People who have done arts and successfully found a decent job or masters, post here

CunningStunts

Patricide,

I graduated back in 2001 from Arts. I actually entered in ’97, went on the piss for 2 years, failed a Computer Science subject in second year and opted to repeat the whole year as a third of the marks from second year went towards third year and figured I’d to cop on and get myself some sort of qualification.

I did Economics and Computer Science as my main subjects but in first year took Sciology and Maths Studies as the former was somewhat interesting and the latter was basically a repeat of Leaving Cert Honours Maths and therefore easy to pass.

I finished up with a high 2.1 in 2001 and went on to do an M.A. in Economics. That class was split about 50:50 between BA’s and Commerce and Finance students (who got an M.Econ.Sc on finishing).

I then went and did the graduate exams for AIB and ended up in their Grad Program. Now I’ve no idea on whether or not the MA swung it but my marks in the graduate entry exam for AIB were relatively high. You had to have a min 2.1 degree to do the exam and I think they just went with whoever got the highest in their own exam after that. Now, I’ve stuck with Banking and have a relatively good career, income would be well above average and the hours worked are fine (and have been in all 3 Banks I’ve worked for in Ireland). I travelled for a few months a few years ago and contemplated staying in Oz and was offered 2 jobs there with Banks who were impressed with both the experience I had and the qualifications so a BA is by no means considered a joke by prospective employers...that is so long as it has some relationship to your job, as economics did with mine.

I’m still in contact with a few people from my Masters class and if I remember correctly, 3 went onto do PHD’s and there was 100% employment for the remaining 21 that graduated. Mostly they were in the Banking and Finance sectors and I know people went to AIB, BoI, Ulster Bank, a few went to Banks in London, there are a few accountants, one went into research, one lectures in UCC (excluding the 3 PHD’s who also lecture), 2 or 3 went into Industry with Kerry Group and Smurfit, one is a stockbroker and there are a couple of teachers too I think so while it’s not exactly that diverse, there were a few avenues open to us.

Overall I’m glad I did it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I entered UCC but when choosing subjects I felt Economics was possibly the most practical in terms of a solid career afterward as I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher!!

Hope that helps some bit.

Patricide

Thanks guys, all these replies have helped immensely.

I am still not too sure if I want to go down the arts route, but keep the stories coming. If not for me, then for other people in the future. I am sure that I am not the only one concerned about the value of an arts degree.

PhatPiggins

We've gotten to the stage in Ireland where a Masters is the minimum standard for a lot of careers. Your primary degree is what the leaving cert was in the 90's.

My advice if you're unsure what you want, would be to pick a course you're interested in and failing that pick one with a range of subject options you can diversify into. Specialisation and career focus can more often then not be left to postgraduate studies.

I seriously don't understand the whole dissing an Arts degree thing. Okay maybe I do when it comes to ill-informed people.

I know numerous people who did Arts degrees and joined grad programmes at Citi Group and Enterprise Ireland -without doing a Masters.

It all depends on:

YOUR motivation, talent, etc.

What YOU put into your degree -scholarly development; and your personal and professional development

YOUR actual degree discipline is not relevant to a lot of jobs -bar the professions such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, etc. and some science related jobs.

I wouldn't think of a BA as a negative thing, do you think prestigious companies and organisations care of you have a BA or BSc? Most universities in the US award BAs as do Cambridge and Oxford universities.

I'm graduating this year with a BA Economics, heading to Korea to teach English for a year (for the experience, I don't actually want a teaching career) and will do a Masters after that in International Relations or Economics (with reference to the Asia-Pacific region).

THINK OF THE BIGGER PICTURE!!!

ViveLaVie

I graduated with a high 2.1 Arts degree from UCC last year. I got a First in my major which was English and a 2.1 in French. I'm currently doing an M.Phil in Literature at Trinity.

I am a bit nervous considering that the job prospects for an Arts degree aren't clearly defined. I get people asking me why I bothered to do a Masters to specialise even further in a subject that is completely irrelevant to any career. I get people looking at me blankly and asking what I hope to do that doesn't involve the PDE. To be honest, I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I do know however that I'm really passionate about the subjects I studied and I want to get a job that involves actually using them.

Some of my friends think I'm an idiot for doing Arts and I get routinely slagged over it. However, some of these same friends picked courses based on job prospects and clearly defined career objectives and are very unhappy. They hated their courses and now they hate their jobs and they're just starting out.

I loved my course. Absolutely loved it. It's certainly changed the way I think about the world. I think it comes down to priorities. If your objective is to be happy and do something you enjoy, choose accordingly - but take the risk you may be unemployed for a while. If you want the guarantee of a job, pick something safer - but take the risk that you may not like where it leads you.

johnny-fatality

Patricide wrote: »

So to anyone who has had success with an art degree I want to hear from you!

Cheers!

Hi Patricide.

I graduated from UCC last year with an arts degree. I'm doing a masters now in UL. I'm confident of getting a job come next year when I graduate.

For me, the main target of attack are any-discipline graduate programmes. With an arts degree, a masters and extra curricular activity (a very important thing to have), there are a lot of opportunities at very prestigious companies who provide specific training upon selection. It is harder to get in to some of these if you are an arts student compared to, say, a CS or business student, but if you are determined then it is an achievable goal.

However, an arts degree is sort of a 'change your perspective, become analytical' creature. It doesn't equip you with a formal, explicit skill set. If you're in the same boat as the poster studying Literature because they love it, then that is ok,
however, my advice would be to think of where you will be once you graduate. Imagine that you're in final year, deciding what to do. I won't suggest that I know what you should choose, just give it more thought than I did (I chose based on what I enjoyed. I think that this was not mitigated by career prospects, which was quite a naive approach.)

Last word of advice - Don't rely on the college website for information. The college is a business, whose income comes primarily from student's money. I nostalgically wish that I had used my free fees to more use than sitting in a lecture hall for three years, but 'hindsight is 20-20'.

Best of Luck, and good to see this thread not descending into mud slinging also.

NeuroCat

Deleted User wrote: »

I seriously don't understand the whole dissing an Arts degree thing. Okay maybe I do when it comes to ill-informed people.

I wouldn't think of a BA as a negative thing, do you think prestigious companies and organisations care of you have a BA or BSc? Most universities in the US award BAs as do Cambridge and Oxford universities.


THINK OF THE BIGGER PICTURE!!!

The class of your degree, B.Sc, B.A doesn't necessarily denote if it's an Arts degree or not. I'm going to graduate with a B.A in Biochemistry, which is far from a conventional arts degree. Many Universities award B.A's simply out of tradition. When we refer to arts degrees today, most people are talking about humanities e.g Sociology, English, Modern Languages etc.

ViveLaVie

NeuroCat wrote: »

The class of your degree, B.Sc, B.A doesn't necessarily denote if it's an Arts degree or not. I'm going to graduate with a B.A in Biochemistry, which is far from a conventional arts degree. Many Universities award B.A's simply out of tradition. When we refer to arts degrees today, most people are talking about humanities e.g Sociology, English, Modern Languages etc.

Exactly. I believe Oxford and Cambridge award Bachelor of Arts to their science graduates - someone correct me if I'm wrong. Likewise, I'm getting a Master of Philosophy in English even though I would get a Master of Arts if I did the same degree in UCC. This is because Trinity awards every student with a B.A. an honorary M.A. seven years after they graduate. The honorary M.A. doesn't actually count so, to avoid confusion, my course which is more in line with an M.A. is an M.Phil course instead. Bit ridiculous, I know.