I've been job hunting for the past couple of months and not so shockingly, it's hard for a mid-career person to find a job that isn't entry level, pays a decent salary and is interesting work - although right now I'd settle just for anything that will pay my bills. Most companies are looking for kids right out of college in which they can pay them a meager salary and have them work like grunts. Unless of course you have degrees in business, accounting or technology - especially technology. There are scores of technology positions available. So why did I major in English Literature? Funny story...
A hundred years ago...okay, not that long ago... in 1984, I started my college career, majoring in Music and Theatre and after 4 semesters (2 years) and an Associates degree under my belt, I dropped out of college because I was going to take Broadway by storm. Erm... yeah... wanna guess how that turned out?? Jump forward 20 years to 2006 and feeling like I needed to finish what I started, I returned to college. I made the conscious decision that if I were going to plunk down quite a few thousand dollars to finish my degree that I wanted to study something I loved so I chose English Literature and in May 2010, I graduated with my degree in English Literature - summa cum laude (with a GPA of 3.89) from City College of New York. Shall we now guess how far this degree has gotten or will get me? Yeah, that would be nowhere. Oh, wait. No, it's gotten me somewhere... In debt! So that's something, right?? Plus I've got some paper to line a bird cage with, if I ever decided to get a flying shitbag.
As I mentioned, there are tons of jobs out there for someone with a technology background/degree. Why didn't I major in some field of technology you might ask?? Because I find technology to be the most boring field of study (okay, really business and accounting are the most boring, with technology a very close third ... it might even be a three-way tie). Had I majored in some technology field, IF I would have graduated at all, it certainly would not have been summa cum laude because I would have slept through all of my classes. Now don't get me wrong. I love using technology. I can't imagine living without my laptop, iPod Touch, GPS, Kindle, Blackberry and any other device you can think of. But to spend all day writing code or talking techno talk with co-workers is about the most boring way of spending my day. The past 2 companies I worked for were technology companies and I never quite got the gist of what either company did. I could give the basics but ask me for anything beyond a bare bones explanation and I was at a loss. I tried to learn the technology and would sit with the former CTO of my former company for hours, just trying to understand, but alas it was mostly for naught. After 3 years of studing and asking questions of those who knew the technology and I still had a bitch of a time explaining how the technology worked.
I admire my friends who work in the technology field... same as I admire people who are in the waitstaff industry. Someone has to do these jobs and I'm not one of them. So huzzah to you, my technology friends. Well done!!
In addition to being an English Literature major, I want to specialize in 19th Century British novels (if I ever get around to going to graduate school), where the most advanced "technology" is the horse drawn carriage. So what is a technology-challenged, 19th Century loving girl to do? Notwithstanding the fact that I own a Kindle, I still prefer to read books and I actually like men to hold open doors for me. Although, I would never want to live without indoor plumbing and don't want to be considered property and unable to vote. I'm truly confused. I think Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, said it best: "I feel like a defective model, like I came off the assembly line flat-out fucked and my parents should have taken me back for repairs before the warranty ran out." I'm guessing that at my age, the warranty has run out.
One day I hope to figure it all out. In the meantime, I just go along as best I can, knowing that I'm a bit of a square peg who will never fit into a round hole and I will have to wait to get it right in a future incarnation.
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