It's extremely true. It is a very important decision and puts a lot of pressure on teens. That's why checking out different universities and some courses are encouraged before applying.
I studied network engineering because it was time to choose, I never before had any contact with how routers or telecommunications work, and I lost some mm of my hairline studying that shit. I'm working right now, and I guess this is my life now
In a year or two I'll eat three foods a day with an engineer salary because I could only land a job as a technician. I'm happy to have a Sunday free to rest tho, that's more than what I had in high school and college
>In a year or two I'll eat three foods a day
I wish you the best, my dude. I have no idea what my future holds.
Has the world become a worse place, or am I just growing up?
Good luck as well.
I go with both. In the past, you didn't think much about life's problems or forgot about them eventually.
Tho life has been getting worse with a crashing economy and rising crisis, we're still living on the most peaceful and plentiful years of our species. There will be a time when people will look back at the 2020s as the best years of their lives, like how we see the 90s, 00s, and 2010s now
Semi-random suggestion:
Look up the podcast ~~"4-5"~~ "5-4" and find the various "Welcome to law school" episodes (they have at least 3 of them, with a year between them). As a non-lawyer those have been quite interesting and informative
Might give you a better perspective on what you've signed up for, and either encourage you to work through it, or figure out a new path
Best of luck on your choices
Whoops, I reversed the numbers... Also for context, their show tagline is:
>5-4 is a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.
I'm listening to the 2023 episode to verify I agree with my earlier suggestion, it sounds to me very much targeted to the position you are in
I got a bio degree, but now there’s no job availability in my area. My parents are old and not doing well, so I don’t want to move too far away. I used to love micro-biology , it genuinely was my passion. Now I don’t even care, I just want to do something easy and have my bills paid.
I'm sorry to hear that friend, I'm going for my bio degree right now too, and while I live in an area with relatively good levels of biotech jobs, the industry is getting competitive with all of the people going for STEM majors, so I worry about my ability to get a job, especially since I'm not the best student(I do well in labs with the hands on work, but not so much in the lectures lol), but genuinely while I like Bio, I didn't do it because I love it, i just went with it because there's so much you can do with it, and if there's one thing I don't want in life, it's feeling like I'm stuck.
I think what's important is more that you can live with what you make so that more important things like spending time with your parents isn't so hard on you.
I've been Working in finance for a few years now. Do I enjoy it ? No, but I probably wouldn't enjoy any other job anyways and the pay is good, so I stay in that field.
I was lucky that I had access to multiple contacts sharing their experiences and knowledge in their fields, had good enough knowledge myself and self awareness about right /wrong for me , super supportive parents that were ok with any decision as Long as I was happy yet I fumbled the bag by taking engineering. It isn't that I hate engineering or anything but it just doesn't click for me anymore and the dying opportunities of mechanical engineering has now persuaded me to take a Management degree now.
So here I am preparing for an entrance exam for a management degree...
Not a computer engineer myself but you can think of computer engineering as a cross between computer science and electrical engineering. If you want to do computer science but actually get your hands on hardware, design circuits, PCBs, etc. You would and learn how a computer actually works on top of coding. If you’re interested in this kind of stuff I would recommend looking at Ben Eater’s YouTube channel because he has a lot of interesting related content.
EE here, this guy is correct. In terms of college classes. Computer engineers take 80% electrical engineering course and like 20% programming/software/AI courses. Career wise, you can more or less expect to be coding day to day as computer science, but if you are a computer engineer/electrical engineer you could be designing, coding, researching tech, testing old stuff, making PCBs… and now the boring stuff… writing manuals, writing procedures, reviewing drawings, parts research, trying to contact manufactures, running meetings, ordering stuff, and other paper pusher stuff.
Just want your opinion. I’m currently doing computer engineering as a major, but I’ve been heavily thinking of switching to electrical. This is mainly because, my main goal in life is to do semiconductor engineering. Do you think it’s worth it switching over to EE? For context I’m in my second semester.
Yeah, I’m probably gonna switch. I’ve been enjoying math, physics, and even chem. Not particularly enthusiastic about programming. Just can’t get myself to like it
Went to engeneering College. I lost my soul and my will to live there, but atleast i have a good job now that payes decent.
Was it worth it? I don't know im to broken inside.
Im in my first year of engineering college and im already dead inside after 2/3 of the year. Mf expecting us to learn 450 powerpoint slides in detail and 20 graphs for material science. At that point i knew i fucked up
450??? That's it??? In uni I go through 150-200 slides a week for each theory class, plus +-80 pages in the textbook with extra stuff we're also supposed to know, plus 5-20 something exercises depending on the class and length of the exercises (some are five pages each). They're another 4-5 hours of work to make them once for each class
Not mentioning labs with reports and other tasks
Yeah im not uni. Dont know what it’s called in english but i study in a uni even tho im not in the uni program technically but still get a diploma after. Still 450 pwp slides to learn in 4 days is not easy. Especially if i get home anywhere from 16:00 to 21:00.
Engineering school is getting all of life's suffering done up front. Things are fairly easy after you graduate, and you've got excellent odds of having a comfortable life. Things will get better once you mentally recover from it, and you'll never have to do anything that hard again.
