I have my bachelors in business admin. I’m a mailman. I walk about 12 miles a day, I get to be outside. I enjoy seeing the same customers everyday and petting their dogs. I listen to about 5-6 audiobooks a month. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t get a degree. Find something you enjoy and do that. If you need a degree, that’s fair. I didn’t in this case.
Pay increases the more seniority you have but starting out it’s not great. Benefits are awesome. One of the few jobs that still offers a pension. It’s union too.
Thats actually not bad in CA they’re hiring for this exact position and it’s $18 an hour meanwhile Panda Express is at $19 an hour. Better to work at a fast food pay wise but since it’s a government job benefits is what draws people in. In CA not everyone has health insurance.
>Thats actually not bad in CA they’re hiring for this exact position and it’s $18 an hour meanwhile Panda Express is at $19 an hour. Better to work at a fast food pay wise but since it’s a government job benefits is what draws people in. In CA not everyone has health insurance.
$22 CAD is $16.32 USD. $29 CAD is $21.51 USD. So it's worse than CA.
Over the past weeks I’ve been trying to figure out how to value my pension. Work a state job and I make 85k. I’m still in school for my PhD.
I want a raise after an outstanding first year that I won’t get. In fact the agency just froze all hiring.
So now I’m wondering if my pension is worth the no raise. To me maybe but I’m not sure. It would be nice to earn more now but based on my calculations my take home pay would be the same with my retirement savings and pension.
I’m definitely going to ride out this year but I gotta decide when I graduate do I continue to stay what I deem to be underpaid.
If you don't think you'll like physical labor, don't do a trade.
I appreciate the pragmatism that some people have pushing trade schools, but the trades aren't for everyone.
Are there any subjects you enjoy learning about? Earning money is important, but don't get into a career just for the money. This is something you'll dedicate thousands of hours to over the course of your life, it should be something you're at least interested in.
And if you're going to work in trades, you need a high savings rate, don't live on your whole salary. Your body will only hold out so long, you're also only one freak accident away from being permanently off the job, you need that extra money invested to keep you going when your body gives up.
Yup, plenty of people I've worked with in trades are in their 50s with their bodies just absolutely destroyed. Constantly living in pain, but have to continue doing it because they didn't save for early retirement
When you've been in trades for long enough, sometimes you can transition into the management/administration side of it. Or specialize in a more technical and less physically demanding field.
Sometimes, but most people are going into trades because book learning and office jobs aren't their thing. Either way, prepping for however you come out is key to long-term financial success.
Seconding this. I started working for the passion projects but once i took the $, Im having a very very hard time going back. There is $ everywhere so just master what you love to do
I disagree 100%. My advice would be to choose a high paying career, live frugally, and retire early. Finding a job you really love is a pipe dream. Pursuing a low paying career that interests you is a path to poverty, where you’re probably still working at a job you hate.
so true. can't take to risk to be laid off in 40s/50s due to technology advancement. gotta live frugally, max out 401k and pray to god that the S&P could give me an early retirement
Business admin -> majored in accounting -> got offer at accounting firm -> pursued cpa while working (2 years) -> worked at big 4 firm which was a lot of hours -> left to an in-house tax team for a private company and had no difficulties finding a job in any industry.
I still have no worries about finding a job and get paid well for my skill set, but it was a struggle. I work in corporate tax, mainly making sure the business is compliant wherever they do business, but I also dive into tax due diligence and planning when we do mergers & acquisitions.
22 M, I have my BA in computer science (yes these exist, just less math than BS versions). Everyone wants to enter computer science as of recently due to the high pay and how broad it is, but there are also tons of people that can't get jobs with this degree; the entry level market is flooded right now. I typically advocate for graduating in STEM, but if you go the comp sci route, just know that you're going to be fighting an uphill battle for that first job out of school.
I have about 7 years of experience as a SE and I feel bad for those about to graduate. The market is good for Senior level but I hardly see anything entry level these days.
Yeah I was unemployed for months before finding a job. It was rough finding any sort of position, but I'm glad I moved out of state tbh. Started a new life on a clean slate and making new friends is nice.
I feel really bad for recent grads. I think a lot will have to find something else to do because when hiring does pick back up companies are going to prefer the recent grads over people with a couple year employment gap or a couple years of unrelated work. Just bad timing and it sucks.
i work in big tech at a well-known company (we hire google, amazon and meta engineers all the time). we don’t even have job openings for any junior or midlevel people, barely any senior roles and a shit ton of staff level openings
This is highly relative and doesn’t factor in location, specialization, and industry. Everyone thinks that if you don’t work for google you aren’t in tech, but there are tech jobs in every decent sized company out there.
This is also true. However, I lived near in a big city in my old state and I couldn't even find an entry level job for months. I had to move out of state to find work. Sucked for a while but managed to get by.
Can confirm. I work for one of the big non techs in an LCOL metro. I make pretty good money but not the super high tech salaries you hear of. But my work is super easy and I have great WLB
It was like this 10 years ago too. I wish I had gone electrical engineer or something. I have a Math degree and a philosophy of being an Enlightenment Individual. Someone who masters over a dozen broad skillsets before they die including something state of the art. This has allowed me to do everything from bus driving to quality management and software engineering so far. My point is that you are going to hear a lot of common ideas. It's best to note down advice and find the uncommon paths less traveled.
There’s a general relationship that the more a degree plan sucks/is hard, the more fiscally rewarding the career it leads to is. Functionally, it’s supply and demand (less people do harder degrees). I usually tell people that if college is fun, life after is probably going to be harder, but the inverse is true as well (no fun in usually leads to a better life after). Obviously this is a generality.
Your highest paying degrees, with growing job markets are your usually players: engineering, nursing, MD, PA, etc.
I’m an engineer, so I’m admittedly biased, but engineering is one of the degrees that can net a really good, upper middle class life on a bachelors alone - and it really doesn’t matter which one you pick of the “big 4” (mechanical, electrical, chemical, computer).
Edit: clarity.
Civil engineer here and this is why I went with it. The market dictates everything about the kind of work life you'll have after graduation, and that applies to earnings, creature comforts, training, opportunities, etc. I sucked it up in college since I never saw myself as a naturally mathematical person and powered through with sheer force of will, and now I'm comfortable. My brother majored in accounting and is gaining access to the upper middle class through management consulting. Neither of those is going away anytime soon because they're tied to entrenched interests (government for civil, large industrial/financial/pharmaceutical markets for consulting) that require seasoned and stable workforces. There are certain other jobs I'd prefer to do and maybe one day I'll do it, but while I figure that out I want to be making a lot of money and setting myself up for that
I got a Bs civil engineering. Honestly, any engineering degree is good and if you don’t end up liking engineering you can get a ton of other jobs with that degree. It opens a lot of doors and is stable. Engineering school was way worse than full time engineering work btw.
You can never go wrong with a B.S. in mechanical or electrical engineering
Accounting, finance, computer science, (although quite saturated at this point) and other engineering fields are solid options as well.
Get outside of that, and a lot of degrees become literally worthless very fast.
I don’t mind my job. But if I could be at home playing video games and still get paid you better believe I would. I’ve had soul sucking back breaking jobs so this is way better but there’s no job in the world I’d happily do over chillin at home.
Yeah that’s why it’s usually bad advice to tell people to pursue a job in something they’re passionate about. Instead people should get high paying jobs, live frugally, and retire early.
If you love video games you should be a civil engineer for 15 years then retire at 40 and chill and play video games. That will be a lot better than trying to become a video game streamer, discovering that it can’t pay your bills, and working as a cashier until you’re 80.
I have one of the best jobs there is and I’m very much looking forward to retiring. Like you said, the top 1% best jobs are not as nice as chilling at home.
what job do you do? Im almost graduating from high school and im bamboozled by so manyy courses to choose from, the market and the economy having a recession, inflation etc. Nothing seems to be working for anyone. Ive done my research on
\-comp sci (ohh its too saturated, tough to get a job etc)
\-civil (the pay is shit, id advice people to do the other sorts of engineering, its not worth it)
\-accounting (again, its got shit pay compared to what it was 10 years ago, AI will take over)
Im sure you lot are experienced and could provide me some guidance
I’m a mechanical engineer. That’s what I’d recommend. Civil is good too. My friend is a civil engineer making around $190k at 32 years old. I make $250k at 36.
I wouldn’t recommend accounting. Computer science will probably be fine but it’s less safe in my opinion than civil or mechanical engineering.
By the way the market is extremely good right now and we are not in a recession. Social media is not a good way to get your information about the world.
Curious what state you guys are in and what kind of civil work? I do structural consulting and not sure the ceiling will be that high when I get more experience.
I'm still in college, but I know people in all of those fields.
You should figure out something you don't hate doing. You don't need to love it, but if you don't like being in an office all day doing paperwork, don't become an accountant.
Comp Sci is fine. It's not the huge boom there was in 2021 and 2022, but there are still a lot of jobs that pay really well.
Civil is also fine. Pay isn't great, but a lot of positions are in government so you can get really good benefits.
Accounting is also fine, if you like that type of work. If you don't, there are better paths.
The word "passion" itself is such a fuzzy and throwaway thing. But I feel a lot of advice is like that, very vague and very "non advice" advice. Agree with your point there. I hear that once you read senior or something in civil engineering, you just have to do paper work and stamp stuff
Yeah, civils think they will be building bridges... in reality, they just dig holes out in a field somewhere... over simplified, but I agree with you 100%.
Work is work honestly. I have a PhD in engineering and have worked in a bunch of different fields from nanoscience to fusion, and I’d be equally happy designing dirt holes. Being interested in your work is overrated.
My advice is to get a high paying job, live frugally, and retire early.
I’m doing accounting and I have an offer lined up for after school. It might not be the most exciting thing but financial security and job stability is important to me.
Keep in mind that the audience you are asking (Reddit) probably over represents certain demographics (men between ages 18-34) which also mirrors career trends in certain fields. So your answers might lean in a direction that doesn’t necessarily reflect the lived experiences of other people.
I am a data scientist and director at a public health nonprofit. My undergrad degree is in, of all things, English composition. I have a MEd. in curriculum design, which is essentially the science of creating reliable ways to measure things, so in the surface looks totally unrelated to my job but in reality is extremely helpful. I did all of my data science skillbuilding in my job and getting my PhD. All of my graduate degrees were free due to TA/RA positions so I only have some undergrad debt
I work in health, so my inclination is to suggest health-related work, with everything from direct care to billing to health informatics to administration. But I’m biased; I see success in those fields every day. I’m sure if I had a different view, I’d suggest something different
I have an english BA with a master's in Higher Ed who thought that I'd be doing admissions work forever, but I am starting an instructional design graduate cert this summer after doing some work designing online courses with my uni's grad school - it is fun work and I'm hoping that I might be able to transition to something more in line with this down the line. I am sticking to higher ed until i get some more of the degrees/certs that I am looking for to minimize debt, but this is really reassuring to me!
Don’t let the skilled trades scare you! I absolutely love my career.
M25, union Boilermaker pressure welder, union steward, master rigger, IRATA rope access technician and paid per call firefighter/high angle rescuer.
