Blog Minx

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?