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For example, can you wire a house, re-build a transmission, design a microwave receiver, motivate people to contribute to a cause, etc.
You need to be the person chosen to solve that problem. You have to be better than the other guy.
A person needs to major in something that provides actual skills for an employer. Accounting, or computer science comes to mind. However some jobs simply require just a generic bachelors degree to tick off on the application.
Well, as the title states, I was actually thinking about this last night since I have not been happy with my job as of late. It is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have always dreamed of helping people and doing what is good for the community.
A little backstory:
I was raised to get a degree, a degree in anything blah blah blah, you get the idea, this was back in the mid to late 90s before there was a google. I majored in History and graduated in 2006. Originally, I wanted to be a lawyer, but my home life sucked, and I did not have the emotional or financial support. That and when I graduated, even now people are saying that there are just too many lawyers. I instead got a decent job at a non profit, but I lost it during the recession. I have not really had any professional jobs since then. It was either been retail or call centers which I have to take because the bills have to get paid somehow
I don't have any family or friends that can help me and most got the heck out of the city that I was in.
So I figured that I would rectify this mistake and so I went for a Masters in Public Administration(MPA). You would be surprised, how many people do not know what that is. I got to the point, where I hated my degree in History. It was fun to study but "useless" in the real world. I have even thought about going for another bachelors in corporate communications, but everyone that I have spoken to says that I just need to keep trying with what I have and stop going to school and putting myself more in debt.
I then decided to suck it up and I moved almost 5 hours away to a major metropolitan area in my state going from a town of 100k to a town of 1 million. I have been here a year already, and the only job that I have been able to procure is a job in a somewhat "professional call center" and that saying it lightly.
My MPA was very interesting to study and I figured that it would be useful since it combines fields of business, political science, economics and sociology, but so far, I have not been able to get a job in the non profit or local government sector. Its starting to make me wonder if I made a mistake and moved to the wrong city or I got the wrong degree.
After thinking for a while, I thought of every single person that has a degree, and the majority of them are NOT in professional jobs either. I am with a recruiting agent right now and even they told me that they had had people with MBAs have to take jobs starting at $10/hr. This just blew my mind, after all, I thought an MBA was slightly better than what I had studied.
I feel like I have been doing everything right, I saved up money, tried to move up, and even moved hours away just to try to get a better job. Nothing seems to be working out. I even had someone critique my resume, still nothing.
So my question is this, do you have a college degree and are underemployed? If so, what did you major in and what is it that you currently do? Why do you think you are in the situation that you are in?
Earned a BA degree in CRJ at one of the countries top CRJ schools in NYC. I was supposed to obtain a job in Civil Service, but was turned down. I left Law Enforcement alone for a near decade, and stuck to my original job working in hospitality. I still work in hospitality field, but I have tried very rigorously to get out of it. Here in NYC a generic BA degree wont even land you an entry level job at certain offices even if one has skills. Employers here in NYC are looking for skills, credentials, those who went to top schools and so on. MY resume is just another number. I received an notification to start the process to join one of the highest paying police departments in the country and I hope things fall through for me. If not I will probably have to go back to school to obtain my Masters Degree or earn some sort of certificate. Or maybe go to Law School. RIght now in NYC there is a huge fallout with private employers and now those who worked in the private sector are running over to public sector positions.
As for the OP? You earned a degree in History? Your options are limited to either teaching or going to law school. If you earned a degree in history lets say at Harvard, or at Oxford, than that is a different story and an employer will hire you in no time. But a generic history degree will not suffice.
Another thing to note here is you sound like you are considering a phd in political science and somehow that will prepare you for a law degree.
why not pick up a few study guides and take the LSAT? and while you're at it, study for the MCAT too? you might find something to stick but don't get into the idea that all that education will get your foot in the door somewhere. it will not.
The purpose of education is merely to provide an employer with some base level of understanding that you can handle the work that the job entails. It does not mean they have to hire you.
I worked with 2 gentlemen both earning low 100s and both did not complete college. One dropped out of college and the other never started. The key is they started working and got experience and moved up.
My wife studied Political science and had a minor in french in college but worked full time all through her college years. She's now an AVP in the finance field and she did not get any finance schooling in college nor did she get a masters degree. (She's a genius though but I think that's besides the point)
many jobs in the market 10 years from now do not have a field of study in any universities because those jobs do not yet exist. The people who create those jobs figure things out and study the peripheral areas of knowledge to arrive at an understanding of what some kid 15 years from now will need to know.
Taking calculus class helps very few people in the real world, but it trains your mind to think abstractly and analytically. That's why it's a requirement for many subjects. That's kinda the same principle of a college degree.
A person needs to major in something that provides actual skills for an employer. Accounting, or computer science comes to mind. However some jobs simply require just a generic bachelors degree to tick off on the application.
these days any old degree is just not enough to get a job. if you look at job postings these days, employers ask for the sun, the moon and the stars and the pay is typically a fraction of what someone with those credentials are going after.
