I feel like a lot of these suggestions are pretty unhelpful.

1. An English major is not a useless major, particularly at a top 20-30 school. I myself majored in political science and ended up working in management consulting after school. My cohort consisted of business, econ, anthropology, history, and other majors.

2. Can this student leverage the career center? They should still be able to access the services, assuming they’re 5-6 months post graduation.
a) Student should check if there are any jobs he/she can apply to via on campus recruiting.
b) student should have the career center review his/her resume
c) student can use the career center for mock interviews. These are super helpful in exposing weak points when interviewing.
d) If you see postings, especially at corporations, I would recommend reaching out to alumni who work at these places and asking for informational interviews. More likely than not, the alumni will provide a referral for your application. In this market, it’s really hard to get interviews by only cold applying.

3. Student should look at teaching, Americorps, the Peacecorps, etc. Specific programs that come to mind include TFA, NYC teaching fellows, baltimore teaching fellows

4. I understand what the parent is saying about being underemployed. In the student’s case, being underemployed is working at a job that does not require a college education. For example, working as a barista at Starbucks. There is nothing wrong with aiming for a job that uses one’s college education.

5) Look into jobs specifically hiring a cohort of recent grads. It’s Nov do most of these postings might be for a summer start. But it doesn’t hurt to try. Could find some with a January start. Also, if the student has to start in the summer it’s not the worse case.

6) Look for paid internships. These will keep the student productive, give them experience, and enable them to earn some money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

The biggest point in your narrative is the importance of networking.

The biggest point is English majors need to rely much more on networking and luck.

My friend collects freelance communication jobs in the area and there are always at least five for the week. It seems like a lot of companies pay freelance writers for these tasks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for the pp who recommended attending lots of tech conferences as a path to finding a job. What does that mean exactly? Attend and cold-introduce yourself as a student interested in the field and looking for an entry level job? Or is it something else, or a more specific plan of approach?

Yes, introduce yourself to people who attend the conference, strike up a conversation and just listen, especially during lunch and happy hour. A lot of these people love to talk about what they do so just be a good listener. Also let them know that you're interested in finding a job. It comes down to the number of conferences you attend, the more you attend, the higher probability that you will get a job, regardless of your major.

I will say this, tech conferences are dominated by male nerds and if you happen to be a young good looking woman, they will trip over to find you a job in the tech world. To those techies, being with a good looking woman is like a godsend to many of them.

Shameless but true.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Bottom line: social skills is what gets you jobs.

social skills alone doesn't get you the interview, though.

I guess you did not play Lacrosse at UNC, UVA or Duke so you know nothing. Those guys get high paying jobs because they have good social skills plus good connections.

? that's not the same as getting interviews. They used their connections to get those interviews. OP's DC doesn't have those connections, so what would good social skills do?

DP. If you have good social skills, you will do well at technology conferences and have plenty of opportunities there. You just need to work harder to find/establish connections than someone who played lacrosse in college.

would've been a lot simpler to major or minor in some tech field.

How so?

If you are going to a tech conference to get a job, you should've just majored in tech. An English major is not going to have an easy time networking and discussing about tech at a tech conference.

If you were a math major, at least there's some correlation, but it's like a STEM major going to a legal conference and trying to get a job in the legal profession. Completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sure, an English major can get a job as a tech writer, but those tech conferences are heavy duty about tech. They aren't looking for tech writers.

I attended Black hat Defcon in Las Vegas this year and it was packed. Lots of tech geeks there with very few women. Those geeks really drooled over those women. I ran into a few humanities majors turned self-taught cybersecurity people. Even if you are a recent humanities grad, if you talk to enough people there, you will get multiple opportunities. Techies love to talk about what they do, just listen and you will do fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

The biggest point in your narrative is the importance of networking.

+1  

Exactly.  Networking is everywhere INCLUDING the tech sector.  CEO, CTO, CIO, CFO positions are not advertised, they are selected from the pool of people that they know.  The same goes with SWE and programmers.  

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

The biggest point in your narrative is the importance of networking.

I would suggest looking at jobs as a proposal writer for Govt contracting firms. They are always looking for proposal writers. It’s a difficult job trying get content under tight timelines, but it would be a great way to break into a real job with an English major. Many times tech people have a hard time with writing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Bottom line: social skills is what gets you jobs.

social skills alone doesn't get you the interview, though.