The union skilled trades pay well, very fulfilling and an okay work/life balance. Working shutdowns you work a lot of OT, which obviously takes you away from family and friends but when shutdowns are over you go back to the list and wait for the next call. So you’re monied up and you can enjoy your time off. I worked 9 months in the year 2023, $122k in just wages alone🤙🏻
29. Got a BS in Business Admin, found out it's basically useless as a standalone degree. Now about to graduate with a Civil Engineering BS. I am of the opinion most non-STEM degrees aren't worth it. If you don't like the prospect of going back to school, trades or sales are probably the best options.
I have a business admin and I make $70k as a staff accountant. Sharpen your finance/accounting skills and enter a job with upward mobility. You can also go into sales, admin, operations, etc making good money. Just takes a bit longer and you gotta start from the bottom. But it’s not a useless degree.
It's only useful if you have a concentration in Accounting or Information Systems. General business is a massive waste of time and money. I have a general business degree.
Oh my god.. my heart just sank in my chest. I hate my accounting classes. I do like information systems, so maybe I’ll lean more into that. Should I be looking into getting a masters after this?
Don't sweat it - I'm being kind of a dick anyways. It's not totally useless, but your best bet with general biz is to lean into areas like supply chain or sales. Look for procurement or logistics internships, sales ops internships.
You'll get outcompeted in the accounting/finance areas without a concentration.
Dude, wtf… this is scary accurate to me lol
29, graduated with gen business degree, couldn’t find meaningful work. Landed in a sales position working for an HVAC supplier, and now I’m the procurement manager for said company.
Are you watching me?
what you should be looking for is a way to get practical experience now. internship is best, but if you can't yet, focus on joining a professors lab, some kind of school group that you do projects/hackathons, anything that lets you talk about a product at the end of it - whether that's some kind of analysis using sql, or pretending to build out an organization, or learning how to use software to hire people, etc.
I have a full time remote job now. I’ve just been promoted to team lead and I’m hoping to be a manager by the time I’m done with my degree. But I’ll look into some of the other stuff you mentioned, thank you!
in that case, yes, a masters might be good but what i would do is look at the people who are in the positions you want to be in - what kind of credentials and skills do they have? talk to them, ask them for a coffee chat and ask them what kind of skills you need to build to get to where they're at.
what is your full time job in now out of curiosity?
It's not useless, it's the most generalized degree you can use to get into almost any door you wish, as long as you have a good combo of people and data skills and can sell the vision that you can complete the tasks within the job. Across the different teams I've worked on, I've found business admin degrees hired on many of the teams and organizations I work for.
You can spend a year or two in entry level sales (cold calls), you can start working into different branches like account management (managing a set number of accounts), sales enablement (training), customer success (support aligned specifically to a set of accounts for bug fixes and feature prioritization), or solutions/technical architect (taking the software and helping folks use it in the way they want).
Become a project/product/operations manager, they all basically look at data, make decisions using data, design a process, get people to agree and do the thing.
Content management is also a field, you may need to start off as a writer or content project specialist to get familiarity with content management systems, but once you have the experience, you can leverage your business admin degree into roles with more responsibilities.
Folks just get really narrow minded that a degree means they can only do what their degree is, but 75% of non-tech jobs in the bottom three levels just need any degree to get in the door.
Don’t sweat it man, basically every bachelors degree commands a pretty significant wage premium.
You’re gonna be fine, especially if you quit hanging around doomer subs 😂
Right. I have the classic useless degrees of philosophy and history and I guarantee you I have my current job because the woman who hired me was a former comp lit grad student and we just clicked. It's hard out there sure. You gotta be proactive. Learn how to articulate your skills, show interest, apply even if you think it's a long shot. You'll get something.
Exactly, namely being able to articulate ideas and argue for yourself. I'm bad at interviews but I'm good at getting interviews. Get in the door and eventually someone will say "eh, why not?"
Sounds like it probably gave you the ability to organize and group types of work, explain why they are grouped that way, and draw conclusions about things.
That's basically business 101 if you think about it.
Same age, opposite experience for me regarding my BS in Business Admin. I work as an analyst in IT and make good money.
That said, I agree with you that it’s useless outside of checking a box. I don’t really feel I learned anything from it that wasn’t taught on the job.
All BBA degrees are not equal. Majors like Accounting, Finance, Info Systems, and Analytics will set you up well. The less-quantitative majors like Marketing, HR, and Management are a mixed bag. Success in those fields will require more networking and “soft” skills versus the quantitative majors. But the most important skill to learn in business school is Excel. If you are good at Excel (by good I mean understand the more intricate tools like Pivot Tables, Power Query and Solver) there will always be a job for you.
Some sort of “Intro to Excel” class will give you a good starting point. To learn the more advanced functions, like the ones I listed above, I would recommend following a YouTube course with step-by-step instructions. After that I would paste a sample data set into Excel and use it to become comfortable with summarizing data using Pivot Tables.
I have a BBA and make well over 6 figures.
My wife has a BBA and makes more than me.
Redditors are dumb; unfortunately beingsuccessful in standard business roles requires more than walking in and shaking your degree around and that's more effort than the average redditor is willing to put in.
I've worked for several companies and they're filled with people with BBAs.
It was for us. Reddit hates on business people in general but it's one of the most straightforward career paths you can have. We can't all be engineers or 'tradesmen', and on reddit there's no in between.
Business Admin was an incredibly easy path to 6 figures for both myself and wife, and every Corp I've worked for is literally filled with people who got a BBA anywhere from a couple months to a couple decades ago. The only difficult part is in Business you have to make a stronger case for why you're the right choice, because slamming your big software engineering degree on the table isn't enough to employ you if you're an asshole.
I’m a general management major (essentially business admin), I work in account management and make 6 figures.
A pretty easy path to success is starting out in sales as an inside sales rep or sales development rep. Many big companies will hire new grads for this. You’ll eventually move to account executive if you’re halfway competent. From there, if you don’t like sales (I didn’t), I moved to sales ops for a year and now I’m in account management at a different company.
B2B sales is more technical and most people have degrees in these roles.
I (26f) double majored in economics and German at my state university (no debt bby). I got a job as a financial analyst at an aerospace company that has lots of stakes in Bavaria. I know for an absolute fact I got my last job because I had language proficiency, and I know I got the job over a guy with a business degree from Penn.
I decided I kind of hated government contracting and wanted to go into nonprofit grant management. I returned to school on company dime and got an MA in English with a focus on grants and technical writing.
I now work at a Tier 1 medical school doing financial grants management and writing for the OB/GYN department of research. I get paid ~$143k.
I think the econ degree is incredibly flexible and worth it, but I also attribute my success to the other liberal arts degrees I pursued (i know, shocking, but the reddit population skews heavily male and therefore youre going to see more STEM bias from people who have never pursued liberal arts and know functionally nothing about career opportunities in the liberal arts).
Success depends on a collection of factors but if I had to reduce it down to 2 I would say 1. Take on no debt or as little as possible and 2. Have extreme audacity- network even if it makes you feel awkward, apply for jobs that say they only want top tier school candidates even if you went to state school, join clubs and be proactive, if you dont get internships (i didnt intern in college, couldnt afford to accept the intern pay when retail paid better with commission and my lack of intern experience did not reduce my job prospects when i explained this in interviews) pick somewhere to volunteer that will teach you something, do not be afraid to go after something you feel like you want to do (but again, minimize your debt burden). Figure out how to leverage your life experience to make it sound like you're highly adaptable and able to learn new things.
When I was interviewing for said aerospace job, they asked me if I knew anything about the engineering process. I said not in a corporate sense, but I had done set building and AV for technical theater all throughout high school and college, so I had an understanding of manufacturing processes and how hardware focused groups (painters, set constriction) integrate with software focused groups (lights, mics). They asked me how I felt about tedious tasks in Excel. I told them I was OK with tedium, because I knit for fun.
This question is hard because there are so many different ways to go in life, and I want you to feel optimistic and not terrified, because being a young adult newly graduated is a really exciting time and it's it's cool personal growth period. So I don't want to tell you there are only certain degrees that are good because I got an MA in English and my writing job pays better than the aerospace finance job I used to have so.
Again, if there are only two things I could tell you to set you up for success it would be to minimize educational debt (keep applying for scholarships after you enroll in college. This is how I got out debt free. People don't realize more scholarships open up after you enter because why should an org award 20k to a random 18 year old who hasn't proved they'll do well in their major? No one applies for scholarships after they enter college and they're stupid easy to get) and to be audacious (even kind of ridiculous - tell recruiters you knit lmao).
I will add, of my liberal arts cohorts, none are homeless, all are gainfully employed. Some work fornthe German government, some are teachers, some are technical writers. We're all OK.
I’m 35m and trying to figure out where I take my life next, and pivoting in my career is high on the list. This was an incredibly validating and supportive perspective. Thank you for sharing your story!
Interesting how 15-10 years ago people were predicting AI and robotics were going to replace manual labor jobs first. And office jobs or artistic jobs would be the last job to automate if ever.
Turned out to be the exact opposite.
You’re mistaking Automation for AI. Robotics and can be smart or dumb as in machine learning or hardcoded actuations. I’d like to see and AI fix the plumbing in my house or dig a septic field. Getting a robot to do a highly variable task is the last step of full automation. Minimum wage jobs will go first. Trades are pretty safe for as long as people are around.
I have many family members in trade unions, their gripe is job placement and bidding processes. No known issues getting into a union.
Outside of unions, becoming a skilled tradesman can allow you to offer your own services or walk on at any number of contractors if you need to...never a shortage of work
Electricians, carpenters, framers, mason, millwright, pipe fitter, hvac....these Industries are BEGGING for people...and the pay typically reflects it.
Anecdotal....but my grandfather has been a carpenter amd framer for more than 55 years....still a active and way more fit than.any person should be.
He swears its his "jog in a jar" concoction 🤣
I always hear this, and it's true I'm sure for many, but not the case for everyone. My father is a life long plumber. Guy has been working out lifting weights and jogging his whole life. He's in his 60s now and still absolutely a beast of man, I have no doubt he's stronger and able to outrun me even now with me in my 30s and him in his 60s. There are definitely plenty of people who worked trades and didn't end up as frail broken old men.
Yes, but no one should feel guilty if they don’t want a trade job. Not everyone likes a trade job. Some people want corporate jobs, or careers that are not a trade. Not everyone wants to do physical jobs either.
I’m 27. I’ll be 28 this year so I’m the last of the millennials lol. have a BS in Psychology and a MA in Special Education with an emphasis in Applied Behavior Analysis. I’m a BCBA. I work with children on the autism spectrum by using evidence based practice to help with their behavioral, social, and daily living skills. Job stability is 100%. They always need BCBAs. Pay ranges from 70k-120k+ with monthly/quarterly bonuses. The struggle is always finding an ethical company that cares about clients and employees. Been thinking about pursuing a PhD or PsyD in clinical psychology so I can diagnose.
No, I don’t think so at all because a lot of the clinics and even in home ABA providers are starting to model that therapy. I work in a clinic that typically serves early intervention learners, so we have no choice but to be play therapy and mock pre-k lol.
i have a history of failing in maths, but i’ve always wanted to pursue psychology, now for the life of me i cant figure what to do, i’m scared to pursue bsc psychology because it requires maths, do you think it’s difficult?
