A Forbes Public Service Announcement: The 17 Most Useless College Majors (Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!)

[MicroBrew]

Generally speaking, yes.

I imagine Hawaii won't have trouble finding any if their salary can pay the rent. Nevertheless, that's just one state. You'll notice "Nurse" isn't on there. That's because they need a shitload of those in EVERY state.

In my case (Archaeology) I knew jobs would be extremely rare and even if I did land 1 it would pay shit. So I have other ventures to earn me money, and can still the pursue Archaeology personal non-profit reasons.

 

[Limbo Pete]

Art history is a great field, but there are a lot of dumbasses who major in it from my experience. I'm sure it waters down the stats, because then those dumbasses have trouble getting jobs.

Yeah and they don't plan out any part of a career path while in school. I've known more than a few flopped art history majors. But if you are aggressive and look for internships while a student, you come out of undergrad with very valuable and comparatively rare experience. And it's the kind of job that can be really glorious if you enjoy travelling and working in posh foreign climates, or mingling with socialites. I love art, but found I can't stand art history at all. It's the total opposite of normal historical study in a lot of ways. Hyper subjective, much more political in the work climates. I've done a bunch of museum work because of my major overlap, and I seriously considered taking the next step into that niche but ultimately the politics of an art history climate wasn't for me. There's a ton of work that can be done on the back end of museum work which is totally sweet, though almost nobody ever seems to know object handling is even a thing.

 

[edirp]

My sister in law is a communications major. She graduated in 2014 and is still unemployed. :lol

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

Meh, my degree is in fine arts. I worked as a freelance printmaker and designer for a few years and enjoyed it. Apprenticed in a tattoo studio.

Then I wanted something with good benefits and retirement and I've been enjoying working in law enforcement ever since.

So I've had two totally different careers, both of which I find interesting and fulfilling.

If you're competent, willing to work hard, and have some useful knowledge, skills, or abilities you'll be employable in something. It just might not be what your degree is in lol

 

[Madmick]

UML diagram?

I'm a project manager, and I'm sure as hell not in the 1%. I like it, and I want to read more about it. Thanks.

 

[nostradumbass]

Is "educator" the same as teacher? Hawaii was just looking for a shitload of those.

They said they were desperate for them, but to even interview, you have to already be coming here on your own and give them your flight info 2 months in advance before they'll even schedule the interview. Basically, they claim to need teachers but it's limited to people who are doing well enough in their own places to afford Hawaiian vacations but still would like to pack up their shit and move to an expensive island in the middle of the ocean for a teacher's salary in a place that's known to have really shit public schools.

 

[-dirtywhiteboy-]

I find this interesting. I'm in the human services sector and make great money. Mind you it's a result of lots of overtime and some private practice. I love my field. I think the majority of the degrees here can help u be successful. but it's up to the graduate and how hard they are willing to work.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Kind of surprised to see project managers on that list -- usually, they are specialized that have a technical background, who later took a post grad / masters to obtain their PMP certification. A huge part of my m.eng revolved around project management --in space systems , a systems engineer is really a project manager; and we make bank.

 

[MMA IAN]

17 College Majors That Report Higher Underemployment
Don't be tricked into allowing yourself to believe that you can be a useless human being and still have enough value to feel safe or secure in that decision. Don't try to save the world. You end up useless that way. Look out for #1. Reject more profitable careers only if you find them personally intolerable as a day-to-day burden.

Some of these are obviously useful, such as "Criminal Justice worker", "Health Care Administrator" and "Educator", but the reason they're showing up is that they have become overpopulated with too many useless people, and are therefore less likely to want you.

That's it. Those are my "words of wisdom" to Generation Z Sherdoggers. They probably lack wisdom, but that doesn't make them wrong.

1. P.E. (Physical Education) Teacher
   
2. Human Services (i.e. social service workers)
   
3. Illustrator
4. Criminal Justice worker
   
5. Project Manager*
6. Radio/Television & Film Producer
7. Studio Artist
8. Health Care Administrator
9. Educator (i.e. Teacher)
   
10. Human Development & Family Studies (i.e. more social service workers)
    
11. Creative Writing (i.e. Writer)
    
12. Animal Scientist
13. Exercise Scientist (i.e. Personal Trainer)
    
14. Health Scientist
15. Paralegal
    
16. Theatre (i.e. Actor/Actress/Playwright/etc.)
    
17. Art Historian

*This is the only one that sticks out because I swear I'd seen this recently on some "Most Profitable" lists. Maybe it's hard to find a job, but once you do, it puts you in the 1%. Same situation faced by the big hitters in the "Health Care Administrator" field.

Surprised Human Services is so high. Depends where you are I guess. If your state has high Meth/Alcohol problems you will always have work.

Not surprised about most of the rest though.

