People with "useless" majors and degrees, what do you do now and do you regret it?

this is letsrun redux wrote:

This is letsrun.

Anything less than an Ivy education or maybe one from perhaps a dozen other universities, preferably in STEM or business, is a waste of time and you might as well forget it.

Likewise you are worthless unless you make at least $250K a year and ran under 4:10 for the mile (or 5K-10K equivalent) by your sophomore year in college. Anyone that competes beyond the age of of 23 that is not professional should be take out and flogged.

Are we missing anything?

the "hot wife" part

Well I am a credit analyst I, In 3 months I become a credit analyst II 65K. After that I can become a junior lender. a couple years after that a commercial lender. At my institution they make around 250k.

I also dont live in a city I live out in suburbs. My rent is just a couple hundred bucks a month. Work is 15 min. away. For someone who entered banking with no finance background, I am happy to be where I am.

old and in the way wrote:

degree in mathematics, turned out to be completely useless.

had to go back to school for a comp sci postgrad degree, which is also useless after the age of 40.

now eking out a pittance in software support..

regret it, should have become a medical doctor, or actuary.

You are doing something wrong if you have a comp sci degree and can't make a good salary. I work in IT as a software developer, WITHOUT ANY college degree and now make 100K at the age of 44.

My IT experience came from the military and I transitioned to a civilian job doing, pretty much,the same work.

Most any degree can be useful if the person knows how to apply themselves.

useless degree guy wrote:

I have degree in English, a secondary ed. certificate, and an English Master's. I teach high school, coach, and teach at a community college in the summer. All told I will make around 48k this year. I could make much more in other professions, but I enjoy what I do and don't consider my degree or job useless, although I'm sure many do.

This is such a vile reflection on our diseased cultural priorities. You do (several) of the hardest jobs on earth. You should make 148k.

College major: Government

Current employer: Government

Of course it is not really that simple. I worked as a paralegal at a prosecutor's office right after college ($30k/yr), then in management consulting for a few years ($60-70k/yr), then went to law school, then worked as a biglaw associate for a few years (160-180k/yr), then had kids and took big paycut to do what I consider to be more interesting/satisfying/lifestyle friendly work as a lawyer for a state government agency ($75k/yr). My spouse (also a Government major in college) is also a lawyer and makes decent money ($140-170k depending on bonus) as an in-house lawyer for a company. We live in the 'burbs just outside a big east coast city, own a house, and have pretty good savings. All in all, a pretty comfortable existence.

I do sometimes wish I had been an majored in Econ -- I think it would have been a somewhat more useful knowledge base when I was consulting and working in biglaw (and to some extent even in my current job), but I don't think doing a "softer" major had any meaningful effect on my career trajectory (also, a relatively softer major definitely made it easier to devote time to running in college -- there is a reason we were known as "GovJocks" at my school, I guess). At least in the law (particularly with respect to getting into law school), it is way more about how well you do in your major (and, of course, the LSAT) than it is about what your major was. And, as someone else said, a liberal arts degree is really more about teaching you how to think and how to learn than it is about the particular subject matter of your major.

No Way wrote:

I'll bite on this one more time. I said scientists, doctors, and engineers who perform research. Gruber is none of those things. That's a fact.

Is he a liberal who said some stupid things? Absolutely.

Now back to my original point, you'll find that most doctors, scientists, and engineers believe in medicine and in science. I don't believe that those two things have to lead one to be liberal, but since conservatives go so far out of their way to ignore those things, it's tough for scientists to associate with conservatives.

My experience is that you're wrong here. I am an engineer in Silicon Valley (for the past 30 years) and I would guess that 80-90% of the engineers I've been associated with have either libertarian or conservative leanings. It's actually kind of odd to see a liberal engineer. There ARE some just not many.

Don't know about scientists or doctors.

BS Political Science/German

MA International Economic Relations

Job: Project manager / random office BS

Regrets: Kind of.

Liberal arts degrees *do* make you flexible and good at a lot of things. The tough thing is getting employers to recognize that so you can get your foot in the door.

I'm interested in finance and know I'd be good at a lot of jobs I see. However, nowadays most firms are not interested in hiring people who didn't major in finance, business, or a quantitative field....unless you went to an Ivy, in which case they fall over themselves to hire people who majored in anything.

"However, nowadays most firms are not interested in hiring people who didn't major in finance, business, or a quantitative field..."

That's the biggest change I've scene in the work place since I graduated in the early 90's. Back then if you had a degree you could get hired outside of your area because employers still felt like if you had a degree you were at least smart enough to train.

Not any more. They not only want someone that has a degree specific to the field, they want someone that has experience in the field. There seem to be little if any OTJ training.

I dont know if it's because individuals with degrees are more plentiful, or if employers are too lazy to train people, or a combination of both.

I got a degree in Communications, specifically Audio Production and Broadcasting. Ended up as a Customer Service representative at a financial institution before graduating. After graduating I worked my way up into a senior financial analysis role.

I wish I would have just studied Business, but my Communications degree didn't hinder anything. I just had to gain work experience. It took me about 4 years.

I got a B.A. in K-12 Physical Education the first time around before getting my head out of my arse. Then went back to night school for 11 years while working full-time as a entry level lab tech and got a B.S and M.S. in Chemistry. Things have been great since then. Love my job in R&D. Job recruiters call me regularly with positions to offer me.

I'll echo what others have said...no degree is useless. You just might not get a job doing the thing your degree was for.

And, regarding the degree you get, that SHOULD be determined by what you are interested in, good at, and can see yourself doing. If you HATE math and /or computers, then you'd better not get a degree in math or computer science.

Social workers will never make a lot of money, but they are needed, so I'm glad that some people decide to pursue that career path.

B.A. in Economics and Political Science. Currently unemployed. Went to law school, but dropped out after 3 semesters.

i'm currently majoring in sociology. although the material is interesting, sociology is probably the most useless major offered at my college. after i get my bachelors, i plan on breaking into the health care industry as either an e.m.t or a nurse.

coaching track is my dream profession, however, unless i win the Wanamaker mile, it will be nearly impossible for me to get hired

Does a degree from top ranked liberal arts school even rate? A lot of educational snobs here (Ivy-Stanford or nothing), so what's the consensus?

Degree in History from a very good school

Work in politics and formerly was a newspaper reporter

I don't regret getting a liberal arts degree. I regret that so many people fail to see the value in a traditional education.

Let me chime in.I went to the school of Hard Knocks and received a degree in Life. I barely made it out of there so that explains my poor reading and writing. But we all figured that out already on this forum.

I have worked 30 year's averaging 50 week's a year at 50 hour's a week. Making between 55-60k a year. I always like reading about other people's journeys . We will all end up at the same finish line eventually with or without a piece of paper.

Nadz,

You will be a success at life, no matter what field you choose. The smarts you have shown in your youtube videos show your true character.

Majored in philosophy and economics at a top 10 school.

Law degree from a top 20 school.

3 years out of law school (6 years out of undergrad) and make 130k. Income increases 25% per year. I represent great, hard working clients against the biggest corporate giants who poisoned them and I love every minute of it. I pick my own hours and basically act as my own boss.

Philosophy taught me how to think critically, express my ideas clearly, and form logical arguments. I don't regret it at all

Does your firm need a janitor? i have a summer of custodial experience