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

[Falsedawn]

Ahh @Falsedawn beat me to it.

Tech bros gonna tech bro.

 

[HunterSdVa29]

Isn't the trend going the other way as far as looking down on trades? More vocational schools and federal money under both Bush & Obama, and with respect declining for social science & parts of humanities, people saying "learn a trade" is more common today than I remember 20 years ago.

you're probably right, although i'm sure a decent size portion of that is under the Post 9/11 and the Vets from both wars as they tend to have a high ratio (compared to normal HS grads) that go to trade schools over CC/Uni.

I hope you're right, especially w/ the loss of manufacturing over the last few decades, trades can provide high paying jobs for those were formerly unskilled labor (assuming they can get credentialed/cert'd_

 

[TrippleOG]

THE worst is those communication studies fake sluts at your local university. All fake slurs trying to get into " public relations " event planning " advertising . What a joke.

 

[sub_thug]

OK- But how can you connect this vision to the populism that we've seen in the US and the UK?

Because populism is defined as "Support for the concerns of ordinary people" or "the quality of appealing to or being aimed at ordinary people."

Or, according to Wikipedia, "Populism is a political doctrine that proposes that the common people are exploited by a privileged elite, and which seeks to resolve this."

Do you think this moment of populism is just a flash in the pan that is going to fade?

Or do you think that people will continually be duped by the sort of false populism that someone like Trump offers?

I think this election told us that a lot of people are deeply unsatisfied and willing to go with pretty much anything besides the status quo.

I think your assessment that people are deeply unsatisfied with the status quo is correct. I'm making an educated guess here, but I think that what you have is a lot of people feeling like they are losing their spots in the middle class. These are people who largely worked in blue collar towns, trying to earn an honest living, and their towns and way of life is deteriorating around them. I think that they have been slowing watching their middle class life turn into poverty, and they haven't seen their issues being addressed by the politicians in Washington. Washington wants to talk about poor inner city youth, the plight of the farmer, and lots of related topics, but they haven't addressed the declining status of the Americana town. If you go to my wife's home town in Pennsylvania, you definitely see this for sure. The smartest kids all left for college and never came back. The ones that stayed are working jobs for hourly rates instead of high-paying salaries, and the people coming into town (taking advantage of declining property values) are bringing with them drugs, prostitution, graffiti, and other stuff that is making the town look poorly on itself. The kids in that town are being exposed to these things, and they are spreading. The people there hate it, and they feel like they've been forgotten. In that part of the country, the lamentations are over the railroads, steel mills, coal mines, and glass factories leaving, but it might as well be any blue collar job. And this story applies to lots of places in the country from the tobacco farmers of North Carolina to the beef farmers of the midwest to the shipping companies and factories of South Carolina. The schools teachers are products of this hometown, and they aren't the best and brightest members of the town because the best ones left to make it in a larger metropolitan area where there is real opportunity. So things get worse and worse. So a guy like Trump comes along and promises to bring jobs back, and these towns perk right up. "Finally, a chance to restore our way of life with good-paying labor! I knew we needed an outsider to come in and shake things up!" And maybe Trump will do right by these people, and maybe he won't. I'll give him 3 years to wait and see, and then I'm going to assess his effectiveness as we prepare for the 2020 election. If he is effective in helping these people, then they will flood the polls to reelect him and support his populist agenda. If he fails, they will likely feel betrayed, and populism will disappear for a while. Things come in cycles, so populism and socialism are en vogue now (depending on what side of the aisle you sit on). That will eventually change for both, but that's for the future to show us. That's my honest take of what this election meant.

 

[Fawlty]

There's a very large age gap in the trades. I'm deeply connected in the social circle of the big trades and we're hurting for EXPERIENCED people. We have to fly in chiller technicians from NYC all the way to Vegas, then they fly to Hawaii the very next day. There's that much of an age/experience gap. People look down on trades, but there's a shitload of money to be made depending on which trade you settle with. Not to mention, union power and pensions plus side jobs, which a lot of tradesmen get much of their money from.

Crazy but I've seen that too even though I'm not anywhere near the trades. One is an old auto metalworker who pretty much names his price and schedule, travels everywhere, working and teaching.

 

[kuromusha]

Complicated topic. We can still have factories and factory jobs, but they won't be the blue collar ones that people think about. It'll be stuff like working in Tesla's Gigafactory as an engineer, not pulling levers and turning screws. There may be a few maintenance workers, but the trend here is inevitable: The future belongs to the educated. Blue collar work is dying, and the country needs to realize it. This mentality that "college isn't for everyone" is nothing more than coddling weakness, and if you choose to squander your educational experience with a Women's Studies, Africana Studies, Art History, or Criminal Justice degree, then that's on you. It won't be the government's fault when you can't find work. Rugged individualism, yo.

