Advice on Career Path?

[maurkay]

I’m currently a senior in high school and I have no idea what is the right degree/career I should pursue going on to college. Honestly, I am most interested in a Professional Writing degree, and I know for sure I want to learn Polish fluently and study abroad in Eastern Europe. However, the outcomes of an English or Professional Writing degree are a bit discouraging. The thing is, I come from an unstable, low-income background. So I prefer to aim towards a more secured, stable career.

Most people coming out of an English degree jump from job to job, take all kinds of opportunities, work in this position or that position. The typical careers for English majors include editors, copywriters, teachers, etc. I’m really concerned with stability though. I don’t want to have to put myself in a highly competitive situation and have to jump from one job to the next. The only stable one out of all of those is a teacher. But I don’t think I could ever go into teaching. My mom suggested I pursue a career in Education, specifically Elementary Education for a start, because of my pretty good writing skills, good computer skills, and good organization and creative habits. It’s also a non-competitive job and it’s stable. Not to mention it’s guaranteed you’ll find a teaching job somewhere after graduation. That’s what’s nice about a teaching career. But…
1.) I’m super introverted and suffer from social anxiety. I can’t talk to an audience without shaking horribly.
2.) I have no idea how to deal with children. And teaching middle schoolers or high schoolers isn’t an option because I honestly can’t stand any of them and I’d hate to have to teach middle or high school.

I don’t know if there’s a possibility to combine professional writing with foreign language and develop a career out of that. Except for a translator. I’m generally just more inclined towards the Humanities and Liberal Arts but there aren’t too many guaranteed careers within those areas. I really don’t know what to do and I don’t want to waste my years in college and my financial aid for just trying to figure out what I want to do. I’d rather have a plan and know (or at least have a better idea of) what I’m doing. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[geraniol]

You sound like one of my close friends. They ended up switching majors through college at least 4 times, including a stint in education which they tried out because everyone was saying it could be a good qualification to fall back on if they couldn’t find a career later on. That didn’t work out - my friend also has anxiety which made practicums intolerable.

My friend also had a passion for languages and writing, and graduated from college with a double major in physics and linguistics. It took a while to figure out what to do, but this friend is now a technical writer for a multinational company where it’s necessary to be able to read and understand foreign languages and cultures to deal with clients, but the writing is all in English. I personally did not know this kind of job existed until my friend told me about it. There are a lot of jobs in the world that you wouldn’t readily think exist.

Based on your interests, maybe look into the public service (USAjobs) or international treaty organizations. You probably won’t be competitive for those jobs with an English degree. Usually they want economics, sociology, international relations, etc, with internships and masters’ degrees or professional qualifications. But these are jobs with a lot of writing and opportunities to work with foreign countries. You should however be aware that they are also incredibly competitive and take a lot of perseverance to land. But love of writing and language doesn’t mean you’ll live the life of a wandering poet.