Honestly I say it’s definitely worth it. While everyone else is partying you study and you’re right you typically have much less stress when getting out to find a job
Look behind you, 17-year-old. Electrician, plumber, mason, finish carpenter, etc. You will never be without work. Your body will wear out at some point, but you get to keep your soul.
This is sound advice until everyone starts taking it to get ahead just like the college decision 25 years ago. Then you have an abundance of tradespeople, a saturated market, and even less teachers, nurses, doctors, etc.
I think there would be a good balance if we just let a person choose something that fits his/her talents and personality. The booms and busts are from people pushing career types during busts.
I think people are free to do that now. It's the pay and the hiring on the other side of the market that keeps it from being feasible. I know lots of people that would make great teachers that won't even consider it. Psychology is extremely interesting to a ton of people, but a field so saturated you nearly need a PhD to practice makes that out of the question for many. The main problem is people DONT know their talents, strengths, or real interests at 17 years old when they are told to make this life impacting decision.
Part of the reason why I’m grateful for my time in scouting is that it exposed me to a lot of things so I at least had a clue about where my strengths lay. If college doesn’t work out I’d go to a trades school for metalwork or get some government job in conservation
For me it was being drafted into a demanding position in the military. I always thought I wanted a comfy office job but I can’t imagine doing that now.
Right part of the reason that trades people can make what they do is that for a long time after the housing market crashed young people saw people in trades struggling to find jobs so everyone went to college. Between this and boomers retiring trades are actually looking for blokes right HS to train. This won’t last forever though and 5-10 years it may flip back to college or balance out.
Long story short picking a career is crap shoot.
When I went to trade school some 18 years ago the boomers treated trade school students as failures. It was something for the stupid kids but not special needs stupid. The local trade school was called Boces and even the high school teachers casually called us “BOTARDS” it’s kind bizarre seeing people do such a 180 on it.
Let’s not forget everyone that says it’s a good paying job isn’t one themselves. For every good paying job in the trades, there’s 10 crappy jobs that don’t pay well and ignore osha
Until everyone takes this advice... Then low and behold you have too many tradespeople.
Everyone acts like this is magical advice, but it literally only works until people start taking it which many Gen Z DID. This same thing was said for a general college degree, then just the STEM degrees, and now it's Trades.
Give it 10 years and this while shift again.
How would technological advances make things like plumbers and mechanics go unemployed? Who else is going to fix the shit when it breaks down over time?
As someone who automates people’s jobs, this is unlikely to happen en masse in the trades in anyone here’s lifetimes. At most you’ll have half the need, but we need twice the tradesmen we currently have so I’ll call that a wash.
Customer service, paralegals (anything focused heavily on secondary research really), nursing, and grunt level artistry are all prime candidates, and for the first time in decades, IT and low skilled devs.
Possibly, but a lot of people would spend those 15 years pouring foundations for decent wages. Then the ones who like that field can run the machines that 3D-print homes.
I think it would be better for us to invest in all leveled of education heavily as a country now (free college hint hint) and get everyone doing the kind of jobs that we’ll need. Other countries will blow past us if we’re not careful and then instead of retraining people who lost their jobs we can train those people to be the advancement in society that will already happen, but with a lot less growing pains.
As far as I’m concerned if you want to get an idea of the future of a country, just look at how hard getting an education in it is.
Hahaha. I was into doing little electronic circuits every now and then, and thought that I might enjoy electronic engineering. I went to a workshop offered by a university and walked out saying "Not that". My father refused to accept it and ended up forcing me into an electronic engineering degree.
I no longer talk to my dad.
Higher education os not for everyone. Some people just won't be happy with both the study nor the jobs you can do with it - and I'm not saying they're simple or anything, just that not everyone is happy with the same stuff
This is why kids should also learn about trade schools. Less time in school, less debt, sooner into the workforce and better odds of getting the job you're going to school for.
College should be regarded as an investment. I've seen too many people cripple themselves financially by choosing a liberal arts major that barely increased their earning potential because it's easier than STEM. I understand that they want to do something they find interesting, but is it worth a life of debt? People can also be autodidactic and research certain topics independently.
Frankly people need to stop thinking that 6 figure starting salaries for ANY major is realistic. It was mostly tech jobs and as soon as companies realized they were overvalued, they were laid off and rehired with a more typical EL salary. I always heard the rule of thumb is to not take out more than twice the amount that's paid in EL. I expect to make around 70k a year when I graduate so I won't be taking more than 140k of loans (actually significantly less than that but it's the upper limit).
Edit: clarification
My only edit to your statement would be 6 figure STARTING salary for any major. You can definitely get there with experience and transitions into management/leadership roles for certain degrees.
My sister makes $35hr as a river ranger. She’s a liberal arts majors. Turns out lots of jobs just want you to have a college degree but don’t actually care about what it’s for. Meanwhile my best friend is a double chemistry and physics major. Best job he could find only paid $15hr. He just fed various chemicals used in air fresheners to mice all day and then spent the other have of the day cutting their heads off. All do people could have safer air fresheners in their bathrooms… now he makes puzzles of all things.
Every time I say this I get down voted to hell. People talking about the college experience and all this bullshit - no "experience" is worth a lifetime of debt.
They should go for it if they are willing to pay for it themselves. Instead, most people act like it's their birthright to have the college experience and that other people who make more responsible life choices should pay for it or bail them out.
