I think I’ve known I was an English major my whole life.

I started becoming curious about English and literature as a child, though I never knew what to call myself or what it meant. I remember my brother walking in on me reading “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. I told him I was just experimenting.

Coming out to my mother was probably the hardest. I tried to cover up my English major tendencies by pursuing “trophy” degrees — international relations, biology — but after meeting other English majors, it just seemed right.

My mother and I were in the kitchen making dinner when I told her.

“Mom,” I said, “I’m ... an English major.”

She looked forlornly to the cutting board and continued chopping carrots for the pot roast. “How long have you known you were a ... ”

“It’s OK, mom. You can say it.”

“An ... English major,” she managed.

“My whole life,” I said. She began sobbing.

“Oh, Steven,” she said. “That’s a degree in unemployment! My own son, an English major! What will your father say? What are you going to do?”

The sad truth was, I didn’t know what I was going to do. But I wasn’t alone.

Those B.A. blues
A group of fellow English majors turn their desks and converse before class begins. The topic: what to do with their lives post-graduation.

“I’m sure we all started out as English majors with grandeur of writing the ‘Great American Novel,’ and now that we’re about to graduate, that’s all gone out the window,” one student says.

“Yeah, our degree will make great kindling,” jokes another.

Senior English major Ashley Shuckerow laughs at the discussion but later admits there is some truth behind the cliché that majoring in liberal arts is “majoring in unemployment.”

“I think it’s definitely a cliché that students live up to,” she says. “There are a lot of students out there who don’t know what they want to do with their lives.”

Shuckerow changed majors four times before finally deciding on an English degree. She’s not alone. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Education shows nearly half of students change their majors at least once. She says one of the largest factors in her decision to stay with an English major was that it allows her to finally graduate in May, although she says she’s still confused about a career track after college.

However, Shuckerow doesn’t think getting a liberal arts degree will affect her chances at any career path she chooses. “I think that with any degree, you can do almost any job,” she says.

Like Shuckerow, senior English major Elizabeth Lahey says she is confused about what to do after graduation before she applies for law school. “I don’t have any plans for directly after graduation. I am going to take a year off,” she says. “I’ll get some kind of job, but I have no idea what I’ll do.”

Lahey says she always planned to go to law school and decided a liberal arts degree would give her a good foundation for her future career. “I knew I wanted to go to law school from the beginning, and I needed a strong reading-writing base,” she says.

Shuckerow and Lahey say there is a divide in liberal arts programs: those who know what they want to do, and those who don’t.

“I think half the students know what they want to do, and the rest have settled for their major because it’s an easy out, or it’s something they hope they can apply to their future career somehow,” Shuckerow says.

Lahey thinks of her B.A. as more of a starting point. “I don’t think you’re destined for unemployment, but I don’t feel like you can do anything with an English major alone. It’s more of a stepping stone,” she says.

Taking a detour on the road to unemployment
It’s not just English majors with anxiety about what to do after graduation, says Hobson Hamilton, assistant director in the Career Services Center.

“(Students) are aware of trends that say that things like nursing degrees and accounting degrees are highly sought after,” he says. “They say, ‘I am behind the curve now. Am I going to be able to get a job at all?’”

However, Hamilton says most students with degrees in the liberal arts, such as psychology, history and English, aren’t necessarily at a disadvantage for getting jobs after college.

“We feel those majors have a good outlook for jobs. They have a good degree of flexibility. Employers realize they can be trained.”

Lahey says she thinks earning a minor is something liberal arts students should consider. “I think if you were an English major and had a solid minor in something more career oriented and not as academic, you would be more marketable,” she says.

Hamilton says minors are a good idea, but degree programs give candidates the edge. “I believe that picking up a minor may sometimes be invaluable,” he says, but adds that the competition for some jobs can be tough.

“For example, if they have a minor in marketing and they’re competing against someone with a marketing major, they may be at a disadvantage,” he says. “They may have to market that effectively.”

With 200 majors at Kent State, Hamilton stresses the need for career counseling for students who are unsure of what to do with their major. “There is certainly a place for the exploratory major,” he says. “There shouldn’t be any shame. That person just needs a little more time to work things out.”

At the Career Services Center, students are able to take various assessments, most free of charge, to help evaluate skills and abilities they possess and how they can use them toward a future career.

On the Career Services Web site, career.kent.edu, students are able to access a free Sigi3 assessment that helps them create a list of possible occupations based on their values, interests, work skills and major.

Hamilton says these assessments aren’t meant to solve all of a student’s concerns with employment, but they’re a good starting point. “It’s not a cure-all,” he says, “but it is a way for them to validate if they’ve made a good choice.”

Hamilton says students should prepare as soon as possible for their post-college careers, whether it’s obtaining internships or simply creating a career plan.

“It’s a tough job market today, especially in northeast Ohio,” he says. “I don’t want to scare anyone, but it heightens the preparedness the students need.”

With unemployment rising in the area, Hamilton says students should also consider relocating to areas with a better job outlook. According to the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market Information, Portage County’s unemployment rate is slightly above the U.S. average of 4.4 percent, and four out of six of its neighboring counties are above the state average of 5 percent.

For those who stick around and have trouble finding a job, Career Services is still available. “We’re there for them even after they graduate,” he says.

So maybe I’m safe.

Though I am not guaranteed a job, it seems my alternative, liberal-arts lifestyle doesn’t put me at a disadvantage. And for all you nay-sayers out there, be careful. Your best friend could be a liberal arts major and you don’t even know it.

Steve Schirra is a senior English major. This is his third story for The Burr.