two resignations away from reorganizing the department), went over to the IT side to become a project manager and one month into the project with Bob, Bob was in a horrible car accident, had a severe TBI, and ended up taking medical retirement because his recovery was going to be years long. (Bob's okay now. I had dinner with him last month.)

I did not get a new PM to shadow or partner with. I was left to do the whole thing on my own with a senior devops team who didn't like that a no-nothing 24 year old kid was in charge of them. But it all worked out in the end. I earned devops' loyalty, we had fun, we impressed the client, the bosses were happy and I found that I really liked project management and even better, I was really good at it. I did that for ten years, until one of the bosses who'd left about four years prior (and with whom I still kept in touch, who knew I didn't like the techy database stuff they kept pushing me into) said "psst, hey, come work for me" and I said "can I start tomorrow."

So very long story short, being open to possibilities is how I ended up a) working for the federal government, b) falling into IT and project management, and c) now doing policy analysis and program evaluation. I didn't even know English majors could do this kind of stuff 15 years ago. I thought you had to have business degrees for all this.

What I mean is you don't need to abandon your interests in journalism and academia. If that's what you want to do, you go girl (or guy or they) - all the English majors are here rooting for you. But if you're not sure, don't close yourself off from the non-traditional English career paths.

And also don't worry too much about it. You'll find what you were meant to do, whether you figure it out right now or it takes you 4 years and grad school or it takes you 10 years.

Maybe you do go into journalism, and it's not for you. Dust off your list of soft skills and polish your resume and go find your next step. Or maybe you go into academia, realize you don't like teaching, but hey, that job in Student Affairs looks interesting -- go for it! What have you got to lose?

You probably weren't expecting another literal essay on this, so my apologies for that. But in my defense, I did say it was a complicated question to answer!

Please, feel free to ask more questions! I promise to try to be less long-winded. (No guarantees, though.)

Also a tip about resumes. I am horrible at writing resumes but I found this incredible tool called Jobscan.co. You upload your resume and the job listing you're applying to, and then it compares them and flags things in your resume based on the job listing and suggests tips to improve. It's based on the same ATS optimization technology that real hiring managers use to screen their applicants.

#ask #college thoughts #in this essay i will #english majors #thus was born the spreadsheet nerd

[smorp-a-dorp]

Me trying to write an email to a professor: Hi—

Gmail autocomplete: FIRST NAME??? FIRST NAME??? YOU WANT TO CALL THEM BY THEIR FIRST NAME??? YOU WANT TO GET CRUCIFIED BY THIS PERSON YOU RESPECT AFTER CALLING THEM BY THEIR FIRST NAME???

#college #collegeblr #college moment #college stuff #college experience #college tag #college things #college thoughts #college adventures #college is kicking my ass #college is killing me #college is exhausting #college is a bitch #college posting #college problems #college student #college has been kicking my ass #college kids #college life #college be like #smorp original

[reminiscingtonight]

If I have to read another academic paper about nicotine use, I will, in the words of our lord and savior Taylor Swift:

#college thoughts

[dreamsondashboard]

Sometimes college is going to class and being productive, feeling a sense of profound accomplishment for getting this far and working towards your degree.

Other times it’s sitting in a corner with your laptop open, but not on, so you look like you’re doing work. But you actually staring at a wall; the same wall you’ve been staring at for the last 2 hours.

Some days are better than others; but having bad days doesn’t make you a failure

At the very least I ate a granola bar, I feel like that should count for something.

#study motivation #studyblr #polisci major #student life #study blog #tired #student #burnout #education #college thoughts #college #kinda depressing #school #college is kicking my ass #granola bars are great #granola bar based morale

[pandannon]

I have a friend and past roommate that I am still very close to. She’s a great person and I like her a lot. We still all follow the social media from our university so we know all the events going on and the shows/concerts etc… (even though we all moved across the country so it’s not like we are going to go back to campus for any of them).

And my friend, she has a major case of FOMO, which is fine, that’s her baggage not mine. But sometimes it does get me down a bit. She obviously misses our college days dearly and wishes she could go back. I also miss the time I spent in college with my friends and learning cool and challenging things, but I don’t want to go back. It’s easy to forget how hard those years were, both academically and personally. Those years were not the best years of my life, I know that for certain, and I can only work harder to make sure that every year in my future is better.