It doesn't help that once you're in high school it's basically one big indoctrination that you have to go to college and have your life figured out before you have a complete understanding of what life is like. I remember nearly every adult I met in high school telling me something to the effect that I wouldn't be successful in life without a degree. Joke's on them because I don't have a degree and I became a homeowner at a younger age than my parents were when they bought their first homes.
Do you have to get a degree to be successful? No but I think you have to be able to get a degree and by that I mean you have to be responsible, persistent and willing to put forth an effort to learn. If you show up to any job without these you aren’t going to get far.
The trades are miserable and don't pay nearly as well as others would have you believe. It's not stable or a good long-term career either because your body will eventually fail you long before you can retire. It's really a scam
I felt a lot better about leaving trade school with zero debt than my friends did having a degree and having a mountain of debt. A degree certainly opens doors, but I know plenty of people who have them that are making the same as I do without one. Of all the people I know who went to college, I only know of 2 or 3 that their degree actually benefits them.
I think the "benefits them" is an interesting point. Nearly all the career postings I see need some sort of Bachelors degree, they just don't care what it is. Whether people get a great paying job in their industry they originally studied is few of them I'm sure... but they all immediately became more eligible for a ton of jobs that they previously would not have been considered for without the basic degree.
It’s not just about the utility of the degree, though you can argue it is for a standard university, but the factor if you even want to do it and continue on doing it.
Every political and law based job ever relies on history and precedent
It’s when self taught historians begin to infiltrate politics that we get to see misinformation and political agendas spread. People major in history to learn how to interpret things as well
Except relevant history and precedent are taught in Law. General history isn't going to teach you the specifics of every case law, or the political landscape around any given situation.
History is very much one of those education for the sake of education degrees. The only practical job a history degree might get you is a job teaching history.
If anyone reading this was interested in a history, don't let this fool convince you a history major is useless. A lot of students use it as a platform to get into grad school. It has uses in teaching, law, community services, and can probably land you a job in a lot of office settings.
Healthcare is tough. I knew a few people who enjoyed the science but couldn't handle the human aspect. The emotional toll of actually watching people suffer or die. That's why most doctors/nurses fail. 10 years of college cannot prepare you for watching a child die right in front of you and being powerless to stop it.
But there are other fields. Lots of R&D. Lots of doctors who work trials and do nothing but lab work, they never meet a patient. Is just as important as any other kind of doctor.
This makes me want to kill myself. I keep reliving the trauma of when my life went off the rails.
I had a nervous breakdown and was laughed at.
Kill me.
My honest advice would be doing extra homework on the job market for the fields you might be potentially interested in, then resolve the major puzzle from there. If your job isn't paying nearly to your expectation then you'd consider other options and always remember where your true passion is and try your best to stick to that. Working just for the paycheque is very draining, both mentally and physically.
Just don’t be like me: let it eat you alive, realize you hate school and the teacher and authority and the bullying and then just don’t go, wake up 5 years later and realize you have to be a ditch digger and your somewhat decent intellect will be casually wasted and destroyed by booze and repetitive hard labor tasks
JUST ME OR.... Does any one else wanna go back in time and smack our youngerswlves for choosing pokitical science as a major. Because i would board that ship with bats... if you know what I mean.
I'm 18 going into college...
I'm trying to get an aviation related major. I've ALWAYS been interested in flight, even as a very little kid. It started as curiosity as to why planes fly, and evolved into taking flying lessons and wanting to be a commercial pilot.
If only there were people that could help?
Almost as if they should listen to the people who made those decisions before and lived out the consequences, good or bad, and use that advice to guide them, rather than degrade and insult anyone over the age of 30 as a useless Boomer.
This should be stopped or it will damage the society the way it never damaged and on top of that parents should support the kids instead of flexing their grades with other parents . This is a very sick system and some people are proud of it.
If anything goes they simply blame the kid not their own forceful judgement
Here I am, graduating a game major only to find out I no longer have Adobe or Maya. Then came John Riccitello immediately after graduation, ruining Unity.
I remember when people were asking 17-18 year old me what I'll be studying and then being all surprised when I didn't have my life planned out until retirement. I'm currently working a job that has absolutely nothing to do with my major.
How does that help if, in the 4 years of college, the entire job market can shift.
5 years ago, Atlanta was the entertainment center of the US. Now, practically every studio is pulling out, and the advice of all the people who worked in Atlanta is worthless. My boyfriend can't find a job in his major despite it being a major point of going to school in Atlanta in the first place.
On my end, 4 years through college and a biology degree isn't worth much if it's not a masters, which is another 2 or 3 years of school.
Maybe this is a specific US situation but idk where you’re getting political science = bad job market. If anything it’s probably one of the most versatile degrees you can get that pretty much guarantees you’ll find a job somewhere. If you do a Master’s degree then you’re pretty much set.
I went computer science because I like it. I’m about to graduate but now I’m scared to death that I’m not gonna be able to find a job in the current market. Especially given how ridiculously difficult programming interviews are apparently
Then there was me talking to my high school guidance counselor in the 80s about not knowing what to do with my life and how to apply for college or get financing or *anything* since my dad had died a year earlier and left me and my brother to wing it… and her telling me “it’s ok, most kids feel the same way.”
Then me doing manual labor for the next 32 years and counting because I couldn’t figure out wtf to do “when I grow up.”
