Is College Degree Worthless? (employment, job openings, apply, interviewing)

[CA central coast]

Originally Posted by Jesse69

Like what can Sociology get?

a cop

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by AngelEyez02403

Apparently, I wasted years of higher education because it's unlikely I will be able to secure a job of any sort when I graduate in May. I'm glad I spent four years studying pre-law to be rejected for a job by a grocery store.

Should I have not gone to college?

I used to think that my English degree was worthless beyond measure. However, I recently got a pretty nice job and one of the deciding factors was the way that I expressed myself in writing. I have seen emails from some of the other managers in the company and I can see why. Literacy is becoming a lost art, it seems.

Part of the reason that my degree has been heretofore worthless was that I chose badly when deciding what to study. If I had picked a medical discipline or perhaps something that was computer-based, I would have had better luck in the past with a job that used that education. So I cannot really point fingers! LOL

I do feel that college is a complete waste of time and money, but EDUCATION is always a good thing. All the important things that I have learned in my life I have learned on my own *after* college.

20yrsinBranson

[killer2021]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

After some years of finding out that WITHOUT a college degree she couldn't make the kind of money a degree would get her in Business/Accounting, she went to college and got an AA and went on to get a Bachelor's. That was in 1997 and she was 49 yrs old. Right now she is working as a Senior Financial Analyst and making 64K a year. She could go on and get her CPA, but that would require too many study hours, too much money and too many work hours when she got a job as a CPA.
College degrees are NOT worthless........heck, I wish I had one right now!!

yup. Unless your degree is DIRECTLY related to some sort of license like the CPA or teaching credential then your degree is basically a waste. I am just about to get my aa degree in accounting and I can't find anything, even entry-level bank teller jobs are hard to get! Everyone wants experience. The good news is that my degree (ba accounting degree that is) is required for the CPA exam so at least I will be able to get that.

I wouldn't go out and spend thousands of dollars to get one though. Stick to the state schools.

[Driller1]

I would never say a degree is useless.

[zz4guy]

Most degrees are worthless without experience. You'll be surprised how many doors open up after you have a few years of real world experience in your field. But that first job - don't expect it to be what you want to do, in the city you want to live and pay the money you want to make.

[killer2021]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

Most degrees are worthless without experience. You'll be surprised how many doors open up after you have a few years of real world experience in your field. But that first job - don't expect it to be what you want to do, in the city you want to live and pay the money you want to make.

No kidding. I am realizing this early in my education. Just finishing up my AA in accounting and looking for that first job. I am pretty much open to anything related to accounting at this point. Internships (yes, even crappy ones), bank teller, AP/AR clerk, collections etc. The first job is the hardest to get, you aren't kidding. At least when you have some relevant past work experience you can use that as a marketing tool.

My next two years in school will mainly be focused on selling myself away for an entry-level accounting job.

[GypsySoul22]

What I find very alarming is so many people think that unless you go to college for medicine or some science/math related thing it is useless.

The world needs writers, poets, artists, musicians, teachers, cops, social workers and so on.

Not everyone is cut out to be a doctor or nurse. I don't CARE if they get $100,000 or more a year. You can't fit into a career you have no skill or desire to do.

What sort of world would this be if everyone became a 'medical' person or lawyer just for the $$$?

The salaries would plunge, I tell you that.

No, liberal arts and Letters, and so on have their place. What a boring world it would be without them.

[bostoner]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

What I find very alarming is so many people think that unless you go to college for medicine or some science/math related thing it is useless.

The world needs writers, poets, artists, musicians, teachers, cops, social workers and so on.

Not everyone is cut out to be a doctor or nurse. I don't CARE if they get $100,000 or more a year. You can't fit into a career you have no skill or desire to do.

What sort of world would this be if everyone became a 'medical' person or lawyer just for the $$$?

The salaries would plunge, I tell you that.

No, liberal arts and Letters, and so on have their place. What a boring world it would be without them.

Amen! That bothers me, too.

To the OP, a college degree is only worthless if you got one expecting a job to be handed to you upon graduation. Did you ever visit your college's career counseling office? Did you do any internships? Did you do any research on occupations to figure out what you might like to do for a living? Do you know how to write a good cover letter and resume? It's amazing to me the number of people graduating from college these days who don't plan while they're in it for the time beyond it.

[AngelEyez02403]

Originally Posted by Jesse69

You should have known some degrees require further advancement to be useful. Like a BA Psychology is not good enough to practice Pyschology. Or Pre Med is nothing without going further. It's your fault for thinking you did enough. Now you gotta go to law school to make use of your 4 years and be a lawyer, if you don't do that your were an idiot for just going 4 years for pre law.

I was planning on going to law school. (Btw, whoever said that pre-law isn't a major is right---and I am a poly sci major, just taking a lot of CJ and LPS classes) But I cannot afford to go to law school straight out of undergrad now (plus no one is landing loans), so I'm stuck getting whatever menial job I can find.

[solytaire]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

What I find very alarming is so many people think that unless you go to college for medicine or some science/math related thing it is useless.

The world needs writers, poets, artists, musicians, teachers, cops, social workers and so on.

Not everyone is cut out to be a doctor or nurse. I don't CARE if they get $100,000 or more a year. You can't fit into a career you have no skill or desire to do.

What sort of world would this be if everyone became a 'medical' person or lawyer just for the $$$?

The salaries would plunge, I tell you that.

No, liberal arts and Letters, and so on have their place. What a boring world it would be without them.

I find this train of thought especially entertaining as well. I too wondered: Do people just expect everyone to be a nurse, or neurosurgeon, or molecular scientist, or lawyer? Who will teach the lawyers? Who will guard the streets, and keep the neurosurgeon safe? Who will design the aestetics for our automobiles, and buildings, so that our products will appeal to foreign markets? Who will devise the advertising campaigns and the concept art that eventually entices the neurosurgeon into buying a Aston Martin instead of a Ford?

Its just hilarious how myopic peoples' view of the arts are. Taken on their own, the arts are wholly useless; as is any other discipline INCLUDING THE MATHS AND SCIENCES (without implementation of some sort) ..but if you utilize your artistic prowess, to design ad layouts, conceptualize the structures that engineers will build, or design the user interface of a computer program (Windows, MAC etc.), or set design, then how is it that your skills are any less imerative than the people's whose skills arent artistic? Granted, you arent doing open heart surgery, and I wouldnt dare compare the two. But who is going to make life worth living after the heart surgeon completes the operation? Its going to be the people who designed his new house, or his new car, or who fashioned his clothes. I wasnt a liberal arts major either, but people need to get over themselves and realize that there is a necessity for creativity as well in such a consumer driven, audio visual society as ours. The arts have taken on a new role in this day & age. Whereas the sciences are geared toward functionality, the arts are today a vital part of commercialism which are one of the driving forces behind the enticement of consumers to buy product.