memes

The American DayDream.

as a cs major, you kicked me in the stomach with this one

A bachelor's degree isn't a vocational degree. It's ok to major in something you don't intend to work in, because at the end of the day more than half of college educated workers aren't working in their field of study. Part of the reason is because the typical 4-year degree teaches only barely enough to scratch the surface of what actually happens in industry, and those entry level workers need to learn a ton on the job anyway.

Here's a helpful chart of career outcomes by major. Note that many of these undergrad majors tend to be feeders into graduate or professional programs, and that a lot of the joke majors in the humanities and liberal arts have long term outcomes that are better than the sciences. Compare biochemistry to philosophy, for example. Both of those majors kinda expect people to go get graduate or professional degrees after, but the unemployment and underemployment rates are pretty similar.

Have a plan for getting a job. Whether that plan involves a specific major or not is up to you, and isn't strictly required. It's mainly engineering that provides a specific pipeline from undergrad degree to specific career in that field. All the others are much looser about which degree is required, or require additional schooling to enter (and once you have a graduate or professional degree, your undergrad basically doesn't matter).

I went for a major that I thought sounded interesting but wasn't really passionate about, and I figured would have good job options. Then I graduated... during the height of covid.

This is generally true. My brother is a musician, and he struggles to find work. I got lucky growing up working on programming projects until 3am for fun, then being interested in database research and later AI research several years before people started paying attention. I think we need a UBI so that the people who don't want to build stuff can do what they want instead of going into marketing or sales, or anything that's a net drain or neutral on society.

Friend majored in philosophy. Guess how much he got to use that?

I majored in History as it was my only interest at the time and I could graduate on time.

Never major in History.

Double majored in business/accounting and psychology. Went into financial auditing (not my passion but paid well). Hated my life for 12 years. Decided to go for a graduate degree in social work. Am now a very happy psychotherapist even though I make less money.

Moral of the story? It’s never too late to switch if you end up hating your original choice.

Scuse me, I burned ~46k on a culinary arts A.S. degree. 🖖

The world needs moar Neelixes.

Wish I did engineering/tech hardware tho.

Maybe self learning how to fix my own motherboard's/firmware can happen some day.

Hobby of PC building/self-linux administering for ~20 years.....do I know more than some fresh grads? Probably lol.....

I chose a major I loved and that has good paying jobs but now I sort of hate it