sgrannel wrote:
Most of what one goes to college for is mostly good for teaching. I don't know what else you could do with an English major besides teaching, or journalism which is quickly becoming a non-job.
Even engineering and the "hard sciences", including research degrees like the Ph.D. are basically a training exercise for doing something else that's profitable. One is badly advised to major in something that can't be used in at least one other job besides teaching.
Why? Teachers have many students. Not every student can become a teacher, because otherwise the number of teachers would rapidly grow to become unsupportable, like a pyramid scheme. But wait, it gets worse: sometimes teachers aren't replaced by anybody when they retire.
Yeah, that about sums it up. But unfortunately, I can't afford going back to school for now, and I don't have a teacher's degree or training, so in my state, I would need to get a special type of certification, which I personally don't qualify for. So it's like... "Well, what do I do with this expensive piece of paper?"
It stinks because I have a 127 IQ, did well academically, and have worked before (without pay) for different "jobs," class work, and volunteer efforts where I proofread, edited, etc. and even wrote journalistically, and I have published books and helped put together a literary journal, and yet, I seem either "under-qualified" or "over-qualified" for every realistic job opportunity around here.