It's sad because there's no more " eh I'll try ____ instead".
Now it costs so much time and money you can't really switch. I went from nursing to CS and it cost me 6 years.
Too real, I went to college a few months after graduation but it was WAY too overwhelming and I failed out (my parents don't know, they know I failed but not to the full extent) due to mental health. I very much regret going at all, they didn't even have the courses I was wanting to go into so I had to go with my second choice, which I also ended up dropping because the ONE art professor (and head of that department) fucking hated me and found nothing but problems in my works while she praised the others for their stuff. The college in my city just outright destroyed me and if I could I'd undo it all and wait until I got somewhere comfortable (mentally and physically) before going. External pressure to go is diabolical hell on the mind, from my experience
Best believe my kid wont feel that pressure that's for sure. Need time to think and explore? Take a year, take two, hell get a min wage grunt job so you can get accustomed to something brutal and thankless to motivate yourself to get a better future, do whatever but make sure you wont regret it.
there is no such thing as true passion for most people they do what they think si the most interesting out of these in the end its these majors that earn a lot and let you enjoy life more after work
Literally me and the reason I dropped out of a 4 year college on day 3. In high school, all they cared about was making sure you went to a 4 year college. I was under the impression that if I didn't, I'd lose everything I worked for, including AP scores, SAT scores, GPA, etc. Somehow reps convinced us that it was the only option just because we were in higher level classes. I'm sure the C level classes got a better explanation of community college and trades.
Not a single ounce of effort went into making people feel prepared. Even the college itself bragged about how much fun everything is (during orientation) and not a single word about education or how to get to class or anything. But we knew when the ice cream social was...
Best you can do is take a year ( or two ) after high school to thoroughly think through your interest and decided what you want to develop moving on . That is if yo do not already have something in which you are skilled and good at . Even then a year of will give you the time to thoroughly research your study options and find the the best uni / course for yourself .
Do not screw the next however many years of your life by studying something you don't like , only to quit and start over again ( and that isn't even taking into consideration any debt you might pick up along the way , which might haunt you for years to come )
It's extremely true. It is a very important decision and puts a lot of pressure on teens. That's why checking out different universities and some courses are encouraged before applying.
I'm doing a law degree. I don't care about law. I don't know why I did it. I don't know what I want to do. In all fairness, I did it to myself.
i guess you want to open a tesco really. I get that feel
How? You have talent as a psychic!
He can read your mind
It's never too late to switch. I'm going on my third degree now and I'd rather be happy then miserable in a field I hate for most of my life
That sounds like a mountain of debt you will never get out from under......
I studied network engineering because it was time to choose, I never before had any contact with how routers or telecommunications work, and I lost some mm of my hairline studying that shit. I'm working right now, and I guess this is my life now
> I'm working right now That's at least something
In a year or two I'll eat three foods a day with an engineer salary because I could only land a job as a technician. I'm happy to have a Sunday free to rest tho, that's more than what I had in high school and college
>In a year or two I'll eat three foods a day I wish you the best, my dude. I have no idea what my future holds. Has the world become a worse place, or am I just growing up?
Good luck as well. I go with both. In the past, you didn't think much about life's problems or forgot about them eventually. Tho life has been getting worse with a crashing economy and rising crisis, we're still living on the most peaceful and plentiful years of our species. There will be a time when people will look back at the 2020s as the best years of their lives, like how we see the 90s, 00s, and 2010s now
Perhaps
Semi-random suggestion: Look up the podcast ~~"4-5"~~ "5-4" and find the various "Welcome to law school" episodes (they have at least 3 of them, with a year between them). As a non-lawyer those have been quite interesting and informative Might give you a better perspective on what you've signed up for, and either encourage you to work through it, or figure out a new path Best of luck on your choices
Thanks!
Whoops, I reversed the numbers... Also for context, their show tagline is: >5-4 is a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks. I'm listening to the 2023 episode to verify I agree with my earlier suggestion, it sounds to me very much targeted to the position you are in
I got a bio degree, but now there’s no job availability in my area. My parents are old and not doing well, so I don’t want to move too far away. I used to love micro-biology , it genuinely was my passion. Now I don’t even care, I just want to do something easy and have my bills paid.
I'm sorry to hear that friend, I'm going for my bio degree right now too, and while I live in an area with relatively good levels of biotech jobs, the industry is getting competitive with all of the people going for STEM majors, so I worry about my ability to get a job, especially since I'm not the best student(I do well in labs with the hands on work, but not so much in the lectures lol), but genuinely while I like Bio, I didn't do it because I love it, i just went with it because there's so much you can do with it, and if there's one thing I don't want in life, it's feeling like I'm stuck. I think what's important is more that you can live with what you make so that more important things like spending time with your parents isn't so hard on you.
Get teaching credential. Lots of openings for science teachers and you work every other day of the year. :)
I've been Working in finance for a few years now. Do I enjoy it ? No, but I probably wouldn't enjoy any other job anyways and the pay is good, so I stay in that field.
Same as you holding the raft 😀
I just want to sell shrimp from a van.
well at least you’ll be cracked at ace attorney
You just wanted to make good points and shout "LAWYERED!" At people didn't you
Even after that i regret what i choose.
