<p>"he is searching for majors outside of math,science,and engineering… How do I show him that that is a big mistake? Engineering is booming right now and forever, "</p>
<p>This is so thoroughly untrue, it’s nearly delusional. I myself am a STEM grad (in engineering and physics), with a PhD from a top university and published research papers- and for me and my colleagues in STEM fields right now, this is by far the worst time ever to be in a STEM field- and it’s gone downhill with unbelievable speed. The (reasonably upbeat) situation for STEM just 10 years ago is a world away from the dire situation today. The jobs are being outsourced from the USA at a fast-growing rate, opportunities to get one’s foot in the door are disappearing, fellowships are shriveling up, fundamental protections are vanishing (growing number of us have no health insurance which is a catastrophic situation), our student loans for training are exploding… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s gotten so awful that a large number of us are emigrating from the US. I’ll spell it out in a little more detail, if nothing else to introduce a harsh but necessary dose of post-graduation reality about engineering, STEM or other “useful” majors as “safe”- they’re not, so for everyone’s good it’s important to dispel these comforting illusions.</p>
<p>-- An awful jobs situation: there’s a perfect storm of circumstances making a STEM career in the United States perilously difficult to start out in after you graduate. Public funded sources, like fellowships supported by the NSF and NIH, are being suspended or heavily cut across the board, so much so that even established labs and institutions are shutting down their projects and post-grad training programs. (The current budget in Congress is eyeing still harsher cuts for these programs, esp. basic science- forget about that as a career, at least if you stay in the US.) These historically have been the critical entry-level rungs for young engineers and other STEM grads to get the specific job-related training needed to launch their careers, get hired by companies. and so on. On top of this, outsourcing (to many places, not just to India and the Philippines despite common presumptions) as well as rampant H-1B abuse are further decimating the good-paying, early to mid-career jobs in the US that used to provide some mobility. Most STEM grads from other countries don’t have the crushing student loans and (for outsourcing) don’t face the spiraling health care costs of an American employee, which not only places downward pressure on US STEM salaries but eliminates US positions altogether. (It’s usually easy for a company to find cheap labor elsewhere.) As these “launcher” jobs disappear, they put young engineers especially in a terrible bind- their student loans are compounding interest, but often even the best can’t find work. </p>
<p>-- What jobs are available, too often are miserable sub-contractor positions with low pay and little to no benefits, esp health care, for many many years if one is fortunate enough to advance at all. These sub-contractor positions are one reason why unemployment appears deceptively low for STEM grads (besides the underemployment factor in non-STEM jobs)- very competent engineers and other STEM graduates are stuck in a kind of employment underclass with these positions, and the lack of health care can be crippling. A close friend of mine, a successful chemist by training, was nonetheless stuck in such a sub-contractor position and badly injured in a car accident that was the other driver’s fault. Didn’t matter- even though she was insured, her lousy individually-bought insurance (she couldn’t afford anything else) didn’t come close to covering all the costs of her surgeries and other recovery. She had to declare bankruptcy and, brutally stigmatized for circumstances outside of her control, unable to get further work even though she did eventually recover, and despite all of her achievements and contributions, she’s left the USA never to return- more on this below. While this case may be especially awful, it’s hardly exceptional anymore. Now about that student debt…</p>
<p>-- Student loans: STEM fields like engineering aren’t areas that can be mastered at a community college, but generally fall under the purview of well-funded research universities. With the collapse of state budgets, even public universities are seeing tuition shoot skyward, which means that your student loan burden will likely be crushing by the time you graduate, as one of my cousins (at a state university) is discovering to his dismay. Keep in mind also that in STEM fields, you will be working incredibly hard to master your subject- a high GPA and exam scores can often require about 40-60 hours a week of hard-core studying, report-writing, and lab work- so you will have very little opportunity to minimize your loans with part-time jobs. </p>
<p>And it’s about to get much worse. While the details haven’t been finalized, Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget in Congress would axe Pell Grants and other financial aid, while doubling the student loan interest rate and ensuring that it compounds while you’re in school, making an already awful situation even worse. If you’re not among the decreasing lucky few to land a good, high-paying STEM job after you graduate (which often requires family connections), or especially if you run into eg. medical issues, your student loans will skyrocket. Since there are effectively no consumer protections for student loans, this basically means financial ruin for decades, even for a highly qualified, certified engineering or comp sci grad.</p>
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<li>Ironically enough, having a STEM background with advanced degrees can actually hurt your career, since it will make you over-qualified for what entry-level positions are left. Employers are often afraid to hire or sub-contract out to a very highly skilled graduate with advanced degrees from top schools, since they can’t see such a person working there, and fear they’d leave after a short period on the job. Ironically, some of my fellow STEM grads facing the worst employment situation right now, are among the top 10% at their schools, in some cases even the Ivy Leagues or top tech schools. But they’re considered over-qualified everywhere they apply and largely passed over.</li>
