English/ History/ Foreign Language majors? Talk to me!
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Anonymous
| My brother was a history major and is now a librarian. |
Anonymous
My niece majored in theater (graduated in 2017) and now runs a small theater company. She previously worked in community engagement for local museums. My brother majored in theater as well and has worked in libraries and done theater productions on the side. Just wanted to offer some experiences since neither regret majoring in theater. |
Anonymous
Why would you not recommend it? My DD is considering this as a career so I would be interested hearing your perspective. Thank you. |
Anonymous
For translation, machine translation is progressing very quickly. It's still not as good a qualified translator. But soon enough most translation jobs will be underpaid post-editing from machine translated texts. For interpretation, I fear that the same will happen down the line. This is still in a distant future but things have accelerated with the pandemic and the use of on-line platforms. Generally, we have seen a deterioration of our work conditions and it seems like no one really cares about quality anymore. Remote interpreting is hard on the ears and brain. Tinnitus is a big issue for us. We now have to compete with interpreters based elsewhere with a lower cost of living, as long as they have a good internet connection. Luckily, we still have some in-person meetings and some clients who really care about quality. But things are not looking up in the profession. I am lucky to be in a place in my career where I can work in interesting meetings and make a good enough living. But the effort it look to get there would have easily landed me a much higher compensation in a different field. Being multi-lingual is not enough to be a good translator or interpreter, you need to have in-demand languages and get an MA from a recognized school. Then most of us are freelancers, so no job security. Some opt to go to project management or localization and are hired as employees. |
Anonymous
| I was an international affairs/foreign language major. After a few years of working abroad, I decided to transition into working in higher education. I now overseeing student academic support at a university and just broke six figures. I love what I do. |
Anonymous
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HI again, I am the OP and just wanted to THANK all of you for replying with your thoughtful, helpful responses. They give me hope, that yes, it IS going to be ok if my DD majors in English/History/Foreign Languages with alot of voice etc thrown in. AS I said in a previous post, she is a beautiful singer and loves musical theater. Some have advised me to look at schools like Northwestern, Vassar, etc. That's great, but she just took the SAT and doesn't have the scores that those schools require so I am not hopeful Remember - she hates math and doesn't test well in it at all, though her English score is wonderful. Her dream school would be Michigan, but again, her SATs are on the low end for that - 80 percent. Not bad, but not Michigan.
I can't thank all of you enough though. I am going to print out all of these wonderful responses. Her cousins and my sister and brother are all software engineers and other types of engineers. Those are just not my brains nor are they my DD's brains. SO THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I have loved this thread... |
Anonymous
| English Lit major (BA only) - have worked in corporate communications entire career; also freelance. Get those editorial internships if your kid assumes English major gets you writing jobs. Employers want to see published samples. No one will care about the A you got on your Chaucer paper. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
+1 what a great sounding job! |
Anonymous
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Romance languages and linguistics undergrad. I joined an airline as a flight attendant right after college. I sort of worked my way up in seniority and still fly. It's weird, but to the outside world I'm just this normal mom, but I do long haul flights to Europe and Asia and basically work full time over the course of one week a month.
It is weird but I love, love, love my job. COVID made it sort of awful and I roll with the punches because my spouse makes good money. But there is just something about wondering around alone Paris or Tokyo or Hong Kong or Cairo to break up life a bit. I'm mom 3 weeks a month but one week I'm just me. |
Anonymous
I make 110k w/flight benefits, awesome healthcare and retirement (I am on track to "retire" at 50, which is wild). |
Anonymous
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English major. Later got MBA and passed CPA exam.
In business field. |
Anonymous
She might want to look at Indiana U, outstanding voice program in Jacobs School of Music and exceptional language instruction programs with a great IR program in Hamilton Lugar. |
Anonymous
Brother with the same major Journalist /editor then corporate communication executive. |