“Dear Natalie,
I read your earlier column regarding an undergrad who's having second thoughts about pursuing their current major. Well I'm in the unfortunate position of realizing that I've definitively made a huge mistake with my chosen degree just a few short months away from my graduation date — this is especially given my job experience so far and post-grad interests barely have anything to do with it. How do I deal with this apart from maybe doing this whole uni shebang again in the future? Does it matter if I'm graduating with a figurative mistake of a diploma?”
Finish your degree. You are mere months away from graduation and a degree, even if it’s a degree you hate. It’s too late to get basically any money back from UBC for this term. Graduate. Graduate. Graduate.
Beyond that, have you decided on what you would like to do if not your current degree? If you’re planning on pursuing a second degree, talk to the faculty/department you’re interested in. Even if you’re planning on going to another university for it, they will be able to help you figure out the best path for you. If you’re looking into an arts degree, check out this website before you meet up with arts advising or the department — least of all because arts advising gives pretty inconsistent advice in my experience. Science also has a website and I’m sure other faculties have them too. Having already completed a degree is not a serious barrier to start another.
If you’re not interested in another degree and you’re looking to get into work, then you just got to do it. I know it sounds simple, but I know how hard it’s going to be. Throw yourself at any job opportunity related to what you want. Go to networking events. Reach out to companies. Seek out internships and volunteer work. Do everything you can to get to your goal. Some places will filter you out of job opportunities based on your major, but that happens to everyone. I have a friend who has to work twice as hard to get job interviews because even though she has a science degree, her major is so specialized that even if the job was exactly what she researches, she’s still filtered out.
Work your ass off and you can do it though. A degree is a starting point, not the finish line. When asked about your degree, be honest and say you had an interest in it, but the skills you learned from your degree will be extremely useful towards the job. Be specific. Check out Career Services and start working!
Good luck!
“Who is Natalie and why are we asking her for advice?”
Unfortunately, any answer I present to you would be completely bias, so The Ubyssey’s own Gabey Lucas has been invited to answer this question on my behalf:
“Who is Natalie,” you ask? Unfortunately, she cannot answer that question, as doing so would be a conflict of interest due to her financial and political investment in all y'all buying that she's a human student from somewhere in Totallyrealville, Ontario.
Instead, I — Gabey “Not a Pawn in the New World Order” Lucas — am filling in.
You may have heard — incorrectly, granted — that Natalie is from Pluto, or that she is a conglomerate of Wall Street day-traders hiding in the U-bend of a Nest toilet to avoid taking responsibility for the 2007 stock market crash. But as the guest author of this week's “Ask Natalie,” I can tell you both of those are 100 per cent false.
I know what you're thinking — “If that's the case, how come she is the preacher of such enlightened thought?” Well, I can assure you that she is actually the product of Area 51 testing gone wrong (or terribly right, if you're of my opinion) when the American government was trying to weaponize marshmallows by pumping them with radioactivity in an ultra-powered microwave under Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative. Although they never got around to creating MMDs (marshmallows of mass destruction), the Americans did accidentally spawn an all-knowing manifestation of sass. Shortly after her genesis, Marvel Comics sued the American feds, claiming that she was their intellectual property based on their lesser-known 50s graphic novel, Communist-Destroyer Woman (or, Your Neighbor Likes Piroshkies so is Hella Evil). In an attempt to cover up all evidence, the Americans cryogenically froze her, then extradited her to Ontario, where Canadians unfroze her 13 years later and adopted her as one of their own. Her enlightened IQ of 289, however, is one of the remaining relics of her true past. That's why she always has completely perfect answers to all of your questions.
And that, my friends, is Natalie.
Lucas out, bitches.
Like what you’ve seen? Laughter is the third most effective medicine. Check out Gabey Lucas’s humour column, Only Partially Relevant.
Need advice? Contact Natalie anonymously at asknatalie@ubyssey.ca or at ubyssey.ca/advice and have your questions answered!