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06-02-2010 5:20pm#1
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I love posts like these, it reminds me of a time when I was so full of hope and optimism, really before the weight of the world crushed my spirit along with my hopes and dreams!
Listen, it doesn't really matter what you do because you can almost certainly do a postgrad in it anyway (e.g. there's a HDip in Archaeology). Do what you're interested in, not because of the jobs at the end (you won't get a job in any you've listed, simple as that) but because you'd enjoy it. Pick Archaeology, Geography and maybe English in first year and see which combination suits you the best in second year.
Three good subjects and you can teach two of them in secondary. If you still want to be an archaeologist there's a HDip in it, if you want to be a journalist DCU and a few other places to Journalist etc... As a subject, geography is probably one of the best, because it's a subject that straddles both humanities and natural sciences and if you want to teach or be an Archaeologist it's a great subject to go with it (i.e. Archaeology and Geography are pretty popular combinations). Also geography is piss easy, anyone who fails at geography should be declared mentally retarded because it's not that complicated.
I'm doing a masters now and I had these hopes and dreams of being a journalist or an archaeologist but I really wanted to be a journalist, kind of like Robert Fisk, go live in Beiruit, learn Arabic and interview Osama. Frankly, I'll be lucky to get into TEFL teaching at this stage. There's no jobs whatsoever. Journalism is notoriously difficult and is really just a bitch because media outlets are so precariously teetering over the edge of bankruptcy (e.g. look up Independent News and Media, nearly fucked in the UK so it is and they're cutting jobs here). Archaeology is shit because the bread and butter of road building by the NRA has dried up (i.e. road building was a gold mine for archaeological surveys and they needed tons of staff) and even when times were good the money was shite and the working conditions were awful here in the Republic (better off going abroad for this one, Canada was a popular choice, better money and you actually get treated well).
Teaching is fucked and if you think I'm wrong, read the business supplement in Thursday's indo, no jobs except resource teaching if you're lucky.
You see this is why you do the subjects you like because once you accept the fatalist mantra 'this is not going to get me a job' you'll endeavour to be more flexible (i.e. you'll work in anything till the dream job comes up) or you'll do postgrad courses till something turns up in what you like and also you'll save yourself disappointment.
At the end of the day an arts degree is an arts degree, it's worth something but not a whole lot.
I hate to sound like a cunt, but this is the situation I'm faced with now. And if you think that somehow by doing archaeology you automatically become an archaeologist then you're deluded, it doesn't work like that. Pick the subjects you like and are interested in this is your guide, but under no circumstances should you pick them because of employment opportunities at the end. Good luck!:D
Aye, but realistically speaking the OP doesn't have to worry about the economy for the next three years minimum, surely things will be looking better by then, even for Arts students.
We're the ones that are really ****ed Siglo. 
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Aye, but realistically speaking the OP doesn't have to worry about the economy for the next three years minimum, surely things will be looking better by then, even for Arts students. We're the ones that are really ****ed Siglo.
Don't count on it, we had economic growth in the 60s under Lemass and then nothing for a good thirty years. Now, we're in the worst financial crisis since the great depression and DeValera's reign of terror, I wouldn't hold my breath for any recovery especially with the monkeys that run this country. Yeh we're pretty fucked alright. When times were good, oh the arts grad was king!:rolleyes: Get into a solicitors office, do the FE-1s and boom, job, car, house the lot! Or do the MA, HDip, and teaching gig! Even in academia, IRCHSS and IRCSET were doling out the doe to beat the band, 2.1 hons degree, bullshit project and sure enough 85k of state funding!:D Of course I am exaggerating here, but when times were good they were great!bnt wrote:Surely, if you study Archaeology, you can expect to do something related to Archaeology after you graduate? I don't mean that you turn in to Indiana Jones, or even get to call yourself an Archaeologist, but something? Or will you go in to banking, where you have to compete with people who have actually studied Banking?
No, it doesn't work like that especially with archaeology. You usually start at the bottom rung of the survey ladder (shovelling shit from a trench in Kells) until you can get the money and experience to buy a archaeological licence and even then that definitely wasn't guaranteed. It's absolutely one of the most shit jobs to do in this country, absolutely dodgey.
Doing an arts degree doesn't mean you become what you set out to study, it means you have the ability to think in such a way that makes you useful for other jobs. I did geography, planning and environmental policy I wanted to be a town planner but that's fucked. So now I'm doing environmental science, a massive departure from my degree but my degree gave me the ability to do such a course.
The fact is employment after your BA in your respective field is up in the air, economics or geography or english, it doesn't matter it will always be difficult regardless. Once you recognise this, then you can prepare yourself better (e.g. not piss about during your degree, aim for a first, learn a programming language, learn an actual language) do anything that can separate you from the thousands of arts graduates.Maybe I'm getting a warped view of the world because I'm in Engineering. I expect to work in Engineering after graduation (prob. a Master's), and hopefully become a Chartered Engineer one day. The converse is true: if you have not studied Engineering, you will not go anywhere in Engineering, never mind become a Chartered Engineer. It's not something you can drift in to after an Arts degree. (You could work to support Engineers, of course.)
Well I wouldn't expect any arts grads to do engineering, but it's not beyond them either (I was offered a place on the MSc in environmental engineering in QUB, not real engineering I'm just throwing it out there:D). The thing that plagues arts grads the most is that they've a skewed idea about their goals and then under pressure from parents or the bank manager, usually end up going into teaching, which isn't a bad thing in itself but isn't great either when there's no jobs and too many teachers. Or they end up having high opinions of themselves and try and become the next Sharon Ní bheolann.
The problem with arts is that you're cloistered from the real world for a short space of time (three years does fly), it's really a funny degree to do when, but it's also a great degree to do at the same time.
Arts graduates have to be prepared from the outset that their education is not about employment (especially in what they've studied), it's about having the ability to be a flexible thinker. That's all it is at the end of the day, that's what we were fed on the open days, Brady's induction.
This is probably the arts graduates saving grace, you literally have the ability to work at anything, it doesn't matter what you study in arts, it's having that ability to put your mind into something that separates them from commerce, engineering etc... arts graduates are experts at bullshit that's what all of those essays are, it's the ability to bullshit and argue. Once a BA student gets their head around this, they're sorted!;)0
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