College Matters

Calling all English majors out there! What have you done, or what do you plan to do, with your degree? A student is considering the option and requests advice.

Check out the latest post, about a senior in high school stuck on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. What do you think? Should he pursue the military, game design, or should he rethink altogether?

Write an original resume, just like every other college graduate. Make it unique, just like everybody else. Don’t use a template, but make sure it’s organized succinctly. Do not pass “go,” do not collect $200, take some Prozac for your job hunting stress levels and find your way to Boardwalk. Or at least the orange properties…

Argh. The whole process is such a ridiculous game. Universities should require all seniors to take a three-hour resume writing course. Moan and groan, no one wants extra coursework added to the degree plan – fine, it should be a substituted for one of those elective underwater basket weaving courses.

Resume evaluation “services” feed all of us the same exact spiel. They tell you not to use a template (especially the kind on MS Word) as they’re writing or reading you their standard evaluation template! Then the innovative advice continues: your resume doesn’t stand out. Make it original. Make it uniquely like every other college graduate’s “unique” resume. Then, when asked how to do that, the standard response is an offer to write your resume for you at some overpriced sum.

The irony, as I told this student, is that the person “evaluating” (by that I mean sending a slightly tailored form email) and potentially re-writing your resume hasn’t themselves achieved success in the traditional job market. It’s a freelance writer – and I have respect for freelance writing, since that’s what I do, but it doesn’t qualify me to write someone’s resume.

I can, however, give honest advice regarding where to go for thorough, free resume assistance. First, every campus has a career services department. It’s there to advise current students as well as alumni, and I urge everyone to take advantage of it; your fees pay for it anyway, so make those fees count for something. Next, visit the human resources department(s) on campus, and specifically seek out the people that handle hiring university staff (not faculty, department heads and committees do that and the process requires an entirely different type of resume). Speak candidly with those that hire staff, and ask what a successful resume looks like. How did they get hired? Would they be willing to let you glance their resumes? Most will be flattered and at the very least offer to look at yours.

Additionally, look for up and coming websites that offer free examples and advice. The people that start these websites often do so because they see the deficiencies in mainstream contemporary sites. If you want straightforward, specific advice, with an irreverent sense of humor, check out Psychotic Resumes. Another great new resource I’ve found is Career Guide 101, which embraces a more traditional style of organization on the site – so take your pick, based on your personality and career goals. Both offer diverse and helpful perspectives, and will offer advice beyond the ubiquitous and generic “Be original.”

Today’s “life after graduation” question is from a sociology major about to finish an M.A. with little to no work experience. The pending master’s degree puts the student in a uniquely difficult position; it actually decreases his marketability in the general job market. Both of his degrees are from the same university, so a career in academia will be difficult to achieve without first seeking a second master’s degree elsewhere (followed by a PhD from a third university). His “regular job” options will be limited if he includes his education on any application; employers are likely to feel threatened by his graduate degree and/or assume that he’ll come into the workplace with some sort of “know-it-all” attitude.

He could swallow his pride and leave his graduate degree off of his applications and resume altogether. Of course, that leaves a gap that he’d have to explain, and what’s he going to say? “Um, I lived off my parents for awhile, spent a lot of time at bars…” He could explain it as a period of time in which he pursued entrepreneurial efforts, but an employer would then expect evidence of such attempts.

Many people are in this exact situation – and many more, in response to the recession, are choosing graduate school when unable to immediately find jobs. This is a BAD idea, as demonstrated by the sociology grad – most graduate degrees aren’t going to further job opportunities, at least not in the immediate future, and in many cases they actually limit your job opportunities.

I have some alternative suggestions for everyone. Most students in graduate school are completely broke, even with the assistance of scholarships and loan money. If you’ve decided to go to grad school, you’ve already resigned yourself to being broke for two more years. In which case, why not take a break from school and contribute to the betterment of society, all while gaining resume fodder as well as having school loan interest paid by the government? That’s the deal with AmeriCorps, which just received a vast increase in government funding, with largely bi-partisan support. Whether or not you’re critical of this spending, why not use it to your advantage? Help an impoverished community, learn how to work behind the scenes in a government agency and/or non-profit.

College is supposed to be about the improvement of society as a whole, not just about you as the individual; the higher the level of education, statistically, the more we feel compelled to help our fellow man. I’m happy to say that I discover more people who have realized this every day. For your personal career interests, do check AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps (for international interests). And if you’re still in college, find some ways to contribute while in school. On Twitter, I’ve recently discovered a really neat website that’s using a contest to encourage charitable involvement – Better World Books. They’ve got a way to use your time and website navigation to contribute to your favorite charities, and are even offering entrance into a drawing for an iPod as a thanks for your time and efforts.