I had such high hopes for Prof. Loyd's course "Careers in Anthro" as an anthro major myself, but honestly the way she taught the course this fall quarter was not very engaging and the assignments consisted of very thorough research in anthro careers that was not at all related to the materials that guest lecturers discussed during the class. In addition, her graders are very, VERY meticulous when grading weekly assignments, which is really difficult bc losing 8 points or so literally brings your grade down SIGNIFICANTLY (like you won't be able to get an A if you lose more than 1 pt per each assignment). I haven't personally had issues with her, but I know that a few of my classmates brought up her grading system bc it isn't clear in the syllabus and there is no rubric for grading, and when they mentioned it to her apparently she was v dismissive towards their comments. honestly, just take the course if you need it for your major requirements bc all you do is listen to different guest lecturers every week, and submit a weekly assignment + final portfolio. otherwise, I wouldn't recommend her but it just sucks bc I was really looking forward to this class and was bummed by the way she treated students + her arbitrary grading scale.

**** REVIEW FOR ANTHRO 141: CAREERS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

Professor Lloyd is so sweet, and she really wants to see her students succeed. The class’s workload is very manageable - as long as you stay on top of things and pout in a little honest effort, you’ll end up with an A. You must participate during class time to get an A. She will remember your name after a few times! I will say that because the seminar is 3 hours and she keeps you the whole time, it can get really boring if you’re not interested in what the guest lecturer (there’s one brought in almost every week from a different job field) is talking about.

I cannot emphasize how amazing Dr. Loyd is. She is so kind, generous, supportive, welcoming, and overall such an amazing Professor. The whole purpose of this class is to help you figure out what you want to be in the future and what you want to do after University. To be honest, I was not sure what I wanted to be, but after taking Dr. Loyd's class, I was more sure and confident than I ever have been about what I am aspiring to become. On top of all her advice, support, and generosity, she would go out of her way to bring guest speakers from different professions to help us students explore what we want to become in the future. This class is truly something that is not offered at just any college and Dr. Loyd is one in a million. I learned so much from her class and I benefited so much. We made our resumes very professional and were able to speak to people from all different types of professions. We also created a LinkedIn account which I never had before. These are tools that I never knew were necessary and now I am set for future job opportunities as I did this all in her class. She would always help us whenever we were stressed and said to not worry if we do not know what we want to be and that it is a process. I highly recommend her class as it is something you will not regret. I am more passionate about my major as well because of this class. The workload was very minimal as well since you do the work throughout the quarter and it was very manageable.

Dr. Loyd is a FANTASTIC lecturer. I remember taking this class because I was relatively unsure of how to apply my degree in anthropology, but this class was my saving grace. Her guest lecturers really allowed for me to see how to utilize my skills and transfer them to the workplace. She provided us with handouts that showed us how to put together our resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and create a portfolio that would showcase us as the best candidate for any job. I am so happy that this class exists, and cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is pursuing anthropology. It gave me a foundation that I have used in the workforce and I am forever grateful to Dr. Loyd!

Seeing the other responses on this page, I wanted to add my voice to the review of Careers in Anthropology based on my experience. I took this course with Dr. Loyd a few years ago, and it has remained a memorable class. As other reviewers mentioned, the course relies on guest speakers with a degree in anthropology to share their career journeys and advise us on how we may figure out our paths. Each guest spoke from a perspective of a different field, like UX Design or health care, which I found highly encouraging as it showed me the broadness of my opportunities after my bachelor's degree. My interactions with Dr. Loyd then complemented this feeling during office hours, where I spoke to her several times about my confusion about my potential career and heard about her life journey. Dr. Loyd and I have remained in touch after class ended, and I still check in with her about where I am in my career. My recommendation for those taking or considering this class is not to treat it as an "easy A." That is not the purpose of this class. Based on my experience, Dr. Loyd designed this course to be an extension of the UCLA Career Center, as many weekly assignments and the final portfolio encouraged me to engage deeper with the Career Center's resources. I remember bringing my projects, like our personality test results and résumé, to the Career Center and analyzing them with UCLA Career counselors before submitting them to class. This method was possible because our work in this class complimented the Career Center's resources and helped me learn how to self-reflect to prepare for my post-graduation journey as an Anthropology major.

Finally, grading is still necessary as this course factors into your GPA. I will not discredit the other reviewers' experiences with this course element. However, I encourage those in this course to open communication lines with Dr. Loyd and her TAs if you have concerns AS YOU DRAFT AND OUTLINE your assignments for submission. I remember being proactive about asking during office hours or over email what was expected of me by Dr. Loyd and her TAs on SPECIFIC assignments. If I had it ready, I showed them an outline to get their opinions and incorporate their responses into my final draft. This approach worked for me and would help others concerned with their grades. This course requires work, but it is worth the effort if you engage with it as a career development workshop instead of a regular "lecture and exam" designed course.

This class is very tedious and unengaging. I went into this course attentive and wanting to learn and participate, however by the end I found myself watching TikToks and scrolling through my phone instead. You do not really learn about careers specific to anthropology, but rather listen to guest lecturers who have at the bare minimum taken an anthropology course in the past and how they try to rudimentarily connect what they have learned with their current careers. These careers include some interesting ones such as UX researchers to some not so interesting ones, to me at least, including accountants and make-up artists.

The assignments feel like busy work, such as taking personality tests and writing on what you found out about yourself, however the grading is very harsh, which seems odd considering you are writing about your subjective experience.

Finally the most frustrating part is how much she stresses having a perfect resume, when her resume and the sample resumes provided do not meet up to her own standards. We had to upload are resumes to VMOCK and achieve a score of 80/100 or higher. However, I uploaded hers and the sample resumes and their scores did not even get close to 80/100.

However, maybe I am just salty considering my resume got marked down despite my VMOCK score being considerably higher than hers. Overall this course and the grading just seem arbitrary.

Although I personally did not have any direct communication with the professor, a number of my peers struggled with her attitude when talking to her out of the lecture setting. Her assignments are more tedious than they are difficult but with no clear grading rubric can be a little stressful.
Overall, it's not hard and I did finish with a resume and LinkedIn profile of a much higher quality than I would have if I didn't do them for a grade, however, if you are looking for a really engaging class then this isn't it.

The only thing I learned in Loyd's class is to avoid her in the future. Unhelpful, rude, (which falls into the realm of unprofessional), and unclear on expectations for assignments.

She's so specific when grading, but doesn't give the class guidance aka "where was _____ mentioned?!?" You can follow the prompt for assignments and still get points off for it "being too short" even though the page limit has been met, and we have been directed to not go over that limit. Overall confusion.

I feel sorry for foreign students, because that can be confusing as well as misleading. This class is not worth the stress it caused me and my classmates. Avoid.