Author | :Clairwyn van der Merwe |
Published | :Oct 17, 2007 |
Disparaging comments are often made about the value of a BA. Don’t listen!
“People dissed my BA all along. I didn’t pay any attention,” says Estelle Jobson, whose BA from the University of Cape Town consisted entirely of languages.
Ten years after graduating, does she wish she’d stopped to listen? “I have no regrets,” says Estelle, who has worked as an editor, journalist, researcher and multimedia trainer for companies in New York, Switzerland and South Africa. She is currently senior editor at Soul Beat, a Johannesburg-based Web site that specialises in development communications.
She loves being in publishing and she earns a pretty decent salary – contrary to earlier warnings that she wouldn’t be able to earn a living with a BA.
She concedes that business science or commerce could have led to a more lucrative career. “But I didn’t have a flair for that and I would have struggled. If I had been bullied into something I wasn’t good at, I would have produced mediocre results. I wanted to excel so that I could get scholarships, and eventually go overseas and do my Master’s.”
She graduated cum laude, got several academic prizes, obtained her Honours in African Studies, and completed two adult literacy diplomas.
Then along came the plum she’d been working towards: a Fulbright Scholarship to study at New York University, where she graduated in 2002 with a Master of Science in Publishing.
Prepare carefully
With all this and experience as a voluntary adult literacy teacher, proofreader, copy-editor and French conversation teacher, Estelle has never battled to find work. She emphasises, though, that nothing in her career has happened by chance. “I started looking for work early and I prepared over a long time.”
This involved carefully chosen part-time jobs, including voluntary work, and making full use of her university’s career development office. She says about the role played by her career counsellor at the time, Mervyn Wetmore (who is now at Rhodes University): “He has helped so many from my generation grow into great careers. Just about all of my school and varsity friends went to him and they all ended up gainfully employed.”
Rianee Kamies of Cape Town graduated with a Bachelor of Primary Education but threw in the towel after just one week of teaching. “It wasn’t for me,” she says. She went back to university to do a postgraduate diploma in business management, then joined Foschini as a retail planner, moving quickly up the ladder from trainee to central planner.
Her education degree hasn’t been wasted, however. Subjects such as Mathematics 105, educational psychology, sociology and needlework, coupled with her business management diploma, gave her a good combination of the people, business and analytical skills that retail planning demands. “I have diverse interests and my degree reflected that,” she says. “Flexibility within your degree gives you broader options and makes you more versatile.”
Her working experience also helped. “I worked at Groote Schuur Hospital in paediatrics and maternity for five years as a volunteer. I liked it. I like being with people.” She also did vacation work as a supermarket accounts clerk, assistant nurse and receptionist at a medical practice.
Guy Lundy originally started off studying business science, but switched to social sciences as it offered more flexibility.
People issues
“Business science is very mathematical. I believe business has an element of that. There is also the human side, of interacting with people and understanding the way they think,” he says. He majored in economics, choosing a mix of business and humanities-type subjects. “I would strongly recommend that anyone doing an arts or social sciences degree should also try to take some business courses, such as accounting, marketing, economics or the principles of management.”
This approach has paid off. He now runs Centric Consulting, a management consulting company that specialises in customer relationship management. He is a professional speaker, published author and book editor. His first book, which he co-authored, was titled ‘SA: reasons to believe’, and is selling well. The second book, ‘SA 2014’, which he co-edited, is doing even better.
Another social sciences graduate got involved in management consulting is Moira-Lisa Harvey, who runs her own consulting company in Johnnesburg.
“I was interested in many things … hotel management, journalism, a career in foreign affairs…but I actually didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was going to varsity to expand my mind and learn and grow. Social sciences allowed me to put together a combination of fun-sounding things that I would enjoy, and would help me clarify my career goals.”
Her eclectic choice of courses included economics and industrial psychology as majors, and Greek and Roman literature, English and Xhosa. “Actually, a lot of my learning took place extramurally, such as on the student representative council,” she says. “Without even realising it, I developed really useful business and leadership skills – communication and marketing skills, planning and organising skills, delivery, analysing problems and really drilling down to the real issues.”
This got her into retail management and then into management consulting for a top Johannesburg firm, which she left recently to start her own business. In between, she completed her MBA, and spent two years working and living in London.
Looking at Guy, Rianee, Estelle and Moira-Lisa, you’ll note a number of common denominators. They all have above-average academic records. They all held down vacation and part-time jobs while studying. They all used career counselling services at university. They all studied further. And none of them were afraid of change.
