I got a useless degree/major now my life is over! … (Nah.)
No such thing as a useless degree!
Original comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/helpme/comments/o8z8vk/i_got_a_useless_major_now_my_life_is_over/
I’m 22 and i need to get out of my parents house for a bunch of reasons, but I majored in music tech thinking I could just work in a studio. Turns out every studio job out there is part time hours with at least six months of free interning for an unlivable salary that offers no benefits. I also have no health insurance and need that through a job.
My plan is to do a certificate in web development and find an entry level job but that could take years and a certificate might not get me in the door, everyone wants a bachelor’s. I’d go for a masters or second bachelor’s but I don’t have the money and I need to move out now. Even then a masters doesn’t promise a job
I’ve applied for a bunch of other jobs like administrative assistant, marketing, sales, etc and either I get turned down or it’s a pyramid scheme. I’m not suicidal and planning on acting on it but every day my brain berates me telling me I should do it because i’m a failure at life
Degrees are a key.
There’s no such thing as a useless degree. There’s a degree that you can’t get a job directly in, sure, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it.
Think of your degree as a key to a locked door. Behind that door holds hundreds upon thousands of jobs. You can’t open it without that key.
You think…”Oh yay, I have the key! Now I can get a job!”
But what you see is a huge hallway full of doors. Hundreds of thousands of doors.
You don’t see a job in this hallway. Just more doors. None have doorknobs.
You collapse. You don’t know how to open those doors. You think you need more education to get a new key to open one of those doors – because there was no job behind the door like you were promised.
…The doors don’t have keyholes.
You don’t need a new key. You don’t need further education.
But you still can’t open the door – because they open from the inside and you must be invited in!
….You’ve been trying to open them, by applying for jobs that require a degree. In anything, doesn’t matter.
So what gives? How do you get the door to open to you then?
You. Aren't. Listing. Your. Skills.
I bet anything you’re doing what most of my clients do. Listing the degree under “Education” and….that’s it. Not listing the skills your degree gave you. Under an “Other Skills” category.
Pulled directly from my course:
Every experience and college class has given you the basics of some skill. Take the top 5 classes you had, generalize one skill out of them (maybe 2) and list them on your resume under the skills category or under your college experience in a few major bullet points. Courses, same principle. 2 skills from each extra course you’ve taken.
Hirers know you’re not going to be THE TOP OF DA SKILL, but they do want to see what you think you’ve gained from college or previous jobs, in the form of a few skills or values you’ve gained or, if possible, what value you’ve added to something.
Once you’ve done that, THEN apply and see what happens with your “useless degree”.
Thanks for the help! I’ve listed a bunch of skills some having to do with my major and some not, would you mind giving some examples of skills i should list from taking college courses and how to list them?
I’ve listed research and oral presentation because I’ve taken English, and I’ve listed microsoft office if that’s what you are referring to.
Also what are some other you can get with a general bachelor’s? I’ve been trying data entry and sales but with sales a lot of them are pyramid schemes so it’s hard to tell.
I can answer your first question, but that second one, that’s a way bigger ask than you realize question.
To answer it, I would need your completely-finished skills list and resume, then to go off and do some research for your specific area, then give you a curated list of jobs that fit you. And truthfully that’s not quite what I do – I help people make that full skills list and then show you how to search for those jobs that you qualify for yourself, super easily and effectively. My course for this is $199.
I know you just went “Oh. Shit I didn’t realize it was that big to do”. That’s ok! No one really understands HOW BIG THE JOB SEARCH WORLD truly is!
So, to your first question. Example of skills from college courses:
– Programs learned. “Used CAD and Cinema4d to make models for video advertisements.
– Projects completed. (Anyone who says that college projects don’t count but really-real-paid job projects do….is talking out of their ass and I’m happy to slap that particular lower-mouth shut) “Completed visual presentation for major corporation with a team of professionals and classmates”
– Topics Covered “Learned cost-benefit analysis to determine project scopes, affordability vs benefits for construction.”
The trick is to show your knowledge and skills you’ve learned without making it too specific. (I go into this more in the Skillseeker course.)
Example:
“Learned cost-benefit analysis to determine project scopes of a small construction project at college”. SHIT that’s bad. Why?
Cause now, your skill is directly focused on the small construction project at that one specific college – your skill is now limited to that one and only thing. So make it a category, like “Construction.”
What you can do on a small project can be done for other projects. Hirers know you won’t be a master at all construction projects, that’s gonna be obvious to them because you’re a new graduate!
And with this, your useless degree now became useful as hell for your job search.
