Career ideas, opportunities, majors in college?

Honestly, consider doing a math or science degree.

I'm about to graduate law school (a decent school w/ good grades) and have no job prospects. I worked one year after college & went to law school. I always knew I planned to go to law school so I majored in political science. I added a psychology major b/c those classes interested me and it wasnt really extra work. I also have a philosohpy minor. Now, during college I felt lucky b/c I did enjoy a number of my courses. THe reading was bearable and there were often times I was interested in what we talked about. However, I graduated and really was not qualified to do anything. WHen you come out w/ a science, engineering or accounting degree you are supposedly employable b/c you have skills that are needed.

Now, I"m graduating law school & and i'm facing the same problem. All jobs want someoen w/ 3-5 years experience but how do I get that experience when no one is hiring? Granted things are horrible right now and unemployment numbers will prob be better when you graduate but what I"m saying is be aware that you need to make yourself employable.

Certainly choose a major you are interested in but it should also have real world application. My best advice is to try and work real jobs duirng the summers. I would go back to New Hampshire during the summer and work an easy job. you know as a waiter, a customer service person, a shoe salesman. I worked those jobs because I needed the money but if you can somehow get a job working at a business where you are working within your desired career path, you'll only look better when looking for jobs when you graduate. I had friends that lived in New York City that would ahve their parents hook them up w/ sweet internships at huge corporations and I dont know if they're better off b/c of it, but I think it helped.

Thats a long answer, but basically make sure that you choose something that gives you an actual skillset that employers will want. There are certainly benefits to a liberal arts education (it teaches you how to think critically & write) but it doesnt help pay the bills.

A degree in Anthropology, Archeology, Creative Writing, General Studies, History, Humanities, Literature, Political Science, most any language including English, Philosophy or Sociology is considered a "personal enrichment" degree. That is, these degrees are degrees that are meant to enrich you personally in the classical sense of a university education without leading to any specific job.

However, in today's world where people go to university to enable themselves to get a job and hopefully a career a bachelor's in these fields is essentially useless. With a degree in these fields and a GPA generally over 3.0 you can:

1. Get into law school. However law schools today graduate far more lawyers than there is business for lawyers.

2. Get into graduate school in a different field. Hopefully one without too many prerequisites you do not have. Consider getting a masters in Technology Management. You can make a similar salary to an engineer but you need essentially no sciences prerequisites.

3. Get into graduate school in the same field and eventually into a PhD so you can become a college professor in this field someday. However, there are far more PhD grads in some fields like Philosophy than there ever will be professorships or any kind of teaching programs.

4. Take a teaching qualification, which is usually 2 more years, so you can teach the subject at a public K-12 school.

5. Look for a job in a field where they want you to have a degree without any concern what it is. Where they only want the degree because they want educated people who have proven they can stick with something difficult and see it to completion. Like the insurance industry.

6. If you join the military you are more likely to enter as an officer instead of enlisted personnel.

Do note that if you do go for a more advanced degree, no one cares where you got your bachelor’s degree. Only the school where you got your most advanced degree counts. And that counts for a lot less than the name schools would have you believe.

If your GPA is over 3.0, don’t take a second undergrad degree if you already have one of these degrees. A graduate degree will be more valuable to you.