Is graduating with a major you don't like anymore, like not graduating at all?

How many hours do you have?

 

How far are you?

 

switch your major to philosophy

 

Holy hell JBII, I was an Ad major at Texas Tech, and yeah its kinda worthless unless you want to go into sales. If you want to work from an ad agency, you need to move to NY, Dallas, or Chicago, and you dont have a choice. Austin has 1 good ad firm: GSDM and those pricks pay jack **** for a starting salary.

Advertising blows. You are basically manipulating people to buy something they dont really need. You can be like me, Drewdog, and take the sales route. rEalize that $$ is kinda important. And not working frigggin 60 hours +++ and making a measly $22K

Its not worth the ****. Get out now!!! Run like hell!!!! Do not pass go...... Change to marketing RIGHT NOW if you can. If you cant do it, then just get your damn degree and find something that makes you happy!!!

What do you think all of those ass clowns with English majors do?

Im rambling, and quite possibly drunk... but thats ok

Have fun and tame a few UT dames.....

DD in the his-house

 

Hey, I don't think you have to be stuck in advertising just because you majored in it. I majored in accounting and I am not doing accounting right now. I work with law, economics, finance and accounting people. So I could go to any of those departments eventually if I really wanted to.

If you look at some companies like consulting companies, they have broad requirements. They don't require a specific major, just a degree where you learned business and have a strong business background. I don't know what goes into advertising, do you get good business knowledge?

If marketing is feasible then that might be a good idea, but then the job market could be worse by then.

 

Just curious, but how many would count in other majors?

You are way far along(I'm currently at 73 in Broadcast Journalism), but if you hate this, get out now.

 

Being a business major and not really knowing what I want to do with it, why do you suggest marketing?

 

Getting a second Bachorlers degree is worse than getting a double major. So if you want to lock in the one major while you consider another, take the courses that qualify you for the first degree. Instead of graduating, stay longer and finish the core class for the second major. If the second major does not work out, you can always graduate with the first major.

If you graduate with the first major and decide later to pick up a second BA/BS at the same school, you pretty much have to take your junior and senior years over again (at least hours-wise). A viable alternative to this is to get your masters in the seond major area instead. Here you may have to take all of the core undergraduate classes in that major (which will not count toward the masters) before you take the core master classes.

 

Been there done that. Graduated in a civil engineering major that I hated by the time I limped to the finished line. Sure enough after the initial thrill of getting paid to do the homework that I hated, I couldn't stand it and just quit. I was then like a philosophy major or somebody with a degree in anything, plus a lot of people thought it was pretty wierd that I'd just blow it off.

I cured it by taking classes and then eventually going to graduate school in another two fields.

I don't know if you were like I was then, but just because you know you hate advertising, doesn't mean you know what you like. It is at least a start. You need to figure out what you do like.

I would suggest cutting back to part-time and working. You should get the degree, but don't panic. Experiment and take some classes just because they interest you. Unless there is a real emergency that absolutely requires graduation and the nose to grind stone routine, don't try to force yourself into a decision, it won't really work. Another couple of years to figure out what you want to do will definitely pay dvidends your whole life. Keep up the grade point as you might want to resolve this issue in a graduate program of some sort.

Good luck.

 

JB, just because you're an advertising major, doesn't mean that you have to do it for the rest of your life. My advice to you is, like Drewdog said, work in sales for a few years. Dell is always looking for help in their sales department. One of my buddies kicked ass in phone sales, and moved into corporate accounts within about 18 months.

If sales isn't for you, you can always try to get your Series 7 stock broker license. You'll then be certified to execute trades. You'll start off cold-calling, but it's easy to move up if you make some good leads. After a few years, go back to school and get your MBA. You'll make the money as long as the economy is better by then.

 

Does Dell like graduates from UT?

 

I'll be d*mned. I started in CE also. Couldn't stand it and lost a scholastic scholarship after year 1. Changed to Finance. Only regret was not changing sooner.



JBII,

A lot of good advice from all here.

Many people and up pursuing different careers. When you know what you want, move in that direction, but if you're close to your degree, get it. Just having received a degree does have meaning.

Most of what you learn will be on the job. Many managers realize this, so innate abilities and desire often weigh heavily in entry level. Also, many underlying concepts are shared across multiple disciplines.

Remember, many companies would hire liberal arts majors for various positions.

 

I would stick it out if I were you and get that degree. If you haven't done so already, visit the on-campus career center (I'm sure UT has one) who can help you with your job search and may be able to tell you about some different career paths that you might not have thought of that your degree would apply to. You may have noticed that the job market is not stellar right now, however. Good luck.

 

I'd stick it out as best I can unless there is just something else you know you want to do and can fairly easily transfer over to study.

I know a good many people who don't work in the areas they got their degrees in. That is not at all uncommon. And like someone else said, if you find something else you like later on, you can get a graduate degree in that area, if need be.

Plus, you may actually find a place in the advertising realm you like and enjoy once you get out in the real world. I've found that college is not necessarily representative of how things are in the real world. For instance, I loved accounting in college, but it was totally different in the accounting firms, and I didn't enjoy the jobs nearly as much. That's different for different schools and different programs, of course. But our accounting program was not representative of the jobs available.

For that matter, I've been taking advertising classes at UTA, and I know many of the things I've been dealing with aren't things I'd be dealing with on many jobs (if I were to ever decide to be a guy who has a job, something that really isn't my forte), especially in larger firms where the jobs are usually very specialized (and even in smaller firms, the jobs are relatively specialized. For instance, it's unlikely I would find myself making media buys as a copywriter).

So again, it's probably best that you just stick it out where you are. Having a degree in an area you don't work in is not just like not having a degree at all. The degree will have value to employers beyond those in the advertising field.

 

Im not sure how the hours work out but you may be able to change your major within the buisness school without adding many additional hours. For instance changing from marketing to finance. Also like everyone above pointed out you dont have to work in the specific feild you majored in as long as you have a respectable GPA. Go talk to career services.

Also I feel your pain taking upper level classes that you hate. My second major was MIS untill I dropped it my last semester in undergrad. Its really hard to motivate yourself for a class you absolutely hate.

Good luck

 

A lot of degrees won't translate into a job in that field, it's just a nice piece of paper to have on a resume and a lot of companies won't promote anyone into management who doesn't have a degree in something.

Dell Computers is a good example of a company that could care less what you have your degree in as long as you have one.

 

I have come to the conclusion that if you are able to obtain a bachelor's degree in any subject with a decent GPA, then you can be "trainable" by companies to do whatever jobs they need someone to do.

I have a bachelor's degree in math and over 30 graduate hours, and my job has nothing to do with what I learned in school.

So, like others have said, stick it out and get the degree. Then, I would "network" and use any connections you have to get a decent job, regardless of the field.