STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Magnolia · BCBG

I need some advice

carmenb513 · Coach

I know nothing about the field you want to go into. But I do know, do whatever makes you happy. Hell tell your parents go back to school for 20 yrs and become doctors, Med school has no age limits! Just remember.....plan your work, then work your plan!

Andrea Julia · Coach

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-- Edited by Andrea Julia at 00:29, 2006-01-29

Farrah · Marc Jacobs

I have to agree with AJ. Publishing sucks horribly. The money is terrible and there isn't any room for advancement. There are people at my company that started out at $22K out of college and 15 years later they are only making $34K.

If you truly love literature and want to major in it you should consider teaching it. I think the best people to teach are those that are truly passionate about the subject. Talk to Halleybird. She is an English teacher and also did the yearbook and newspaper at her school. Talk about a rewarding job. Oh, and everyone's favorite teacher is always their English or Journalism teacher in my opinion (I know mine was;)!!).

Andrea Julia · Coach

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-- Edited by Andrea Julia at 00:29, 2006-01-29

cc · Marc Jacobs

I agree with AJ and Farrah. From all the people I've talked to, publishing seems like a really tough and often unpleasant field unless you have amazing connections. I know lots of people who graduated from top 20 schools who had a hard time finding jobs in publishing and when they did get something it was usually awful.

I guess my general feeling is that if you really love literature, why would you want to spend years reading dreck, which is mostly what people get stuck reading on the lower levels. Or if you really commit to publishing, you might wind up finding more jobs in non-literary publishing like textbooks or something.

Teaching is probably the best and most practical option if you really want to be dealing with literature on a daily basis. The only downside is that the money is bad in most places. I guess an ideal job is being a book reviewer but I don't know anything about that.

Magnolia · BCBG

Thank you all so much for your insight. It's always good to hear from experience and an honest perspective. I'm definitely taking what you all said into consideration. I'm hitting up the career development office first thing after I get settled into my spring semester.

halleybird · Hermes

quote:
Originally posted by: cc
" I guess an ideal job is being a book reviewer but I don't know anything about that."

I was in journalism for a long time, and I think being a book reviewer is the same as being a movie reviewer -- you have to be very, very lucky and spend a long time in the trenches. It's one of those jobs that is hard to do and hard to get.

As a fellow lit-junkie, I feel your pain! I looked into publishing too (when I was in college) and the market really is saturated. Teaching literature is so, so much fun -- but it is also a lot of work. English teachers are literally the most overloaded in high schools - I could tell you more but I'd bore everyone. It is about twice the work of, say, a computer teacher. However, it IS really fun. So many HS English teachers know next-to-nothing about literature (Case in point: not ONE of my department members knew what the OED was), which means you really get to open up their minds.

Personally, I took a break from teaching English for a few years, and now I may go back. The bottom line is, if you want to major in English, do it. Your major doesn't matter much anyway, really, and an English BA is an absolute blast. There are a lot of career paths out there. And also, if you did finish your BA and still wanted to be a doctor, you could -- most top med schools nowadays like diverse undergrad curriculum.

Good luck!