I guess you did not play Lacrosse at UNC, UVA or Duke so you know nothing. Those guys get high paying jobs because they have good social skills plus good connections.

? that's not the same as getting interviews. They used their connections to get those interviews. OP's DC doesn't have those connections, so what would good social skills do?

DP. If you have good social skills, you will do well at technology conferences and have plenty of opportunities there. You just need to work harder to find/establish connections than someone who played lacrosse in college.

would've been a lot simpler to major or minor in some tech field.

How so?

If you are going to a tech conference to get a job, you should've just majored in tech. An English major is not going to have an easy time networking and discussing about tech at a tech conference.

If you were a math major, at least there's some correlation, but it's like a STEM major going to a legal conference and trying to get a job in the legal profession. Completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sure, an English major can get a job as a tech writer, but those tech conferences are heavy duty about tech. They aren't looking for tech writers.

You chose a terrible analogy example: see Patent Engineer https://www.upcounsel.com/patent-engineer

Also, companies absolutely are desperate to higher tech writers for diversity numbers.

lol you know OPs kid is a white girl.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any parents out there who paid $200K+ for college, kid did great, and now can't find job?
Kid graduated from top 20/30 school with honors and career center was completely worthless.

(Kenyon College ?)

OP: If your kid is making $80,000 a year as a tutor, that is outstanding !

Why not continue tutoring while earning a master's degree in English or in Education ?

Could be lucrative if your son/daughter opens up a tutoring business.

Congratulations !!!

Exactly! Kid can continue to tutor, take business classes on the side and perhaps open their own tutoring company. This is a very lucrative business in most major metropolitan areas. Your kid has a meaningful, well paying job, that they can easily turn into more if they want. Or they can continue to do the tutoring while they pursue an advanced degree, but I highly recommend them figuring out what they'd really like to do. No point in a MA in English if the tutoring company is what they want to purse. So work the tutoring gig and do an internship (for low or no pay ) in publishing/ editing to see if that's what they really want to do.

Here's the thing, most people with a BA in English do NOT "use their English degree" directly for their career...they use the fact they have a BA and ability to write/critically think to pursue whatever interests them.

Should have done this in the first place.
Major in business and double major or minor in English.

That's what my kid is doing in a T20 school.
Business Analytics msjor and 2nd major in psychology.

Well, yes, I would recommend that. If my kid wanted to do a humanities or social science major (non business, non-stem) I would have encouraged them to study what they love, but to also minor or double major in business/data analytics/something that helps get that first job. Then you can use that 2nd major/minor to help launch your career path perhaps along with your other major.

The OP kid is obviously smart, they are tutoring and doing well. So they need to decide what their next step is: do they want to continue with tutoring, then start their own company? Or do they want to venture into publishing/somehting with English. If that, then they need to get their foot in the door with an internship/volutneer position (maybe without pay) while they do the tutoring as well to pay the bills (since most tutoring is after 3pm and on weekends). Or decide to be a teacher and do tutoring. But it always amazes me how people go to college without any thought of what they will do with their degree. Fine major in English if you love it, but then you need to be finding internships while in college to get some experience and also getting a minor with some skills that will help you get hired for a job, in an area you are interested in. There are not just tons of jobs that scream "hey you with a BA in English, we need you now", so you have to work a bit harder, and market yourself and possibly take a job that isn't perfect but gives you some meaningful work experience for a few years. But you should know these things when you select a major, it's 2020's , the internet is your friend and it's easy to figure out what jobs might be available with a certain major and how to set about working in that field . Then follow what you learn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Bottom line: social skills is what gets you jobs.

social skills alone doesn't get you the interview, though.

I guess you did not play Lacrosse at UNC, UVA or Duke so you know nothing. Those guys get high paying jobs because they have good social skills plus good connections.

? that's not the same as getting interviews. They used their connections to get those interviews. OP's DC doesn't have those connections, so what would good social skills do?

DP. If you have good social skills, you will do well at technology conferences and have plenty of opportunities there. You just need to work harder to find/establish connections than someone who played lacrosse in college.

would've been a lot simpler to major or minor in some tech field.

How so?

If you are going to a tech conference to get a job, you should've just majored in tech. An English major is not going to have an easy time networking and discussing about tech at a tech conference.

If you were a math major, at least there's some correlation, but it's like a STEM major going to a legal conference and trying to get a job in the legal profession. Completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sure, an English major can get a job as a tech writer, but those tech conferences are heavy duty about tech. They aren't looking for tech writers.