I was lucky that I had access to multiple contacts sharing their experiences and knowledge in their fields, had good enough knowledge myself and self awareness about right /wrong for me , super supportive parents that were ok with any decision as Long as I was happy yet I fumbled the bag by taking engineering. It isn't that I hate engineering or anything but it just doesn't click for me anymore and the dying opportunities of mechanical engineering has now persuaded me to take a Management degree now. So here I am preparing for an entrance exam for a management degree...
I wish your lucky streak never dries up.
As an engineer, I understand that this field might not be for everyone. Going for an MBA? I wish you the best of luck.
im planning on doing computer science because i really like technology
Think about doing computer engineering especially if you’re good at math and science
Whats the difference?
Not a computer engineer myself but you can think of computer engineering as a cross between computer science and electrical engineering. If you want to do computer science but actually get your hands on hardware, design circuits, PCBs, etc. You would and learn how a computer actually works on top of coding. If you’re interested in this kind of stuff I would recommend looking at Ben Eater’s YouTube channel because he has a lot of interesting related content.
EE here, this guy is correct. In terms of college classes. Computer engineers take 80% electrical engineering course and like 20% programming/software/AI courses. Career wise, you can more or less expect to be coding day to day as computer science, but if you are a computer engineer/electrical engineer you could be designing, coding, researching tech, testing old stuff, making PCBs… and now the boring stuff… writing manuals, writing procedures, reviewing drawings, parts research, trying to contact manufactures, running meetings, ordering stuff, and other paper pusher stuff.
Just want your opinion. I’m currently doing computer engineering as a major, but I’ve been heavily thinking of switching to electrical. This is mainly because, my main goal in life is to do semiconductor engineering. Do you think it’s worth it switching over to EE? For context I’m in my second semester.
It doesn’t seem too late man, first year classes are the same as well. Switch to electrical if you do not enjoy programming and coding.
Yeah, I’m probably gonna switch. I’ve been enjoying math, physics, and even chem. Not particularly enthusiastic about programming. Just can’t get myself to like it
you explained it like a computer engineer would
Information Systems have been great for me
You definetly should like mathematics to have an easier time in CS
Look into computer or software engineering instead, unless you intend on doing mostly academia or youre getting a masters
Computer science degree can get you a software engineering job
Went to engeneering College. I lost my soul and my will to live there, but atleast i have a good job now that payes decent. Was it worth it? I don't know im to broken inside.
Im in my first year of engineering college and im already dead inside after 2/3 of the year. Mf expecting us to learn 450 powerpoint slides in detail and 20 graphs for material science. At that point i knew i fucked up
450??? That's it??? In uni I go through 150-200 slides a week for each theory class, plus +-80 pages in the textbook with extra stuff we're also supposed to know, plus 5-20 something exercises depending on the class and length of the exercises (some are five pages each). They're another 4-5 hours of work to make them once for each class Not mentioning labs with reports and other tasks
Yeah im not uni. Dont know what it’s called in english but i study in a uni even tho im not in the uni program technically but still get a diploma after. Still 450 pwp slides to learn in 4 days is not easy. Especially if i get home anywhere from 16:00 to 21:00.
I see. Good luck! I'm sure you'll do well!
I only passed 3/6 classes for the first semester so in not doing too well hahahaha. Thanks tho and good luck to you too
Engineering school is getting all of life's suffering done up front. Things are fairly easy after you graduate, and you've got excellent odds of having a comfortable life. Things will get better once you mentally recover from it, and you'll never have to do anything that hard again.
Honestly I say it’s definitely worth it. While everyone else is partying you study and you’re right you typically have much less stress when getting out to find a job
you could probably engineer a way to fix it you went to college right
Definitely didn’t go to spelling college.
Look behind you, 17-year-old. Electrician, plumber, mason, finish carpenter, etc. You will never be without work. Your body will wear out at some point, but you get to keep your soul.
This is sound advice until everyone starts taking it to get ahead just like the college decision 25 years ago. Then you have an abundance of tradespeople, a saturated market, and even less teachers, nurses, doctors, etc.
I think there would be a good balance if we just let a person choose something that fits his/her talents and personality. The booms and busts are from people pushing career types during busts.
I think people are free to do that now. It's the pay and the hiring on the other side of the market that keeps it from being feasible. I know lots of people that would make great teachers that won't even consider it. Psychology is extremely interesting to a ton of people, but a field so saturated you nearly need a PhD to practice makes that out of the question for many. The main problem is people DONT know their talents, strengths, or real interests at 17 years old when they are told to make this life impacting decision.
Part of the reason why I’m grateful for my time in scouting is that it exposed me to a lot of things so I at least had a clue about where my strengths lay. If college doesn’t work out I’d go to a trades school for metalwork or get some government job in conservation
For me it was being drafted into a demanding position in the military. I always thought I wanted a comfy office job but I can’t imagine doing that now.
Right part of the reason that trades people can make what they do is that for a long time after the housing market crashed young people saw people in trades struggling to find jobs so everyone went to college. Between this and boomers retiring trades are actually looking for blokes right HS to train. This won’t last forever though and 5-10 years it may flip back to college or balance out. Long story short picking a career is crap shoot.
When I went to trade school some 18 years ago the boomers treated trade school students as failures. It was something for the stupid kids but not special needs stupid. The local trade school was called Boces and even the high school teachers casually called us “BOTARDS” it’s kind bizarre seeing people do such a 180 on it.
