If your age ranges from 18-22 you probably get asked what you're studying in school from eighty percent of the people you encounter. You explain what your major is to a lot of people, and it always springs into further discussion. After telling 300,000 people what you're majoring in, you start to realize you usually get a variation of the same reactions. For all of my fellow communication majors out there, I am sure you've heard these follow up statements/questions.
1. "Oh, communications, so what do you plan to do with that?"
Okay, communications is an insanely broad major. I remember all of my advisors would tell me; "you can really do anything with a communications degree," and that's pretty accurate. Com majors really do have endless opportunities and I think it's cool how you can be majoring and studying the same subject as someone and have two completely different career path goals. It keeps the major interesting and you're always learning and getting inspired from other classmates.
2. "Oh you must really like people!"
Yes, people majoring in communications usually tend to be social, outgoing, and personable people. I think being a good communicator is one the strongest skills a person can have. Especially in today's day, people are ALWAYS communicating via email, social media, or texting and not being able to feed off facial cues, a person can easily misinterpret what you meant. Being able to communicate precisely what you mean to say is vital in being a good employee. So yes, communication majors study how to best communicate with people and strive to have few misunderstandings between people. However, that doesn't mean people don't drive us crazy sometimes, we've just studied how to best deal with it.
3. "So do you want to be on TV or something?"
NO. Not all communication majors want to be the next Ellen or be a news anchor. And quite frankly, if you think those are the only possible jobs you can get with a communications degree, refer back to number 1 - the opportunities with a com degree are endless!
4. "I wish my major was as easy as communications."
Don't even get me started on this one... *eye roll*
5. "Isn't that basically like majoring in English?"
No, absolutely not. They are different and that is why they are two separate majors.
No matter what response us com majors get when we tell people what we're passionate about, that doesn't change how we feel about what we're studying. And for those who say communication is a pointless major; Carrie Underwood, Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, and John Quincy Adams would probably say differently.