If you are a college student, I have some golden advice for you: Study engineering, math, medicine, technology, finance, or science. All of the other degrees are not worth the paper they are written on. If you enter the social sciences field, you can expect that the job that you get (which will be outside of your field of study) will eventually be automated. Expect it to be automated within 10-15 years, so you are fucked. The economy is going to become even more cutthroat than it already is, so you will either be in the Top 10% or you will live in helpless dependence on the government. Best of luck.

Not all STEM jobs pay well. Outside of Engineering and Technology, a lot of STEM majors pay pretty low. Some PhDs students get paid barely above minimum wage. I personally don't measure a degrees worth based on how much it nets you in the free market, however.

 

[panamaican]

I work in the Aerospace industry in a position that isn’t technical (I.E. Quality / Engineering ect). I do however manage company and customer property and work on many large projects. I don’t have a Project Management certificate but I’m starting to understand the basics of how to run one. My manager is really pushing me to get my PMP and I think I’m going to do it this year. I just took a 3 day course (Project Management Essentials) and I thought it was great. 40% of my job is to maintain our groups Continuous Improvement metrics. Although CI & PM aren’t the same thing, they seem to use many of the same tools (Risk Management, Process Maps, Schedules, OTD ect). The instructor told me that 40% of the PMP test isn’t in the PMBOK, is that true? I’ve heard it’s a somewhat difficult test and I’m terrible with memorization.

Yeah, I'd agree that the PMBOK isn't the best resource but it's still pretty good. I ended up getting a flashcard app on my phone for studying purposes. I don't remember what it was though.

 

[kahiljabroni]

There's truth to this, but I think young people should give what they really enjoy a shot. You can go back to school or find employment in other fields. My wife is a RN. She worked ICU for almost 10 years and was really unhappy. She is now in Health IT and is much happier. She still does nursing twice a month to keep her license.

This is the terrible advice that had led to so many under and unemployed millenials buried in debt.

Education needs to be looked at as an investment and nothing else. You like African studies? Read about them on your free time.

 

[Limbo Pete]

I don't think it's true that you'd have to move, because there are Starbucks everywhere

That's a solid pwn imo

 

[My Spot]

Haha, I was so happy to see Art Historian listed.

 

[My Spot]

I don't think it's true that you'd have to move, because there are Starbucks everywhere

I'd make alternate accounts just to like this post more than once.

 

[HomerThompson]

This is the terrible advice that had led to so many under and unemployed millenials buried in debt.

Education needs to be looked at as an investment and nothing else. You like African studies? Read about them on your free time.

*in

 

[Madmick]

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.

It's a "major" to avoid. This is specifically discussing college majors within the context of occupation.

And, as so many others with first-hand PM experience have attested in this thread (either working as one or with one) it doesn't make much sense as a "Major". I feel like the forum has done a great job of fleshing that issue out. I was confused when I composed the OP. Now I'm not.

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

I went in thinking I would study either political science or history. Was concerned about job prospects but those were the subjects that interested me most.

My first semester I registered late and got stuck in a random intro class called Geography of tourism.

4 years later I graduated with my tourism degree. Got an interesting job from an internship, and 11 years later have a great job in the field.



So check out tourism!

 

[WiolentOne]

Hey sadmick

You really think this thread belong in the WR rather than Mayberry?

 

[Madmick]

Hey sadmick

You really think this thread belong in the WR rather than Mayberry?

What do you think?

 

[WiolentOne]

What do you think?

You like to exercise your "authority" around here when it's not needed. Youre the only WR mod who has this problem. Perhaps instead of trying to unnessarliy mod so much you should focus on following the rules you like to enforce.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

I went in thinking I would study either political science or history. Was concerned about job prospects but those were the subjects that interested me most.

My first semester I registered late and got stuck in a random intro class called Geography of tourism.

4 years later I graduated with my tourism degree. Got an interesting job from an internship, and 11 years later have a great job in the field.



So check out tourism!

Key part being internship -- which is a great tool.

No matter what field you take, a key piece of advice for all students is networking, networking and more networking. Meeting people, getting involved in events, interning and getting your name out there is probably a more important aspect than classes themselves in many majors.

 

[Madmick]

You like to exercise your "authority" around here when it's not needed. Youre the only WR mod who has this problem. Perhaps instead of trying to unnessarliy mod so much you should focus on following the rules you like to enforce.

Spoiler

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

It's a "major" to avoid. This is specifically discussing college majors within the context of occupation.

And, as so many others with first-hand PM experience have attested in this thread (either working as one or with one) it doesn't make much sense as a "Major". I feel like the forum has done a great job of fleshing that issue out. I was confused when I composed the OP. Now I'm not.

Well yeah, I can see what they mean.
As a major, it would be so-so. I do not have a degree in it, and I was just speaking from a career perspective, and not as a major.