Job Insecurity for Arts Majors
At the University of Houston, many students have a difficult time finding jobs and internships relevant to their major during their undergraduate career. Most students who have trouble come from unconventional majors such as journalism, anthropology, arts, theater and dance. With little to no guidance from their university, students are left with the burden of finding jobs in a competitive, saturated and sparse job field.
To get a better understanding of the issues at UH, I spoke to Nadine Nassar, a student at the Catherine McGovern School of Arts, whose path led her to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
“I started in political science, then women’s studies and then I decided I wanted to do art because nothing was satisfying,” she said. After taking a sculpture class, she found her calling and decided to make the final switch to a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture.
Nadine’s experience of jumping from one major to the other illuminates how once she made her undergraduate major switch, her job search difficulty multiplied. She noted that there was little guidance from the university when it came to career services.
The main career service UH offers is the Cougar Pathway, a job search engine to connect students to known job opportunities. Most of the featured job listings are for UH on-campus student jobs, which are relevant to students ready to start their careers. Searching for jobs can be tricky if you do not know the keywords of each position, and to find internships, you must find the hidden drop-down menu.
Nassar was unable to find any job listings related to fine arts, leading her to ask her professors for help. Networking has been a clear path for Nassar to find a job, as professors in the School of Art have been connecting her to relevant job openings and contacts.
“I am looking for internships for next semester. I was looking (for a) list (of jobs) that UH might have (in Cougar Pathway). I did search internships at UH and I found (them) for common schools but did not find anything for the art school,” Nadine said. It is just the lack of the same resources that are offered (that make it hard to find jobs).”
Ninety percent of STEM graduates can get a job related to their degree. But only 48% of liberal arts majors and 10% of creative arts majors can do the same. Overall, students with unconventional majors at UH have a hard time knowing where to get started in their search, unless their professor is willing to help.
Nadine continues to look for an internship or job opportunity that will help her start her career. The Cougar Pathway can be hard to navigate and does not always have a variety of listings. Students must rely on the connections they make, professors who are willing to help, and the limited opportunities of career fairs held on campus to find job opportunities.
