<p>My school has a Communication major but it's pretty boring and mostly theoretical (as opposed to the practical aspects of Communication that I should be learning). Moreover, there is no Public Relations major at my school. In fact, most of the majors are fairly theoretical. I wanted to change my major to an Independent Major (Interdisciplinary Studies) where I can choose my own courses and outline. If I do decide to do the Interdisciplinary major, what will my job prospects be like? Does it matter what degree you have when you're trying to go into Public Relations? How do employers view Independent Majors?</p>
<p>I'm very confused. I don't know if I should go ahead and major in Communication or change my major altogether.</p>
<p>It comes down to being able to sell yourself. If you can market a major you created, it should be a selling point because you had the guts and forethought to realize you needed to create something that would get you from Point A – college – to Point B – real world in a manner you approved of. That’s a good thing. That being said, you wouldn’t put on your resume “Independent Major” and you certainly wouldn’t walk into a job interview and say, “Oh, yeah, I was an independent major at such-and-such school.” You might say “Oh, I was an interdisciplinary public relations major.” And then they would say, “interdisciplinary…?” and you would explain why you chose to create your own major.</p>
<p>The only useful communications degree is one in electrical engineering concentrated on telecom. It is exactly what you are looking for - the practical aspect of communication, rather than useless psychological theory.</p>
<p>Communications doesn’t lead to a direct job that says “i’m a communicationist”. A public relations job to a certain extent does, but even then if you do a lot of research a lot of “public relations” jobs are not specifically given to just “public relations” majors. You COULD get into public relations, as a job/career, with simply a high school education and internship experience. You’re not entitled to a public relations job or communications job simply because you majored in “public relations” or “communications” major. You’ll eventually learn or realize, if you enter the industry, that a lot of these jobs go to people who are SOCIAL, can market the hell out of anything, or can do sales. You learn the skills of marketing and selling either on the job or through internship experience. simply learning either doesn’t make you qualified. Nothing can make you qualified to be a good “sales person” or a “social” person. If you hate theory, simply major in anything you want not theory. If you can “sell” your self from any major, and can do it successfully, it wouldn’t have mattered what you majored in, as you will already have the “drive” or the ability to communicate to “sell yourself”. No one can teach you to be “outgoing” or “communicative” or be a good “sales person”. You can learn tactics, or research(theory), but when it comes down to on the job experience, it won’t just be a follow “step 1, step 2, step 3” deal. That’s why if anything to enter any of the industries that require communications, it involves personality. Look on craigslist in major cities and read the requirements for PR jobs or jobs that deal with communications. you’ll find many require skills that you either have or you dont, and many that won’t specify a specific field of study.
so if you hate theory, look at maybe english literature or any of the humanities. Those majors will emphasize writing, or the ability to think outside the box, and those types of qualities are probably most desires in communication or pr industries.</p>
<p>I disagree. I’ve worked in sales for 20 years. Any personality type can succeed in sales and MANY outgoing “social” types fail miserably.</p>
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<p>Wrong again. Good sales people do follow very rote scripts and processes for getting to the conclusion they want. They can in fact be taught. Those who learn and follow the proper steps will do better than those who “wing it”.</p>
<p>My experience is in real estate, so the story might be different in different industries, but I disagree with the entire premise of the “it can’t be learned” post. Everything can be learned. Whether it can be applied effectively in real life depends on many factors, not just personality.</p>