5 ms·

>Two of the three degrees are jobless anyway >The rest of the article is just "I did a stupid degree and didn't get a job!" This is interesting in itself. Why

>Two of the three degrees are jobless anyway >The rest of the article is just "I did a stupid degree and didn't get a job!" This is interesting in itself. Why do people spend so much time and money on something like that? The town planner was unlucky. Not much can be done about that. The 'politics and philosophy guy' says he was misled. He does not say his age, but I bet he was young and immature when he chose his mayor. The conservation biologist says she wanted to work in something that helps people and not just make money. If she had given half of the money she used to study biology to whichever organization she hoped would hire her, she would have saved money, time, and would have helped more. The article doesn't really give an answer, but it raises an important question.

pjc50 11y ago
Note that UK degrees don't have "majors": you pick a subject at about 17 before you're doing your final "high school"-level exams. The whole thing is probably fallout from the Blairite changes to the system. It used to be that degrees were free and scarce - limited by academic admissions criteria. They have been changed to widespread and loan-based. People expect them to have the door-opening prestige of the old system and haven't really adapted to them becoming an expensive trade school for the middle class.
- tonyedgecombe 11y ago
  The problem isn't so much that they are no longer door-opening, it's rather that not having a degree has become door-closing.
  - saint_fiasco 11y ago
    I wonder if that's really true. I understand that nobody wants to do the experiment with their own lives, but if you can realize that there are competent people who aren't getting hired because they lack college degrees, surely employers will realize that too. Would they leave money on the table like that?
NullCharacter 11y ago
> Why do people spend so much time and money on something like that? Probably because it makes them feel unique and special. It's a badge they can wear that sets them apart. Nobody really advertises that they're getting a History/Literature or CompSci/Engineering (or some other dime-a-dozen major) degree without being prompted, but I guarantee you that girl that's studying "Oriental Medicine and Horticulture" or that guy that's majoring in "Fermentation Sciences" are going to tell everyone they meet.

pjc50 11y ago

Note that UK degrees don't have "majors": you pick a subject at about 17 before you're doing your final "high school"-level exams. The whole thing is probably fallout from the Blairite changes to the system. It used to be that degrees were free and scarce - limited by academic admissions criteria. They have been changed to widespread and loan-based. People expect them to have the door-opening prestige of the old system and haven't really adapted to them becoming an expensive trade school for the middle class.

tonyedgecombe 11y ago
The problem isn't so much that they are no longer door-opening, it's rather that not having a degree has become door-closing.
- saint_fiasco 11y ago
  I wonder if that's really true. I understand that nobody wants to do the experiment with their own lives, but if you can realize that there are competent people who aren't getting hired because they lack college degrees, surely employers will realize that too. Would they leave money on the table like that?

NullCharacter 11y ago

> Why do people spend so much time and money on something like that? Probably because it makes them feel unique and special. It's a badge they can wear that sets them apart. Nobody really advertises that they're getting a History/Literature or CompSci/Engineering (or some other dime-a-dozen major) degree without being prompted, but I guarantee you that girl that's studying "Oriental Medicine and Horticulture" or that guy that's majoring in "Fermentation Sciences" are going to tell everyone they meet.