Undergrad majors that get jobs now

[Lemaitre1]

What good does it do to get a job in finance or as an accountant if you will probably die of boredom within a month or two? In fact in accounting and finance I do not see how you could survive the first semester.

Why are there not more students majoring in things that are really interesting like Physics, Geology and Astronomy that also have good employment prospects? Oil companies can not find enough Geology graduates and most employers will think that anyone smart enough and with the quantitative skills needed to get a degree in Physics or Astronomy will be a valuable addition to the company.

[FallGirl]

^ I have been an accountant for years and haven't died of boredom yet!

[momofthreeboys]

There are plenty of kids majoring in Geology, Environmental Studies or environmental science getting a great education and they do find jobs. But those colleges that do a good job aren't typically in the middle of urban areas and aren't typically on the top of the USNWR list. There are colleges that turn out marketing and hospitality majors that find jobs. It's not easy to find an entry level job for any college grad, but it's easy to find kids that graduate and have no idea how to use their major to even find a job. The traditional liberal arts grads just need to figure our how their skills fit in the real world but hopefully they were thinking about that when they picked those majors. Everyone has hard skills and soft skills.

[momtotwins]

I disagree that you need to major in something you don't like just because t is marketable. How about majoring in something you do like that is also marketable. There are a wide range of marketable degrees - kids should pick something they like that also has decent job prospects. Everyone can't and shouldn't be an accountant just because there are jobs.. By the way my friend who works at a big accounting firm said the people who are completing their tax returns are working in India - so who knows what the best careers of the future will be.

[amazon]

I would say that right now there are very, very few areas with decent job prospects. And it's getting worse and worse. Just a couple of years ago you could get a job teaching math, science, special ed and maybe foreign language. Now teaching is very difficult period. Just an example.

[samiamy]

D had a dinner with all her old HS buddies, all new graduates 20 of them. Range of schools from Dartmouth Duke U Michigan UConn Richmond, Binghamton, etc. every conceivable major, business, finance, engineering, teaching, psychology.

Guess what they all had in common?

No jobs, and very very few interviews. All really fed up and disillusioned. Most if not all have been interviewing since last September. They know if they don't find work, the next group of graduates of 2013 are on their heels and will soon be looking/interviewing, what then?

They were talking about a few kids they knew who chose not to attend college, received training/apprenticeships, they are all working for 4 years, some even own their own business at this point. Not one penny in debt.

[bluebayou]

I do a lot of day-to-day accounting, Lemaitrie, and while it can sometimes be tedious and boring, its a great field for total quality of life.

[busdriver11]

"They ration CS slots? Interest in CS dropped sharply after the Internet Bubble popped and has been slowly rising back to where it used to be in the 1990s. Why can't employers recruit from other cities or open up satellites in other cities?"

Why yes, the University of Washington rations CS slots like crazy. Their own website states, "In recent years, the number of applicants has far exceeded the number of openings for the program. More than 1,100 applications are received annually for 30-35 openings in the program."

Which begs the question, why, at a large university like that in a tech heavy city like Seattle, would they have so few slots? Now, you can listen to the BS about cost and blah, blah....but I think it purely comes down to trying to make the program as elite as possible. Every year there is more demand, but they are keeping the supply the same.

And recruiters do recruit from other cities, but in a hot field like CS, people are trying to get on with the big tech firms. If you are an unknown or offer low pay, it can be hard to attract people who are already highly in demand.

[busdriver11]

It's odd that people just assume that certain fields are really boring, and that people go into them just for the money. For me, getting a major in English or History, trying to get a writing heavy sort of job would be pure misery and boredom. An accounting or finance major would be far more interesting. I think momtotwins has some great advice, " There are a wide range of marketable degrees - kids should pick something they like that also has decent job prospects." Sure, with the right connections or the right sort of personality, one can get a great job with any major. But since most people don't have that option, why not get something you like that will also get you a job? What a luxury to decide that your parents can spend 200K plus on a major that will generally only get you low paying options. Why not have both an enjoyable major/career and the paycheck?

[turbo93]

^^^ Because most jobs that are loads of fun and pay good money generally have their own issues as well; a good friend of mine spent 25 years in corporate IT and finally gave up and became an executive in a mobile phone game company . Not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination, and for all we know, the company may be gone in 2 years...

