For those of you who tuned into last week’s Writer’s Block, you know that success can be found without a college degree. So this week’s question is the opposite side of the coin: how do you find success with a college degree?
The benefits of 2- or 4-year degrees are seemingly endless: There are more job opportunities, higher long term salaries and gross incomes, and in many cases, better qualities of life than those without a degree. Ninety-three percent of Grand Central commuters in New York City are college students. As I wrote last week, it’s not always the best option for everyone, but it does help many of us get ahead in life.
I have been on the prowl for a job for about two months. My search has not been extensive, but it’s been exhausting. Until recently, trying to plan out my post-college career seemed dauntingly impossible. Nobody seems to have a how-to guide on finding a job in this economy, with an English degree, for someone who is a creative writer swimming in a world of journalists.
As an English major, people from all areas of life are constantly recommending things for me to read. The list of books I have to read is always growing. I always have a pile of three or so books taking up unnecessary residence on my desk or dresser. It’s a miracle if I make it through three books on my own each semester, but such is the burden of being an English major.
I’ve spent the past three and a half years working my way through all walks of literature. I haven’t always enjoyed it. In fact, for a majority of my college career, I’ve despised the hours upon hours of reading and analyzing literature I’ve done. It’s not that I don’t value the work of writers like Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison or Geoffrey Chauncer. They’re all great. I just wouldn’t have sought them out on my own. Luckily, being force-fed literature for the past few years will probably only benefit me. It’s made me into the well-read individual that we all expect from an English major, let alone a writer.
I’ve also done a lot of writing. I’ve written some heinous short stories. I’ve produced a lot of worrisome (and well-written) essays. More importantly, I’ve found a niche in writing creative nonfiction and weaseled my way into a job at this fine paper. As I stated last week, I won’t regret it. Sure, there are parts I haven’t exactly enjoyed, but that’s the nature of being a student. Really, it’s the nature of any job.
It took me a long time to decide it was the right fit for me. Finding the right college was no different. It took me months of research to narrow down my choices, sorting each potential school by how much it cost, if it had my major and how far it was away from home. It was exhausting and stressful. But in a way, it’s a good prerequisite for entering the real world upon graduation.
My freshman year, I swore I would never work or write for The Stylus, simply because it was not “my kind of writing.” Clearly that was a lie, since I’m in charge of a quarter of the paper each week. I told myself I would despise writing poetry and that I’d never drink or go out to bars or even stay up past midnight on weeknights. Oops. I’ve broken all those rules too, and you know what? I’ve never looked back.
Yes, we have a shaky economy and a limited job market, but I think in the end, the biggest obstacles to our personal successes are ourselves (or maybe that’s just me). It’s easy to make up excuses and blame outside forces. A lot of us are experts at that. Unfortunately, ignoring the problem is rarely the solution. I think in reality, finding the perfect job is a lot like being an English major. It requires a lot of attention to things that bore you, to stories you think are valuable but personally pointless.
It’s a hard idea to swallow, but eventually you have to get over it. It would be too easy to achieve perfection right out of the gate. We don’t just want jobs after graduation, we want the job. I don’t want to have to work my way back up the editorial ladder. I just want my own desk, my own office, the entire package. But that’s not the way it works. If anything, we should all take a mandatory course in patience. In the end, I think that’s what it takes to be successful in any field, no matter what level of education you have.
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