The American DayDream.
as a cs major, you kicked me in the stomach with this one
A bachelor’s degree isn’t a vocational degree. It’s ok to major in something you don’t intend to work in, because at the end of the day more than half of college educated workers aren’t working in their field of study. Part of the reason is because the typical 4-year degree teaches only barely enough to scratch the surface of what actually happens in industry, and those entry level workers need to learn a ton on the job anyway.
Here’s a helpful chart of career outcomes by major. Note that many of these undergrad majors tend to be feeders into graduate or professional programs, and that a lot of the joke majors in the humanities and liberal arts have long term outcomes that are better than the sciences. Compare biochemistry to philosophy, for example. Both of those majors kinda expect people to go get graduate or professional degrees after, but the unemployment and underemployment rates are pretty similar.
Have a plan for getting a job. Whether that plan involves a specific major or not is up to you, and isn’t strictly required. It’s mainly engineering that provides a specific pipeline from undergrad degree to specific career in that field. All the others are much looser about which degree is required, or require additional schooling to enter (and once you have a graduate or professional degree, your undergrad basically doesn’t matter).
I went for a major that I thought sounded interesting but wasn’t really passionate about, and I figured would have good job options. Then I graduated… during the height of covid.
This is generally true. My brother is a musician, and he struggles to find work. I got lucky growing up working on programming projects until 3am for fun, then being interested in database research and later AI research several years before people started paying attention. I think we need a UBI so that the people who don’t want to build stuff can do what they want instead of going into marketing or sales, or anything that’s a net drain or neutral on society.
Friend majored in philosophy. Guess how much he got to use that?
I didn’t graduate in philosophy, but the little I know about it is useful every single day.
I guess monetary success is capricious in philosophy; they all cannot be Chomsky or Žižek (because unfortunately intellectual stardom is reserved for a few by definition in any given field). Also, academic environments are depressingly unfair and are influenced by ridiculous factors more than they should. But is money all there is to life for someone that most likely loves to learn, to ponder, to explore? Answers might vary among them.
I graduated with a philosophy degree. I’m a lawyer now. So are a huge chunk of my classmates from undergrad.
Even the ones who didn’t go on and get more schooling tended to find white collar work in some kind of business, same as the people who majored in business administration, finance, marketing, other business school fluff.
There are plenty of majors that are interesting and help students learn how to think, how to write, and how to research. And there are plenty of career paths that don’t care about major, just want to see a 4-year degree for their entry level people.
Exactly the sort of answer I’d expect from a philosopher (and I greatly appreciate it as someone who loves learning and knowledge). My friend did go into tech with his philosophy degree. It’s certainly not that he didn’t get to use knowledge from the field. Just that there’s no gig being a philosopher in modern times.
Is he still getting invited to parties?
I spent one year on philosophy before changing major to engineering because I can’t stand how pompous the people are. Although that intro to philosophy actually helped me in my career. YMMV tho.
I majored in History as it was my only interest at the time and I could graduate on time.
Never major in History.
Anthropology is another bad choice.
Double majored in business/accounting and psychology. Went into financial auditing (not my passion but paid well). Hated my life for 12 years. Decided to go for a graduate degree in social work. Am now a very happy psychotherapist even though I make less money.
Moral of the story? It’s never too late to switch if you end up hating your original choice.
I went back to school in my early 30s.
I have a coworker who went back in his 40s and is changing careers (from tech lead to management). And another who is nearing 50s who just wanted that piece of paper. (IT guy who wanted a fine arts degree)
I went from a prestigious role in tech to a much lower-rung one that isn’t so demanding. I’d rather have a pleasant life than a large paycheck. Went from miserable to very happy.
Scuse me, I burned ~46k on a culinary arts A.S. degree. 🖖
The world needs moar Neelixes.
The grass is always greener I suppose
I did engineering, wish I had done something like culinary arts
After all day engineering, I come home and watch chefs on YouTube and botch their recipes in the kitchen while daydreaming about running a chaotic professional kitchen
Three of our best senior engineers eventually decided to become farmers. One “retired” to be a personal chef.
I’m just saying.