 

[Amerikuracana]

All legit fields. Not enough factory jobs. Need factory jobs to support people pushing papers and not actually producing anything.

 

[Amerikuracana]

I actually agree but be willing to suffer the consequences then.
On social media, I have quite a few of those stereotypical arts students who post long essays on facebook on how 'the system' doesn't 'give them a fair chance' and how that's the fault of capitalism. Study liberal arts, dolphin therapy, and gender science all you want but please shut up if nobody pays you $10k a month after you graduated.

Those careersisted aren't dolphin care or gender science.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

I mean why it was one of the 17. I didn't know it was considered one of the occupations to avoid. Learn something new everyday.

 

[sub_thug]

Yeah, I'm not really surprised to see Project Management on there. What kinds of projects would they theoretically manage? Is one class enough to understand Agile development that is used in IT projects to the point where you could actually manage an IT project where those developers have been doing this for 10 years? Is one class enough to also understand construction projects in the depth required, understanding how buildings are certified and approved, how the politics of land plays out, and then managing construction to ensure that it stays on track? It's all just very theoretical, leaving you as an expert in nothing. If you want to manage people, get into a field where you can learn the ropes as an executor of policies, understand them, and then figure out ways to improve them as you work your way up. No one starts as a CEO, so be prepared to work for it. There are very few places where you can start out as a leader.

I take a similar stance on teaching. I think it's a stupid degree. If you want to teach high school physics, you should have a degree in physics. Otherwise, you have the blind leading the blind, and that's not good at all.

 

[Tamriel Terror]

Really the best bang for your buck is an engineering of some sort.

But the highest ceilings are in finance.

A lot of elite schools don't have great business programs but have solid economics programs. A lot of bankers have economic backgrounds.


Finance major doesn't guarantee shit.

But if you look at what the elites in finance can make it blows everyone else out of the water. Outside of starting your own mega profitable business or inventing something amazing.

So many opportunities for a finance major. (Financial adviser, analyst, investment banker, etc.) all those are difficult jobs but the pay is fantastic.

 

[Teppodama]

Go into politics. The above board benefits may be meh, but the below the table payoffs are apparently off the chain.

 

[Milgrim]

Social Justice Warrior is not on the list.

My plan is coming together.

 

[chubbman]

They can always get a job in security, we hire anyone and everyone

 

[luckyshot]

Lol, project managers are the most useless creatures in the world if they don't have a pre-existing skill-set that project management is meant to complement.
They actually have a negative value; shit gets done quicker and more smoothly without their involvement.

I feel like that can be applied to most business and management degrees.

All legit fields. Not enough factory jobs. Need factory jobs to support people pushing papers and not actually producing anything.

Gone and not coming back, brother.

Economies don't have rewind buttons.

 

[PEB]

I hate to break it to them many of the most popular products in history where designed by people school in the arts. Having worked as an engineer and technician I have seen plenty of people with shiny new engineering degree who have no business in there jobs.

 

[DoomPatrol]

17 College Majors That Report Higher Underemployment
Don't be tricked into allowing yourself to believe that you can be a useless human being and still have enough value to feel safe or secure in that decision. Don't try to save the world. You end up useless that way. Look out for #1. Reject more profitable careers only if you find them personally intolerable as a day-to-day burden.

Some of these are obviously useful, such as "Criminal Justice worker", "Health Care Administrator" and "Educator", but the reason they're showing up is that they have become overpopulated with too many useless people, and are therefore less likely to want you.

That's it. Those are my "words of wisdom" to Generation Z Sherdoggers. They probably lack wisdom, but that doesn't make them wrong.

1. P.E. (Physical Education) Teacher
   
2. Human Services (i.e. social service workers)
   
3. Illustrator
4. Criminal Justice worker
   
5. Project Manager*
6. Radio/Television & Film Producer
7. Studio Artist
8. Health Care Administrator
9. Educator (i.e. Teacher)
   
10. Human Development & Family Studies (i.e. more social service workers)
    
11. Creative Writing (i.e. Writer)
    
12. Animal Scientist
13. Exercise Scientist (i.e. Personal Trainer)
    
14. Health Scientist
15. Paralegal
    
16. Theatre (i.e. Actor/Actress/Playwright/etc.)
    
17. Art Historian

*This is the only one that sticks out because I swear I'd seen this recently on some "Most Profitable" lists. Maybe it's hard to find a job, but once you do, it puts you in the 1%. Same situation faced by the big hitters in the "Health Care Administrator" field.

Being a Project Manager is high paying, but the degree is different than the field. I'm a Project Manager, well specifically a Project Director, and it pays great. I wouldn't have my job if I just had a Project Management degree though. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Most of my peers have degrees in things like Construction Management, Architecture, et cetera.