My USELESS Degree

[MollyBeGood]

My useless degree in Art History. Does anyone else have a useless degree and now owe major student loans?

No way to pay them back in this horrible job market?

I owe over 30k. There's no way I am going to pay back these loans in my lifetime. I cannot even get a minimal wage job! There are literally no jobs no matter how many I apply for.

 

[shybutsexy]

Maybe you can work as an Art History teacher? at high school or college, im sure you can get a lot better paid than just minimum wage.

 

[S_Spartan]

The unemployment situation in America is much worse than the news or the government tells us.

 

[Section_31]

My useless degree in Art History. Does anyone else have a useless degree and now owe major student loans?

No way to pay them back in this horrible job market?

I owe over 30k. There's no way I am going to pay back these loans in my lifetime. I cannot even get a minimal wage job! There are literally no jobs no matter how many I apply for.

As an IT recruiter, I see this so much every day. It makes me feel so bad for my candidates. Theyre indoctrinated by the uni's to think that certs and degrees will automatically land them an awesome job. School, also being a business, takes their money, then fires them out into the workforce, often times with no further assistance....and they find most business don't care at all about their degree's, the focus is more on the amount of work experience they have. And often times, they cant get said experience, because they have that degree and most companies don't want to pay what they (the students) were told theyre entitled to. Its a very circular cycle, and it frustrates me as well as my candidates, they come to me looking for help with job placement, and often times its a very difficult cycle to break. And theyre saddled with a similar amount of debt. The whole thing has made me very very jaded and cynical towards education. Not to say the skills you learn aren't useful, they absolutely are. But the uni's tend to over propagandanize themselves and what they can do for you.

The system is broken and needs to be fixed.

Mind you because im in an IT area, im afraid I cant really be of much help . Often times what ill tell someone, in the IT field, whos in your situation, is if they need experience, possibly take a contract position somewhere for 6 to 12 months. That will pay more, and at least give them a bit of a job history so they can then approach a permanent position......but again in your particular field I have no idea how that could work, so I wouldn't say that's advice exactly :/. Im sorry .

Keep us posted on what happens here....I really hope this works out for you .

 

[vj288]

I'll trade you an interdisciplinary degree with a focus in philosophy, psychology, and sociology for your art degree! And with three times the subjects come three times the loan payments! I'd very much like to go back 4 years and decide against making this financial mistake. I very much am in the same hole as you.

 

[Odo]

I have a pretty useless degree as well... I chose it when I was basically suicidal and didn't give a shit about my future, and at this point in my life I'm convinced that you could probably get a better overall experience/experience on a decent internet forum full of dedicated, well-read regulars.

On the other hand, it did get me work teaching in Asia. They don't really care about your experience so much as your ability to speak English/what you look like, and the degree is basically a filter for the visa so they don't end up with homeless people or criminals. But it's really not so rewarding to know that they don't think so highly of you.

I would definitely advise people against spending a lot of money on an education like the one I received... in the age of the Internet there is literally zero value in spending 4 years in a room talking about these subjects with profs who don't really care and students who are basically just drifting along without any clue as to what they're going to do with their lives and who themselves are probably lost and trying desperately not to appear that way.

Most arts degrees are just tuition funding for the STEM programs.

 

[Pacific_Loner]

That's funny because I was going to choose art history or fine art, and finally I decided that I would go for something more financially viable because I needed to pile money as fast as possible. Good decision I guess.

 

[shybutsexy]

That's funny because I was going to choose art history or fine art, and finally I decided that I would go for something more financially viable because I needed to pile money as fast as possible. Good decision I guess.

So if you are thinking about how to make the most amount of money, what careers should we consider?

 

[fate12321]

So if you are thinking about how to make the most amount of money, what careers should we consider?

I read various articles, blogs, etc., about different carrier choices. The degrees that are worth pursuing are mostly in the field of medicine, technology, and engineering. Unfortunately, even if you do manage to get a degree, your not guarantee a job upon graduation. It's hard to find job like Section_31 said. It's a lot of competition, and they mostly ask for experience.

 

[Kiwong]

Wow, that is one hell of a loan. Maybe you could use the credits on another course. Like Wildlife Management, living on the land you would have some practical skills that would help in that area.

I paid back my loan about three years after finishing studying, the HECs tax came in in the final year of my study.

 

[Pacific_Loner]

So if you are thinking about how to make the most amount of money, what careers should we consider?

Well I did not choose my degree in the perspective of making the most amount of money, but in the perspective of being able to have a regular and reasonable income, on a short term (no endless studies), doing a job that would not make me want to kill myself. So I chose something that I thought wouldn't require a master or doctorate to get a job, had good job perspectives in my country, was interesting to me, didn't require too much IQ (I'm not that smart), and fits my personality.

If you're smart though, I would suggest engineering as fate said. I guess you can make good money in programming as well. I could say things like law, medicine or business but I don't think they are good career for SA people unless you really really want to do it and challenge yourself.

To the OP: Did you do a master degree? If I had a degree in art history and didn't want to teach, I think I would try to find funding to make some research and write a book.

 

[awkwardamanda]

Mind you because im in an IT area, im afraid I cant really be of much help . Often times what ill tell someone, in the IT field, whos in your situation, is if they need experience, possibly take a contract position somewhere for 6 to 12 months. That will pay more, and at least give them a bit of a job history so they can then approach a permanent position......but again in your particular field I have no idea how that could work, so I wouldn't say that's advice exactly :/. Im sorry .

I'm not in IT but from what I've seen, temporary/contract jobs often want experience too.

I have a math degree which shouldn't be useless, but so far it has been. I've been looking way too long and it's hell. There are math-related jobs out there, but they're hard to come by and I don't have experience. I'm not just limiting myself to the math jobs though. I've been applying for basic, entry-level office admin jobs but I don't stand a chance because I don't have experience. How does anyone ever get this experience? They want experienced people to do simple tasks like filing papers and data entry. It's ridiculous. Just teach someone already! We shouldn't all have to take courses so we can learn how to answer phones, file papers, and type fast, just so we can be job-ready. There's a huge disconnect between the education schools provide and the skills employers expect people to have. Employers really need to be more willing to put the effort into training sometimes. They need to just give new grads a chance sometimes. I don't think two or three years of experience is really necessary for some of these jobs. People who have done low-level work for that long probably want something new. But people are desperate for work, so they'll take anything and suddenly everyone needs a degree and five years experience to be competitive as a receptionist. Stupid economy.

 

[lyricalliaisons]

My Art History professor teaches college and children (10-11 year olds). She loves her job and her degree isn't useless. However, I'm sure that for someone with SA, that kind of degree would be pretty useless, unless your comfortable with being an online teacher.