Job Discussion Forums

[mehrlin26]

Hi,

I've spent the last four years wondering what my Bachelor of Arts degree is really worth in real world terms. While I was getting it I was assured it would be worth a great deal. Even now, friends who don't have a degree think it should be worth something. What's your view?

(My specialist was English lit. Maybe I've answered my own question)

[basiltherat]

In regard to job seeking, personally, nowadays I believe its primarily a way to get a foot through the (interviewer's) door. From then on, I bleive in it all being up to the individual and how he/she presents him/herself as a person and how he/she puts across his knowledge and abilities.
basil

[GeminiTiger]

First off I would say that gaining a liberal arts Education on a
University level changed my life. I simply did not have the
ability to write or think at this capacity before spending an
additional five years in school. My understanding and ability
to view that world is forever changed because of my studies
in English, history, math, geology, pyschology, sociology,
philosophy, computer science, Anthropology : USA multicultural
studies and global issues/studies.

Anyone could gain this understanding outside of college, but
it takes a very special person to do so and most people who
claim they are this sort are simply mistaken. I am one that
needed to have been assigned the the hundreds papers that
I have written on the topics already mentioned, to come to
the hollistic understanding I have now of the world.

Additionally, Having a degree is a right of passage. You are
forever in a different social bracket then those who do not
have one. In the United States a person who has a BA or a BSc
is statistically forcasted to earn twice as much as a person who
does not have one over their entire lifetime.

Some counties wont let you work in them long term with out
the status of a four year degree, such as Japan.. So yes, I
would say your education was worth it.

[lagerlout2006]

There used to be a joke about a BA and a buck getting you a cup of coffee.

Update it and a BA and 4.75 will get you a latte at Starbucks!

Or here a BA and 22Y will get you a Mocha (small) and a free copy of CityWeekend magazine.

[mehrlin26]

Thanks for your postings. It's odd though. Most of the responses to my degree have been polite (albeit blank) stares and total indifference. And that's within my own country. I'm in the middle of a job search right now but at the moment I'm facing the choice of a) working in a call centre b) working at a fast food place or c) going abroad to teach rug rats again. I am applying to university for another degree (one that does not involve ESL and might have some practical application, unlike my last). Although I appreciate the things that I learned over the course of my education and the skills it left me with, it doesn't seem to impress anyone outside of the field of English literature.

[denise]

I don't have any statistics or sources to back me up, but I believe that back in the day when not many people went to college, a BA was worth quite a bit. Now more people are going to college, so the value of a degree has declined. Basiltherat said it was a way to get your foot in the door. I agree. It seems to be a basic requirement for middle-class, non-manual labor, office-work-type jobs. I don't know if I would have gotten my administrative assistant job several years back if I hadn't had a BA (in Peace and Conflict Studies--very good training for making photocopies!!!).

d

[Gordon]

Getting a degree was one of the best things I have ever done and I have never regretted it once. Even if you never teach English lit your degree will help you get other jobs and will gain other people's respect a little more.
By studying English lit, it really only qualifies you to teach teach Englsih lit so do you? If not, why are you blaming employers? I have a history degree, which really only allows me to be a History teacher and that is even after more education. That doesn't mean I regret what I studied, I was interesteed in history and still am. I'm sure you like English lit too, you didn't take it for the marketability.
I think everyone questions their choice of studying after they graduate and have trouble finding work. Start with any job and build from there into a job you like better.

[TEAM_PAPUA]

I could sell you a copy of mine:

"Southeast Asian Studies & Politics" - $10


T_P



*please make all cheques payable to 'Save the Whale' a charity foundation set up specifically to save Fat Chinese kids from extinction!

[guest of Japan]

I'm not sure what mines worth now, but I paid a lot for it.

[Aramas]

When I was busily not doing an engineering degree, my arts student friends had 7 contact hours a week versus my 36. Vocational degrees such as Law, Medicine, Engineering, Optometry, Pharmacy etc. are worth big bucks. They're legal tender for a lifetime ticket on the gravy train. With a MBA you can own the gravy train. The same cannot be said for arts. At best an arts degree is a foot in the door at a government department. At worst it's an indication that you probably won't fart at the boss's dinner table.

Think of a BA as a Bachelor of Dinner Conversation. I suspect that it was originally instituted so that blondes would have an opportunity to meet nice medicine and law students

Btw - I'm working on my BA at present - shhh!

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

My degree is worth far less than I paid for it in terms of employability, but I majored in English Literature and Music History.

Where I'm from you pretty much have to go to a community college or graduate school if you want to use your degree or get a job for which a degree is a requirement other than retail management-trainee positions. Even then, the possibility of getting employed isn't guaranteed by a long shot .

But then, I actually like being in class, and learning and even when I was doing a retail job full time I was taking more university courses just for interest (and because my retail work's mind-numbing tedium was slowly undoing all the good that I got out of my degree).

[Chris_Crossley]

[mehrlin26]

Sigh. I guess my problem is that A) I didn't enjoy taking the degree all that much. Even on my better days, I was always plagued with the feeling that I was wasting my time and that there were other things I should be doing. And now B) I'm going back to school. (Maybe) I hate, hate, hate school in all its forms.

Does anybody know what a Bachelor of Journalism is worth?

By the way, I like the comment about the blondes. It certainly explained the number of ditzy girls I used to meet (unfortunately most of the interesting ones had numbskull-boyfriends; but I'm not bitter )

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Spinoza]