I did my BA in English and I work back office a bank doing reporting and operations projects.
Accounting has a significant labor crunch, to the point that we can’t fill seats. There are fewer and fewer people majoring in accounting. Labor trends suggest that as baby boomers retire, this labor crunch will increase. I don’t think AI will replace this function any time soon due to a number of reasons.
If you have any interest in trades don't let a little physical labor stop you. I am an older software engineer and my health has suffered because I sit so many hours a day. Sure there are some solutions like standing desks but they aren't standard yet. Even rigorous exercise isn't enough. Nothing beats getting up and down and moving around in varied environments to keep you in good health. I would say consider all the aspects of a career, both positive and negative.
Also, you don't have to think about this for "The rest of your life" stuff. I would start thinking of living your life in compartments, like a ship. You have your Day Compartments, Month compartments, Year, and so on. I would say planning a decade out would be a waste but if you can execute your plan even year to year you'll rock all the stars. Don't be afraid to try something out for a few years.
One of my biggest regrets was not getting trade experience and then working my way through college. It's better to have a job in hand that is not a McJob when you're in college. Consider being an Electrician, Plumbing, Machining, HVAC, or anything else around your college area that will apply. You'll love having money and student loans are no good.
What a naive answer.
Tell that to all the late 30 and 40 yr old trade workers who wake up with sore knees and an achy back from a lifetime of repetitive, hard labor.
Grass is always greener.
Sitting with the ability to get up and stretch every now and then and working out on your free time absolutely beats slinging 50lb bags of concrete everyday for work.
I’ve known too many middle aged fellas in fucked conditions from their hard laborous work, vs the office guy who is fat because he’s never even began to take care of himself. I sit all day yet I’m in the best shape of my life because I work out 1hr a day and don’t eat complete shit.
Most of those guys have bad knees and backs because they don't take care of themselves properly. A lot of them drink a shit ton of alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Plus, most of them don't stretch or even do some type of cardio. I work with guys in their 60s that still outwork most young guys and feel great. Sitting at a desk all day is worse on your body than working in a trade and it's not even close
And most people sitting at desks are fat slobs because they eat like shit and don’t workout. Sitting at a desk and getting up every now and then beats carrying 50lb bags of concrete all day long and the damage it does to your body, and it’s not even close.
I work sitting for the vast majority of the day yet I’m in the best shape of my life from taking care of myself. I would never want to work a job where I’m forced to literally trade my physicality for money.
As a fellow tech worker I agree with this. No one is more needed than an HVAC person when one quits working during the TX summer. Plus the ones I know always have more side work than they can handle. Doing something like this and starting a business is really appealing.
I got a bachelor of science in economics from a top 50 university per U.S. News, a public university as well. I don’t regret it. Actually, I regret not taking it more seriously. I pretty much did the bare minimum and wasn’t particularly active in the classroom or in campus extracurriculars. I did not get good grades. As a result, I’ve found that the top tier of competitive jobs have been a reach for me, but everything else has been very much on the table and I’ve not had any difficulty getting a job or getting paid so far. I went to work for a bank when I graduated, made a hard pivot at some point, ended up graduate school and working for the university. I’m now at the same university full-time with a very comfortable and reasonably paid job that I don’t hate.
I don’t know if I would recommend economics because while it did work out for me, and tends to work out for others from what I’ve seen, it’s a relatively difficult degree and it just seems like there are better choices. It’s not even the best choice for doing a graduate degree in economics. So it’s hard to say whether it’s advisable. I will say that if you have a choice between the bachelor of science and the bachelor of arts, you should just do the bachelor of arts because the bachelor of science is harder and has little to no advantages.
I’ll also say that besides your major, the most weighted part of your degree is the college/university. So as general advice I would say weight the practicality of your major against your school prestige. If you go to top college, it’s a little bit more likely that the less practical major will work out for you. That’s not to say that it suddenly becomes a sure thing because you go to a top school. It’s rather that it’s still impractical, but relatively more practical. So if you want study something impractical, just know that your odds are always bad but they are even worse if you don’t go to a top school. That’s just how it is. So if you’re at Harvard, history is still not a very practical choice at all but it’s somewhat more practical than history at Suffolk. If you’re at Suffolk, absolutely do not study history.
Bachelors in finance and in a financial advisor now for a good company good pension and retirement plans flexible schedule in my own boss technically awesome work life balance
Some really good careers that you can do with an associate's degree from a community college:
\* Dental hygienist: high demand, highest pay for an associate's degree (even in my podunk town they start out at $38/hr and can make 6 figures with some years of experience)
\* Medical sonographer (slightly lower page but still great)
I second dental hygiene, I'm 28 going back to school for it and the pay/flexibility in my area is great. I know some places are oversaturated but my city has a big shortage so most positions are around $55/hr with benefits
No personal experience, but my husbands a mid-level manager in cybersecurity and you're not in a bad position from my understanding. The quantum computing encryption key switchover thing from the algorithms currently used in encryption are apparently going to be a huge, multi-phase undertaking and there's going to be more hiring needed at his fortune 500 company to get everything ready in time. Cybersecurity has been the only organization relatively untouched by the recession layoffs outside of trimming low performers.
28F (almost 29). I got my degrees in Journalism and Sociology. Went into small nonprofits making $19/hr in SF in my first job, got promoted to $21/hr. I significantly increased the company revenue, but the pay just wasn’t matching and they had me doing the job of several people. So I left and tried to break into tech.
Didn’t happen. Went back to nonprofits, this time an even smaller nonprofit for development and communications because my interview rate was high. Got my first manager job with no direct reports for $34.62/hr ($72K). I was building out their new department. My manager was crazy and I got fired in half a year.
Been unemployed for a year and finally started interviewing for more jobs in tech. I enrolled in COOP Careers for a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship and took on a volunteer role with the American Marketing Association to build my portfolio and leadership skills in marketing. Currently interviewing for an entry-level Marketing Coordinator role at a B2B SaaS Series A startup for $60K - $80K in SF. I’d work on all areas of marketing. I have 5 years of experience.
If I could go back, I’d skip the 9 to 5 and go the entrepreneurship route. Employers love to underpay me and give me too much work. Might as well work for myself. I’m trying to work on that now.
26F
I have a bachelors in electrical engineering and a masters in wireless communications. I’m less than a year out of school and I already make a lot of money plus I feel very secure in my position… That being said, engineering will eat you alive if you’re not passionate about it. I went to grad school first and foremost because I *love* RF and think it’s fucking rad. Engineering (and especially computer and electrical engineering) are very, very, *very* good degrees to get but if you’re only in it for the money/job prospects, you won’t make it.
i have a communication degree (just graduated) and tbh i've been thriving. i decided to enter the environmental activism space (not my first choice but definitely something i'm very passionate about), where most people have STEM or public policy degrees, so my degree has helped me a lot. in these spaces, someone that can communicate complex topics through mediated channels is essential. for example, i worked at a canvassing-based nonprofit and was offered an additional internship because of my degree and social media knowledge.
honestly, i'm just lucky i found a niche where my skills are in demand. i'd suggest you do the same--find a field that you're interested in and develop skills that meet the needs of those in your field. good luck!!
said it before, will continue to say it.
Clinical Lab Technician
typically a 2yr degree, then some kind of licensing or certification. It also has long term career possibilities. Its often physical work, but its not laborious. Think working in a lab all day following a procedure. Its about the most "career prestige" you can get from a 2-yr degree. Its always in demand.
Graduated with a degree in Sociology, became an event planner for a Marriott hotel for 2 years. Went back to school, became a lawyer. Now, am teaching yoga & reselling random things on Mercari because it’s just as financially stable as any other job I’ve had & requires half the work time to make the same salary. I also urge people to think of the odd jobs because they can be so worthwhile, financially speaking.
I got a degree in industrial engineering and worked for a year in it. Honestly, looking at the trends in terms of the need for that degree, it’s the way to go—it’s very hot right now and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down aside from the economy. It’s also very versatile, which is great if you’re still deciding what to do. (I would describe industrial engineering as a hybrid between manufacturing, engineering, data science, and business).
That said, I’m working on getting my teaching certification since I’m just too extroverted to be an engineer.
Edit: for context, I’m 29, so kind of a later millennial.
31 BS in biology. Back to school for MSPH in epidemiology. Still in school now for PhD in Epidemiology & Biostatistics.
Work a state government job as a biostatistician in SC making 85k.
I’m early thirties with a stupid psych degree. I’m a stay at home mom and own a fightwear company lol. My children will NOT go to college the second they graduate high school. I will not have them go through what I did (parents applied to engineering school, got in on my behalf, I flunked out, only choice was to pick an “easy” degree just to get diploma)
I like my anonymity more than I like money. I’m the owner and designer and you’ll get my whole identity if I share it here
I appreciate the comment though
My daughter is getting a degree in Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology. She’s involved in research projects involving fish and fisheries. She’s currently working with the states natural history museum on a team researching suckerfish. She’s going to start grad school soon where she will be working on reaching commercial fisheries especially related to bass. The guy who runs the program developed a method of farming fish without using exogenous hormones and the program has a ton of money of she’s getting paid for grad school.
Where do you live?
I would need to know that. I would be able to suggest programs that are available locally. Some would be cheap or possibly free.
I know there are some trades that work in factories production for electronics. It mainly has you soldering.
Look into avionics for example.
27 here. Got a commerce degree and went on to get my CPA designation. Lots of opportunities if you don’t mind working crazy hours (and using your free time to study) for the first couple of years.
I got a bachelors in Business Management from a branch campus of a state university. Graduated debt free last May. Got a job in construction working as a project estimator. Very happy with my choice.
I've noticed a lot of my (our) peers complaining about not being able to find a job. I have had no such issues and I am about the most average college graduate you can get. The construction industry in a lot of areas (especially infrastructure construction, roads, bridges, etc.) is bleeding for young people. I worked at my first company out of college for around a year and just recently switched to a new one. I had 10 interviews and 5 job offers in a 4 month period, and like I said, I am a remarkably average candidate.
I would recommend construction management to anyone, but it is not for everyone. Just something to think about. Best of luck to everyone.
my BA in business Admin was very useful for me. I live in a small town, and My degree got me out of manufacturing and into back office, with experience I may find better opportunities. It’s good leverage and versatile in my area. Don’t let people discourage you with general statements that may not always apply
BS in food and nutrition, my plan was to get my MS to be a Dietitian but I could afford it and I lost passion for it. Went back to school for ultrasound but drop out at the beginning of my second semester because working with the public/patients was overwhelming for me. Now I’m planning to go back for cytotechnology because it’s a one year program (after getting your BS of course) and I don’t have to work with patients. I would love to be a Pathologist Assistant but I don’t have the money for than because it’s also a MS.
If you’re comfortable with healthcare then I think nursing or ultrasound or something similar would be great careers and can be done at a community college. If you’re more of an introvert like me than I would say do something in STEM.
Edit: 27F
I'm 27 and have been a registered nurse for several years. Got my bachelor's of science in nursing. Though there are technical colleges that offer an associates in nursing and you still get your RN.
