Communications Major

<p>Well I have been trying to narrow down my options for what I want to major in and Communications is one of my potential choices.</p>

<p>However I have a couple of questions about what type of employment opportunities I would have after I graduate? If I graduate with an excellent GPA can I expect to have solid job opportunities. I ask because I have heard otherwise</p>

<p>I am really looking into Management and consulting, and possibly going to business school after I have a couple of years of working experience under my belt.</p>

<p>Any info would be helpful</p>

<p>I know comm majors (I am one, btw) who have graduated and gone on to work at major, MAJOR companies in the fields of their choice, and I know comm majors who are either unemployed or working at gyms for slightly above minimum wage. Because the bulk of our classes focus on theory without a great deal of actual career preparation, internships and experience in the field of your choice is key. Obviously the people who intern and have stuff on their resumes (and connections, which are also hugely important) are going to have a much greater advantage upon graduation than those who are less focused on internships and gaining work experience. The excellent GPA is obviously necessary for grad school, but less necessary when it comes to getting hired (in most industries related to comm). </p>

<p>I got a paid internship in my field with no previous internship/work experience in advertising (just some related ECs and Starbuckstype jobs). I have the utmost confidence in the belief that I'll have a job upon graduation, either where I work currently or somewhere else in the industry. But I also have a title and my job looks more impressive than it might actually be. </p>

<p>So anyways, yeah. Plenty of comm majors land great jobs, sometimes before they graduate (I know two people who were hired in May of their senior year). But there are also plenty of comm majors who skate by and screw around and while it seems cool at the time since our coursework isn't nearly as demanding as in other departments, they're generally effed when school's out and they have no actual skills.</p>

<p>ETA- I don't necessarily know if comm will prepare you for consulting, though. Obviously bus-econ/econ would be aimed more closely at that career path. I also intend to go to Anderson and get an MBA, but for marketing/advertising, which comm is more closely aligned with.</p>

<p>I've heard that to get into Comm, you'll need at least a 3.9 GPA by the end of your freshman year to apply.... someone PLEASE tell me this is a myth</p>

<p>3.9 seems high, but it's not a HUGE stretch. I really can't vouch for the 4 yr acceptances bc I didn't do it that way, but I do know that it is very, very hard to get in as an incoming sophomore and a little bit easier as an incoming junior (bc you'll have more gpa padding). But yeah, generally the higher the gpa the better your shot at getting in. </p>

<p>And yeah. You definitely don't need a 3.9 to apply at the end of first year, but depending on the applicant pool it may be necessary to be ACCEPTED as an incoming second year. Lots of people don't get in on their first try.</p>

<p>allie, these grads unemployed or working for slightly above minimum wage. where did they go wrong and can't they fix it now? im assuming they had no internships or work experience?</p>

<p>Generally the unemployed comm grads are people who are looking to get into writing/journalism/screenwriting. Most of them did have internships, but since writing is a day by day kind of thing, the internships don't matter all that much. I'm sure they do freelance, but they're also having to work at gyms or restaurants or whatever to get by. Also, sometimes people just aren't motivated. I know people who didn't even start to think about looking for jobs until July or August after they graduated, and they're having a hard time. Employment is one of those things where you constantly have to be on top of everything in order for things to work out. </p>

<p>I'm not saying that the people who don't have careerish jobs this very minute are doomed for life or anything, just that for whatever reasons they're slower to start than others. Some of the people I know who are unemployed or working crappy jobs are actually really, really brilliant and I'm pretty sure they'll be huge someday. </p>

<p>But yeah. I think that the industry one is looking to get into is obviously a huge factor. A lot of the advertising/PR-focused people got jobs right away (with previous experience) because there're are a lot of jobs in that industry in LA and they're not as prohibitive as the Hollywoodish stuff.</p>

<p>3.9 does seem a bit too high, a lot of people say you need a gpa of around 3.7? I'm a sophomore now and I was accepted this year, and I only had a gpa of around 3.5 (but I did concentrate on science/math which sort of screwed up the gpa), but this is probably a rare case?</p>