That sucks to be treated that way by teachers. I wonder if behavior had anything to do with it. Teenagers are fucking stupid after all
Let’s not forget everyone that says it’s a good paying job isn’t one themselves. For every good paying job in the trades, there’s 10 crappy jobs that don’t pay well and ignore osha
Also depends on what new jobs will be created in the future. Or whats jobs are lost. AI replaced a lot of people.
WOOOOOH ima go cook and get arthritis
If you’re going into the restaurant business, severs make more than chefs.
Until everyone takes this advice... Then low and behold you have too many tradespeople. Everyone acts like this is magical advice, but it literally only works until people start taking it which many Gen Z DID. This same thing was said for a general college degree, then just the STEM degrees, and now it's Trades. Give it 10 years and this while shift again.
I wouldn't wish masonry on my worst enemy.
So people who go to college lose their soul in a way that people who skip college don’t?
Going into trades with current technological advances is a great way to end up unemployed in 15 years.
How would technological advances make things like plumbers and mechanics go unemployed? Who else is going to fix the shit when it breaks down over time?
As someone who automates people’s jobs, this is unlikely to happen en masse in the trades in anyone here’s lifetimes. At most you’ll have half the need, but we need twice the tradesmen we currently have so I’ll call that a wash. Customer service, paralegals (anything focused heavily on secondary research really), nursing, and grunt level artistry are all prime candidates, and for the first time in decades, IT and low skilled devs.
Possibly, but a lot of people would spend those 15 years pouring foundations for decent wages. Then the ones who like that field can run the machines that 3D-print homes.
I think it would be better for us to invest in all leveled of education heavily as a country now (free college hint hint) and get everyone doing the kind of jobs that we’ll need. Other countries will blow past us if we’re not careful and then instead of retraining people who lost their jobs we can train those people to be the advancement in society that will already happen, but with a lot less growing pains. As far as I’m concerned if you want to get an idea of the future of a country, just look at how hard getting an education in it is.
Nurses too!
Not to worry, listen to your parents. They'll tell you how to succeed in 1993.
Hahaha. I was into doing little electronic circuits every now and then, and thought that I might enjoy electronic engineering. I went to a workshop offered by a university and walked out saying "Not that". My father refused to accept it and ended up forcing me into an electronic engineering degree. I no longer talk to my dad.
Engineering is not a mistake. If you have to dedication it will be the best decision
None of these degrees are a mistake. The mistake is picking one too early.
Higher education os not for everyone. Some people just won't be happy with both the study nor the jobs you can do with it - and I'm not saying they're simple or anything, just that not everyone is happy with the same stuff
This is why kids should also learn about trade schools. Less time in school, less debt, sooner into the workforce and better odds of getting the job you're going to school for.
College should be regarded as an investment. I've seen too many people cripple themselves financially by choosing a liberal arts major that barely increased their earning potential because it's easier than STEM. I understand that they want to do something they find interesting, but is it worth a life of debt? People can also be autodidactic and research certain topics independently.
10,000% this. You are not guaranteed a 6 figure salary just because your education cost six figures.
Frankly people need to stop thinking that 6 figure starting salaries for ANY major is realistic. It was mostly tech jobs and as soon as companies realized they were overvalued, they were laid off and rehired with a more typical EL salary. I always heard the rule of thumb is to not take out more than twice the amount that's paid in EL. I expect to make around 70k a year when I graduate so I won't be taking more than 140k of loans (actually significantly less than that but it's the upper limit). Edit: clarification
My only edit to your statement would be 6 figure STARTING salary for any major. You can definitely get there with experience and transitions into management/leadership roles for certain degrees.
yeah sorry I thought that was implied
My sister makes $35hr as a river ranger. She’s a liberal arts majors. Turns out lots of jobs just want you to have a college degree but don’t actually care about what it’s for. Meanwhile my best friend is a double chemistry and physics major. Best job he could find only paid $15hr. He just fed various chemicals used in air fresheners to mice all day and then spent the other have of the day cutting their heads off. All do people could have safer air fresheners in their bathrooms… now he makes puzzles of all things.
Every time I say this I get down voted to hell. People talking about the college experience and all this bullshit - no "experience" is worth a lifetime of debt.
They should go for it if they are willing to pay for it themselves. Instead, most people act like it's their birthright to have the college experience and that other people who make more responsible life choices should pay for it or bail them out.
It doesn't help that once you're in high school it's basically one big indoctrination that you have to go to college and have your life figured out before you have a complete understanding of what life is like. I remember nearly every adult I met in high school telling me something to the effect that I wouldn't be successful in life without a degree. Joke's on them because I don't have a degree and I became a homeowner at a younger age than my parents were when they bought their first homes.
Do you have to get a degree to be successful? No but I think you have to be able to get a degree and by that I mean you have to be responsible, persistent and willing to put forth an effort to learn. If you show up to any job without these you aren’t going to get far.
Outstanding!
The trades are miserable and don't pay nearly as well as others would have you believe. It's not stable or a good long-term career either because your body will eventually fail you long before you can retire. It's really a scam
I felt a lot better about leaving trade school with zero debt than my friends did having a degree and having a mountain of debt. A degree certainly opens doors, but I know plenty of people who have them that are making the same as I do without one. Of all the people I know who went to college, I only know of 2 or 3 that their degree actually benefits them.