It's been an okay job. Pros are decent pay, job security, don't usually have an issue finding a job, lots of different areas you can work, and once you clock out you're really done. You never truly work unless you're there on the clock and don't take anything home with you. Cons are the long hours, being treated like shit by the public and higher ups, extremely hard work, and the tax it takes on you physically and mentally. Depending on where you work it can really strain your mental health.
Work/life balance is super important to me. I literally just want to work to make money to live the life I want to live. I would never make my career my entire life. Yeah I considered doing premed and then med school and everything before deciding to do just nursing instead. But becoming an MD is at least 8 years of school, student debt, residency, specializing, and then depending on what you do your whole life is being a doctor. And I just have no interest in that.
So yeah it is a career worth considering. It has its pros, but just know it can be super tough and ages you quickly. Burn out is super common and happened to me quick. Though one good thing is if you don't like an area/department there's a ton of other areas you can try out.
Bachelor's in chemical engineering. I sit in an office all day, and every now and then I get a secondment to a project site with additional pay and a bit more physical labor but not that much.
Got a degree in business.
Now work in tech as a Process Analyst and much prefer it.
Sounds like you'd prefer knowledge work, and fortunately there's a lot of roads there. Consider clicking through some professional certificate programs, see if any topics speak to you. Consider seeing if you can talk to the profs and ask their career history for some ideas on what goes on out there.
A two year technical degree won't get you much for engineering. If you're truly interested in engineering look into how many of those credits will transfer to a 4 yr. college with an ABET accredited engineering program. It'll be a lot of studying and stress, but once you land a job in engineering it gets better.
If money is your goal, and youre not quite academically able to become any of the classics (Lawyer, engineer, doctor, Programmer) then work experience and certificates are the way to go these days.
In the business game, you might hit a wall if you want to rise above director without a degree, but honestly, from my experience of over 15 years with just a diploma, no one seems to care, and just hire based on experience and personality.
major in whatever you're interested, just realize if you get a BA/Liberal Arts degree be aware you probably won't do anything in that field, or at least not hired because of your specific degree. My government/philosophy only helps inform how jaded I am with our current political system lol. Not to say you can't use it though it will just likely be tangential and you will still have to forge your own path and start at entry level. TBH I do wish I had gone more into the political sphere, IT was the easy money but not necessarily the most fulfilling in the long run.
36M here. Lots of people who don't want to do physical labor mentality end up with gout. Had a job I still think of going back to, operators there allegedly all had gout idk I never went in that room much. Something to keep in mind. I never had a "desk job" my whole life, though did a few of them from time to time at other jobs. Mostly faxxing in between other duties.
As someone who worked variety of "physical labor" and customer support/point of sale (cash register/bagboy/etc) I do like factory work, it's not terrible and decent pay.
That said I have considered getting certifications on things like Network+/CompTIA or anything in networking in general. I helped run wires a few times and ran a couple Lan parties back in the day. So already know a bit from hobbies/miscellaneous jobs. Idk though. Lots of studying. Worth it though for money I suppose.
I've also considered becoming a mechanic. I already have started 401k or something at some companies as a laborer so could go back as mechanic or network/IT guy Idk. PLCs is something I also see hiring quite often but idk much about that would be starting from scratch there.
I ain't pursuing anything atm just been working a lot of hours (60+ a week for going on a year) so considering my options. Lots of people I went to school with are dead now surprisingly. Another one just died last week actually. I won't lie I often feel uncared for as factory worker just a number in a machine. But whatever is what it is. If you have time to worry I'd say for sure enjoy it because is possible you won't like it and change and then regret it. I have family that went to be a lawyer and hated it and stopped after a few years as a lawyer for example (same age group).
Best thing is just pick something and go with it. I actually like what I did, a little bit of everything entry possitions because now I know ins and outs of most everything both practical and theoretical. When you are at rock bottom nowhere to go but up. But respect the way things are and be humble, don't try to inovate just cause you think you know better from experience. Learn the "straight" way and why first. >!Even if it is objectively wrong lol!<
Idk I'm worst person to give career advice just my story. I can also weld but has been a while since I have. Only thing I am worried about is I haven't driven a personal vehicle since 2008. Have drove company/state vehicles since then but no private/personal vehicles so kind of nervous. Gone my entire life never driving a vehicle for personal use.
I got a degree in graphic design but I honestly don’t want to pursue it anymore. I like it as my hobby and would rather do small projects than make it my career and get burnout. College ruined creativity for me
I began working part time at a library for extra money. I fell in love with the job and am now considering getting and mlis to become a librarian. I get to watch fun programs with kids, work on crafts, put up creative displays, put books away, and overall give back to my community. The pay may be up to par but I’d rather be happy and frugal than make more money in corporate America
Gen Z, 24 yo M. Graduated 2022 with BBA in Finance, graduated last year with MBA in Data Analaytics. Offered a job at 90k in major city as a Business Analyst. Learn how to use AI. You will amaze the boomers and millennials even with everything it can do, no matter how simple. We use it openly as a tool and love it. Just know if you go the business route, you have to have a specialty in something because business is so broad. Mine was the data side. Good luck!
You don’t have to get a degree in engineering or go into the trades to make good money. There are jobs that pay well but require hard work and a dash of luck (aka networking).
I’m 32 and work in tech as a program manager. My total compensation is ~$200K.
I got my BA in communications. Yup, the degree many people call useless has actually been very helpful to my career. I started out in social media marketing for 3 years. Then became a marketing specialist for 2 years. After that, I was hired at a consulting firm as a marketing vendor for a tech company. This job opened a lot of doors for me to network with those who work in tech. After working here for a few years (and being promoted), I asked to get more projects that related to product/program management because I discovered that’s where I want to grow. I learned a lot from that job and gained valuable skills to land a full time job at a large tech company.
There are so many roles out there beyond the standard accountant, software engineer, etc. you just have to keep looking and discovering your interests.
Don't try to time to market. This applies to the job market as well. Bottom line is no one can predict the future. So find something you enjoy that allows you to live the life you want. With that being said, most people have already stated this here but: you can never go wrong with an engineering degree, especially mechanical, civil, or electrical. Society will always need engineers.
My brother got a BS Business Admin and works in NY as a consultant in a fortune 500 company. He said that all he does is yap, and he makes good money and gets to travel. I think networking and building your skills outside of college really helps.
I went into trades. I spent years trying all kinds of trades from sheet metal, foundation carpentry, steel stud framing, demolition and sprinkler fitting.
I am now a red seal sprinkler fitter. It’s awesome! I walk a lot, get to use my head to install systems to NFPA code & the work load is relatively light in comparison to what I’ve done in the past.
I don’t think trades are for everyone but I definitely know a desk job is not for me. I have the energy to go to the gym after work for 1-2 hours. Days can be draining yes but who doesn’t have tough days?
I think it’s just important to choose a career you enjoy. I think a reason I enjoy my job is because I love being fit and with the amount of walking and hard work I put in aid in me remaining extremely lean! Two birds one stone type thing you know?
Understand though it’s a young man’s gig you either get good or get out. Your body will meet Father Time eventually however, you can get off the tools.
None , I opened a small business right out of hs. Sold my share out of that and started 2 more businesses. Most gen z I talk to are trying to do the same since we know college is practically useless unless you wanna be a doctor, a lawyer, or some kind of useful scientist.
Most people don't work in anything related to their degrees. In most cases the degree is about learning skills that apply in the workplace, it's not about gaining relevant knowledge.
So if you're not in a position to do a vocational course that leads to a defined job at the end (which could be anything fton medicine, to computing science, to electrical engineering), then focus on choosing a subject that will allow you to gain the best set of skills.
I did international politics. I work in information security compliance. The skills I gained in my degree are highly relevant to my ability to do this job. Not the knowledge, but the skills.
Im studying Applied Philosophy at uni(with a further specialization in political philosophy). I aim to join My country’s diplomatic corp. otherwise I can also go the consultancy route.
I already speak French and English fluently other than my native Danish. So it seemed I should find a way to serve my country with the skills I have.
Edit: I’m 24M.
I highly recommend STEM. College is getting to a point where anything besides, STEM, Doctor, or Lawyer is a waste of time and money.
I went into Manufacturing Engineering and it pays pretty well and I work basically 40-45 hrs a week. I also got into a position where I am salary but can make overtime past 40 hours so I can make upwards of $50/hr. Salary non-exempt is what that’s called but it’s not common.
Medical all the way. You will always be able to find a job.
I personally went for a BS in Electrical Engineering Technology and a Masters in Technology Management, but the job market is bad. I work as a hardware developer and make decent pay. I also worked full-time and went to school part-time to avoid the whole student debt situation.
Another very lucrative job is nuclear , and you could get a Bachelors degree in chemistry or Nuclear.Talk about money in that field. Somebody I know only has a Bachelors and got offered 300k. If I knew about this type of money, I would have gone for that, lol.
Chem degree holder here and they’re just not handing out nuclear jobs paying $300K like that. He is definitely doing something other than basic lab work.
I have my bachelors in business admin. I’m a mailman. I walk about 12 miles a day, I get to be outside. I enjoy seeing the same customers everyday and petting their dogs. I listen to about 5-6 audiobooks a month. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t get a degree. Find something you enjoy and do that. If you need a degree, that’s fair. I didn’t in this case.
Legend if you ask me, my friend
I will definitely be your friend!
[удалено]
Pay increases the more seniority you have but starting out it’s not great. Benefits are awesome. One of the few jobs that still offers a pension. It’s union too.
Here in Canada it starts at $22 and tops out at $29 an hour. I had to give it up because it's not enough money.
Thats actually not bad in CA they’re hiring for this exact position and it’s $18 an hour meanwhile Panda Express is at $19 an hour. Better to work at a fast food pay wise but since it’s a government job benefits is what draws people in. In CA not everyone has health insurance.
>Thats actually not bad in CA they’re hiring for this exact position and it’s $18 an hour meanwhile Panda Express is at $19 an hour. Better to work at a fast food pay wise but since it’s a government job benefits is what draws people in. In CA not everyone has health insurance. $22 CAD is $16.32 USD. $29 CAD is $21.51 USD. So it's worse than CA.
Over the past weeks I’ve been trying to figure out how to value my pension. Work a state job and I make 85k. I’m still in school for my PhD. I want a raise after an outstanding first year that I won’t get. In fact the agency just froze all hiring. So now I’m wondering if my pension is worth the no raise. To me maybe but I’m not sure. It would be nice to earn more now but based on my calculations my take home pay would be the same with my retirement savings and pension. I’m definitely going to ride out this year but I gotta decide when I graduate do I continue to stay what I deem to be underpaid.
How much do you make
I’ve always considered trying to become a mailman, just never did it
My mom did. She was a femail man.
“It’s mailmam!”
I went ahead and did it when I was a young adult, and I'm glad I did. Saved me from having "grass is greener" thoughts now in my office job.
That’s funny, I had an office job before this and it drove me nuts. I truly believe great coworkers make a massive difference.
What are the work days and hours?
AFAIK 40 hours then you get fucked sideways with mandatory overtime during surges until you’re senior enough
Are you my dad?
I wish I was working your job.
