“Oh, so you are going into teaching?”

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or a few years, I thought I’d study Biochemistry at university. As it turned out, I changed my mind at the last minute, and decided to study English Literature, which I love.

Many people are confused by this huge change of heart, which I can understand. What I find a little annoying, however, are some people’s reactions of disappointment, as if they believe doing a humanities or arts subject is somehow lesser than maths and the sciences. The idea of a hierarchy of academic subjects is nothing new, and at this point nothing but a minor irritation for most arts students, who often joke about how they are “not doing a real degree”, how few contact hours they get and where the £9000 they are paying for their education is actually going!

The only obvious options available for humanities students who didn’t want to go into some kind of advertising role for a large corporation seemed to be law or teaching. 

Recently, however, my jokey exasperation with these weird social hierarchies and supposed dichotomies between faculties that can easily, and often do, work together, turned to actual frustration. At Warwick’s recent Autumn Careers Fair, I found there to be a disproportionately large focus on areas like business, consulting, management, technology and finance – and little to no options for anyone interested in other things. There was no representation of industries such as television, film, radio, writing, publishing, editing, arts, performance, curating, academia, or journalism– in fact, the only obvious options available for humanities students who didn’t want to go into some kind of advertising role for a large corporation seemed to be law or teaching.

Whilst I admire those career paths, I was frustrated that the “Oh, so are you going to go into teaching?” question you always get from distant relatives as an English student somehow translated across to a university Careers Fair as well! I also couldn’t help but notice a distinct lack of opportunities for  science students who wanted to do practical lab-based work, such as for charities, in the healthcare sector, or as academic research. Even the tech companies, who were supposedly interested in hiring science students, seemed to be very much pushing the marketing, business and advertising aspects of their companies rather than practical science, which I imagine would be disheartening for those students who are interested in continuing that aspect of their degree.

I was disappointed that the fair seemed to display such a narrow- minded view of what students are actually capable of doing with their degrees.

I was disappointed that the fair seemed to display such a narrow- minded view of what students are actually capable of doing with their degrees. Many of the options available seemed to further reiterate the low regard that society seems to have for subjects that are not obvious money- makers or that lead to typical city jobs, which is a real shame. Those jobs are obviously important, but they are not all that there is out there. The job market is varied, and the world needs culture, media, research, non-profit companies and academics alongside lawyers, teachers, businessmen and bankers. To wholly ignore certain fields – which I’m sure plenty of Warwick alumni have gone on to succeed in and will continue to do so – is a real oversight, and a disappointment to many students I spoke to after the Fair.

This was supposed to be a Fair for everyone – it was supposed to help people think about their future careers – but all it ended up doing for me was exacerbate the already pervasive feeling that a humanities degree has little practical application in life, aside from teaching, which I know is not the case. There are plenty of interesting and diverse job opportunities for students of every subject and faculty, and I hope that in the future the university’s Career Fairs will reflect that!