Going back to college

[MWil23]

30 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Yep, to me a passion major is entirely employable, but some of those people are inevitably going to have to find work outside of their field, which means taking a job that doesn't require a specific major. That means their first job is gaining that specialized training, so it's one extra step on the career ladder and a little less specificity about the industry they can work in. And after the first job, no one gives half a crap what you majored in unless there are professional certifications that require a degree. Not the end of the world by any stretch.

I'd encourage a college kid to major in their passion and a secondary skill they have aptitude for that would let them make money off of it.

Don't just major in music, major in music and sound engineering so you can get a job mastering people's music. Who knows, maybe that leads you into promotion, or maybe in 20 years you're designing cochlear implants that work better with treble or something. Or major in music, then go law school, maybe you can try and join an agency, get into licensing or copyright law, etc. etc.

This advice goes both ways - I was a Biochem major and didn't major in anything else or add to it meaningfully to differentiate myself. I would have had a big time leg up on the other 1000 people taking BioChem 101 with me in the job market if I had a background in data analytics, computer science (these apply for any passion major really), or philosophy for bioethics/public health jobs, etc.

Kind of an interesting story to further your point. A friend of our family (my mom's best friend's husband) is a professional artist. However, he also had an anatomy minor. So, he designs and writes a LOT of pictures and diagrams for medical students and doctors on various drawings, both hand and digital. On the side, he does a lot of "fun art" freelance work that are custom for friends, family, and others.

So, his day job is super "legit" here but his side hustle is his passion.

Just trying to piggyback off of that here.

[beekay414]

I work with a kid that's 21 and is working 40 hours while taking 16 credit hours in school. The grind this kid is on is incredible and I've tried to keep him geared towards finishing his degree when he wanted to cut back and "enjoy being 21." Told him to finish it out, sacrificing now, for the next 50+ years of his life. Told him he could "cut back on school" and then end up like myself at 36. Not something you want, my friend. Also, made sure I told him to do what he feels is right and by no means does he have to listen to myself. Just told him, before making any decision on cutting back school, that he talks it out with all his available resources. Hope he sticks it out. He's a good kid.

[BayRaider]

On 9/16/2022 at 5:41 AM, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Yep, to me a passion major is entirely employable, but some of those people are inevitably going to have to find work outside of their field, which means taking a job that doesn't require a specific major. That means their first job is gaining that specialized training, so it's one extra step on the career ladder and a little less specificity about the industry they can work in. And after the first job, no one gives half a crap what you majored in unless there are professional certifications that require a degree. Not the end of the world by any stretch.

I'd encourage a college kid to major in their passion and a secondary skill they have aptitude for that would let them make money off of it.

Don't just major in music, major in music and sound engineering so you can get a job mastering people's music. Who knows, maybe that leads you into promotion, or maybe in 20 years you're designing cochlear implants that work better with treble or something. Or major in music, then go law school, maybe you can try and join an agency, get into licensing or copyright law, etc. etc.

This advice goes both ways - I was a Biochem major and didn't major in anything else or add to it meaningfully to differentiate myself. I would have had a big time leg up on the other 1000 people taking BioChem 101 with me in the job market if I had a background in data analytics, computer science (these apply for any passion major really), or philosophy for bioethics/public health jobs, etc.

Biochem is a good major, so many career avenues available. My brother majored in biochem and has been a clinical lab scientist for 15+ years now. Climbed the ranks and changed jobs throughout the years, and makes well over 100k now. 

When talking about pointless majors, I’m referring to Liberal Arts Majors: Art, Music, History, English, Communications, etc.

No major is pointless if you go to graduate school like I said. You can go to medical school, law school, PA school, or even get a Computer Science Masters, basically with any Bachelors (will just have to take a lot of pre req classes for every avenue I just listed). Also, if it is truly your passion and you want to teach at a University, then yes, get the major you are passionate about, follow up with a PhD, and eventually become a professor. 

