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At some point in the 90s, the politically correct liberal douche crowd took over academia and started telling students to major in something they are passionate about and completely ignore reality. Every single art, art history, english, psych, and other useless BA people I know ended up in retail, starbucks, or call centers.
I know this post is a few months old, but is there any proof of this? I've looked at graphs that show how the shares of majors among college students have changed, but I didn't see any drastic changes over the past few decades. These are just myths made up by the paranoid.
By the way, statistics refute your anecdotal evidence. While psych majors have a high underemployment rate (business administration and criminal justice majors have a much higher underemployment rate), just over half of psych majors end up working a job related to their field that requires a 4-year degree according to Payscale. While Payscale's research may not be perfect, it is much more accurate and representative than someone looking around at their associates, family, and friends.
There are hundreds of thousands of people working in social services and related fields. Many, if not most, will have a degree in psychology or something related. Because I'm a substance abuse counselor, I work with a lot of people with BAs in psychology. They are either licensed to practice or are working toward a license as interns. As with most substance abuse treatment facilities, there is a shortage of applicants. If you already have a BA in psychology or something related, becoming a substance abuse counselor is rather easy in most states. Child Protective Services is usually hiring in most states, and they love degrees in psychology and sociology. There are many openings in parole and probation, and they prefer or require degrees in the behavioral sciences or human services. The problem is not really that there aren't enough jobs for these graduates; it is that they either don't know about these opportunities or don't want to take advantage of them.
its not about the degree, its what you do with the degree. i know unemployed education majors and I know art majors who work in communications because they can create artistic ways to mass communicate. I know a entrepreneur major who is an administrative assistant now
its not about the degree, its what you do with the degree. i know unemployed education majors and I know art majors who work in communications because they can create artistic ways to mass communicate. I know a entrepreneur major who is an administrative assistant now
Very true, its what you do with the degree. But at the same time you need a start, somebody, somewhere has to take a chance and hire you. So for all those Art majors working in communications-someone had to give him/her a chance. I think the overlying problem is people are struggling with that chance, getting that "foot in the door position". For instance what about all the art majors who did not get the communications position, what do they do? Now it could be that he/she is not willing to start from the bottom in an unrelated position or maybe he/she is only willing to work for Company A and no one else. Or maybe he/she is just dam lazy when it comes looking for work, I don't know.
You personally know only a small slice of the population, and many very highly successful and rich people majored in the subjects you mentioned. A person can do a lot with an English degree or a degree in history or psychology. So many factors exist that can potentially impact whether or not a person with one of the above-mentioned degrees 'does anything with it' or not. And then we'd have to define what 'doing anything with it' means? Does that mean earning a certain income? Or entering a field directly related to said degree? Or being happy with work life/job duties?
And working retail or working at Starbucks or at a call center are honest jobs, so why bash certain types of employment? As menial as these jobs are, they still serve a purpose, and the people doing them are real human beings with value. Maybe you didn't bash them, and maybe I used a poor word choice there, so I apologize if that was not what you meant. The point is those jobs are jobs.
Human beings with value? Yeah tell that to the people that constantly b**** and complain at my job(I work in a call center btw) I certainly don't feel like I have value working at this crappy job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustCuriouss
ahhh, now i know why. Economics from a top school is nowhere near useless - it is still applicable to the real world and qualifies you for many business/analysis jobs. Had you only held a poli sci degree or went to a less prestigious school, you would most likely have a diff stance right now
Yes I heard something similar to this when I was in high school/ first entering college. That aside from the specialized areas, the area of degree does not really matter as much as GETTING a degree, because the employer would be willing to train, entry level etc... I fully blame myself for such naive thinking, however lesson learned, I am working now and as much as I want, I cannot change the past.
College me thought: entry level means actual entry level not 2-3 years of previous experience and we prefer graduates with a degree in X , college me thought Admin assistant, clerical assistant type work was the bottom of the totem pole, where you build your way up and hence the barriers to entry would not be as bad- that is usually not the case.
As I said in my earlier post I don't think that many people who majored in economically useless subjects did it because of out and out laziness and just wanted to "coast for 4 years".
Rather they believe /believed:
1)Subject matter of degree does not matter that much because the employer will be willing to train as long as I graduate with a degree.
2) Family, older friend has a "useless" degree and is working a good job so if he/she could do it, then I can do it.
3) Truly are passionate about the "useless" subject but is unaware of hard it is to find work in that useless subject. Do I need to go to grad school to actually get a job, just how competitive is finding a job in X area with a Bachelors
1 and 3 definitely apply to me
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustCuriouss
how many CFOs do you know? and how could it be that CFOs started with those majors, if they have more trouble landing their first entry level job?
Business tops accounting by a bit, but i think this is due to the large number of business majors, therefore more likely that people from that giant pool of business majors end up as CFO. Economics( BS) drops more than 10 percent from accounting, and even further as econ BA
Also, "MBA" is not a major. We're talking about undergrad here. Many MBAs don't make it, so getting mba is accruing more debt at the slim chance of moving into management.
A local recruiter that i spoke to, told me that recently graduated MBAs were taking jobs at $10/hr. That just sucks man
In my case, I just had no clue what I wanted to do with my life at the age of 17 or 18. How many kids really do? And, yet, we are expected to go to college and declare a major which will set the course for the rest of our lives in the workplace. It is a tough thing to ask a teenager to do.
its not about the degree, its what you do with the degree. i know unemployed education majors and I know art majors who work in communications because they can create artistic ways to mass communicate. I know a entrepreneur major who is an administrative assistant now
You'll find edge cases like this where major might not have mattered, but for many, a bad major really limits what you can do, at least out of college for awhile.
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