Follow their lead and your arts or humanities degree could take you anywhere.
Ten years after graduating, does she wish she’d stopped to listen? “I have no regrets,” says Estelle, who has worked as an editor, journalist, researcher and multimedia trainer for companies in New York, Switzerland and South Africa. She is currently senior editor at Soul Beat, a Johannesburg-based Web site that specialises in development communications.
She loves being in publishing and she earns a pretty decent salary – contrary to earlier warnings that she wouldn’t be able to earn a living with a BA.
She concedes that business science or commerce could have led to a more lucrative career. “But I didn’t have a flair for that and I would have struggled. If I had been bullied into something I wasn’t good at, I would have produced mediocre results. I wanted to excel so that I could get scholarships, and eventually go overseas and do my Master’s.”
She graduated cum laude, got several academic prizes, obtained her Honours in African Studies, and completed two adult literacy diplomas.
Then along came the plum she’d been working towards: a Fulbright Scholarship to study at New York University, where she graduated in 2002 with a Master of Science in Publishing.
Prepare carefully
With all this and experience as a voluntary adult literacy teacher, proofreader, copy-editor and French conversation teacher, Estelle has never battled to find work. She emphasises, though, that nothing in her career has happened by chance. “I started looking for work early and I prepared over a long time.”
This involved carefully chosen part-time jobs, including voluntary work, and making full use of her university’s career development office. She says about the role played by her career counsellor at the time, Mervyn Wetmore (who is now at Rhodes University): “He has helped so many from my generation grow into great careers. Just about all of my school and varsity friends went to him and they all ended up gainfully employed.”
Rianee Kamies of Cape Town graduated with a Bachelor of Primary Education but threw in the towel after just one week of teaching. “It wasn’t for me,” she says. She went back to university to do a postgraduate diploma in business management, then joined Foschini as a retail planner, moving quickly up the ladder from trainee to central planner.
Her education degree hasn’t been wasted, however. Subjects such as Mathematics 105, educational psychology, sociology and needlework, coupled with her business management diploma, gave her a good combination of the people, business and analytical skills that retail planning demands. “I have diverse interests and my degree reflected that,” she says. “Flexibility within your degree gives you broader options and makes you more versatile.”
Her working experience also helped. “I worked at Groote Schuur Hospital in paediatrics and maternity for five years as a volunteer. I liked it. I like being with people.” She also did vacation work as a supermarket accounts clerk, assistant nurse and receptionist at a medical practice.
Guy Lundy originally started off studying business science, but switched to social sciences as it offered more flexibility.
People issues
“Business science is very mathematical. I believe business has an element of that. There is also the human side, of interacting with people and understanding the way they think,” he says. He majored in economics, choosing a mix of business and humanities-type subjects. “I would strongly recommend that anyone doing an arts or social sciences degree should also try to take some business courses, such as accounting, marketing, economics or the principles of management.”
This approach has paid off. He now runs Centric Consulting, a management consulting company that specialises in customer relationship management. He is a professional speaker, published author and book editor. His first book, which he co-authored, was titled ‘SA: reasons to believe’, and is selling well. The second book, ‘SA 2014’, which he co-edited, is doing even better.
Another social sciences graduate got involved in management consulting is Moira-Lisa Harvey, who runs her own consulting company in Johnnesburg.
“I was interested in many things … hotel management, journalism, a career in foreign affairs…but I actually didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was going to varsity to expand my mind and learn and grow. Social sciences allowed me to put together a combination of fun-sounding things that I would enjoy, and would help me clarify my career goals.”
Her eclectic choice of courses included economics and industrial psychology as majors, and Greek and Roman literature, English and Xhosa. “Actually, a lot of my learning took place extramurally, such as on the student representative council,” she says. “Without even realising it, I developed really useful business and leadership skills – communication and marketing skills, planning and organising skills, delivery, analysing problems and really drilling down to the real issues.”
This got her into retail management and then into management consulting for a top Johannesburg firm, which she left recently to start her own business. In between, she completed her MBA, and spent two years working and living in London.
Looking at Guy, Rianee, Estelle and Moira-Lisa, you’ll note a number of common denominators. They all have above-average academic records. They all held down vacation and part-time jobs while studying. They all used career counselling services at university. They all studied further. And none of them were afraid of change.
Follow their lead and your arts or humanities degree could take you anywhere.
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