I am artistic...No wait I'm a banker?

In her column: "The New 'Safe' Post-Grad Jobs," New York Times Economix Colunmist Catherine Rampell brings forth an intertesting observation. She questions whether graduates of 2009 will turn to finacial services insight of the current banking crisis. She says that many of her artsy friends from college became bankers "not because they loved numbers and negotiations, but, I think, because banking seemed safe." At least, that was the convential wisdom way back in 2007." She goes on to say that, "now i worry that many of these same classmates have been or are about to be laid off, and I wonder how today's banking crisis will affect the attitudes toward career risk of tomorrow's graduates from elite colleges. Will more members of the class of 2009 gravitate toward jobs in public service or the arts, now that the "safe' Wall Street route has proven equally risky?"

This is an interest question to raise.

Throughout college it has always seemed that the percentage of post graduates who got hired right on were those majoring in Business and Finance. It has always been a given that if you majored in the Arts you might have a much harder time finding a job right after graduating. But I must say I have noticed that many of my friends who graduated in 2008 were in the same situation as me: Jobless. But even during a time of mortgage failure and low investment profits, on the surface banking still seems to be that go-to job for recent grads. I have a friend who went to school for film and is now trying to get a job working at Chase. Although its not mortgage lending, but rather retail banking, it's still banking and not the arts.  I, being an aspiring journalist, just got hired as a teller for Washington Mutual. After applying for numerous jobs, the job I land is a job that I have little experience in, and am utilizing two skills I have tried to avoid most of my working life: sales and mathematics; but I am content (for now).  Will M.B.A's turn to public service and arts...I doubt there will be a dramatic increase in this. For one, arts is something you have to love. It remains a low probability that you will ever make enough money equatable to that elite education. Therefore you must have a passion for public service or the arts. Whereas, in finance and banking you get great benefits, great incentives, and great bonuses, that even if your intent wasn't to become a banker, but something of the arts, the excellent probability of success offsets everything. 

You can read the rest of her column at the link posted below.