When There Were Lots of English Majors - Reddit Looks at How Our Careers Went

 Six hours ago on Reddit Career Guidance was posted the question: Where did we English majors wind up?  Already 53 responses have come in. Here is the thread.

Many did well. The career slots range from association executive to lawyer to writer at Google to product manager. There were some misses such as the homeless person. 

I provided only bits and pieces of my own long career history. Pile onto the undergraduate English major a Ph.D. in Literature and Language at an Ivy.

Those stops along a very long career journey include university teaching at the University of Michigan, et al., probation officer, full-time corporate executive communications for brandnames like Chevron, operating a marketing communications boutique with clients such as law firm Paul Weiss, career coaching, and currently Tarot reading. In corporate I had earned more than a number of the engineers were pulling down. Later as an entrepreneur, within 7 months I earned 39% more than I had as worker bee in corporate. Somehow I got admitted to Harvard Law School and even sat it out in contracts. (A boomer, I was force-fed: The more education the better.)

But I added to my response on Reddit: I wouldn't do an English major again.

Yes, it embedded superior analytical (how William Faulkner organized his novels) and writing (simple is the hardest to do) skills. However it was a hard sell before I had a professional life in communications established by age 34 (corporate ghostwriting/speechwriting). No, English is not the degree that tends to sell itself. LA Times documents that the number of English majors had gone down by a third from 2011 and 2021. There are parents I talk with who refuse to pay tuition for “that kind of useless major.”

You should point out, though, that currently fewer degrees are selling themselves. And fewer provide anything like employment security.

On professional anonymous networks such as Reddit and Fishbowl there are outbursts of pain from those who should be at the top of their game with majors and advanced degrees in healthcare, computer science, business, and law. But they are jobless, enduring a pile-on of interviews with no offer, and unable to break the code on how to get, hold, and move on to better work. 

In addition, across the board in myriad occupations, working has turned ugly. Here is a post from Fishbowl Big Law:

"Been in the Big Law game a long time but does anyone ever get sick of the ruthlessness of other lawyers in their firms? The backstabbing, bullying, blaming and stepping over everyone else to look good. Sometimes I can’t deal with it especially when it’s from people I thought I trusted."

Here is the thread.

Fortunately that's not universal.

Over at O'Dwyer Public Relations owner John O'Dwyer just recommended me to a contact on his gold-plated network for an assignment. Here is the article on career change which I recently published in O’Dwyer’s bible for PR. 

When I needed work, the chair of law firm Paul Weiss Brad Karp conjured some up.

Jones Day former partner Mickey Pohl circulated my speeches around among CEOs.

At Tarot-reading firm where I am now a vendor, the manager took my side, not that of the customer. 

Last night I provided what I offered as a pro-bono Tarot reading to a man who had suffered a loss. At the end he foisted lots of money on me. Today my four-legged daughter Arizona ate gourmet duck dog food.

In these turbulent times over and over again thought-leadership experts and parents anxious about their children’s future keep hammering the question: If we had a shot doing our career over, what would we do?

The majority of my clients who are employees bellow in pain that from the get-go they would have been full-time time hustlers out there. Yeah, own income property, along with selling something on the side. Maybe do import-export.

Some would have picked up certifications in niches such as project management instead of getting in debt with a four-year degree or an advanced one.

Me? No ambiguity: Apprentice in the trades. My relatives in pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey had the contacts to, as they put it, “get me in.” Instead I went off to pursue excellence.

Meanwhile, it’s an unknown how 2023 will play out for any of us who work for income.

Smart intuitive career and communications coaching, including using the Tarot. Try it, with a five-minute complimentary session. Totally confidential. Then fees customized for your unique budget.

Please make an appointment with janegenova374@gmail.com