Worst College Majors for Your Career

[emeraldkity4]

My niece who is a few months younger than my oldest probably earns the most out of my various nieces & nephews. Her degree is in classics, and she is a Kinect systems manager.
My oldest on the otherhand just finished grad school & is currently unemployed.( degrees in biology & teaching)

[Hunt]

I think it always bears mentioning in this kind of discussion that salary is only one measure of "success" in a career. All those high school band directors are failures when compared to hedge fund managers--when you just look at the money.

[Consolation]

So if one has no vision, or one's vision is limited to academia, writing the next Great American Novel or screenplay, or becoming the next Poet Laureate of the United States, I could imagine one ending up in retail with an English degree.

Huh. Well, one of my professors in college WAS the Poet Laureate of the United States after that. Of course, he is tremendously talented as a poet, teacher, scholar...you name it.

Consolation, I'm surprised HR didn't run their job postings by you. I used to hire copywriters, and we always could change things on the job postings if we wanted to. And although they would pass along a pre-screened group of resumes, if I wanted to see the rejected ones, all I had to do was ask.

Actually, when I was hiring, I mostly worked directly with recruiters who knew what I was looking for.

[cromette]

Hunt: "I think it always bears mentioning in this kind of discussion that salary is only one measure of "success" in a career. All those high school band directors are failures when compared to hedge fund managers--when you just look at the money."

The study was which actually wind up working retail - in other words, did not use their degree. But I agree with you, money is usually what people look at.

I don't think you and I would see it quite that way, huh?

[cromette]

Proudpatriot: "AMEN to that (says the person with a degree in Music Ed). Music is one of the most difficult majors because of the time commitments from all the one credit classes."

Right. Most majors are 120 hrs. Music majors get credit for a required 130 hours, which is actually about 172 hours MINIMUM, because they have classes that meet for 3 or 4 hours a week, yet only get 1 hour of credit for them. A lot of people don't understand that.

[cptofthehouse]

I know a high school teacher who does not make much at a private high school, who loves, loves, loves his job. He feels like he is so lucky to be working there, getting pay and benefits for something he just loves doing. He has said he cannot come up with many other jobs he would rather have. The family lives modestly, but the kids get top of the line in terms of educational advantages and activities as well as free tuition at that high school. One is in grad school and will probably go into teaching like his dad. There is a lot to envy and emulate in such situations.

[cromette]

cptofthehouse: Good story. I come from a family of educators too. Loved it growing up - I did not follow in their footsteps (except for that one year of homeschooling, which I loved), but I hope I passed some of the SPIRIT along to my kids. I think I did - I cannot see D2 doing anything else. She was born for it.

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by browngrad

Id say worst major is one where you are doing it for the money.

Worse is when you do something you really do not like that much only for the money, and then find out that the money is not there. Given how many people seem to lump all STEM majors together in terms of job prospects, there are probably plenty of disappointed biology and chemistry graduates out there. Non-elite-business-school business majors might also find letdowns.

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by cptofthehouse

I know a high school teacher who does not make much at a private high school, who loves, loves, loves his job. He feels like he is so lucky to be working there, getting pay and benefits for something he just loves doing. He has said he cannot come up with many other jobs he would rather have. The family lives modestly

Living modestly may be one of those under-the-radar things that can make a significant improvement in the types of jobs and careers one can take. When one lives modestly, the minimum acceptable pay level for a longer term job becomes less, which opens up more job possibilities and reduces the pressure to take an otherwise less desirable job just because it pays more.

On the other hand, someone with uncontrolled spending habits who spends money faster than s/he gets it may be forced to choose a higher paying job that s/he likes less simply to cover his/her daily expenses.

Note that a common criticism of engineering careers is that while starting pay is relatively good, late career pay is not as high as for business executives and the like. However, sociologist Vance Packard and business professor Thomas Stanley have noted that engineers tend to be less spendy than most. Perhaps the nature of engineering (solving design problems under various constraints, including cost) means that many of those with the mindset to enjoy engineering do something similar in their personal lives (i.e. optimizing their spending habits to maximize enjoyment for as little money as possible). This could mean that, while (like everyone else) they value an income that allows living comfortably, they may not particularly care to strive as hard for the business executive's income. (Of course, not all engineers are that way, but perhaps a greater percentage are than in the general population.)

[cromette]

ucbalumnus:

"Note that a common criticism of engineering careers is that while starting pay is relatively good, late career pay is not as high as for business executives and the like."

Engineers don't always stay "just engineers" - they become PROJECT engineers, project managers, department heads, consultants, etc., and their salaries become pretty dang fantastic.

[zobroward]

communications /gender studies / ethnic studies

[straightshooter]

I can't get over the misconception on this board that someone must choose between a job they love and money. Beleive it or not most Americans are working in jobs they don't like AND they don't make a lot of money. Many one love to have a choice of one or the other.

[artie1]

Beleive it or not most Americans are working in jobs they don't like AND they don't make a lot of money. Many one love to have a choice of one or the other.

Agreed- but I think we want more for our kids if possible

[Canuckguy]

As someone else has posted - a lot of HR departments have become VERY exclusive. Our HR department looks for TWO degrees. If you don't have one of the two, your resume goes in the trash, and you never even get an interview. That practice is more common than you might think.

I have noticed this for a long time now. While talking heads on TV are telling us to go and get a good general (liberal) education, whatever that means, those who do the hiring do not agree and they focus very much on very specific degrees. Failing that and your resume will not see the light of day.

As a general rule, nowadays the job market rewards some majors more than others... Nowadays, it is more difficult to find college students who graduate with solid quantitative skills than solid soft skills. Because of that, as a general rule, the job market rewards the former types of graduates more than the later types.

As a group, I think students with solid quant skills are simply stronger students. A recent study at Duke shows that the less academically prepared run the risk of switching out of STEM into the humanities and social sciences in order to maintain their grades.

The most honest assessment I saw came from Charles (The Bell Curve) Murray. In a piece written for the WSJ in 1997, he said:

In engineering and most of the natural sciences, the demarcation between high-school material and college-level material is brutally obvious. If you cannot handle the math, you cannot pass the courses. In the humanities and social sciences, the demarcation is fuzzier. It is possible for someone with an IQ of 100 to sit in the lectures of Economics 1, read the textbook, and write answers in an examination book. But students who cannot follow complex arguments accurately are not really learning economics. They are taking away a mishmash of half-understood information and outright misunderstandings that probably leave them under the illusion that they know something they do not. (A depressing research literature documents one's inability to recognize one's own incompetence.) Traditionally and properly understood, a four-year college education teaches advanced analytic skills and information at a level that exceeds the intellectual capacity of most people.

This type of honesty is hard to take, isn’t it?

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by straightshooter

Beleive it or not most Americans are working in jobs they don't like AND they don't make a lot of money. Many one love to have a choice of one or the other.

However, they may still have to make a choice between a job that they don't like, but don't strongly dislike, and a better paying job that they otherwise dislike more.