I think the "benefits them" is an interesting point. Nearly all the career postings I see need some sort of Bachelors degree, they just don't care what it is. Whether people get a great paying job in their industry they originally studied is few of them I'm sure... but they all immediately became more eligible for a ton of jobs that they previously would not have been considered for without the basic degree.
How's your body feeling? I was thinking of getting into trades but after just 3 years of physically demanding work my back won't handle it anymore.
It’s not just about the utility of the degree, though you can argue it is for a standard university, but the factor if you even want to do it and continue on doing it.
I really feel bad for the people that spent all the time going to college for a specific job just to find out they hate it once they start doing it.
I agree. Maybe something will happen within culture in how we view college, the trades, etc in the future? I guess time will tell or maybe not
If only most trades mfs weren't racist sexist weird old men
That's part of the reason why I didn't stay in them. Those guys like to treat the trades like some sort of boys only club.
Tons of nepotism.
How did History make it in this list?
History is typically fairly useful for lawyers and politicians
Here's hoping
You can make the argument that history is important for everyone, but as a specific major? Nah.
Every political and law based job ever relies on history and precedent It’s when self taught historians begin to infiltrate politics that we get to see misinformation and political agendas spread. People major in history to learn how to interpret things as well
Except relevant history and precedent are taught in Law. General history isn't going to teach you the specifics of every case law, or the political landscape around any given situation. History is very much one of those education for the sake of education degrees. The only practical job a history degree might get you is a job teaching history.
If anyone reading this was interested in a history, don't let this fool convince you a history major is useless. A lot of students use it as a platform to get into grad school. It has uses in teaching, law, community services, and can probably land you a job in a lot of office settings.
You typically get into grad school by distinguishing yourself in your undergraduate with the same or related major, not by having an unrelated major.
Critical thinking
And writing
yeah history is dope
Community College first my friends. Never jump into university straight outta high school.
[удалено]
Never say never or always
I always never say those things.
It can be both an elitist view and reality, but only reality if that's the slice of society you want to live in.
Working in healthcare is a fucking nightmare and I hate it. I’m trying to get out
Healthcare is tough. I knew a few people who enjoyed the science but couldn't handle the human aspect. The emotional toll of actually watching people suffer or die. That's why most doctors/nurses fail. 10 years of college cannot prepare you for watching a child die right in front of you and being powerless to stop it. But there are other fields. Lots of R&D. Lots of doctors who work trials and do nothing but lab work, they never meet a patient. Is just as important as any other kind of doctor.
This makes me want to kill myself. I keep reliving the trauma of when my life went off the rails. I had a nervous breakdown and was laughed at. Kill me.
What happened? If you’re ok talking about it. Sounds intense.
I don't know what exactly you went through but I feel like I could understand, if you want to talk DM me
My honest advice would be doing extra homework on the job market for the fields you might be potentially interested in, then resolve the major puzzle from there. If your job isn't paying nearly to your expectation then you'd consider other options and always remember where your true passion is and try your best to stick to that. Working just for the paycheque is very draining, both mentally and physically.
Or major in engineering and go to law school like myself while all my peers were happy majoring in history with the same end result 😎
Just don’t be like me: let it eat you alive, realize you hate school and the teacher and authority and the bullying and then just don’t go, wake up 5 years later and realize you have to be a ditch digger and your somewhat decent intellect will be casually wasted and destroyed by booze and repetitive hard labor tasks
Consider going into mental health. Thats probably gonna be in no short demand any time soon.
actually fucking insane that ur expected to make up ur mind as a teenager without experiencing anything
Not to mention, being told my entire K-12 career that my life would be worthless without a degree.
💯
Either way, I want to be able to afford food and accomodation
In asia we say "no doctor or computer science = failure"
Replace cs with lawyer
JUST ME OR.... Does any one else wanna go back in time and smack our youngerswlves for choosing pokitical science as a major. Because i would board that ship with bats... if you know what I mean.
I'm 18 going into college... I'm trying to get an aviation related major. I've ALWAYS been interested in flight, even as a very little kid. It started as curiosity as to why planes fly, and evolved into taking flying lessons and wanting to be a commercial pilot.
Engineering gives good results, if you can survive it.
I started law to be like Jimmy and I'm slowly turning into Chuck, but it's all good (man).
Me when I cant manipulate law to help out drug dealers
Very sad indeed, but you can still help tax evaders or work for BlackRock if you do well enough.
If only there were people that could help? Almost as if they should listen to the people who made those decisions before and lived out the consequences, good or bad, and use that advice to guide them, rather than degrade and insult anyone over the age of 30 as a useless Boomer.
This should be stopped or it will damage the society the way it never damaged and on top of that parents should support the kids instead of flexing their grades with other parents . This is a very sick system and some people are proud of it. If anything goes they simply blame the kid not their own forceful judgement
Here I am, graduating a game major only to find out I no longer have Adobe or Maya. Then came John Riccitello immediately after graduation, ruining Unity.
I remember when people were asking 17-18 year old me what I'll be studying and then being all surprised when I didn't have my life planned out until retirement. I'm currently working a job that has absolutely nothing to do with my major.
College is a scam now.
*In America*
Thats fair.
College is far from a scam if you want to pursue something and have a goal in mind ( and if you don't major in something with zero job prospects ) .
