I am a linguistics major and thinking about grad school in the future because the careers most closely related to what I’m studying require grad school. But I’ve heard that it’s very common for people to end up in careers from getting their BA that have nothing to do with what they studied, and honestly I don’t know if I’m going to want to do more school when I get out of here. What kinds of jobs want a college graduate who majored in anything?
Maybe Insurance. Sales.
There are probably lots of “general business” type jobs where there is a preference for a BA/BS but without a specific major sought. Perhaps some may be looking for the higher level general intellectual skills that a BA/BS is supposed to indicate, while others may be just using the higher credential to reduce the otherwise-too-large number of applicants to go through.
Most jobs out there do not require a specific major.
I’ve been actually pretty surprised as I’ve been searching for jobs that I could go into most industries without a related degree. A lot of jobs seem to require skills (e.g. coding, software design) or experiences (e.g. leadership, internships, etc.) while having “preferred,” but not required, majors. So it’s not incredibly difficult or unusual to get an interview at a job completely unrelated to your field of study; the interview is where you’ll have to sell yourself and prove you’re a good fit and can bring in relevant/helpful experience or even a new perspective.
Yeah, there really are a lot. Is there a specific area you’re more interested in than others? Do you have any internship or work experience?
@juillet I’m currently a freshman and only have experience working with kids, which is not something I ever wanna do full time. I’m gonna be getting involved with research soon (doing independent study winter quarter) but that’s probably only helpful for my major right? I don’t have any particular interest outside of my major but I know I’ll probably never be tech savvy. I’m going through my first reading week right now and just want college to be over fast.
Are you a good writer with strong analytic thinking skills? Are you writing proposals with your independent study? Are you going to give a presentation? You will probably have a lot of useful skills. You’re going to a great school. Stop by the career center and have a chat. @soontobecolleger
@gearmom I would consider myself an ok writer but not great, and I don’t really know what I’ll be doing in the independent study besides readings. Next quarter we are getting our college advisors who are supposed to stick with us throughout the 4 years so I’ll probably bring it up with him/her.