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I feel sorry for people who believed a science degree would be there salvation in the job world. I see many unemployed or marginally employed people in these fields. People who studied their asses off in these competitive majors and then end up working $15/hr contract grunt work in labs before getting laid off. I think you're better off majoring in liberal arts. A Philsophy degree is just as employable as a Biology degree and with the former you at least can party for your 4 years in college.
It worked for me... And my colleagues and former classmates...
It's not just the degree: What did these people do extra during their studies? Did they intern? Do co-op work? Participate in research programs? Specialize in anything? (Biology is a VERY broad field.) Network?
A degree is just a piece of paper that says you can pass a test. Why would one expect to magically obtain a great job just because they went to school for 4 years in a field that's deemed "good" and "in-demand?"
You don't have to have an engineering degree to be an "engineer." Some of the best ones I see learned engineering through years of work in the trade, be it through tech work, repair and testing, or others. Some of the crappiest engineers I see have degrees but have only ever worked at a Cracker Barrel and didn't do anything significant during their studies other than pass exams.
What the OP is suggesting is that we give up STEM degrees and have everybody go into finance or business so we all become managers. Leave the science work to foreigners who we can pay next to nothing to come here and perform the scientific research and analysis work.
There's a growing gap today as more and more Americans leaving the STEM specific careers and take on more business related careers within the STEM field.
At some point the government will be forced to allow more immigrant workers here on work visa because there are too few Americans that can do the work.
I feel sorry for people who believed a science degree would be there salvation in the job world. I see many unemployed or marginally employed people in these fields. People who studied their asses off in these competitive majors and then end up working $15/hr contract grunt work in labs before getting laid off. I think you're better off majoring in liberal arts. A Philsophy degree is just as employable as a Biology degree and with the former you at least can party for your 4 years in college.
My ten years teaching of STEM education and hundreds of students now working in STEM fields would state otherwise.
Not all STEM is created equal and neither are all STEM students. But I have had well over 10% of my students choose environmental science as majors, graduate from ES programs, and find well paying working within the field quickly after college.
The reality is, that when they put out claims like "STEM CRISIS" it attracts subpar students rather than those with a passion and talent for the field as it is then seen as an "easy" option. It isn't, and to make it, you need more than to get a degree. That has always been true and always will be. But that does not remotely mean that certain fields are not seeing substantial growth and are in need of qualified personnel.
I definitely agree that chemistry, biology, biochemistry and most related majors are poor choices for smart students. There is very poor demand for such majors and the demand that is there are terrible contract jobs with no benefits and wages fit for a garbage collector. There are some jobs that are decent. I finally managed to get a pretty good job. But it is mostly total crap. I would not advise nor even allow anyone in my family to major in science.
The idea that the victims are just "subpar students" is just derogatory, dismissive, blame the victim nonsense. I've seen quite a few very intelligent people have their lives really messed up with a science degree especially the horror show that is science PhD programs. Although not written specifically for science PhD's in the US it very eloquently captures the many problems there. liv | Dear brilliant students:
There's a growing gap today as more and more Americans leaving the STEM specific careers and take on more business related careers within the STEM field.
At some point the government will be forced to allow more immigrant workers here on work visa because there are too few Americans that can do the work.
The solution to the problem of companies treating STEM workers like crap isn't to let H1b's in for companies to abuse in place of Americans who know they can do better with their intelligence. It isn't a STEM shortage, it is a shortage of very smart suckers.
The solution to the problem of companies treating STEM workers like crap isn't to let H1b's in for companies to abuse in place of Americans who know they can do better with their intelligence. It isn't a STEM shortage, it is a shortage of very smart suckers.
It's both, STEM enrollments at colleges are much lower than other non-STEM programs and starting pay for STEM career is abysmal compared to even some low skill white collar jobs like a mortgage loan processor that requires no college degree and just 2 weeks of training and can make upwards of 100k in 5-6 years.
The solution to the problem of companies treating STEM workers like crap isn't to let H1b's in for companies to abuse in place of Americans who know they can do better with their intelligence. It isn't a STEM shortage, it is a shortage of very smart suckers.
A lot of synthetic work is done in foreign countries, and the products are shipped here. In order to communicate effectively with vendors, the managers in charge of outsourcing are typically also from the same foreign country. Add in the elitism crowd like my former manager (employees must hold PhD from prestigious group with postdoc to be worth talking to), and the opportunities shrink further for people like us with only MS degrees. We are overqualified to do technician work, and underqualified to compete for the PhD roles when you consider how many unemployed PhDs are on the market. (Years of experience seem to be more detrimental than helpful. It's all about the degree/pedigree.)
There is a lot of demand for nurses, so having a STEM background with that goal in mind makes some sense. I would have taken more business courses if I had to do things over again, and been a lot more persistent with networking.
I feel sorry for people who believed a science degree would be there salvation in the job world. I see many unemployed or marginally employed people in these fields. People who studied their asses off in these competitive majors and then end up working $15/hr contract grunt work in labs before getting laid off. I think you're better off majoring in liberal arts. A Philsophy degree is just as employable as a Biology degree and with the former you at least can party for your 4 years in college.
You don't know what you are talking about.
As with any other major from medicine down through STEM it isn't just the degree what matters; but rather who holds it and what they bring to the table. Just because someone has a science degree even with honors it does not translate they also hold what a particular employer is seeking.
In fact due to the surplus of talent (again as with so many other majors) employers can pick and choose.
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