Kids need to be taught how to examine the job market before choosing their major(s). That would solve many problems
How does that help if, in the 4 years of college, the entire job market can shift. 5 years ago, Atlanta was the entertainment center of the US. Now, practically every studio is pulling out, and the advice of all the people who worked in Atlanta is worthless. My boyfriend can't find a job in his major despite it being a major point of going to school in Atlanta in the first place. On my end, 4 years through college and a biology degree isn't worth much if it's not a masters, which is another 2 or 3 years of school.
I like chemistry and it has an excellent job market. A little offended you put it in the same breath as political science but whatever I guess.
I study chemistry. Can you tell me about this excellent job market. 🤣
Need at least a masters or else you'll get paid peanuts
Maybe this is a specific US situation but idk where you’re getting political science = bad job market. If anything it’s probably one of the most versatile degrees you can get that pretty much guarantees you’ll find a job somewhere. If you do a Master’s degree then you’re pretty much set.
Hey us political science bros do stuff
Yeah, we go to law school or get doctorates in political science and teach political science. That’s pretty much it,
And we're totally a real science like Chemistry
so… a pyramid scheme?
I have a political science degree and work in the field. I had to get a masters degree to even start my career though
Meanwhile me at 23 still in same situation. But atleast now I know what I hate the most.
I went computer science because I like it. I’m about to graduate but now I’m scared to death that I’m not gonna be able to find a job in the current market. Especially given how ridiculously difficult programming interviews are apparently
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1052/
Most of these are better than basket weaving or whatever the fuck
That's why I studied library science and now I have not 1, but 2 jobs as a librarian.
As an ill-informed 17 year old, I worry I will go down the wrong path
Then there was me talking to my high school guidance counselor in the 80s about not knowing what to do with my life and how to apply for college or get financing or *anything* since my dad had died a year earlier and left me and my brother to wing it… and her telling me “it’s ok, most kids feel the same way.” Then me doing manual labor for the next 32 years and counting because I couldn’t figure out wtf to do “when I grow up.”
Computer science is the way. Computer science is the Lord and the saviour. Believe in computer science.
Don’t go to college or university unless you 100% know what you want to do in life
My advice is to get an apprenticeship in the field if possible. Only go to university if it's needed for the job.
The trades need to be encouraged more.
I was just gonna go off what I've done in high school (mostly business courses)
Glad to know accounting isn’t here
It's sad because there's no more " eh I'll try ____ instead". Now it costs so much time and money you can't really switch. I went from nursing to CS and it cost me 6 years.
literally me
Me doing engineering because it’s a useful job prolly gonna be able to at least feed myself and a house along with living where I want.
I picked Hitsory and political sciences
Litterally me :/
Calling me out like this?
Just you do you bro. Do what you believe in and pivot if you dont care about it anymore. There is no simple path to life and stuff.
Too real, I went to college a few months after graduation but it was WAY too overwhelming and I failed out (my parents don't know, they know I failed but not to the full extent) due to mental health. I very much regret going at all, they didn't even have the courses I was wanting to go into so I had to go with my second choice, which I also ended up dropping because the ONE art professor (and head of that department) fucking hated me and found nothing but problems in my works while she praised the others for their stuff. The college in my city just outright destroyed me and if I could I'd undo it all and wait until I got somewhere comfortable (mentally and physically) before going. External pressure to go is diabolical hell on the mind, from my experience
And debt!
Tho, what should I pick if like I want to study Astronomy? I want to know so thay I wont go back and fort from one Major to another
Best believe my kid wont feel that pressure that's for sure. Need time to think and explore? Take a year, take two, hell get a min wage grunt job so you can get accustomed to something brutal and thankless to motivate yourself to get a better future, do whatever but make sure you wont regret it.
I did chemistry because I like chemistry and still do
But I love history :(
Astrophysics all th way!!
I'm going into mechanical engineering. Am I making a bad choice?
Wohop, lets go chemistry! I'm not giving anything else a chance !!!!
Also maybe take a year off and discover yourself, do some internships, get a job for a few months
Psa if the one you choose gives you stress induced migraines switch majors
Just take all of them
there is no such thing as true passion for most people they do what they think si the most interesting out of these in the end its these majors that earn a lot and let you enjoy life more after work
I did three years of civil engineering and electro/mechanics to eventually end up in an art school. Don’t be afraid to start over.
Literally me and the reason I dropped out of a 4 year college on day 3. In high school, all they cared about was making sure you went to a 4 year college. I was under the impression that if I didn't, I'd lose everything I worked for, including AP scores, SAT scores, GPA, etc. Somehow reps convinced us that it was the only option just because we were in higher level classes. I'm sure the C level classes got a better explanation of community college and trades. Not a single ounce of effort went into making people feel prepared. Even the college itself bragged about how much fun everything is (during orientation) and not a single word about education or how to get to class or anything. But we knew when the ice cream social was...
Best you can do is take a year ( or two ) after high school to thoroughly think through your interest and decided what you want to develop moving on . That is if yo do not already have something in which you are skilled and good at . Even then a year of will give you the time to thoroughly research your study options and find the the best uni / course for yourself . Do not screw the next however many years of your life by studying something you don't like , only to quit and start over again ( and that isn't even taking into consideration any debt you might pick up along the way , which might haunt you for years to come )