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<p>-- Not even medicine or law are “safe” fields anymore- I know less about this personally, but have a lot of family and friends in these fields, and it’s worse than anytime I can remember. Student loan levels for med-school are becoming truly horrific even for public medical schools- more than $300,000 tuition debt (with compounding) is hardly unusual, while reimbursement levels are dropping and costs (for eg. malpractice insurance) are skyrocketing. With Congress stuck in yet another budget impasse, funds for post-grad training and reimbursement are drying up further. Medicine can also be a risky career since you’re around disease and danger all the time, and the back-up safety nets in the US are outrageously inadequate to help nurses, doctors, PA’s and other healthcare specialists get going again. I was totally shocked to hear from an old acquaintance from undergrad, a surgeon- who’s now on food stamps! He was finishing a residency when he suffered a needle stick that side-lined him. He tried to re-train in pathology but was rejected because they were worried he’d be too sick from the effects of what he contracted. He had some sort of disability insurance but they found some clause in the fineprint to deeply cut his payouts. Totally unbelievable- he was magna cum laude at the school, a top performer at med school, working his a** off at every level (hard to comprehend how hard these docs work at the start of their careers), now he’s on food stamps, meager health insurance, with $100,000 plus in student debt that he has no way of re-paying! Again an esp. awful case, but points up the inadequacies in the US system these days. Law is even worse, even for graduates of Ivy League schools. Post-grad and entry-level positions are again drying up, Big Law just isn’t hiring, so law grads who’ve often put in 80-hour weeks to get their training, are stuck with $200,000 debts and no way to repay them.</p>
<p>-- Emigration away from the US. It’s hard to estimate this since the Census doesn’t collect systematic data on Americans leaving the country, but among my circle at least, in engineering and other STEM fields, emigration is exploding. Many other countries in the world have a high level of social respect and support for engineers and STEM grads- esp places like Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, France, Belgium, Denmark and the Dutch in Europe, or (in Asia) China, Taiwan or Korea. Even a few South/Central American countries, like Chile or Panama, actively seek out American engineers or STEM grads for their projects. Emigrating isn’t easy, as you’ll have to eventually master the local language- though my old friends tell me that German is re-bounding as a sort of ‘lingua franca’ for many STEM fields esp in Europe, so if you can publish a paper or report in German, you’ll have a leg up. Also Europe and some Asian countries do tend to have a preference for people with ancestry in their countries, though a skilled engineer or STEM grad will have more options.</p>
<p>My friends who’ve made the move overseas almost universally say it was worth it, even with the complaints they still have in places. Engineers and STEM grads get much more social respect, and you won’t risk career disaster or bankruptcy if you wind up in a car accident- health care is generally universal-coverage of some sort. Massive student debt is virtually unheard of (except in Britain which in some ways is in worse shape than the US)- countries like Germany do track students earlier, but university fees are a pittance compared to the US, so an engineering or STEM grad from Germany or France eg. will usually graduate debt-free. These countries have never had oil or other easy sources of wealth, so they have well-structured systems to produce their wealth by training and employing smart people, making you a valued member of society. Taxes are not higher despite common mis-conceptions- Europe and Asia generally don’t have the multi-layer taxes of the US, and public services take care of things that are out-of-pocket in the US. </p>
<p>Maybe most important, is that Germany and China- the two top STEM and engineering countries- and their neighbors have well-run apprenticeship programs, that make sure STEM grads can find good jobs in their fields, so if you want to work, you’ll be able to. Companies in the US don’t want to hire Americans for fear of on-the-job training costs, while all the political wrangling has meant that government-funded apprenticeships and training are also being heavily cut, so young STEM grads (as well as laid-off older ones) are basically stuck with no way to start their careers. Whereas the Germans and Chinese have public and private institutions both, to help make sure that STEM grads get work. Their banking systems are also more sound than the US these days, so while it’s increasingly tough to get capital to start a business in the US, places like Germany and China give preference to STEM grads.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to sound so downbeat here about the prospects in the US, but it’s important to be realistic about what STEM grads are up against. I’ve run into too many STEM grads who’ve done great in school and internships, often graduating with honors and published papers, thinking they’re in comparatively good shape with such a “useful” major, only to wind up frustrated and outraged when even after many years of searching, training and sub-contract working they still can’t find adequate work. The problem goes way beyond the STEM fields in general- it’s a problem at the highest levels of the US social and political system. </p>
<p>There simply isn’t much of a sense of community, let alone community investment in this country anymore, which has brutal effects on people starting their careers. Student loan and health insurance costs are skyrocketing while entry-level jobs are disappearing, there are too many incentives for companies to ship jobs overseas while at the same time, well-connected elites (CEO’s and those with political connections) siphon off wealth with cronyist capitalism that should go to education and investment, fellowships and other crucial foot-holds for STEM grads are drying up, public institutions are shriveling up and so on. The ethic running the country seems to be all about cheap labor and big executive profits for well-connected companies, with little concern for the good of the community. I hate to say it, but as someone who myself has worked on projects in portions of the 3rd World, the USA itself is increasingly taking on the features of some Third World countries, with radical inequality and little if any middle class or support for engineering. Majoring in STEM won’t necessarily help you find better work, despite all the long hours and brutal workload you’ll have to take on for the major. You’ll have to be prepared to consider other countries if necessary, so try as much as possible to learn languages like German or others relevant to the field. You’ll probably find something if you’re determined enough, but you’ll have to cast your net wider than you probably expected to do.</p>