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30 truths all communications students know too well

“Can you Harvard reference a meme?”

For the brave souls who choose to venture into a communications degree, I salute you.

You know why? Because I understand the stigma firsthand. The stigma that comes with choosing a university degree with both a confusing name and an uncertain future.

However, if you do make it past day one of this soul-sucking degree, there really is light at the end of the tunnel. It just so happens, this budding young writer is a survivor (graduate) of a communications degree, and knows all too well the perils that come along with it. You know, the fact that everyone around you thinks that having a twitter account equates to an unlimited knowledge of the Australian media landscape.

If you’re in the same boat, you’ve most likely endured one of these experiences:

  1. A bachelor of Communications, majoring in unemployment
  2. Defending the idea that PRINT IS NOT DEAD like you would defend your own child
  3. “A communications degree, are you just learning how to communicate?”
  4. RIP your bank account when you realise the allotted amount of printing credits is just never enough
  5. Constantly going over your mobile data because the internet is your work, ppl
  6. The commitment to avoiding all Week 1 tutes because you would rather fail than think of a “random fact about yourself”
  7. The dire frustration that comes with trying to explain your career path to someone over the age of 50
  8. *Watches one episode of Gruen Transfer* *Enrols in Advertising*
  9. TFW none of your assignments are done but you sure are
  10. Not sure if renewing my Adobe Photoshop subscription or buying a kidney off the black market
  11. Thinking that when you’re elected Prime Minister your first ruling will be to abolish Turnitin
  12. Differentiating the heroes from the zeroes by their knowledge of Lightroom
  13. “PR? That is SO Samantha Jones”
  14. “Advertising? That is SO Mad Men”
  15. “Journalism? That is SO Devil Wears Prada”
  16. Knowing that a career in media does not automatically equate to being a good public speaker
  17. Finding a time to meet for a group assignment is harder than navigating your way around campus during first semester
  18. The blatant reality that in this 200-person lecture, approximately six people will be employed in graduate jobs
  19. Really hoping the guy constantly raising his hand in front row is not the guy who gets the job
  20. “You do cinema studies???? I love movies!”
  21. “Can you Harvard reference a meme?”
  22. Watching all your peers excel in their media careers while you’re just glad you remembered to put on pants today
  23. On the plus side, all of these group assignments will prepare you for the utter disappointment that is the real world
  24. Constantly having to explain that yes, people can make money off social media
  25. The words Unpaid, Volunteer and TFP have become second to none in your vocabulary
  26. “What does copywriting have to do with advertising?”
  27. Constantly seeing statuses from your peers asking you to watch/listen to them on some sort of community broadcasting station
  28. Feeling inadequate at the fact you don’t have any affiliation with a community broadcasting station
  29. A need to practise your news anchor voice… just for fun
  30. “You do communications, can you write my Instagram caption for me!?”

Illustration by Twylamae who makes tees that will get you through uni.

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