Countless young people have been going to university or college for the sake of it. Your parents tell you to go, and all your friends are going, so why not go, right? You have no idea what you want to do, so off you go for a four year sociology degree, or a history diploma, or a poli-sci degree.
At the end of it all, you have a degree/diploma in hand and think, 'great, now what?' Suddenly all of that work that you put into your education seems so useless. You have no job prospects, and no idea what you want to do with this fancy piece of paper that says you're a well educated citizen.
I've had the same conversation with many graduates now, where we all seem to say, "Great, I officially have the most useless degree in the world." I don't know about you, but I certainly felt this way after graduating too.
It's scary when you have no plan and you consider the number of jobs out there! How are you supposed to know which one is for you?
My suggestion: go online and spend a day (or two) reading through job postings. Read the descriptions. Research the average salary. Consider the hours. Shadow someone. Find out all the nitty gritty details about the career.
Is there opportunity to climb up the ladder to a higher position within the field? What are the pros of the career? What are the cons? Who's hiring who? Are people happy in this career? What's the turnover rate? Are there special certifications for this career? Find out as much as you can about every job that seems appealing to you. Even if you don't have the qualifications for it, I encourage you to research it.
Don't look through the postings with something specific in mind. Just look! Look at everything. If you narrow your search down to one specific career, you might miss out on something great that would suit you perfectly- a job that you didn't even know existed!
I did this, and ended up realizing that a career in public relations is exactly where I want to be. Yes, I have to go back to college for a year. No, PR doesn't exactly relate to my degree in child and youth studies. But it could! Depending on where I take my career in PR, I could end up working for a not-for-profit organization that supports children, or even doing PR for a school board.
So start looking to see what's out there! Do your research, and you might realize that your "useless degree" isn't so useless after all.
Don't know where to start? Try local job postings on:
www.jobbank.gc.ca
www.indeed.ca
www.jobsearch.ca
www.monster.com
For not-for-profit jobs I highly recommend www.charityvillage.com
I hope you feel inspired to start looking, and hopefully this helps you narrow down your search!
Let me know how it goes!
Rebecca
