I'm not surprised: It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk." :(

[DalTheJigsaw123]

I mean its common sense everyone has a degree. With many sites like: https://www.coursera.org/ and https://www.edx.org - it is going to absolutely be "worthless." Experience will rain again, as well as connections and personality. I guess this is good and bad? Higher Learning needs a shake-up? Care to agree to disagree?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/business/college-degree-required-by-increasing-number-of-companies.html?_r=1&;

[Sloppy Zhang]

Or apply your interests to fields that are in demand

 

Other thoughts: The liberal arts education system needs a shakeup. You will get paid when you provide something of value to others. Ideas are great, but without the skills to execute them, they are worthless.

 

Looking back on it, I should have starting going to community college- much cheaper to find out what I was interested in, rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars, not knowing what I wanted, then being too far gone to turn back and change majors which required another 3-4 years to catch up on. Get some hands on experience, get some references. THEN transfer to a bigger university to round out my experiences in an institution that has more resources (funding, labs, connections to internships, etc).

 

Then, maybe 5 or 10 years down the line (or maybe never!) go back to college to talk about "ideas."

 

The liberal arts education is good in theory. But in practice you are trying to force worldviews and experiences into (or out of) people that don't want them. They're kids. They want to drink, have sex, do drugs. These days it's commonly on their parents or on society's dime. Then they graduate and can't make money.

 

Traditionally successful fields like law are struggling right now. Kids go to school for four years, get massive debt, can't do anything, go to school for 3 more years, still can't do anything, and wind up getting a job earning what they probably could have earned in the same amount of time (7 years) without tens-hundreds of thousands of debt.

 

STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) are begging for candidates. It's much harder to find candidates who are only partially qualified to fill a role. Some of these companies will bring people on who only know enough to get by, and train them on the go because they need people. But no one wants to do that because "math is hard" and "computers are for nerds" and "science isn't cool."

 

Hm, you know what else isn't cool? DEBT!

 

I'm a recently graduated liberal arts major. What did I do? Got my foot in the door in the tech sector. Gathered some modest tech related skills, and was transferrred with open arms to a department that needed tech people- and every day they're helping me learn new skills so I can help pick up slack that the company is gaining and I'm getting paid money to do it!

 

I feel great that I get to learn, better myself, contribute to others, have a nice career path, and have the leisure time and money to do other things I care about.

 

Getting more degrees isn't the answer ("the masters will be the new bachelor's" etc etc etc).

 

Getting SKILLS that are IN DEMAND are the answer!

 

 

If you want to get all spiritual about it- go with the flow, perceive the situation and perform right action at the right time!

 

If a house is on fire, leave the house (provided you don't want to die).

 

If liberal arts careers are sinking, jump ship!

 

You can meditate about manifesting an apple.... or you could go find an apple tree!

 

You can complain about how hard it is for your post doctorate philosophy major to find a job or..... you can spend 2-4 years earning some practical technical skills and make as much (or more) in less time without so much debt!

 

Then you have the free time/money to philosophize all you want with your philosophy friends over drinks that you can pay for without feeling bad about it.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Sloppy Zhang

[zanshin]

I just gave the garage door guy a nice little check. I sat in my house while he fixed stuff, there was no frustration and getting my fingers bruised and greasy, no yelling and swearing, everything worked right when he was done, no mess to clean up. I grew up in a do-it-yourself house. This is fabulous; people will come do these things for you and all you have to do is give them money. I might need to get over my snottiness. I have in my head that my kids should go to college and I'd probably be very disappointed if they don't. But from a practical career perspective might be better to go to tech school and learn auto repair or electrician skills. Really it is up to them though. A lot of degrees don't qualify you for practical career opportunities much beyond file clerk. Did you know you need to have a degree to be a flight attendant (airlines don't really care which degree, but you need one)?

[JustARandomPanda]

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

 

and

 

The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems

 

[joeblast]

same thing happened when everyone wanted you to be microsoft certified in the computer industry - it merely led to a ton of "paper certified" people that couldnt troubleshoot their way out of a paper bag!

 

college used to be for those with the aptitude, the drive, the need for whatever specialized skill that college could give you. now it has become merely "high school 2" and is "the standard"...it produced a lot of middle class outcomes when it was applied appropriately. so hey, let's subsidize middle class outcomes and forget about those pesky fundamentals! so by massively oversubsidizing "middle class outcomes" really mostly what they've subsidized is debt and wasted a lot of people's time. now you can get a slip of paper saying you know damn near anything, regardless of whether or not you can actually walk the path the paper says you can walk.

 

a lot of people can do well by getting that degree and going fantastically into debt, hopefully they make enough to actually pay that debt off. look at the increase in college expenses and you see administrators being exponentially more hired, teachers marginally increased. waste waste waste...those degrees that are just about useless should be subsidized far less than they are, we need more engineers.

 

I tried encouraging my boy to go into a trade instead of jumping on the trillion dollar student debt wagon, but his desire to get out and away from his places of living was too strong. far as I know he hasnt a freakin clue what he wants to do...my boy, what in the hell are you doing there right now besides wasting money that's been saved for you your entire life, soon to be wasting money borrowed from the government since college costs increased so exponentially that all which was saved isnt even close to sufficient for a 4 year degree any longer, even though the amount would have paid for 4 years and half of grad school when I was in college. oh my, let's spend it all, because its for the children.

[GrandmasterP]

In the UK anyhoo a degree is a good investment as graduates earn a lot more over their working lives than do non graduates. that's the majority of ALL graduates.

Some don't, but most do earn considerably more than their non graduate peers.

Strange though it may sound, of the non vocational-specific degrees on offer; media studies graduates do especially well.

Sound research been done on this it's not speculation.

Next best alternative to a degree is a vocational trade qualification.

A time served 21-year old with City & Guilds Plumbing, Heating & Ventilation at Level 3 award under her/his belt ( a first degree is Level 6) is looking at a very lucrative career indeed.