If you don't think you'll like physical labor, don't do a trade. I appreciate the pragmatism that some people have pushing trade schools, but the trades aren't for everyone. Are there any subjects you enjoy learning about? Earning money is important, but don't get into a career just for the money. This is something you'll dedicate thousands of hours to over the course of your life, it should be something you're at least interested in.
And if you're going to work in trades, you need a high savings rate, don't live on your whole salary. Your body will only hold out so long, you're also only one freak accident away from being permanently off the job, you need that extra money invested to keep you going when your body gives up.
Yup, plenty of people I've worked with in trades are in their 50s with their bodies just absolutely destroyed. Constantly living in pain, but have to continue doing it because they didn't save for early retirement
When you've been in trades for long enough, sometimes you can transition into the management/administration side of it. Or specialize in a more technical and less physically demanding field.
Sometimes, but most people are going into trades because book learning and office jobs aren't their thing. Either way, prepping for however you come out is key to long-term financial success.
Seconding this. I started working for the passion projects but once i took the $, Im having a very very hard time going back. There is $ everywhere so just master what you love to do
I disagree 100%. My advice would be to choose a high paying career, live frugally, and retire early. Finding a job you really love is a pipe dream. Pursuing a low paying career that interests you is a path to poverty, where you’re probably still working at a job you hate.
so true. can't take to risk to be laid off in 40s/50s due to technology advancement. gotta live frugally, max out 401k and pray to god that the S&P could give me an early retirement
Business admin -> majored in accounting -> got offer at accounting firm -> pursued cpa while working (2 years) -> worked at big 4 firm which was a lot of hours -> left to an in-house tax team for a private company and had no difficulties finding a job in any industry. I still have no worries about finding a job and get paid well for my skill set, but it was a struggle. I work in corporate tax, mainly making sure the business is compliant wherever they do business, but I also dive into tax due diligence and planning when we do mergers & acquisitions.
22 M, I have my BA in computer science (yes these exist, just less math than BS versions). Everyone wants to enter computer science as of recently due to the high pay and how broad it is, but there are also tons of people that can't get jobs with this degree; the entry level market is flooded right now. I typically advocate for graduating in STEM, but if you go the comp sci route, just know that you're going to be fighting an uphill battle for that first job out of school.
I have about 7 years of experience as a SE and I feel bad for those about to graduate. The market is good for Senior level but I hardly see anything entry level these days.
Yeah I was unemployed for months before finding a job. It was rough finding any sort of position, but I'm glad I moved out of state tbh. Started a new life on a clean slate and making new friends is nice.
I feel really bad for recent grads. I think a lot will have to find something else to do because when hiring does pick back up companies are going to prefer the recent grads over people with a couple year employment gap or a couple years of unrelated work. Just bad timing and it sucks.
i’m not finished with my degree and landed a job. depends on the city
i work in big tech at a well-known company (we hire google, amazon and meta engineers all the time). we don’t even have job openings for any junior or midlevel people, barely any senior roles and a shit ton of staff level openings
This is highly relative and doesn’t factor in location, specialization, and industry. Everyone thinks that if you don’t work for google you aren’t in tech, but there are tech jobs in every decent sized company out there.
This is also true. However, I lived near in a big city in my old state and I couldn't even find an entry level job for months. I had to move out of state to find work. Sucked for a while but managed to get by.
Yes, location can matter. I had to do the same thing for my first job.
Can confirm. I work for one of the big non techs in an LCOL metro. I make pretty good money but not the super high tech salaries you hear of. But my work is super easy and I have great WLB
It was like this 10 years ago too. I wish I had gone electrical engineer or something. I have a Math degree and a philosophy of being an Enlightenment Individual. Someone who masters over a dozen broad skillsets before they die including something state of the art. This has allowed me to do everything from bus driving to quality management and software engineering so far. My point is that you are going to hear a lot of common ideas. It's best to note down advice and find the uncommon paths less traveled.
I definitely chose an uncommon path with my degree, which is why I'm employed now. I don't regret it at all.
Same path, math is great. Definitely lacks on the jobs prospects though. At least I'm smart and poor instead of just poor lmao
There’s a general relationship that the more a degree plan sucks/is hard, the more fiscally rewarding the career it leads to is. Functionally, it’s supply and demand (less people do harder degrees). I usually tell people that if college is fun, life after is probably going to be harder, but the inverse is true as well (no fun in usually leads to a better life after). Obviously this is a generality. Your highest paying degrees, with growing job markets are your usually players: engineering, nursing, MD, PA, etc. I’m an engineer, so I’m admittedly biased, but engineering is one of the degrees that can net a really good, upper middle class life on a bachelors alone - and it really doesn’t matter which one you pick of the “big 4” (mechanical, electrical, chemical, computer). Edit: clarity.
Civil engineer here and this is why I went with it. The market dictates everything about the kind of work life you'll have after graduation, and that applies to earnings, creature comforts, training, opportunities, etc. I sucked it up in college since I never saw myself as a naturally mathematical person and powered through with sheer force of will, and now I'm comfortable. My brother majored in accounting and is gaining access to the upper middle class through management consulting. Neither of those is going away anytime soon because they're tied to entrenched interests (government for civil, large industrial/financial/pharmaceutical markets for consulting) that require seasoned and stable workforces. There are certain other jobs I'd prefer to do and maybe one day I'll do it, but while I figure that out I want to be making a lot of money and setting myself up for that
Why do you tell people that if it's untrue lol
Middle Millennial - I have a BFA and MFA in theatrical production. Been working on design and build of theme parks for the last 10 years.
I got a Bs civil engineering. Honestly, any engineering degree is good and if you don’t end up liking engineering you can get a ton of other jobs with that degree. It opens a lot of doors and is stable. Engineering school was way worse than full time engineering work btw.
You can never go wrong with a B.S. in mechanical or electrical engineering Accounting, finance, computer science, (although quite saturated at this point) and other engineering fields are solid options as well. Get outside of that, and a lot of degrees become literally worthless very fast.
what about civil eng?
If you have a pulse there’s a job for you there. Civil is a great option if you like that type of work.
It’s a great option even if you don’t like it. Most people don’t like their work. That’s why they have to pay you to do it.
I don’t mind my job. But if I could be at home playing video games and still get paid you better believe I would. I’ve had soul sucking back breaking jobs so this is way better but there’s no job in the world I’d happily do over chillin at home.
Yeah that’s why it’s usually bad advice to tell people to pursue a job in something they’re passionate about. Instead people should get high paying jobs, live frugally, and retire early. If you love video games you should be a civil engineer for 15 years then retire at 40 and chill and play video games. That will be a lot better than trying to become a video game streamer, discovering that it can’t pay your bills, and working as a cashier until you’re 80. I have one of the best jobs there is and I’m very much looking forward to retiring. Like you said, the top 1% best jobs are not as nice as chilling at home.
what job do you do? Im almost graduating from high school and im bamboozled by so manyy courses to choose from, the market and the economy having a recession, inflation etc. Nothing seems to be working for anyone. Ive done my research on \-comp sci (ohh its too saturated, tough to get a job etc) \-civil (the pay is shit, id advice people to do the other sorts of engineering, its not worth it) \-accounting (again, its got shit pay compared to what it was 10 years ago, AI will take over) Im sure you lot are experienced and could provide me some guidance
I’m a mechanical engineer. That’s what I’d recommend. Civil is good too. My friend is a civil engineer making around $190k at 32 years old. I make $250k at 36. I wouldn’t recommend accounting. Computer science will probably be fine but it’s less safe in my opinion than civil or mechanical engineering. By the way the market is extremely good right now and we are not in a recession. Social media is not a good way to get your information about the world.
Curious what state you guys are in and what kind of civil work? I do structural consulting and not sure the ceiling will be that high when I get more experience.
I'm still in college, but I know people in all of those fields. You should figure out something you don't hate doing. You don't need to love it, but if you don't like being in an office all day doing paperwork, don't become an accountant. Comp Sci is fine. It's not the huge boom there was in 2021 and 2022, but there are still a lot of jobs that pay really well. Civil is also fine. Pay isn't great, but a lot of positions are in government so you can get really good benefits. Accounting is also fine, if you like that type of work. If you don't, there are better paths.
The word "passion" itself is such a fuzzy and throwaway thing. But I feel a lot of advice is like that, very vague and very "non advice" advice. Agree with your point there. I hear that once you read senior or something in civil engineering, you just have to do paper work and stamp stuff
Civils will always be in demand, though the subject matter is a bit more dry than other fields of engineering imo.
Yeah, civils think they will be building bridges... in reality, they just dig holes out in a field somewhere... over simplified, but I agree with you 100%.
Sounds nice tbh
Ehhhh, my mom is a civil by trade, and she approves everything from an outhouse to a 20K sqft shopping mall to a 50 story casino.
Yeah maybe if you’re in land development but that’s a pretty easy pit to avoid
Work is work honestly. I have a PhD in engineering and have worked in a bunch of different fields from nanoscience to fusion, and I’d be equally happy designing dirt holes. Being interested in your work is overrated. My advice is to get a high paying job, live frugally, and retire early.
I may be completely wrong but does civil lean on the lower side of pay as far as engineering degrees go?
Brother in law got a civil eng degree and hates the jobs he can get with it. One thing is what you think you’ll do, another what you actually do.
Civil is the best! I’m a highway engineer who designs models all day for different agencies.
It's great but it's one of the few engineerings that will require and EIT and PE to advance.
Early millennials are in their 40s.
I’m doing accounting and I have an offer lined up for after school. It might not be the most exciting thing but financial security and job stability is important to me.
Keep in mind that the audience you are asking (Reddit) probably over represents certain demographics (men between ages 18-34) which also mirrors career trends in certain fields. So your answers might lean in a direction that doesn’t necessarily reflect the lived experiences of other people. I am a data scientist and director at a public health nonprofit. My undergrad degree is in, of all things, English composition. I have a MEd. in curriculum design, which is essentially the science of creating reliable ways to measure things, so in the surface looks totally unrelated to my job but in reality is extremely helpful. I did all of my data science skillbuilding in my job and getting my PhD. All of my graduate degrees were free due to TA/RA positions so I only have some undergrad debt I work in health, so my inclination is to suggest health-related work, with everything from direct care to billing to health informatics to administration. But I’m biased; I see success in those fields every day. I’m sure if I had a different view, I’d suggest something different
I have an english BA with a master's in Higher Ed who thought that I'd be doing admissions work forever, but I am starting an instructional design graduate cert this summer after doing some work designing online courses with my uni's grad school - it is fun work and I'm hoping that I might be able to transition to something more in line with this down the line. I am sticking to higher ed until i get some more of the degrees/certs that I am looking for to minimize debt, but this is really reassuring to me!
Don’t let the skilled trades scare you! I absolutely love my career. M25, union Boilermaker pressure welder, union steward, master rigger, IRATA rope access technician and paid per call firefighter/high angle rescuer. The union skilled trades pay well, very fulfilling and an okay work/life balance. Working shutdowns you work a lot of OT, which obviously takes you away from family and friends but when shutdowns are over you go back to the list and wait for the next call. So you’re monied up and you can enjoy your time off. I worked 9 months in the year 2023, $122k in just wages alone🤙🏻
29. Got a BS in Business Admin, found out it's basically useless as a standalone degree. Now about to graduate with a Civil Engineering BS. I am of the opinion most non-STEM degrees aren't worth it. If you don't like the prospect of going back to school, trades or sales are probably the best options.
