When Rip Woodward had a student audaciously declare, "I do not have to do a fucking thing you say" during his lecture, he knew teaching was the wrong career path for him.
"I wanted to teach, because I thought could be like Robin Williams in the movie 'Dead Poets Society,'" Woodward said. "When I was student teaching 10th- to 12th-graders, it was the worst experience of my life. I told myself I would never do this again."
Woodward majored in English education at Delta State University, but he now works as a police officer for the city of Clarksdale, Miss. Woodward is not the only college graduate who doesn't have job in the field of his degree. According to recent data published in the Washington Post, only 27 percent of college graduates find a job closely related to their major.
After Woodward graduated, he got odd jobs pressure washing around town. Fed up with living paycheck to paycheck, Woodward applied for a job at the Clarksdale Police Department.
"Usually, the city pays for you to go through the academy, but I paid my own way through. Clarksdale is such a small town, there is not enough money to pay for everyone," Woodward said.
The investment turned out to produce quite a pleasant return for Woodward. He said he loves going to work everyday, because it is a front row ticket to "the greatest show on Earth," and because local restaurants are eager to give police officers free food.
"The hardest part about my job is dealing with crimes involving kids," Woodward said. "The worst I can recall is going to a house in the dead of winter of a lady addicted to crack. She had no heat on and her five kids sitting a couch covered in nothing but a blanket."
Woodward said something about a uniform helps one gain a tolerance to heinous situations.
"Something about putting on a uniform numbs you to atrocities. I can eat on a murder scene and it not bother me," he said.
Jay Reedy, a Spanish major and University of Memphis graduate, abandoned his original career goals of being a Spanish teacher abroad because of the unpredictable economy and fear of financial deterioration.
"I had so much debt from student loans, and I could get a job working in real estate for my parents right after graduation that paid a pretty decent amount of money," he said.
Reedy now works in property acquisition for Reedy & Company. Although not his dream job teaching Spanish, he finds his knowledge of the language useful.
"I am one of the few employees that can speak Spanish, and it really helps with our Hispanic tenants who cannot speak English very well," Reedy said. "It also helps the company attract a wider range of clientele that couldn't be reached if no one spoke Spanish."
For Woodward, the college experience was not a total waste of time, but he wishes he could get his money back.
"I learned a lot about myself and English literature while earning my college degree, but I definitely regret spending all of that money," he said.
