To have a masters degree and feel completely unqualified to work

85% Normal
5 Comments

I have a Masters degree. I've worked hard for the past five years to get the credentials I have and yet I can't seem to find any job at which I could use my credentials or even one that is vaguely pleasant. Is it normal to be really depressed and feel alienated? I mean, I know anything anyone can say is to hang in there and something will come, but I feel like I'm positive nothing will. To add insult to injury, my MA is in the humanities.

Voting Results
85% Normal
Based on 52 votes (44 yes)
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Comments ( 5 )
  • BearGrylls
    11 years ago

    Coming out of university with an Arts degree looks exactly as impressive to a prospective employer as does a certificate of membership of the Silly Buggers Society.

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  • recent_grad
    13 years ago

    Thank you! I'm still trying. It's just to money thing that's scary. Rent will have to get paid somehow :(

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  • davegrohl
    13 years ago

    labor market sucks
    it doesn't work properly..
    this is a typical issue of that incompatibility between supply and demand..

    trust yourself and try to do something within what you already have

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  • drbuttplug
    13 years ago

    Do what you want, not what your education says you can do. Do you think Obama went to a President School as a teenager? Get laid for a start.

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  • dappled
    13 years ago

    The MA of one of my best friends is in the Humanities (in particular History). He works in the financial sector because I think he figured, after a period of unemployment, that "historian" isn't a role he's likely to walk in to.

    This is no criticism of the Humanities and I also don't subscribe to those views that they are easy subjects as opposed to the sciences. I myself studied Mathematics and how many people do you meet who tell you that their job is a mathematician?

    However, you have to dissociate your degree from your career. I hate Applied Maths and only really wanted to do Pure Maths. Even at 18, though, I knew that I'd probably end up working as an actuary. Now, I barely do any maths at all. And I don't earn anywhere near as much as an actuary. Life deals us some strange blows.

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