Thread: Life after graduation

Stressing out, S-B. I'm a junior History major going to a great university.. but I'm scared about my job prospects after graduation and don't even really know what I want to do. I don't think I'll go to grad school right away, I want to get some work experience first and then decide what grad school will be useful for... but, I just don't know.

So how did you figure out what career interests you? Do you even have a career? Etc etc. How did you figure it all out?

I'm double majoring in French and Philosophy. Please tell me what I can do with that because I'm pretty sure I don't want to be a professor.

I'm also a junior and I don't know what to do career wise. I think a translating job would be sweet, but only with written works, because I don't have the divided listening and speaking skills for oral translations. It sounds a little too much like a dream job but then again, our existentialist professor did the leading translation to Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zathustra" and it's sold as a Barnes & Noble classic. Bet you he gets a pretty penny for that.

So I dunno. I'm also pretty set on joining the Peace Corps after undergrad and then doing grad school after that. That seems like enough life experience for me. But then I have the issue of what to do when I get to grad school and people ask me if I'm going and I'm like "yessiree" and they ask what for and I'm like "Good question!"

For me- I didn't even pick a major until I absolutely knew what I loved doing. And so that's my approach to things, unless I'm 100% I just don't go with anything. I've seen people change their major so many times and I think it's so ridiculous, as if they chose it on a whim each semester.

All I know is what I enjoy doing, and I haven't quite figured how to incorporate that into a career yet that isn't teaching, sooo sorry, can't offer any advice.

It's the same for me- I know I want to do grad school, I just don't know what for.

I was thinking about Peace Corps, but the horror stories have kinda scared me off. =\

I've been researching the Peace Corps program since my senior of high school, your chances of dying during service are the same as when you walk out your front door, the majority of all the deaths have been things like car accidents, some have been complications due to old age because retired people join.

And since it started in 1961 (i think that's the year?), there's only been like 200 or 300 deaths. Tiny percentage compared to the people who volunteer. And they don't send you out to refugee areas, you're not "alone". The death rates have also declined quite a bit over the years as the program advances.

I've heard lots of great stories and I've also heard some bad stories, like a friend of mine whose sister is over there, she just got dysentery for the second time, and then my aunt's friend's daughter lost like 40 lbs but I don't really see this as tragic because she was overweight, and obviously you're not going to have the luxuries of such processed shit that make you fat, so I imagine everyone who goes over there loses some weight. It's really whether you think you're capable, I totally understand people who don't think they could hack it. It's tough. But for me- I can't stand the idea of sitting around when I have skills that could really make a difference somewhere.

Originally Posted by Ghetto Onion

I'm also a junior and I don't know what to do career wise. I think a translating job would be sweet, but only with written works, because I don't have the divided listening and speaking skills for oral translations. It sounds a little too much like a dream job but then again, our existentialist professor did the leading translation to Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zathustra" and it's sold as a Barnes & Noble classic. Bet you he gets a pretty penny for that.

Translation is a veeery competative field. Unless you've been in the field for a few years or happen to know a writer who thinks you're upto it, you can kiss literary translation goodbye. When I was at the Venice Film Festival, I was speaking to a guy who translates films into Hebrew for the Israeli audience. And he's the ONLY person who does it. If you want to translate anything of worth then you'd generally be a Harvard graduate with shitloads of experience. Otherwise you end up translating magazine adverts and instruction manuals. You're best bet is to try and find something which hasn't been translated before and get to it before anybody else does. It's a lot of work though with all the theory behind the translation method and everything....

My girlfriend did her MA in Translation and is teaching Translacion Inversa at the University of Salamanca here in Spain which is why is seem to have acquired this knowledge.



As for the Peace Corps thing. DO IT! I wish we had something like that in the UK because that's probably what I'd be doing right now.

Originally Posted by Brewtality

Translation is a veeery competative field. Unless you've been in the field for a few years or happen to know a writer who thinks you're upto it, you can kiss literary translation goodbye. When I was at the Venice Film Festival, I was speaking to a guy who translates films into Hebrew for the Israeli audience. And he's the ONLY person who does it. If you want to translate anything of worth then you'd generally be a Harvard graduate with shitloads of experience. Otherwise you end up translating magazine adverts and instruction manuals. You're best bet is to try and find something which hasn't been translated before and get to it before anybody else does. It's a lot of work though with all the theory behind the translation method and everything....

Yeah that's why I mentioned it's kind of a dream job, but my professor only graduated from UT-Austin, so if I get into a decent grad school and network- it's possible.

Or I've just been thinking about linguistics of some kind, I'm taking a romance language linguistics class next semester and I'm ridiculously excited. I hope it doesn't disappoint me. And I know someone going to grad school for neurolinguistics, and another friend who's interested in a "philosophy of linguistics". Those all sound good and interesting but not really for me. I haven't found my "niche" of interest yet.

For those of you who went to grad school, how long did it take for you to figure out what you wanted to do? It seems like it took me long enough to figure it out in undergrad, I can't just start going to grad school without figuring it out first.

Do you read Wittgenstein?