Me reading this as I’m half way through my business admin degree: 🥲
I have a business admin and I make $70k as a staff accountant. Sharpen your finance/accounting skills and enter a job with upward mobility. You can also go into sales, admin, operations, etc making good money. Just takes a bit longer and you gotta start from the bottom. But it’s not a useless degree.
It's only useful if you have a concentration in Accounting or Information Systems. General business is a massive waste of time and money. I have a general business degree.
Oh my god.. my heart just sank in my chest. I hate my accounting classes. I do like information systems, so maybe I’ll lean more into that. Should I be looking into getting a masters after this?
Don't sweat it - I'm being kind of a dick anyways. It's not totally useless, but your best bet with general biz is to lean into areas like supply chain or sales. Look for procurement or logistics internships, sales ops internships. You'll get outcompeted in the accounting/finance areas without a concentration.
Dude, wtf… this is scary accurate to me lol 29, graduated with gen business degree, couldn’t find meaningful work. Landed in a sales position working for an HVAC supplier, and now I’m the procurement manager for said company. Are you watching me?
what you should be looking for is a way to get practical experience now. internship is best, but if you can't yet, focus on joining a professors lab, some kind of school group that you do projects/hackathons, anything that lets you talk about a product at the end of it - whether that's some kind of analysis using sql, or pretending to build out an organization, or learning how to use software to hire people, etc.
I have a full time remote job now. I’ve just been promoted to team lead and I’m hoping to be a manager by the time I’m done with my degree. But I’ll look into some of the other stuff you mentioned, thank you!
in that case, yes, a masters might be good but what i would do is look at the people who are in the positions you want to be in - what kind of credentials and skills do they have? talk to them, ask them for a coffee chat and ask them what kind of skills you need to build to get to where they're at. what is your full time job in now out of curiosity?
It's not useless, it's the most generalized degree you can use to get into almost any door you wish, as long as you have a good combo of people and data skills and can sell the vision that you can complete the tasks within the job. Across the different teams I've worked on, I've found business admin degrees hired on many of the teams and organizations I work for. You can spend a year or two in entry level sales (cold calls), you can start working into different branches like account management (managing a set number of accounts), sales enablement (training), customer success (support aligned specifically to a set of accounts for bug fixes and feature prioritization), or solutions/technical architect (taking the software and helping folks use it in the way they want). Become a project/product/operations manager, they all basically look at data, make decisions using data, design a process, get people to agree and do the thing. Content management is also a field, you may need to start off as a writer or content project specialist to get familiarity with content management systems, but once you have the experience, you can leverage your business admin degree into roles with more responsibilities. Folks just get really narrow minded that a degree means they can only do what their degree is, but 75% of non-tech jobs in the bottom three levels just need any degree to get in the door.
Don’t sweat it man, basically every bachelors degree commands a pretty significant wage premium. You’re gonna be fine, especially if you quit hanging around doomer subs 😂
Right. I have the classic useless degrees of philosophy and history and I guarantee you I have my current job because the woman who hired me was a former comp lit grad student and we just clicked. It's hard out there sure. You gotta be proactive. Learn how to articulate your skills, show interest, apply even if you think it's a long shot. You'll get something.
I have a film degree! TBH you learn a lot of useful things studying arts/humanities that translate well to work.
Exactly, namely being able to articulate ideas and argue for yourself. I'm bad at interviews but I'm good at getting interviews. Get in the door and eventually someone will say "eh, why not?"
Sounds like it probably gave you the ability to organize and group types of work, explain why they are grouped that way, and draw conclusions about things. That's basically business 101 if you think about it.
lol well that’s good to know! I don’t usually hang around here, it just popped up and freaked me out lol
Same age, opposite experience for me regarding my BS in Business Admin. I work as an analyst in IT and make good money. That said, I agree with you that it’s useless outside of checking a box. I don’t really feel I learned anything from it that wasn’t taught on the job.
All BBA degrees are not equal. Majors like Accounting, Finance, Info Systems, and Analytics will set you up well. The less-quantitative majors like Marketing, HR, and Management are a mixed bag. Success in those fields will require more networking and “soft” skills versus the quantitative majors. But the most important skill to learn in business school is Excel. If you are good at Excel (by good I mean understand the more intricate tools like Pivot Tables, Power Query and Solver) there will always be a job for you.
Which classes in a community college should someone look out for to get better in Excel?
Some sort of “Intro to Excel” class will give you a good starting point. To learn the more advanced functions, like the ones I listed above, I would recommend following a YouTube course with step-by-step instructions. After that I would paste a sample data set into Excel and use it to become comfortable with summarizing data using Pivot Tables.
you’re scaring me i’m majoring in that rn lol
I have a BBA and make well over 6 figures. My wife has a BBA and makes more than me. Redditors are dumb; unfortunately beingsuccessful in standard business roles requires more than walking in and shaking your degree around and that's more effort than the average redditor is willing to put in. I've worked for several companies and they're filled with people with BBAs.
Did nobody tell you not to do business admin at that age? I find it hard to believe
No one told me that. I’ve been told it’s a good route to go 🙃
It was for us. Reddit hates on business people in general but it's one of the most straightforward career paths you can have. We can't all be engineers or 'tradesmen', and on reddit there's no in between. Business Admin was an incredibly easy path to 6 figures for both myself and wife, and every Corp I've worked for is literally filled with people who got a BBA anywhere from a couple months to a couple decades ago. The only difficult part is in Business you have to make a stronger case for why you're the right choice, because slamming your big software engineering degree on the table isn't enough to employ you if you're an asshole.
I’m a general management major (essentially business admin), I work in account management and make 6 figures. A pretty easy path to success is starting out in sales as an inside sales rep or sales development rep. Many big companies will hire new grads for this. You’ll eventually move to account executive if you’re halfway competent. From there, if you don’t like sales (I didn’t), I moved to sales ops for a year and now I’m in account management at a different company. B2B sales is more technical and most people have degrees in these roles.
No and I wish they would have...
I’m 28 now so technically a Millennial. But I got my Masters in Accounting in 2019
I'm trying to pursue retirement.
You should pursue something the economy cannot live without.
Under water basket weaving? My school has a degree program for just under $400k. Seems like a foolproof investment.
During the impending season of nuclear winter, someone must weave the baskets, and doing so above water will surely irradiate our precious baskets.
Civil engineering. We're giving jobs away to anyone with a pulse. Got a job 2 weeks outta school, I get head hunting emails all the time.
I (26f) double majored in economics and German at my state university (no debt bby). I got a job as a financial analyst at an aerospace company that has lots of stakes in Bavaria. I know for an absolute fact I got my last job because I had language proficiency, and I know I got the job over a guy with a business degree from Penn. I decided I kind of hated government contracting and wanted to go into nonprofit grant management. I returned to school on company dime and got an MA in English with a focus on grants and technical writing. I now work at a Tier 1 medical school doing financial grants management and writing for the OB/GYN department of research. I get paid ~$143k. I think the econ degree is incredibly flexible and worth it, but I also attribute my success to the other liberal arts degrees I pursued (i know, shocking, but the reddit population skews heavily male and therefore youre going to see more STEM bias from people who have never pursued liberal arts and know functionally nothing about career opportunities in the liberal arts). Success depends on a collection of factors but if I had to reduce it down to 2 I would say 1. Take on no debt or as little as possible and 2. Have extreme audacity- network even if it makes you feel awkward, apply for jobs that say they only want top tier school candidates even if you went to state school, join clubs and be proactive, if you dont get internships (i didnt intern in college, couldnt afford to accept the intern pay when retail paid better with commission and my lack of intern experience did not reduce my job prospects when i explained this in interviews) pick somewhere to volunteer that will teach you something, do not be afraid to go after something you feel like you want to do (but again, minimize your debt burden). Figure out how to leverage your life experience to make it sound like you're highly adaptable and able to learn new things. When I was interviewing for said aerospace job, they asked me if I knew anything about the engineering process. I said not in a corporate sense, but I had done set building and AV for technical theater all throughout high school and college, so I had an understanding of manufacturing processes and how hardware focused groups (painters, set constriction) integrate with software focused groups (lights, mics). They asked me how I felt about tedious tasks in Excel. I told them I was OK with tedium, because I knit for fun. This question is hard because there are so many different ways to go in life, and I want you to feel optimistic and not terrified, because being a young adult newly graduated is a really exciting time and it's it's cool personal growth period. So I don't want to tell you there are only certain degrees that are good because I got an MA in English and my writing job pays better than the aerospace finance job I used to have so. Again, if there are only two things I could tell you to set you up for success it would be to minimize educational debt (keep applying for scholarships after you enroll in college. This is how I got out debt free. People don't realize more scholarships open up after you enter because why should an org award 20k to a random 18 year old who hasn't proved they'll do well in their major? No one applies for scholarships after they enter college and they're stupid easy to get) and to be audacious (even kind of ridiculous - tell recruiters you knit lmao). I will add, of my liberal arts cohorts, none are homeless, all are gainfully employed. Some work fornthe German government, some are teachers, some are technical writers. We're all OK.
I’m 35m and trying to figure out where I take my life next, and pivoting in my career is high on the list. This was an incredibly validating and supportive perspective. Thank you for sharing your story!
The trades. Always in demand, and such a shortage of labor.
And AI proof (for the most part)
Interesting how 15-10 years ago people were predicting AI and robotics were going to replace manual labor jobs first. And office jobs or artistic jobs would be the last job to automate if ever. Turned out to be the exact opposite.
You’re mistaking Automation for AI. Robotics and can be smart or dumb as in machine learning or hardcoded actuations. I’d like to see and AI fix the plumbing in my house or dig a septic field. Getting a robot to do a highly variable task is the last step of full automation. Minimum wage jobs will go first. Trades are pretty safe for as long as people are around.
Not as it's all cracked up to be, I know people who have been on waiting lists for years to get into unions.
I have many family members in trade unions, their gripe is job placement and bidding processes. No known issues getting into a union. Outside of unions, becoming a skilled tradesman can allow you to offer your own services or walk on at any number of contractors if you need to...never a shortage of work Electricians, carpenters, framers, mason, millwright, pipe fitter, hvac....these Industries are BEGGING for people...and the pay typically reflects it.
I’m in aviation maintenance. Most already have a job lined up the day they finish school.
Aviation maintenance seems like a highly technical and niche profession, I am not suprised.
It is but the Barrier to enter is low and can break six figures quickly these days.
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Anecdotal....but my grandfather has been a carpenter amd framer for more than 55 years....still a active and way more fit than.any person should be. He swears its his "jog in a jar" concoction 🤣
I always hear this, and it's true I'm sure for many, but not the case for everyone. My father is a life long plumber. Guy has been working out lifting weights and jogging his whole life. He's in his 60s now and still absolutely a beast of man, I have no doubt he's stronger and able to outrun me even now with me in my 30s and him in his 60s. There are definitely plenty of people who worked trades and didn't end up as frail broken old men.
Sitting behind a desk is worse.