You chose a terrible analogy example: see Patent Engineer https://www.upcounsel.com/patent-engineer

Also, companies absolutely are desperate to higher tech writers for diversity numbers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Bottom line: social skills is what gets you jobs.

social skills alone doesn't get you the interview, though.

I guess you did not play Lacrosse at UNC, UVA or Duke so you know nothing. Those guys get high paying jobs because they have good social skills plus good connections.

? that's not the same as getting interviews. They used their connections to get those interviews. OP's DC doesn't have those connections, so what would good social skills do?

DP. If you have good social skills, you will do well at technology conferences and have plenty of opportunities there. You just need to work harder to find/establish connections than someone who played lacrosse in college.

would've been a lot simpler to major or minor in some tech field.

How so?

If you are going to a tech conference to get a job, you should've just majored in tech. An English major is not going to have an easy time networking and discussing about tech at a tech conference.

If you were a math major, at least there's some correlation, but it's like a STEM major going to a legal conference and trying to get a job in the legal profession. Completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sure, an English major can get a job as a tech writer, but those tech conferences are heavy duty about tech. They aren't looking for tech writers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for the pp who recommended attending lots of tech conferences as a path to finding a job. What does that mean exactly? Attend and cold-introduce yourself as a student interested in the field and looking for an entry level job? Or is it something else, or a more specific plan of approach?

Yes, introduce yourself to people who attend the conference, strike up a conversation and just listen, especially during lunch and happy hour. A lot of these people love to talk about what they do so just be a good listener. Also let them know that you're interested in finding a job. It comes down to the number of conferences you attend, the more you attend, the higher probability that you will get a job, regardless of your major.

I will say this, tech conferences are dominated by male nerds and if you happen to be a young good looking woman, they will trip over to find you a job in the tech world. To those techies, being with a good looking woman is like a godsend to many of them.

Where do you find out about these conferences? Are they free? Are there good and bad ones?

PP, this recommendation seems like something that a stay at home parent who imagines themselves a novelist might write. I’m forced to attend tech conferences, and honestly I would have nothing to say to a random English major who attended. Also, this “nerdy guys” trope seems like something PPP picked up watching Big Bang Theory reruns. I’ve got a job, a spouse, a kid, and an aging dad. I have no time for random attractive women, and showing prurient interest in them would be super cringey and gross.

I worked in tech for many years, and, I, too, find the advice for an English major to go to a tech conference a bit odd. If I'm at a tech conference, I want to talk about tech stuff. What would an English major be able to contribute to a discussion about tech?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any parents out there who paid $200K+ for college, kid did great, and now can't find job?
Kid graduated from top 20/30 school with honors and career center was completely worthless.

(Kenyon College ?)

OP: If your kid is making $80,000 a year as a tutor, that is outstanding !

Why not continue tutoring while earning a master's degree in English or in Education ?

Could be lucrative if your son/daughter opens up a tutoring business.

Congratulations !!!

Exactly! Kid can continue to tutor, take business classes on the side and perhaps open their own tutoring company. This is a very lucrative business in most major metropolitan areas. Your kid has a meaningful, well paying job, that they can easily turn into more if they want. Or they can continue to do the tutoring while they pursue an advanced degree, but I highly recommend them figuring out what they'd really like to do. No point in a MA in English if the tutoring company is what they want to purse. So work the tutoring gig and do an internship (for low or no pay ) in publishing/ editing to see if that's what they really want to do.

Here's the thing, most people with a BA in English do NOT "use their English degree" directly for their career...they use the fact they have a BA and ability to write/critically think to pursue whatever interests them.

Should have done this in the first place.
Major in business and double major or minor in English.

That's what my kid is doing in a T20 school.
Business Analytics msjor and 2nd major in psychology.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - major was English -- a beautiful major. The world needs more English majors.... especially from schools well known for their English & humanities departments. That should translate into many jobs in media, publishing, etc. And yes, with what we paid, no guarantees, but I would expect better assistance from the career center. The kid has worked so hard looking for a job and is not willing to be underemployed.

I appreciate the tecchies, but not everyone is made to do that work. The world needs some fuzzies, too. More than ever actually.

BTW - middle class burb family that has worked hard for it.

A job in media and publishing is just a smidgen above being unemployed. They pay very little, usually people from very comfortable circumstances can afford to go into those fields.
Also, for publishing, one has to take the Radcliffe publishing seminar. There's no other way to get in.