I don’t believe in going in debt for a “side hustle”. You don’t need a degree for that, and with the internet, you can learn absolutely any skill you need. School is to get a job. 

Also I disagree jobs won’t care about your major. This all depends on your industry. Obviously you can’t be a Clinical Lab Scientist without a Science Related degree. Obviously you can’t be a Nurse without a Nursing degree. Obviously you can’t be a doctor without medical school. And you want to be in tech? There’s no licenses or certifications required for tech jobs such as Software Engineer but unless you have a Bachelors in Computer Science (to a lesser extent, Physics or Math) then your resume is going in the trash. It is a hard requirement. 

I feel like you have the same shot at earning six figure with no degree vs with a degree with a Liberal Arts major. Unless you go to graduate school, those degrees do not lead to six figure careers. 
 

 

[ramssuperbowl99]

4 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

When talking about pointless majors, I’m referring to Liberal Arts Majors: Art, Music, History, English, Communications, etc.

The 2 best hires I've ever been a part of the process for were a Spanish major and a Communications major. They do pharmaceutical modeling and simulation. The job advertises a PhD requirement. (EDIT: And to be clear, no grad school, no PhD for either. Bachelors only.)

4 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

Obviously you can’t be a Clinical Lab Scientist without a Science Related degree.

I'll shoot them a LinkedIn message and let them know they've been retroactively let go.

Edited September 20, 2022 by ramssuperbowl99

[BayRaider]

5 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

The 2 best hires I've ever been a part of the process for were a Spanish major and a Communications major. They do pharmaceutical modeling and simulation. The job advertises a PhD requirement.

I'll shoot them a LinkedIn message and let them know they've been retroactively let go.

Every job advertises a advanced requirement that they rarely get. 

And yes I forgot you still can be a CLS if you go through an ungodly amount of pre reqs and licensing stuff. But 95% of that field is Bio, Biochem, and Chem. 

What likely happened was, is they realized their degree wasn’t going to do much for them. Went back to school, hustled those science classes, and became a CLS. 

Good for them for making it. 

Edited September 20, 2022 by BayRaider

[ramssuperbowl99]

8 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

Every job advertises a advanced requirement that they rarely get. 

And yes I forgot you still can be a CLS if you go through an ungodly amount of pre reqs and licensing stuff. But 95% of that field is Bio, Biochem, and Chem. 

What happened was, is they realized their degree wasn’t going to do much for them. Went back to school, hustled those science classes, and became a CLS. 

Good for them for making it. 

No licenses or professional certifications involved. They never went back to school, and the reason I remember the majors is because they listed them on their resume. They'd have been hired if all they had was an Associates Degree.

They got the job because they could do the job. The 10 other people we interviewed couldn't, and the majority of them had plenty of alphabet soup after their names.

Edited September 20, 2022 by ramssuperbowl99

[BayRaider]

3 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

No licenses or professional certifications involved. They never went back to school, and the reason I remember the majors is because they listed them on their resume. They'd have been hired if all they had was an Associates Degree.

They got the job because they could do the job. The 10 other people we interviewed couldn't, and the majority of them had plenty of alphabet soup after their names.

Good for them, sounds like they found a very good niche job that they are good at it and pays really well. Seems like there is less than 200 jobs in the nation for that role with a quick search. Skills trump anything else in that case if there is no license required to do the job. 

[ramssuperbowl99]

2 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

Good for them, sounds like they found a very good niche job that they are good at it and pays really well.

Correct. They made passion majors work, and they would have made it work regardless of industry or role.

[Tugboat]

On 9/15/2022 at 12:41 PM, BayRaider said:

Totally 100000% agree with your post. There are times when these types of majors are worth it. Want to go to medical school or PA school? You can honestly major in anything you want. Law Enforcement or Lawyer? Political Science is great. However, as a standalone Bachelor degree, these degrees are not worth the money. 