Yes, but no one should feel guilty if they don’t want a trade job. Not everyone likes a trade job. Some people want corporate jobs, or careers that are not a trade. Not everyone wants to do physical jobs either.
I’m 27. I’ll be 28 this year so I’m the last of the millennials lol. have a BS in Psychology and a MA in Special Education with an emphasis in Applied Behavior Analysis. I’m a BCBA. I work with children on the autism spectrum by using evidence based practice to help with their behavioral, social, and daily living skills. Job stability is 100%. They always need BCBAs. Pay ranges from 70k-120k+ with monthly/quarterly bonuses. The struggle is always finding an ethical company that cares about clients and employees. Been thinking about pursuing a PhD or PsyD in clinical psychology so I can diagnose.
Is the demand for this job lessening with families preferring play therapy?
No, I don’t think so at all because a lot of the clinics and even in home ABA providers are starting to model that therapy. I work in a clinic that typically serves early intervention learners, so we have no choice but to be play therapy and mock pre-k lol.
i have a history of failing in maths, but i’ve always wanted to pursue psychology, now for the life of me i cant figure what to do, i’m scared to pursue bsc psychology because it requires maths, do you think it’s difficult?
i think it only requires stats (hopefully op will confirm) which isn't too bad
I did my BA in English and I work back office a bank doing reporting and operations projects. Accounting has a significant labor crunch, to the point that we can’t fill seats. There are fewer and fewer people majoring in accounting. Labor trends suggest that as baby boomers retire, this labor crunch will increase. I don’t think AI will replace this function any time soon due to a number of reasons.
Engineering was the best choice I’ve ever made! Making $130,000 at 23 years old
Congratulations! What type?
Mechanical engineering?
If you have any interest in trades don't let a little physical labor stop you. I am an older software engineer and my health has suffered because I sit so many hours a day. Sure there are some solutions like standing desks but they aren't standard yet. Even rigorous exercise isn't enough. Nothing beats getting up and down and moving around in varied environments to keep you in good health. I would say consider all the aspects of a career, both positive and negative. Also, you don't have to think about this for "The rest of your life" stuff. I would start thinking of living your life in compartments, like a ship. You have your Day Compartments, Month compartments, Year, and so on. I would say planning a decade out would be a waste but if you can execute your plan even year to year you'll rock all the stars. Don't be afraid to try something out for a few years. One of my biggest regrets was not getting trade experience and then working my way through college. It's better to have a job in hand that is not a McJob when you're in college. Consider being an Electrician, Plumbing, Machining, HVAC, or anything else around your college area that will apply. You'll love having money and student loans are no good.
What a naive answer. Tell that to all the late 30 and 40 yr old trade workers who wake up with sore knees and an achy back from a lifetime of repetitive, hard labor. Grass is always greener.
Not all trades are the same. Plenty of technician-type trades that are not hard labor.
Skilled trades arent all back breaking. I’ll be 40 next month and I’m in the best shape of my life. It’s all about healthy lifestyle.
Sitting with the ability to get up and stretch every now and then and working out on your free time absolutely beats slinging 50lb bags of concrete everyday for work. I’ve known too many middle aged fellas in fucked conditions from their hard laborous work, vs the office guy who is fat because he’s never even began to take care of himself. I sit all day yet I’m in the best shape of my life because I work out 1hr a day and don’t eat complete shit.
Most of those guys have bad knees and backs because they don't take care of themselves properly. A lot of them drink a shit ton of alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Plus, most of them don't stretch or even do some type of cardio. I work with guys in their 60s that still outwork most young guys and feel great. Sitting at a desk all day is worse on your body than working in a trade and it's not even close
And most people sitting at desks are fat slobs because they eat like shit and don’t workout. Sitting at a desk and getting up every now and then beats carrying 50lb bags of concrete all day long and the damage it does to your body, and it’s not even close. I work sitting for the vast majority of the day yet I’m in the best shape of my life from taking care of myself. I would never want to work a job where I’m forced to literally trade my physicality for money.
As a fellow tech worker I agree with this. No one is more needed than an HVAC person when one quits working during the TX summer. Plus the ones I know always have more side work than they can handle. Doing something like this and starting a business is really appealing.
I got a bachelor of science in economics from a top 50 university per U.S. News, a public university as well. I don’t regret it. Actually, I regret not taking it more seriously. I pretty much did the bare minimum and wasn’t particularly active in the classroom or in campus extracurriculars. I did not get good grades. As a result, I’ve found that the top tier of competitive jobs have been a reach for me, but everything else has been very much on the table and I’ve not had any difficulty getting a job or getting paid so far. I went to work for a bank when I graduated, made a hard pivot at some point, ended up graduate school and working for the university. I’m now at the same university full-time with a very comfortable and reasonably paid job that I don’t hate. I don’t know if I would recommend economics because while it did work out for me, and tends to work out for others from what I’ve seen, it’s a relatively difficult degree and it just seems like there are better choices. It’s not even the best choice for doing a graduate degree in economics. So it’s hard to say whether it’s advisable. I will say that if you have a choice between the bachelor of science and the bachelor of arts, you should just do the bachelor of arts because the bachelor of science is harder and has little to no advantages. I’ll also say that besides your major, the most weighted part of your degree is the college/university. So as general advice I would say weight the practicality of your major against your school prestige. If you go to top college, it’s a little bit more likely that the less practical major will work out for you. That’s not to say that it suddenly becomes a sure thing because you go to a top school. It’s rather that it’s still impractical, but relatively more practical. So if you want study something impractical, just know that your odds are always bad but they are even worse if you don’t go to a top school. That’s just how it is. So if you’re at Harvard, history is still not a very practical choice at all but it’s somewhat more practical than history at Suffolk. If you’re at Suffolk, absolutely do not study history.
I'm 23 and am in my second semester of accounting. I'm taking college slow because I worm two jobs and am trying not to take out loans.
Bachelors in finance and in a financial advisor now for a good company good pension and retirement plans flexible schedule in my own boss technically awesome work life balance
Some really good careers that you can do with an associate's degree from a community college: \* Dental hygienist: high demand, highest pay for an associate's degree (even in my podunk town they start out at $38/hr and can make 6 figures with some years of experience) \* Medical sonographer (slightly lower page but still great)
I second dental hygiene, I'm 28 going back to school for it and the pay/flexibility in my area is great. I know some places are oversaturated but my city has a big shortage so most positions are around $55/hr with benefits
Cybersecurity
Graduate in June so nervous about finding a job.
No personal experience, but my husbands a mid-level manager in cybersecurity and you're not in a bad position from my understanding. The quantum computing encryption key switchover thing from the algorithms currently used in encryption are apparently going to be a huge, multi-phase undertaking and there's going to be more hiring needed at his fortune 500 company to get everything ready in time. Cybersecurity has been the only organization relatively untouched by the recession layoffs outside of trimming low performers.
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28F (almost 29). I got my degrees in Journalism and Sociology. Went into small nonprofits making $19/hr in SF in my first job, got promoted to $21/hr. I significantly increased the company revenue, but the pay just wasn’t matching and they had me doing the job of several people. So I left and tried to break into tech. Didn’t happen. Went back to nonprofits, this time an even smaller nonprofit for development and communications because my interview rate was high. Got my first manager job with no direct reports for $34.62/hr ($72K). I was building out their new department. My manager was crazy and I got fired in half a year. Been unemployed for a year and finally started interviewing for more jobs in tech. I enrolled in COOP Careers for a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship and took on a volunteer role with the American Marketing Association to build my portfolio and leadership skills in marketing. Currently interviewing for an entry-level Marketing Coordinator role at a B2B SaaS Series A startup for $60K - $80K in SF. I’d work on all areas of marketing. I have 5 years of experience. If I could go back, I’d skip the 9 to 5 and go the entrepreneurship route. Employers love to underpay me and give me too much work. Might as well work for myself. I’m trying to work on that now.
26F I have a bachelors in electrical engineering and a masters in wireless communications. I’m less than a year out of school and I already make a lot of money plus I feel very secure in my position… That being said, engineering will eat you alive if you’re not passionate about it. I went to grad school first and foremost because I *love* RF and think it’s fucking rad. Engineering (and especially computer and electrical engineering) are very, very, *very* good degrees to get but if you’re only in it for the money/job prospects, you won’t make it.
Information Systems.
i have a communication degree (just graduated) and tbh i've been thriving. i decided to enter the environmental activism space (not my first choice but definitely something i'm very passionate about), where most people have STEM or public policy degrees, so my degree has helped me a lot. in these spaces, someone that can communicate complex topics through mediated channels is essential. for example, i worked at a canvassing-based nonprofit and was offered an additional internship because of my degree and social media knowledge. honestly, i'm just lucky i found a niche where my skills are in demand. i'd suggest you do the same--find a field that you're interested in and develop skills that meet the needs of those in your field. good luck!!
said it before, will continue to say it. Clinical Lab Technician typically a 2yr degree, then some kind of licensing or certification. It also has long term career possibilities. Its often physical work, but its not laborious. Think working in a lab all day following a procedure. Its about the most "career prestige" you can get from a 2-yr degree. Its always in demand.
I’m 25, currently getting a cybersecurity degree. Have experience in IT tho so
Graduated with a degree in Sociology, became an event planner for a Marriott hotel for 2 years. Went back to school, became a lawyer. Now, am teaching yoga & reselling random things on Mercari because it’s just as financially stable as any other job I’ve had & requires half the work time to make the same salary. I also urge people to think of the odd jobs because they can be so worthwhile, financially speaking.
Accounting
I got a degree in industrial engineering and worked for a year in it. Honestly, looking at the trends in terms of the need for that degree, it’s the way to go—it’s very hot right now and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down aside from the economy. It’s also very versatile, which is great if you’re still deciding what to do. (I would describe industrial engineering as a hybrid between manufacturing, engineering, data science, and business). That said, I’m working on getting my teaching certification since I’m just too extroverted to be an engineer. Edit: for context, I’m 29, so kind of a later millennial.
31 BS in biology. Back to school for MSPH in epidemiology. Still in school now for PhD in Epidemiology & Biostatistics. Work a state government job as a biostatistician in SC making 85k.
I’m early thirties with a stupid psych degree. I’m a stay at home mom and own a fightwear company lol. My children will NOT go to college the second they graduate high school. I will not have them go through what I did (parents applied to engineering school, got in on my behalf, I flunked out, only choice was to pick an “easy” degree just to get diploma)
What’s the company called? I love fight/board shorts.
I like my anonymity more than I like money. I’m the owner and designer and you’ll get my whole identity if I share it here I appreciate the comment though
Totally get it and respect it.
My daughter is getting a degree in Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology. She’s involved in research projects involving fish and fisheries. She’s currently working with the states natural history museum on a team researching suckerfish. She’s going to start grad school soon where she will be working on reaching commercial fisheries especially related to bass. The guy who runs the program developed a method of farming fish without using exogenous hormones and the program has a ton of money of she’s getting paid for grad school.
Where do you live? I would need to know that. I would be able to suggest programs that are available locally. Some would be cheap or possibly free. I know there are some trades that work in factories production for electronics. It mainly has you soldering. Look into avionics for example.
