Is a Communications Degree Right for You?
Not everyone is designed to study communication. Though a broad field, all disciplines within the field require similar skills and interests. If you enjoy seeing the world up close, reporting on what you’ve seen, creating campaign plans and connecting with nations, a communication degree may be right for you.
Behind the lens of a camera you’ll instantaneously bring the news to citizen’s homes. You’ll search incessantly for foolproof facts and ideas. You’ll barely meet deadlines and you’ll scramble with pseudo energy and coffee as you gather your next assignment. You’ll hold the media in your hands. You’ll see the world up close. If you want to be part of something real, something raw, and if you’re looking for veracity—a life of haste and diction—a communication degree might be exactly what you’re looking for. Though the field of communications is broad, the many concentrations revolve around similar skills and interests.
Communication
International students who want to attend communication schools are usually skilled writers or speakers. All communication careers will require the employee to be an exceptional communicator, able to persuade, inform, and qualify effectively. Most students have experience writing for high school newspapers, broadcasting on school television news or radio stations, developing a campaign, creating brochures, and other communication related practice. Many have enjoyed the power of rhetoric and can understand how to communicate with various types of audiences. If you love the art of communication, informing others and challenging viewpoints, whether it is with writing or speaking, a communication degree may be right for you.
Connection
Connecting with the world is extremely important in communication careers. International students studying in communication schools will develop networking, interviewing, and other people skills. Sometimes the students will have to be aggressive to get the information they need in the time they need it. If connecting with the world frightens you, or if you have an overwhelming shyness, a communication degree may seem stressful. Connecting with people is the most employed skill in the job. If you have excellent writing and speaking skills, it will not do much good if you cannot network, interview, or present projects properly. Since communication schools will teach these skills to their students, those who find connecting with people frightening but connecting with the world exhilarating should take a few classes and work with campus media to ensure that there are no hindrances.
Career
Of course a communication degree will offer specific careers. Depending on the concentration, international students who obtain this degree can go on to become print journalists, online journalists, broadcast journalists, social media specialists, public relations specialists, advertisers, writers, editors, authors, and more. If any of these careers interests you, a communication degree will be an ideal way to get there. These careers require employees to be flexible, both with work responsibilities and with work hours. Communication careers are fast-paced and meeting deadlines is imperative. Communication careers allow you to see the world from fresh perspectives and present the world to an audience. International students seeking this career should earn a communication degree with a specialized concentration in their select career route.
Communication, connection and career are just a few ways to judge whether a communication degree is right for you. There are also various reasons to not pursue a communication degree. These reasons include money or the economy, career opportunities, and indecisiveness. Communication careers require skills that are initially developed out of a passion for the field. If you do not have an excitement for the industry, you will not make it far in this discipline. Communication students have a zeal for media, words, people and information. The best way to know if a communication degree is right for you is to try a few classes or help with the campus media. If you get the spark, if you can’t see yourself anywhere but behind a camera, with a pen, in a newsroom or in a room full of brainstorming draftsmen, then a communication degree will be a great asset to a rewarding career.