Could it be demand destruction? or just a concerted effort to line the pockets of big business?
those CEO need more money doing nothing for the economy in their offshore/onshore bank accounts right?
these days any old degree is just not enough to get a job. if you look at job postings these days, employers ask for the sun, the moon and the stars and the pay is typically a fraction of what someone with those credentials are going after.
Could it be demand destruction? or just a concerted effort to line the pockets of big business?
those CEO need more money doing nothing for the economy in their offshore/onshore bank accounts right?
The mindset of "graduate with any degree = job" has to change, and I would hope/believe that it has changed than compared to when that view was very much in vogue when I was in high school (2000-2004). Now granted even back then I knew that if I graduated with a degree in Sociology that I won't be making as much as my buddy who majored in Nursing or my other friend who majored in Accounting, but at least with the Sociology degree I will have a better position than working the register at Shop rite, drive thru at Burger King ("high school" level type work). -THAT mindset use to work when you could graduate with any degree and land the entry level administrative, office assistant, clerk etc...type positions. The problem now is many of those entry level, bottom of the totem pole positions want years of experience, are reluctant to train , may require a specific degree and perhaps most importantly the number of Applicants far, far exceeds the # of job openings. Go to linkedin, go to any site that tracks how many applicants applied for X job and when you see something like "100 applicants for Accounting Clerk position at X"- yea it is heartrending.
Now is it possible to graduate with generic degree and find generic entry level job (doesn't require years of experience or a certain degree etc...), yes it is. But assuming you don't know anyone on the inside, it will probably take some time. The hardest part now is gaining experience, employers want experience, doesn't matter if you have a "weak degree", if you have experience, references that is all the employer cares about. Experience will far outweigh any "useless" degree.
I am a union worker with a college degree in Industrial Technology. I received this degree 10 years ago while employed, and I've held this job for 22 years now. At first I was ready to put my degree to work, but I knew that any promotion to a salaried or management job would be a lateral move, financially speaking. The more I investigated my options, the more I realized my union job was not that bad, by comparison.
Recently there was a massive layoff, one that did not affect me, as my seniority insured I would not be let go. Had I have left my present job for a different one with this company, I might be unemployed right now.
Now I think I won't even pursue a new job with this company, at least until the business climate improves. The important thing for me is I have developed transferable skills in the event I'm impacted by an industry that is currently slumping, due to low oil prices, among other things.
My advice to you is to not worry about salary at this point in your working life, the important thing is to get some valuable skills under your belt. It's okay if it is in an unrelated field, because you never know whether or not you will like the work or not. The bonus is you learn something new and become a more skilled employee with as broader focus, and these things matter as much personally as they do professionally.
...I majored in History and graduated in 2006. Originally, I wanted to be a lawyer,...
So I figured that I would rectify this mistake and so I went for a Masters in Public Administration(MPA). ...
I then decided to suck it up and I moved almost 5 hours away to a major metropolitan area in my state going from a town of 100k to a town of 1 million. I have been here a year already, and the only job that I have been able to procure is a job in a somewhat "professional call center" and that saying it lightly.
My MPA was very interesting to study and I figured that it would be useful since it combines fields of business, political science, economics and sociology, but so far, I have not been able to get a job in the non profit or local government sector. Its starting to make me wonder if I made a mistake and moved to the wrong city or I got the wrong degree.
What you've basically studied is the background to go into teaching or law school. That mix of subjects for the MPA means it is actually not very useful for anything. It's basically a degree for those who are already working in the public sector and need to advance. The problem is a lot of folks think MPA means you get a government job. For the most part government hires the same skills as the private sector -- scientists, engineers, accountants, lawyers, and locally police, fire, sanitation, etc. MPAs don't help get those jobs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Down in a Hole
Yeah you are right, it stinks. I have been trying to apply for jobs and im starting back up again. I am considering either getting the BS in Corporate Communications or getting a Phd in Political Science. I would love to work at a college, but I hear that it is hard to get a job teaching.
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Why? About the only use is if you want to be a lawyer or try to find a job for a politician. Working at a college is not the same as teaching. If you want to be a teacher, then start looking for an alternate teacher certification program and put that history degree to use. Of course you may have to move to where the job is, not where you are now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Down in a Hole
You have been heard, and you are not underemployed, i no longer see any point to your posts here.
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He's giving you help. If you want advice, it helps to listen to those who have climbed that hill and know how. If you want sympathy, then go ahead and listen to those who haven't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Chemist
Actually a history major can do lab work that a STEM major does. Anyone can be trained to do anything on the job in almost any field. .
Not quite a true statement. If the job can be easily trained to anyone, then the degree is not needed. I've actually been in this specific situation trying to train a history major to do technical work. Just didn't happen -- not only lacking critical knowledge, but also lacking the aptitude.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gunslinger256
I've told my kids to figure out what they want to do for work and then work backwards to figure out what to study.
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Best single bit of advice in this whole chain. Figure out what you want to do, then decide the path, and what degree, if any, is needed to get there. Continuing to jump from degree to degree is not a plan.
Justice and Law Administration. Able to find 3 jobs with my degree all in the mental health field. Going back to school again just to make more money.
You often do have to go back to school for some fields where even a bachelors degree is not enough to begin earning real money. Psychology comes to mind,
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