Farming requires a lot of engineering expertise.
I quit and became a truck driver for a while
I’ve had fantasies of becoming a bus driver.
I’ve had fantasies of my city getting public transit. Such a cruel dream.
I chose a major I loved and that has good paying jobs but now I sort of hate it
The degree itself was a door opener though, and college shouldn’t be job training anyway.
I call universities white collar vocational schools because that’s what they’ve become.
Joke’s on you, I got a degree in computer engineering twenty years ago
Seems like it was the exception to the rule (I took it too)
I have a feeling this meme is for younger people who studied the humanities
Or worse shudders business majors
I thought business did alright
Or gender studies. I still don’t know what that is about.
You can also try philosophy so you can philosophize about why this choice was bad.
Who tf hires someone with a degree in philosophy?The “studies” degrees and other liberal arts programs hearken to an earlier understanding of the university as being a place of higher learning. In the US, our view of post-secondary education has changed in recent decades and we now look at university degree programs largely as white collar vocational training. The old higher learning paradigms still exist, but now there is a societal expectation that they prove their economic value. Knowledge and wisdom no longer have inherent value, only that which can be exploited by capital. Higher learning in its traditional modality is a luxury.
Honestly? Pretty much any major corporation or financial institution. They don’t care what you have a degree in so long as you have one. I have friends who have majored in history, sociology, philosophy, etc. all gainfully employed in a range of jobs from HR manager, to network engineer, to our COO at where I work that double majored in literature and music appreciation. They just came in after getting their degree at a low level entry position and worked their way up over twenty five years. Same with my best friend, graduated with a sociology degree, came into the company as a contractor doing server builds, was then hired full time as a backup administrator as no one likes working backups, and then a year later applied out to a business analyst position and is making six figures in a low cost of living state before the age of thirty. The specific degree only matters in very specific jobs, otherwise no one really cares except that you have one.
This is stupid. Not you what you tell.
You can game that system by majoring an easy degree.
So many awful takes on this topic in the comments lol. “Don’t follow your passions” is just bs because they’re really just saying “suffer through this major and you’ll get to suffer through a career for the rest of your life.”
The truth is that your major doesn’t really matter. What hiring managers look for is mostly that you have a degree, and the major comes second.
I was told for YEARS that “humanities isn’t worth it” and that computer science/engineering/STEM is the only thing worth it. But guess what? Massive layoffs due to AI is killing computer science and STEM grads. Businesses are putting postings out there but aren’t currently hiring to maintain normalcy, etc.
For a bachelor’s, just do what you want! Look at the financial aid for each school and go from there. A lot of people struggle and burn out studying something they hate and sometimes end up dropping out. It’s better for everyone to educate yourself on something you’re passionate about, then do a master’s if you need a career change.
Pitting STEM vs the humanities is yet another (very successful) issue used to divide us from the real class problems we should tackle together instead. I agree with you.
They are trying to kill CS with AI.
Software and Computer engineers are absolutely stupid expensive. And we’re necessary, because so few people understand it, and even less want to put in the required work to do it.
Unfortunately for them, they don’t understand it to the point where they inevitably push away the people they need to make use of AI tools, and cover the gaps that AI leaves.
Yeah, I’ve been playing around with some of the AI coding assistants as accelerators for data science projects. The one thing I’ve learned above all else is that this tech can speed up the process of coding, but it absolutely cannot replace computer scientists and engineers.
If you don’t actually understand coding, AI will give you stuff that runs, but fucks up key details and/or doesn’t actually do the thing you’re asking correctly. It’s hella dangerous.
Not always true. Sometimes you major in what you love, graduate, get a job doing cool stuff, (get fucked over by an asshole boss, change companies, kinda hate working there every day, find out through the grapevine the asshole fomer boss had been fired for being an asshole, return to the company you liked working at), well paid the whole time, and continue to love what you do so much you don’t get enough of it at work and do it more every evening and weekend as a hobby.
But then, my experience is a) a bit dated (I graduated college before 2010) and b) most likely atypical.
Don’t do what you enjoy as a career. It will ruin what you enjoy and leave you with nothing.
