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Siren

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Alright, this is a little bit complicated (for me, at least) just because I generally hate posting in this part of the forums. Yeah, that's the wrong way to start off one of these threads, I get it, but bear with me.

I am currently a Creative Writing major. Seems pretty logical--I write, some people say I write well, I enjoy it--but my issue is with the fact that I'm wary about the career path. I've been seriously considering becoming a college professor, but I'm not entirely sold on the idea and I feel like I may not do a good job, IF I were hired.

I'm also very interested in psychology and sociology: basically, if you've seen Lie to Me, you get an idea for the kinds of things that I like, and that I'm good at. I love sociological studies, I love examining the structures of relationships and the human psyche, and I'm incredibly interested in doing something where I could combine sociology and psychology into something worth while.

I guess my question is, what do I do? Do I stick with my current major, ride the storm, and hope? What kinds of jobs can I get with a Creative Writing Degree? Do y'all think I'd make an okay teacher, or should I switch to the sociological thing, try to do that despite an unclear job market?

Basically, any help or opinions would be appreciated, but anyone that's been a 'friend' on here had damned well better post <3
 

TheMuffinMan

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Being an english major = become teacher. basically.

Psychology = you can fake it and listen to people complain for an hour and make $140

Go psychology.
 

tangerine

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It can be interesting to note that if you become a writer, then you can incorporate many different fields into one with your writing. You can become a journalist for a psychology magazine, for example, or you could explore various psychological aspects in your characters in a novel, which adds many wonderful layers to a story. In this sense, there's no reason that you can't study and incorporate both fields into one career.

Studying various fields would also help you greatly if you became a professor, particularly an English/writing professor. A poor trend with English students is that they're taught to analyse everything to the point where they believe that everything can be analysed. This is especially true with psychological elements. Students will often try to analyse things and present them as truth or evidence even if there are already answers to their questions, which just makes them seem pretentious. It would be good to have a professor that can teach students these differences and to let them know never to draw knowledge from a single source. By teaching this, you'd already be a better professor than most. (Of course, you'd have to know a lot about proper writing, but that's a given.)

I'd say just keep studying what you enjoy. Two fields don't have to be exclusive in the future.

Being an english major = become teacher. basically.

Psychology = you can fake it and listen to people complain for an hour and make $140

Go psychology.
Most psychologists are not therapists. Being a researcher is much more fun and rewarding, anyway (and you can't fake it; if you fake anything then you're a fraud).
 
O

Oberon

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Why don't you write for a publication? It's basically social commentary, especially if you write opinions. You like the human psyche--great for analyzing social and political phenomena. You also like writing and do it well.

It seems like a possibility. Otherwise, being a psychology or english major can land you a teaching job. Psychology can get you an opportunity to make your own practice while possibly writing your own material in book form, as well.

I don't know exactly what you enjoy doing besides what you explained, but yeah hopefully this helps. :)
 

Siren

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My only issue is the job market for writers; while the internet has made it easier to self-publish and blog (fuck professional bloggers, lucky bitches) it also seems that for every website that's willing to pay for some writing there's a thousand people sending something in every goddamn day.

I dunno; I'll tae what everyone has said into account so far, and some friends also recommended looking at different careers and then figure out what kind of major will give me the largest amount of choices later on in life.
 
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