As cliché as it is, Next Semester granted me validity to feel this way. It’s ok to look back at what people say are “the best years of your life, just wait they will fly by and you’ll wish you could go back” and to be so fricken glad they are over. 

I have my friends, I have my degree, and I’m much stronger/smarter/better than I was before, and that’s enough for me, I don’t need rose tinted glasses. 

#dailys #college thoughts #twenty one pilots #clancy #next semester

[v1olentdelights]

There is something so weird about being ready to go home, and then realizing that you are home and that you are really longing to go back to your dorm. But what is even weirder is the knowledge that you are missing the life you have created for yourself at 19 and that it is okay to feel this way.

#grace chatters #can you tell i have been thinking too much #university thoughts #college thoughts

[bxti]

glad to be in the era of where I’m not in any fandoms, which is also called the 2nd year of college oh my god what the fuck am i doing with my life what is going on era

#my future and career is all i think about i simply can not think about something fixtional every minute #its good right?? #am i adulting? #college thoughts

[yinshiroyangkuro]

Some undergrads have started calling me sir... I'm still processing this

#college thoughts

[simplythgirl]

If a professor doesn't grade a single thing until the last week of the semester college students should be allowed to request a refund some of us don't want to waste money let alone financial aid on a class where the professor doesn't care.

#my rants #college thoughts #my hot takes #my post

[i-live-in-my-bookshelf]

Conversing with mom last night, and I was telling her how in one of my classes at college some guys sat in the first row and how pretentious they were and just don't understand why did they sit there and how I hate these kind of people and so on. Then my mom said 'don't you sit in the first row all the time?'

And i said 'you're absolutely right, i should shut up now, have a great night' and went to sleep.

#college thoughts

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Another fellow English major here...so straight out of college, I worked as a legal secretary for about a year. It was a high-powered large corporate legal firm and it was interesting. So I started studying to take the LSAT. I was also contemplating going in the Peace Corps. One of the lawyers I worked for was from North Carolina, and he said, "Why don't you go volunteer in Appalachia? There's poor people right here in this country." I looked into it and several months later I was off to volunteer in Appalachia, where I stayed three years (one year as a full-time volunteer and two years as a paid employee). I was a GED teacher there for adults. Then I became burned out and needed to move on. A friend in Florida suggested I move there since she had a friend who needed a roommate. Off I went to Florida. I did temp work when I got there as a secretary. I got a job six weeks later in social services as a case manager. I did that for three years and then I decided I wanted to move up in the social services field, but in order to do that, I needed to get a master's degree. So I went back to school and got a master's in counseling. I then took the steps to be a licensed therapist. I was promoted at several jobs to supervisor. Then about six years ago, I started working at a health insurance company in the behavioral health department. I work from home and love my job. All of this to say, there are a lot of options out there for us English majors. Along the way, I had some experiences and met some people who guided me to paths I might not otherwise have taken. Good luck to you! You'll find your way. (Oh, I have a friend who was also an English major, then she got her master's in creative writing, and is now a supervisor at a publishing company.)

Another English major!

A lot of the anons who are writing in about their postgrad lives have the same thing in common: a lot of us go where the wind blows us, making job/career changes based on suggestions and referrals from friends and people we trust.

#ask #english major #college thoughts #career paths

[commanderfoxdeservesbetter]

Clones in college thoughts? You’re awesome btw

It’s funny cuz I’m in college now skjskjskj so I guess you can say I’m an expert 😏😂 but yesssss I got some thoughts on this (also thank you!! My confidence really going up with these 😭 you’re awesome too!! And I hope you enjoy - also I apologize y’all but I’m American so this will be based on American college types 😬)

Fox is a business major. He hates it more than anything but at the very least, he wants to know the ins and outs of everything so he can take advantage of those who prey on the innocents (cough bring down the corporations cough)

He’s also the type of college student who’s a homebody and prefers to stay in versus going out and drinking

Thorn is also a business major but he’s that one dude who’s in a frat (Chi Sigma) that throws the best parties!! Everyone loves him and he’s chill with almost all the professors

Everyone wonders how they are friends as they are the complete opposite but it works

Quinlan Vos is a one of their professors and he makes deez nuts and that’s what she said jokes but his class is super hard to pass so no matter how chill he is, everyone still has to study for his class 😫

Cody is a horticulture major. He drew a sun on his armor - I can see him definitely being into plants. He gets made fun of by his brothers but he already has a job lined up for him after graduation so who’s laughing now Rex!

