What to do after my Arts degree?

johnny

Hi, now that I have a year left to finish my degree, I've been thinking more and more about what I want to do after I graduate (thanks in small part to family and friends that keep asking). Arrggh anyways....I always thought I would just get a job but now it seems like that a BA is not enough these days. Should I go into law, or do a Masters in psych? Is there any other options I am forgetting? The idea of going to school for another few years is gross, but in the long run it's worth it I assume. Thanks for any advice

Smiles

I was worried about this too. I graduated in June & started looking for a job at that time. I treated my job search like school. Everyday I would spend hours with my job search, revamping resumes & cover leters, thinking about my skills, etc. I got a job in November with the Ministry of Attorney General analyzing provincial databases (sounds really boring, but it is pretty interesting). BTW, I got my BA in Psyc.

I strongly suggest that you start right now getting ready for your job search. The SFU career center holds excellent workshops on resumes, cover letters, interviews, job search, etc. Also, you can book time with a career counsellor. With volunteering, you can gain career-related experience and build upon other skiils. For me, I know my coop also definately helped because I learned how to write resumes & cover letters & got over interview jitters. Also, I was interested in looking for a job in non-profit/social services, so there were tons of jobs out here. I think it also depends what area you want to get into. Good luck with your job search!

Steven

Just do what you love. In fact, there was a survey released before which included 15,000 people and they were asked:

"Which one would you rather pick?
a) Become financially independent first, then do whatever I want
b) Do what I love, money isn't the biggest issue"

After 10-20 years, the results showed that 105 people in the survey became millionaires. 101 of them chose option B and only 4 chose option A.

It all comes down to what you love doing and go for it.

JudgeJudyJr

Wow Steven, thats an impressive study, and it really hammers home the point that happiness is more important than money, especially when it comes to your career. Of all the people I know, I consider the ones that are happy to be "rich" not the one with the biggest house or expensive cars...because underneath, I bet they would trade it all for happiness.

Have you seriously considered any law schools? If you are not ready to get out into the working world just quite yet, I would suggest looking into it to see if you have what it takes. Not many people know this, but there is a vast diversity of law-related fields other than the stereotypical court-room criminal lawyer (ie. boston legal).

The career center is also a good place to visit in your spare time, the sooner the better as I've noticed that the students who often complain about their BA are the ones that waited until after they graduated to actually attempt to apply their education. Good luck!