I’m a senior studying humanities. Every job I think I could be happy doing is instantly met with “you won’t make a living with that”, either because it’s hard to get into the industry or because AI is taking over.
I love history. All I hear is that I’ll only be able to work as a teacher with a history degree. I don’t like teaching, I don’t ever see myself teaching. Maybe I shouldn’t be so absolute about it. I’d much prefer having an academic career, but, unfortunately, academic papers have no nutritional value.
In addition to that, do you know what I’ve always loved? Greek mythology. It’s always a joy learning a new myth that I hadn’t heard before or tormenting people that think a Roman retelling of a Greek myth is the original. Is there a degree in Greek mythology? I think classics is the closest thing. But still, since I have no interest in being a teacher, and an academic career is too hard to achieve, that’s out of the books as well.
So I started thinking “out of the box”. What if I chose English, and used it to translate books, movies, series etc??? I was pretty content with that idea until that bastard AI showed up and ruined that dream as well. Meanwhile, everyone is telling me English is a great degree where I live, because English tutors are always in demand!!!
But I had another idea, marketing. I’ve seen a fair share of people with English degrees get a master’s in Digital Marketing and start doing that instead, and that seemed like the simplest way to do something I liked and something that kept me fed at the same time. I didn’t (still don’t) know anything about marketing or advertising.
Then I thought, “if I’m going to end up doing something completely unrelated to my major, why don’t I just switch my major?” So now I’m considering getting a communications, media and culture degree, as there’s no university with a course in marketing where I live.
Oh my god. Since I’ve made the decision in my head I’ve seen countless videos and heard countless “advice”, telling me how communciatons in the worst major.
What is there left to do then? I don’t WANT to get a STEM degree and, even if I did, it’s too late now. But it seems that I’m going to be jobless and starving for the rest of my life, so I better enjoy my childhood home while I still have it, right?
I keep telling myself that “the AI bubble will pop soon enough!” and that “STEM wouldn’t prosper without humanities!”, but even with all the being true humanities will always be an underestimated and underfunded field. I’m going to have to work for the rest of my life and it’s very important to me to pick a career path which doesn’t make it unbearable, but that seems impossible today.
