Is a Writing Degree Worth It?
Writing degrees often appear on the ‘most pointless degrees’ lists. Drop-down menus don’t even recognise them as subjects. But are they really that useless?
‘You have a degree in… Creative Writing? How will that help you here?’
The snideness hangs still in the silence. It’s my first postgraduate interview; a cash-handling role at a bank, and had I not spent the last three years of my life tight roping extensive workload, debt and general survival, then I might not have bothered listing my Creative Writing BA (with Hons, have to weasel that title in wherever possible) as an achievement on my CV. But by this point, I was so used to having to defend my degree choice that I’d often self-deprecate to save the bother.
So I laugh.
‘It won’t, but at least my e-mails will be entertaining.’
A weak, panicked response from a naive postgraduate who should’ve 180’d the second she walked through those glass doors. But for reasons I can only assume to be a mesh of desperation and poor judgement on the bank’s part, I got the job.
Six months later, I lost the job. So I decided, after a brief breakdown, to pick up where I left off and apply for an MA. In business? Science? Teaching…
