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Something that I have noticed for several years and would like opinions and thoughts:
After graduation I have noticed several people that are 30+ that still live at home with their parents and are unable to find employment. And if they do find work, it is low-skilled positions that did not require education. These particular people I know were film, writing, art, and acting majors.
The people that pursued majors related to engineering and technology had offers before graduation and are all currently working in their fields and living on their own. Three friends are in the bay area; one works for NASA, the other two at private engineering firms. Another friend works for a DoD in Arizona, one works for Youtube, and etc. And these are just some of them.
My own life story: I pursued an undergraduate degree in sociology, graduated 2008, and could not get a decent job (anything that was more than minimum wage) for the life of me, and this went on for six whole years. I got tired of watching all my friends work and pay bills as I scrub floors for a living. I decided enough was enough and returned to college for a CS/IT degree. A week after graduation I had an offer for a great job with a competitive salary. I have been employed ever since.
Most liberal art majors are crappy, but any degree is better than not.
Not necessarily. A irrelevant degree can close doors for you because it can make you seen as over-qualified and considered a flight risk or someone who won't be satisfied with grunt work.
There are jobs that don't require degrees, there are jobs that require any degree, and there are jobs that require specific degrees (and more options in between).
Obviously, if you have a specific degree, you'd fit in any category. To answer the question - yes, the "wrong" degree would not be attractive. This doesn't necessarily mean that a STEM degree will always be the right degree though.
I would argue that the MAJORITY of "degrees" carry little weight with MOST employment situations. The relative ease of getting a decent job with a CS/IT degree {or even the right certificate(s)...} are really the EXCEPTION because of the very close relationship that most such school has to conferring actual 'workplace habit' if not specific skills.
What I am getting at is the fact that MOST CS/IT courses include things like writing code, interpreting requirements, validating algorithms that parallel the sorts of behaviors that one needs in a workplace. In contrast even a "business adminstration" type degree, which may sound somewhat useful to those that do not really understand what workplaces truly require. Sure, you might have bookkeeping / accounting class or two that seems similar to the things that you MIGHT need to do in some departments in a large organization BUT you'll have many more classes where you read through case studies or textbooks, listen to a "never walked the walk" professor theorize about what company A crushed company B, write some goofy papers, take some ridiculously lengthy exam and then do that over and over until it is trite. THAT AIN'T HOW BUSINESSES GROW! They need sales, manufacturing, distribution, administration all working toward a common strategy goal. Rarely is that understood...
When you get to more traditional LA&S courses the habits you learn there MIGHT parallel those of professors in a college setting but they NEARLY NO similarity with what happens in the "real world" -- real entry level chemistry or biology graduates often are stuck running mindless automated test equipment for most of their, filling our clerical info and wondering why they ever took some job that is mostly in competition with some terrible "contract labor" firm. Folks that major in something like "sociology" might feel lucky to get hired by some state agency, where they'll fill out ridiculously antiquated forms or use ancient and creaky data processing equipment, deal with some of the most troubled people you ever met and likely be forced to join a union that is more about paying off polticians than actually improving the conditions for the membership.
I know that other majors besides engineering, mathematics and computing are needed in this world, but the employment market seems to lean more heavily towards them than arts majors, for instance.
I know that other majors besides engineering, mathematics and computing are needed in this world, but the employment market seems to lean more heavily towards them than arts majors, for instance.
Businesses make money by selling goods and services in accordance with demand. Engineers, IT people, etc., satisfy demand for popular goods and services much more than liberal arts majors. While its true that sociologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, etc., are needed in the world, what do they provide for the average person?
Not only that, Capn, but the difficulty of getting into said degrees, as well as the washout rates put additional stress on it. Getting into a liberal arts program, and passing is lightyears easier than engineering or the sciences. Not only are there more jobs that lean towards STEM, but there is a lesser section of the population even capable (or, I suppose, willing) of getting the needed education. It is a double whammy.
While its true that sociologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, etc., are needed in the world, what do they provide for the average person?
"Symbolic manipulation" is what the sociologists call it, I think.
It's necessary, but it's not something where you can think of college as training for a trade. There is demand for graduates of any of the liberal arts or social science fields, but it's different than engineering or business or whatever. If you get good grades from a good school, your degree will be taken as evidence that you have been trained to think and will be able to adapt to a wide variety of roles. But if you didn't get good grades or went to a school that isn't well-regarded, or if regardless of those things you expected to graduate college as someone trained for a career, it won't work out as well.
A generic run of the mill degree is still better than a HS diploma alone. The economic gap between people with degrees and those without Is larger than it's ever been
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