Or, my own job, designing software for mobile entertainment devices. Lots of fun, truly lots of fun, rubbing elbows with the right names and companies involved in new media, but guess what, the hours are long, the pay is not that great, and the skills required are usually graduate EE or CS.

As the joke goes, a job involves security, compensation, and fun. You can pick up two of the three. Finding a job that has all three is not very easy...

[BCEagle91]

> D had a dinner with all her old HS buddies, all new graduates 20 of
> them. Range of schools from Dartmouth Duke U Michigan UConn Richmond,
> Binghamton, etc. every conceivable major, business, finance,
> engineering, teaching, psychology.

> Guess what they all had in common?

> No jobs, and very very few interviews. All really fed up and
> disillusioned. Most if not all have been interviewing since last
> September. They know if they don't find work, the next group of
> graduates of 2013 are on their heels and will soon be
> looking/interviewing, what then?

Pretty amazing but that's in line with the statistics out there.

> They were talking about a few kids they knew who chose not to attend
> college, received training/apprenticeships, they are all working for
> 4 years, some even own their own business at this point. Not one
> penny in debt.

I think that this is like talking about university graduates with
great jobs - it's anecdotal. I'm sure that there are many that went
the training and apprenticeship route that are also struggling. Not
having any debt, though, is a big plus.

> Which begs the question, why, at a large university like that in a
> tech heavy city like Seattle, would they have so few slots? Now, you
> can listen to the BS about cost and blah, blah....but I think it
> purely comes down to trying to make the program as elite as
> possible. Every year there is more demand, but they are keeping the
> supply the same.

If you have a hot major where graduates get employed at good paying
jobs - those graduates are far more likely to contribute to the
university with their earnings. Seems like they are shooting
themselves in the foot.

> For me, getting a major in English or History, trying to get a
> writing heavy sort of job would be pure misery and boredom. An
> accounting or finance major would be far more interesting.

I had a variety of jobs as a teenager and worked in consulting for a
few years so I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of jobs. I
think that I could enjoy any of them, including accounting and
finance. There are interesting aspects to any job.

> As the joke goes, a job involves security, compensation, and
> fun. You can pick up two of the three. Finding a job that has all
> three is not very easy...

I think that part of the job picture is the people that you work with.

[turbo93]

Well, part of it is the people. I would not know as I've had the same manager for 14 years (he has refused several promotions because he likes what he's doing) and the same set of coworkers for also 14 years... If the guy asks us to jump off the corporate HQ building our response is likely to be "head first or feet first". He is THAT good.

But Mrs. Turbo the IT consultant has worked numerous gigs over the years and she seems very good at running into every bozo in the industry. She is finally working from home for the mother of all IT consulting firms and very happy that she keeps the bozo interactions to a minimum....

On a tangent, having a work-from-home parent is catastrophic for returning home for summer college students . Mrs. Turbo gets into Amy Chua mode if household chores are not done...

[BCEagle91]

I've worked with a great set of people since the mid-1980s. But I can understand that some work in great companies with great compensation but a few bad coworkers or a bad manager can make things feel like hell. This is why we put candidates through the ringer - we want a good fit as a bad fit can make life harder for everyone around them.

As far as working from home goes, my home office is in the basement so I'm relatively shielded from anyone else. One of the keys to a good home office is isolation. The main downside is that my wife brings me food.

[amazon]

Samiami - I would think that at least the Dartmouth, Duke and U Mich graduates would be able to get something, and the business, engineering, finance graduates would be able to get something, especially if there is overlap between these groups. Otherwise, all is really lost.

About the rationing of IT slots at a public college. If we cut out the H1B visas, we'll see a lot more corporate training, etc. In my day, when I road a dinasoar to work, computer programmers were so in demand that companies would give college grads in fields like philosophy and math, computer aptitude tests and spend 6 months to a year training them in house. I was paid a decent salary and just went to class for 6 months at an insurance company.

[BCEagle91]

> I would think that at least the Dartmouth, Duke and U Mich graduates would be able
> to get something, and the business, engineering, finance graduates would be able to
> get something, especially if there is overlap between these groups. Otherwise, all is
> really lost.

That was a scary post from my perspective. Another aspect is that these students started last fall looking for work and that they didn't get a lot of interviews. I'd guess that employers recruited at the three schools mentioned but maybe they didn't have a lot of recruiters or a lot of positions. There were a lot of recruiters at my son's school last fall - more than I ever recall doing on-campus interviews and presentations. I had read that things were better this year than last year but maybe that's turning.