Overview

Overview

They make the news.

Description

Halfway through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we were thinking, "Wow, journalism is a totally awesome career where you get to kick butt, solve mysteries, and write about it. The paycheck's just a bonus."

If only that's how journalism really was.

It's true that journalists investigate stories that are sometimes scandalous or outrageous, but we're not sure the action hero vibe is entirely factual.

Still, journalists can change history just by writing a story. They often break the news about current events and explosive pasts of politicians and world leaders. They are at the forefront of what is taking place around the world, often traveling to locations to scout out what's really going down on the other side of the globe.

On top of the travel, they get to tell stories for a living. Seriously, how cool is that? Well it also comes with a bit of a price. There is, after all, a serious hurdle to jump upon graduating college. Even with a journalism degree in hand, grads find themselves interning and running small stories for years before getting any real news to work on. That, and the pay isn't grand.

It takes a lot of hard work, long hours, and research, but if you can stick with it, journalism can be a worthwhile career. Journalism can be fast-paced, exciting, and rewarding. You get to break stories to the world about important issues. Things like Watergate, or bendy iPhone 6's.

Percentage of US students who major in Journalism:

0.75%

Stats obtained from this source.