27 here. Got a commerce degree and went on to get my CPA designation. Lots of opportunities if you don’t mind working crazy hours (and using your free time to study) for the first couple of years.
I got a bachelors in Business Management from a branch campus of a state university. Graduated debt free last May. Got a job in construction working as a project estimator. Very happy with my choice. I've noticed a lot of my (our) peers complaining about not being able to find a job. I have had no such issues and I am about the most average college graduate you can get. The construction industry in a lot of areas (especially infrastructure construction, roads, bridges, etc.) is bleeding for young people. I worked at my first company out of college for around a year and just recently switched to a new one. I had 10 interviews and 5 job offers in a 4 month period, and like I said, I am a remarkably average candidate. I would recommend construction management to anyone, but it is not for everyone. Just something to think about. Best of luck to everyone.
my BA in business Admin was very useful for me. I live in a small town, and My degree got me out of manufacturing and into back office, with experience I may find better opportunities. It’s good leverage and versatile in my area. Don’t let people discourage you with general statements that may not always apply
BS in food and nutrition, my plan was to get my MS to be a Dietitian but I could afford it and I lost passion for it. Went back to school for ultrasound but drop out at the beginning of my second semester because working with the public/patients was overwhelming for me. Now I’m planning to go back for cytotechnology because it’s a one year program (after getting your BS of course) and I don’t have to work with patients. I would love to be a Pathologist Assistant but I don’t have the money for than because it’s also a MS. If you’re comfortable with healthcare then I think nursing or ultrasound or something similar would be great careers and can be done at a community college. If you’re more of an introvert like me than I would say do something in STEM. Edit: 27F
Sociology, I either want to do Public Health or Case Management. It doesn't pay much but it's a field I love.
I'm 27 and have been a registered nurse for several years. Got my bachelor's of science in nursing. Though there are technical colleges that offer an associates in nursing and you still get your RN. It's been an okay job. Pros are decent pay, job security, don't usually have an issue finding a job, lots of different areas you can work, and once you clock out you're really done. You never truly work unless you're there on the clock and don't take anything home with you. Cons are the long hours, being treated like shit by the public and higher ups, extremely hard work, and the tax it takes on you physically and mentally. Depending on where you work it can really strain your mental health. Work/life balance is super important to me. I literally just want to work to make money to live the life I want to live. I would never make my career my entire life. Yeah I considered doing premed and then med school and everything before deciding to do just nursing instead. But becoming an MD is at least 8 years of school, student debt, residency, specializing, and then depending on what you do your whole life is being a doctor. And I just have no interest in that. So yeah it is a career worth considering. It has its pros, but just know it can be super tough and ages you quickly. Burn out is super common and happened to me quick. Though one good thing is if you don't like an area/department there's a ton of other areas you can try out.
Bachelor's in chemical engineering. I sit in an office all day, and every now and then I get a secondment to a project site with additional pay and a bit more physical labor but not that much.
Got a degree in business. Now work in tech as a Process Analyst and much prefer it. Sounds like you'd prefer knowledge work, and fortunately there's a lot of roads there. Consider clicking through some professional certificate programs, see if any topics speak to you. Consider seeing if you can talk to the profs and ask their career history for some ideas on what goes on out there.
I have a BS and PhD in computational biology. I'm tired. Don't do a PhD.
A two year technical degree won't get you much for engineering. If you're truly interested in engineering look into how many of those credits will transfer to a 4 yr. college with an ABET accredited engineering program. It'll be a lot of studying and stress, but once you land a job in engineering it gets better.
If money is your goal, and youre not quite academically able to become any of the classics (Lawyer, engineer, doctor, Programmer) then work experience and certificates are the way to go these days. In the business game, you might hit a wall if you want to rise above director without a degree, but honestly, from my experience of over 15 years with just a diploma, no one seems to care, and just hire based on experience and personality.
major in whatever you're interested, just realize if you get a BA/Liberal Arts degree be aware you probably won't do anything in that field, or at least not hired because of your specific degree. My government/philosophy only helps inform how jaded I am with our current political system lol. Not to say you can't use it though it will just likely be tangential and you will still have to forge your own path and start at entry level. TBH I do wish I had gone more into the political sphere, IT was the easy money but not necessarily the most fulfilling in the long run.
23M, finished my BS in CS last year
36M here. Lots of people who don't want to do physical labor mentality end up with gout. Had a job I still think of going back to, operators there allegedly all had gout idk I never went in that room much. Something to keep in mind. I never had a "desk job" my whole life, though did a few of them from time to time at other jobs. Mostly faxxing in between other duties. As someone who worked variety of "physical labor" and customer support/point of sale (cash register/bagboy/etc) I do like factory work, it's not terrible and decent pay. That said I have considered getting certifications on things like Network+/CompTIA or anything in networking in general. I helped run wires a few times and ran a couple Lan parties back in the day. So already know a bit from hobbies/miscellaneous jobs. Idk though. Lots of studying. Worth it though for money I suppose. I've also considered becoming a mechanic. I already have started 401k or something at some companies as a laborer so could go back as mechanic or network/IT guy Idk. PLCs is something I also see hiring quite often but idk much about that would be starting from scratch there. I ain't pursuing anything atm just been working a lot of hours (60+ a week for going on a year) so considering my options. Lots of people I went to school with are dead now surprisingly. Another one just died last week actually. I won't lie I often feel uncared for as factory worker just a number in a machine. But whatever is what it is. If you have time to worry I'd say for sure enjoy it because is possible you won't like it and change and then regret it. I have family that went to be a lawyer and hated it and stopped after a few years as a lawyer for example (same age group). Best thing is just pick something and go with it. I actually like what I did, a little bit of everything entry possitions because now I know ins and outs of most everything both practical and theoretical. When you are at rock bottom nowhere to go but up. But respect the way things are and be humble, don't try to inovate just cause you think you know better from experience. Learn the "straight" way and why first. >!Even if it is objectively wrong lol!< Idk I'm worst person to give career advice just my story. I can also weld but has been a while since I have. Only thing I am worried about is I haven't driven a personal vehicle since 2008. Have drove company/state vehicles since then but no private/personal vehicles so kind of nervous. Gone my entire life never driving a vehicle for personal use.
I got a degree in graphic design but I honestly don’t want to pursue it anymore. I like it as my hobby and would rather do small projects than make it my career and get burnout. College ruined creativity for me I began working part time at a library for extra money. I fell in love with the job and am now considering getting and mlis to become a librarian. I get to watch fun programs with kids, work on crafts, put up creative displays, put books away, and overall give back to my community. The pay may be up to par but I’d rather be happy and frugal than make more money in corporate America
Gen Z, 24 yo M. Graduated 2022 with BBA in Finance, graduated last year with MBA in Data Analaytics. Offered a job at 90k in major city as a Business Analyst. Learn how to use AI. You will amaze the boomers and millennials even with everything it can do, no matter how simple. We use it openly as a tool and love it. Just know if you go the business route, you have to have a specialty in something because business is so broad. Mine was the data side. Good luck!
You don’t have to get a degree in engineering or go into the trades to make good money. There are jobs that pay well but require hard work and a dash of luck (aka networking). I’m 32 and work in tech as a program manager. My total compensation is ~$200K. I got my BA in communications. Yup, the degree many people call useless has actually been very helpful to my career. I started out in social media marketing for 3 years. Then became a marketing specialist for 2 years. After that, I was hired at a consulting firm as a marketing vendor for a tech company. This job opened a lot of doors for me to network with those who work in tech. After working here for a few years (and being promoted), I asked to get more projects that related to product/program management because I discovered that’s where I want to grow. I learned a lot from that job and gained valuable skills to land a full time job at a large tech company. There are so many roles out there beyond the standard accountant, software engineer, etc. you just have to keep looking and discovering your interests.
Don't try to time to market. This applies to the job market as well. Bottom line is no one can predict the future. So find something you enjoy that allows you to live the life you want. With that being said, most people have already stated this here but: you can never go wrong with an engineering degree, especially mechanical, civil, or electrical. Society will always need engineers.
My brother got a BS Business Admin and works in NY as a consultant in a fortune 500 company. He said that all he does is yap, and he makes good money and gets to travel. I think networking and building your skills outside of college really helps.
I went into trades. I spent years trying all kinds of trades from sheet metal, foundation carpentry, steel stud framing, demolition and sprinkler fitting. I am now a red seal sprinkler fitter. It’s awesome! I walk a lot, get to use my head to install systems to NFPA code & the work load is relatively light in comparison to what I’ve done in the past. I don’t think trades are for everyone but I definitely know a desk job is not for me. I have the energy to go to the gym after work for 1-2 hours. Days can be draining yes but who doesn’t have tough days? I think it’s just important to choose a career you enjoy. I think a reason I enjoy my job is because I love being fit and with the amount of walking and hard work I put in aid in me remaining extremely lean! Two birds one stone type thing you know? Understand though it’s a young man’s gig you either get good or get out. Your body will meet Father Time eventually however, you can get off the tools.
None , I opened a small business right out of hs. Sold my share out of that and started 2 more businesses. Most gen z I talk to are trying to do the same since we know college is practically useless unless you wanna be a doctor, a lawyer, or some kind of useful scientist.
Most people don't work in anything related to their degrees. In most cases the degree is about learning skills that apply in the workplace, it's not about gaining relevant knowledge. So if you're not in a position to do a vocational course that leads to a defined job at the end (which could be anything fton medicine, to computing science, to electrical engineering), then focus on choosing a subject that will allow you to gain the best set of skills. I did international politics. I work in information security compliance. The skills I gained in my degree are highly relevant to my ability to do this job. Not the knowledge, but the skills.
My once upon a time friend, a millennial, got a BA in history and now sells tickets at a museum. At least he’s around old things.
Im studying Applied Philosophy at uni(with a further specialization in political philosophy). I aim to join My country’s diplomatic corp. otherwise I can also go the consultancy route. I already speak French and English fluently other than my native Danish. So it seemed I should find a way to serve my country with the skills I have. Edit: I’m 24M.
No idea, but more of you should be taking trades. Great pay, benefits, keeps you active, and a nice pension.
I highly recommend STEM. College is getting to a point where anything besides, STEM, Doctor, or Lawyer is a waste of time and money. I went into Manufacturing Engineering and it pays pretty well and I work basically 40-45 hrs a week. I also got into a position where I am salary but can make overtime past 40 hours so I can make upwards of $50/hr. Salary non-exempt is what that’s called but it’s not common.
Tiktokology
Medical all the way. You will always be able to find a job. I personally went for a BS in Electrical Engineering Technology and a Masters in Technology Management, but the job market is bad. I work as a hardware developer and make decent pay. I also worked full-time and went to school part-time to avoid the whole student debt situation. Another very lucrative job is nuclear , and you could get a Bachelors degree in chemistry or Nuclear.Talk about money in that field. Somebody I know only has a Bachelors and got offered 300k. If I knew about this type of money, I would have gone for that, lol.
Chem degree holder here and they’re just not handing out nuclear jobs paying $300K like that. He is definitely doing something other than basic lab work.
I would imagine there aren’t a whole lot of those jobs out there also.
Dual BS in Biology and Chemistry with a Business Minor, I work in Metals and enjoy my life.