Hi, I’m new here. I’ll make this short.
About to graduate with an bachelor’s in enology (winemaking).
Senior year I discovered I absolutely do not like this major or career options.
My degree is so specific that I do not know what other careers I can pursue other than being in the wine industry.
Grad school is not an option (cannot afford).
What should I do?
Any advice?
Too late for you, but this is why internships (even unpaid ones) are a good idea. What about working for a liquor distributorship?
Well it depends where you would like to end up cause it would be quite easy (as easy as switching fields can be) if you wouldnt mind moving into a business-related field like marketing. You could use your enology to get some experience and then progressively push towards more of a marketing background opposed to just the enology side of a business. Then with a marketing background, you have a lot of industries you could get into, which would let you have chance to move around there somewhat.
Similar strategies could be done for other majors like;
Now if you’re trying to get into an engineering job or accounting job, it may require more. To give you an example, my sister got a degree in sports journalism and now works as an operations manager (7 years later).
My internships is what made me dislike the career in the first place, unfortunately.
Winemaking sounds “glamorous”, but it is heavily based on manual labor, graveyard shifts, and working 12-14 hour days during harvest.
I have thought about doing sales or distributing. How does someone get into that field though?
Just do research. Talk and read.
Hey Noteworthy,
I actually wanted to move into a business related field like you mentioned. Possibly marketing, sales, or distribution. My question is how do to begin moving in that direction?
If you don’t mind me asking, how did your sister weave her way through? I would also like to begin in enology, then maneuver my way though the business aspects of it. Is a business degree required???
Look for jobs of the type that generally expect bachelor’s degrees, but not specific majors (these include many jobs in “business”). However, lots of about-to-graduate college students will be competing for those jobs as well. “Business” jobs at wine-related businesses may look at your major with some advantage, though.
Or take one of the entry-level jobs in wine making and try to get promoted later into a job with fewer of the undesirable features.
Look into southern wines & spirits distributor or Young’s market distributor. You could definitely use your enology knowledge to sell fine wines and parlay that experience into a sales career. I worked for Young’s market distributor and have worked my way into a very successful medical sales career. Neither one of my bachelors degrees pertain to what I do. Hope this helps.
@ucbalumnus
Thank you for the advice. I plan on looking for jobs that require any bachelor’s, and applying to jobs in the wine industry.
What “business” jobs are you referring to exactly? I was under the impression that to get a job in business, you would have to major in finance, accounting, business, marketing, etc.
@mumz14
Thank you for responding.
I have literally thought of building a career path exactly as you described: sales for wine/spirits then transition to sales in a different field.
How did you land a job at Young’s? I’ve applied to entry-level sales/distributing jobs in wine/spirits to no avail.
@aspenrants I have friends in the industry. Keep in mind, I was in the liquor industry over 15 years ago. Network on linked-in and attend job fairs where they will be at. Those sales jobs were pretty much entry level if you were on the off premise side of the business. Keep trying, landing a job is a job in itself…