Need informative material for parents on AS employment

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I have a BFA Degree in Creative Writing...please don't go crazy on me and say "why the hell aren't you doing anything with it?!"...Truth is I am too stupid to figure out what I was supposed to do with it. It's a talent major anyway, it's one where they expect you to know where to go or what to do with it once you get it. Most people who do talent majors tend to go into the regular hourly wage job market first (or at least from what my sisters and friends have done). Perhaps it was a mistake to assume that. But I didn't have teachers or career counselors even tell me what my next move should've been once I got the degree. All those years of society saying "get your degree" but from there they don't tell you where to go. I depended to much on step by step instructions (doesnt anyone with AS?)

I guess I still was undecisive about what I wanted to do with my life when college was over. It was a bit careless of me to think it would all fix itself.

I feel now that if I need to focus on getting a hourly wage job then I feel my degree is worthless.

Your degree is not worthless if your studies were personally fulfilling. Plus, many (if not most) places just care that you have a college degree, it truly does not matter what it is.

My degree is in anthropology and since I graduated I've had jobs in a.) sales b.) human resources/staffing c.) finance and d.) juvenile corrections

Granted, I wasn't really cut out for any of them (although I managed to hold 2 of them, including "d." my current job for over a year apiece), but that had nothing to do with my course of study.

I know the recession is ending but when unemployment was reaching its peak, I was reading alot of articles that stated that people with college degrees were being turned away from these regular hourly wage paying jobs. (Perhaps these kinds of places did not want to hire people who were more educated than them?)

My weakness for now will mostly lie in lack of experience needed not to mention that I have a very poor ability to sell ANY of my abilities to potential employers. It won't matter to them if I have a degree if I can't even make a convincing argument that I can be hirable despite my AS making the working environment difficult for me. Sorry for the pessimism

Yea no doubt. My understanding of that was they didn't want to hire people who were just taking the jobs temporarily until they found something that was geared, career-wise and financially, more toward their personal perceptions of their "worth" as an employee.




I know what you mean. I'm terrible at selling my abilities. But enthusiasm, coupled with an absence of red flags, will sometimes do the trick even if you lack experience.

However, this means that you can't really afford to be going into the interview process "pessimistic", as you put it, or lacking in confidence. This also means that you probably should not bring up your AS, period, because the sad reality of the situation is that that will be perceived as a red flag, and one that is in almost every case totally distinct from anyone you're competing against for the position.

Your pessimism is fine in theory--most people are these days when it comes to finding jobs--so you certainly shouldn't apologize for it, but you should try to get dialed in and sweep that under the rug when it comes to the actual application and interview process. (I know that's much easier said than done, and suppressing things like that sucks, but you do what you gotta do, right?)

What jobs have you had in the past? And do you have any specific fields you're looking into right now?

I went to college and got an art degree. good experience, have made a little money designing web sites but dealing with clients is exhausting.

retail and restaurant work is the worst. too many people, too much to juggle.

best jobs ever were writing for a website and doing telephone tech support. yeah it involved talking to people, but it wasn't socializing, it was helping resolve software and data issues, and I was good at it. all my computer skills are self-taught.

if I can ever get off disability, I think I want to get a paralegal degree and do legal research and document preparation. I love law and I'm obsessed with wording things clearly in writing and it seems like an ideal job, plus my computer knowledge might come in handy.

there are things we're really good at. I guess it's just a matter of figuring out what they are and developing them. all I needed was internet access for my interests to turn into ways to make a living. some things are more difficult, but there ARE possibilities and with disability benefits there are sometimes work training opportunities.