The Graduate: Back on the Street
Yesterday Cracked.com posted the funny-yet-serious article Welcome to Hell: A Real-World Guide for Graduates, which announces: “…unfortunately, contrary to what your self-important professors would have you believe, there isn’t exactly a huge demand for people with a degree in 17th century Dutch artists in the real world.” It then goes on to welcome the unsuspecting grad back into their parents’ home, gives tips for finding a McJob and breaks down the hopelessness of the situation according to the degree. English majors take note: “When confronted with a crowd of people, you now know it’s not ‘who is this Big Mac combo for?’, it’s ‘for whom is this Big Mac combo?’”
These thigh-slapping jokes are not new. In my first year at college, in every bathroom there was graffiti scrawled over the toilet paper with a down arrow reading: “BA degrees, please take one.” I was doing a BA, in English, and things looked bleak. Friends of mine doing more practical courses were being propositioned by industry headhunters, yet despite my prowess with the adverb and iambic pentameter there was no golden job at the end of the line. Only, it seemed, golden arches.
Those few months after college were among the hardest of my life. I didn’t have a clue what to do next. But things worked out: I trained further in shorter, more practical courses, and the skills I learned during my BA - writing, editing, debating, dancing, drinking - still come in handy today. I’m a firm believer in doing what you love and the rest will follow. If only someone would pay me to recite something by TS Eliot.
Any other graduates out there got stories?
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Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 9:17 am
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I hear ya. After I got out of art school, I was so confounded at my financial situation I was going to write to the student loans committee and insist that they refuse to give out student loans to people who were in programs with ZERO chance of earning an actual income.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:39 pmI saw a statistic that 5 years after leaving art school, less than 5% of people were even doing anything related to art as a hobby, never mind making a living from it.
Yeah, when I was a student there was an all-you-can-spend loan option where you simply keyed in the amount you wanted over the phone and an automatic voice said, “You have requested XXXXX dollars. That amount will be deposited into your account first thing tomorrow morning.” Scary stuff.
Do you still do any art?
May 15th, 2007 at 2:01 pm“Do you still do any art?” Nope, I may have lasted a bit longer than 5 years though. And I did open photoshop last week and resize a photograph…does that count?
May 15th, 2007 at 2:38 pmHm, all told, I think I’m extremely lucky. I actually use my BA and (kind of) wish I had a MA in something equally useless because my new colleagues with Classics and English majors are getting paid quite as much as I, and that’s after I’ve put in 3 years! Oh wait, did you say those who were making ANY income should speak up, or just those who were making REAL income? ’cause I’m not part of the second club.
May 16th, 2007 at 2:39 pm