As long as you have a plan and going for higher education program, then majoring in whatever is fine. If you’re getting just a Bachelors with no plan for anything else, I still think only the three fields I mentioned are worth majoring in. 

I definitely disagree with this advice. You are setting your kid up for total disaster. What does a music degree do for them? What career does that lead to? They would probably be working a minimum wage job somewhere, and being close to 60K in debt. “Follow your dreams” does NOT mean get a pointless degree where the debt is going to give them ungodly amounts of stress, because they chose a major where they can’t pay that debt off. Would you want that stress for your child? If they had plans for higher education after their music degree, and had a plan of action, then that’s different. But just getting a Bachelors in that is not worth it. If they want to “follow their dreams” in music, they certainly don’t need a degree to make music. 

 

I think the bolded question about stress is pretty pertinent here.  But it kinda goes both ways...

 

Yes, debt is hugely stressful.  Especially if it doesn't "pay off" with the means to pay it back comfortably.

 

But at the same time, one of the most stressful things in life imo, is clocking in every day at a job that you truly fundamentally hate.  It's where yes, "medical stuff" is the biggest and most stable growth field.  You're going to find more employment opportunities than you know what to do with in that field.  But if you really and truly do not have any interest in doing those jobs, what good is that?  That is stressful, and deeply unhealthy.  Like...if you steer someone into the medical fields purely because it's "good jobs", they may end up with a good job that makes them absolutely miserable in life, punching a time card, taking care of a bunch of decrepit old baby boomers every day.  Is that really any way to live?

 

I don't mean that as a sleight on the medical fields.  A lot of people really thrive in that field and find a lot of satisfaction and happiness in it.  It's just...very much not for everybody.  Same goes for a lot of tech fields.  Yes, everyone understands that "tech is the future" or whatever, and that's where a lot of the highly lucrative jobs can be found...but there are a lot of people who are just going to be catastrophically unhappy in life spending most of their days tethered to a computer screen.

 

 

It's like...if you truly don't like what you do, what's the point even?  Just spending half your life in misery so you can go home and sleep?  Unhealthy *** prevailing mentality imo.  There's more to life than just a balance sheet on your boring *** middle class income.

[BayRaider]

20 hours ago, Tugboat said:

 

I think the bolded question about stress is pretty pertinent here.  But it kinda goes both ways...

 

Yes, debt is hugely stressful.  Especially if it doesn't "pay off" with the means to pay it back comfortably.

 

But at the same time, one of the most stressful things in life imo, is clocking in every day at a job that you truly fundamentally hate.  It's where yes, "medical stuff" is the biggest and most stable growth field.  You're going to find more employment opportunities than you know what to do with in that field.  But if you really and truly do not have any interest in doing those jobs, what good is that?  That is stressful, and deeply unhealthy.  Like...if you steer someone into the medical fields purely because it's "good jobs", they may end up with a good job that makes them absolutely miserable in life, punching a time card, taking care of a bunch of decrepit old baby boomers every day.  Is that really any way to live?

 

I don't mean that as a sleight on the medical fields.  A lot of people really thrive in that field and find a lot of satisfaction and happiness in it.  It's just...very much not for everybody.  Same goes for a lot of tech fields.  Yes, everyone understands that "tech is the future" or whatever, and that's where a lot of the highly lucrative jobs can be found...but there are a lot of people who are just going to be catastrophically unhappy in life spending most of their days tethered to a computer screen.

 

 

It's like...if you truly don't like what you do, what's the point even?  Just spending half your life in misery so you can go home and sleep?  Unhealthy *** prevailing mentality imo.  There's more to life than just a balance sheet on your boring *** middle class income.

You don’t have to work in those three fields, but any job you can get in the music industry, or art industry, and most liberal arts majors, don’t actually need a full on college bachelor degree. Going in debt for them, unless going to graduate school, isn’t the greatest decision. 

Just like Rams colleagues, they probably would of got the job with an associates.  

Edited September 22, 2022 by BayRaider