Bly is a elementary Ed major. He changed his major because he met a cute girl who was in that major and he wanted to talk to her more. Jokes on him because he ended up falling in love with teaching

Also the girl ended up transferring but he met his fiancé Aayla later that semester so it doesn’t matter

Hound would be an animal science and pre-vet major. He loves animals and knew he wanted to work with them since he was little. Grizzer is his service animal (I’m thinking a Boxer) who is trained to watch out for his epilepsy

Wolffe is a psychology major - he doesn’t exactly know what he wants to do but he knows he wants to help people. He choose it after being discharged from a mental hospital for attempted suicide

Howzer is a political science and pre-law major. He’s really into Social Justice and wanting to make a change. He’s already done internships for law firms and volunteering for getting people signed up to vote. He plans to go to Law School after graduation

Howzer is also in a fraternity but a different one to Thorn’s (Kappa Chi). This frat is more lowkey and chill

Kix is a nursing major. He likes to say he isn’t like other nursing majors but he’s often found in the library surrounded by piles of books and cups of coffee

He’s in the same fraternity as Jesse (Delta Alpha Kappa) and they go partying every Thursday

He somehow still has a GPA of a 4.0 and is in the nursing honor society

Coric is a kinesiology major who often hangs out with Kix at the library. He prefers the country bars over the other bars in Coruscant and is apart of the Rodeo Team

Hardcase is a sports business major and a student athlete. He’s on the football team (American football 🏈) and is the middle Linebacker

He is often times late for class because he sleeps in so often but he also brings an extra coffee with him as penance so most of professors don’t care

Jesse is on the basketball team and in the ROTC program; he is one of the most involved people on campus that almost everyone knows his name from Orientation to Tour Leader to President of his Frat to an officer in another organization ALL WHILE working two jobs

Rex doesn’t know how he does it all but if he’s hanging with Kix, it makes sense

Rex is an digital media major with a minor in photography. He just really loves art however he worries about not finding a job after graduation and have started talking to Fox to help him with getting connected to employers

Fives and Echo are those STEM majors. Fives is a biochemistry and pre-Med major and Echo is a computer science major.

Fives is a total nerd for chemistry and would have chosen that as his sole major but the biology major would better help him for the pre-Med track or so his advisor says

A lot of people have underestimated Echo in his ability to do his job due to his prosthetics however he has created many apps and programs for different companies and hasn’t even graduated college yet

He has a job lined up for a top company after graduation

Tech is his STEM study buddy whom he joins with at the library

Tech is an double engineering and physics major and he creates his own robots for fun. Echo thinks he’s slightly crazy and swears he’s never seen the man sleep

Tech does but only like a maximum of 3 hours a night

Gree is a English major with a focus in literature and creative writing. He wants to publish his own books one day but right now is focusing on trying to get a job at a publishing company

He has won 2 writing competitions and has one short work published in the Coruscant Fiction Journal

This is all I can think of right now but yea

#star wars #tcw #commander fox #the clone wars #clone wars #arc trooper fives #captain rex #commander thorn #commander cody #commander gree #college thoughts #many other clones in here #but feel free to add your own if others but this is all I could think of right now

[chloenightsstanskaldur]

Tumblr has taught me more about anti-plagiarism then some college classes.

#college thoughts #group projects leave me reeling

[dreamsondashboard]

There is just something about the words discussion post that make me wanna tear my hair out and commit capital offenses

#study motivation #studyblr #polisci major #student life #study blog #studyspo #political science #student #study #study aesthetic #discussion post #i hate homework #canvas can suck it #try me bitch #discussion board #college #college things #college thoughts

[procrastinator-studies]

Freaking love being the only person who is repeating the main discipline of the master and ironically being one of the only ones who actually comes at the beginning at the class and having the second best grade of the year, but I'm still the stupid girl who couldn't pass last year 🤡🤠🤡

#student #studyblr #studies #study hard #studyblr community #college studyblr #study motivation #architecture student #university studyblr #random thoughts #college thoughts