June 29th, 2010 Grad school guidance….please!?
I’m about to become a senior in college, and I still don’t know what I want to pursue, as my original plan of becoming an English professor failed to keep on enticing me. I now know I want to pursue a more practical degree in grad school — one I won’t have that much trouble finding a job with. My top interest at the moment is advertising/marketing/business, and I’d be happy with a copywriting/technical writing job to get experience and save money in the meantimes. Do you have any information about advertising/marketing MAs? I’m not in my college town this summer, so I don’t have access to counselors…Do you have any knowledge about this?
You don’t need to go to law school to become a copywriter. They’re often paired because copywriters sometimes advertise law firms.
Some good universities will accept students for the master of business administration program even if they do not have an undergraduate business degree or prior business experience.
Start by looking at the program at your state university. You can find it on google.com.
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on June 29th, 2010 at 09:01
I’m pretty sure in order to do the copy-writing stuff you have to of gone to law school. I could be wrong but every time someone mentions doing something like that it’s always paired with law school.
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on June 29th, 2010 at 09:51
If you’re interested in advertising/ marketing then you may want to consider a master’s in communications. My husband has a bachelor’s in communications and makes decent money as a graphic designer in the proposals department of a company that contracts to the military. And communications would allow you to do a number of things because it’s a pretty versatile degree.
Good luck.
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on June 29th, 2010 at 10:29
Some good universities will accept students for the master of business administration program even if they do not have an undergraduate business degree or prior business experience.
Start by looking at the program at your state university. You can find it on google.com.
References :
on June 29th, 2010 at 10:45
You would be better served to get some practical experience in the field before grad school. A master’s in communications or advertising/marketing will make much more sense if you have some working time behind you. (Too, if you are working for a large ad company, they might give you some tuition reimbursement for grad school later.)
There’s a chance after working in the field that you will find that you don’t like it. Better to know before you spend the money on an MA. If you can slip a basic class in psychology next year and/or advertising, all the better. Both classes will teach you how to motivate people, a skill that is critical in advertising. Too, the advertising class will give you some of the lingo you will be expected to understand. If you can’t take the classes, then get the texts and read them on you own.
In the meantime, see if you can get an internship this fall. If not an internship, then a part time job, even if you have to do in on a volunteer basis for the first month or so. Again, it will give you insight in how the industry works and give you a starting point for networking when it comes time for job hunting for real. You might consider a different job for the spring semester–again, to see how different companies work and for the extra line on your resume.
Short term, it would make a lot of sense to do some research. Call the job placement office from your school who deals with the advertising/marketing graduates and get names and contact information from several recent graduates. They can give you feedback on what the job market is like, what job skills employers are most interested in having, what their take is on the necessity of a master’s degree, and if you are lucky, they can point you to one of those internships or part time jobs.
If after looking you can’t find a part time job, then check around town with charities and foundations. You might be able to do advertising/marketing for them, again on a volunteer basis. Shoestring operations like these will be more likely to give you autonomy and a wide variety of tasks, all of which will look good on a resume. ("You wrote the ad copy for the fall fundraising appeal for the American Heart Association," for instance.)
Advertising/marketing people have to be creative. You might simply have to design your own job. ("You wrote the fundraising copy for a benefit for local injured fireman John Doe, raising $25,000 toward his medical treatments," etc.) Be proactive, and worry about grad school in a year or two.
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