Course updates
I apparently alarmed quite a few people last night with my emo-ness. Thanks for asking about me, guys. :) I guess when it came down to it it was a little bit of culture shock, unpreparedness and a lot of mid-degree crisis because now I actually have to pick something and I can't just go 'oh I'll think about it later'.I have a feeling I may possibly be able to cope better if I could do all the theory stuff first and the practical stuff later - because in all respects Journalism is technically easy. You don't have to reference, need a little research but honestly it's nothing, and all you have to do is get your quotes to sound pretty. However, Monash doesn't wait for you to settle in - you get thrust in the deep end. I have assignments due at the end of this month already.
That's the downside to having long holidays - extremely short semesters and shorter deadlines.
However, I have reasoned that I already have the basics of reporting down pat, and honestly that's about all I need. I have never intended to be a hardcore journalist. Anyone who knows me will agree that I don't have the personality or drive to be one. I much prefer quieter, more straightforward work. Tedium is not the problem. Editing is really more my thing, but I don't think you get to be an editor in a newspaper if you're not a journalist.
Which is why I was thinking about doing publishing, which would probably suit my nature a lot better. I mean, you probably won't earn sky high salaries but doing the things I do, I never expected to. Besides, with the Internet becoming the primary communication device over the next 10 years, and with more and more people demanding accuracy, I can probably find a job doing website editing as well.
I don't want to say 'we'll see' because I really hate that word. There's never any time to see.
But I digress.
Anyway, since out of the 6 remaining Journalism subjects I have to do, I really only want to study 2 of them (Media Law and Editing and Design - neither of which are really Journalism), I thought I might take Journalism as a minor instead of a major, and replace it with English - which will probably better help me in the publishing industry.
To briefly explain how my degree works, my degree is the Bachelor of Arts. This basically means that I can do an arts major and an arts minor, or do two arts majors. The only difference is that majors will show up on your certificate, while minors won't. So right now I'm majoring in Communication, the certificate will come out like this:
Bachelor of Arts (Communication)
(something like that anyway).
If I were to do double major, I expect it would look something like that:
Bachelor of Arts (Communication)
(English)
Only the majors would appear, minors wouldn't. Which is why it is technically an advantage to do two majors instead of one, although it is probably significantly harder.
However, Matthew said that units do appear on your transcript which you have to bring to your prospective employer, and you can point out the relevant units. I don't know how true that is, but essentially I really have no aspiration to work as a journalist. It's just so much easier to tell people that than go 'Oh, I'm studying Communication.' 'What are you going to work as in the future?'
I bloody hate that question.
Communication is -everywhere-. I can only give you a rough idea where we can go because there really is almost no end. I can work for businesses, I can work for media, advertising, all it really depends on is who wants to hire me. I've looked around job searching websites and seen quite a few positions. I understand the concern about job opportunities but I'm nearly positive I wouldn't need a Bachelor of Journalism to, say, write in a magazine. One thing I did take away from my lecturer was that I need to build up a portfolio, and I can easily do that without having to get a major in it.
I guess I just have to motivate myself into doing it. Or get internships.
But anyway - I figure either way English will be handy, as I will be learning about professional writing (like for manuals and instructions and such - sounds boring but it'll be useful) as well as learning about stories, which probably aren't that practical but will be useful if I do land a job in the publishing industry.
Honestly, I'm just rationalising my decision. I have until Friday to decide, I think, and even then I don't have to properly decide until next semester since I will have to take Online Journalism this semester if I want to minor in it. (I wish more COM subjects could be in first sem)
The point is interviewing is stressful. Finding story topics is unbelievably stressful, but I can do that - finding AND successfully getting the right interviewees, not so much. I simply don't know if I can cope with that sort of stress every single semester for the rest of my university life, especially if I don't need to.
I do have a course counsellor meeting tomorrow and I'll try to set up one with a career counsellor as well, so stay tuned.
posted by FluffyRed @ 2:07 PM
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