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The problem is education is tailored towards particular jobs. For example if you have a degree in biology, sure you can get a job in a factory paying almost min

by vivekd 10y ago

The problem is education is tailored towards particular jobs. For example if you have a degree in biology, sure you can get a job in a factory paying almost minimum wage. . . but it wouldn't pay enough for you to cover your student loans and still be able to move out. There seems to be a serious lack of jobs that let people actually have a life. . . and I'm not talking about picket fence in the suburbs dream home kind of life, I'm just talking about being able to afford basic necessities

tomschlick 10y ago
Then they should stop getting degrees in industries that don't exist / have very few job openings. Get a degree in business, accounting, finance, engineering, or tech and your chances of finding a good paying job increase ten fold.
- vivekd 10y ago
  But the guy in the article was in tech.
  - tomschlick 10y ago
    Right but you were talking about education. The guy in the article is in his 40s so the current educational mess doesn't apply to him. I was mostly talking for people my age (20s) that went to school for bullshit degrees only to come out 80k in debt and have no hopes of finding a job because they didn't do research into the market before they went to school.
xaa 10y ago
There ARE jobs in biology. I have one. But IME, in fields like this, or creative fields like writing, graphic design, etc, students should know what they're getting into: extremely competitive fields where you can do very well if you're excellent at what you do, and can easily find yourself unemployed if you're only "good". It's like planning on the NBA or acting as a career: a high-risk proposition that requires total dedication in exchange for an uncertain chance of success. There are some people who are OK with that. I think the conclusion is that only very dedicated students should go into these fields, which would simultaneously reduce the supply of people trying to go into them, and reduce the number of unemployed people with these degrees. I have little sympathy for someone who chose a high-risk degree like biology and then complains it didn't work out (at least the author of the article didn't make THAT mistake). People who think they are guaranteed a job in any given field simply because they have a degree, or that all careers have equal odds of finding steady employment, are completely out of touch with reality.

by vivekd 10y ago

tomschlick 10y ago

Then they should stop getting degrees in industries that don't exist / have very few job openings. Get a degree in business, accounting, finance, engineering, or tech and your chances of finding a good paying job increase ten fold.

vivekd 10y ago
But the guy in the article was in tech.
- tomschlick 10y ago
  Right but you were talking about education. The guy in the article is in his 40s so the current educational mess doesn't apply to him. I was mostly talking for people my age (20s) that went to school for bullshit degrees only to come out 80k in debt and have no hopes of finding a job because they didn't do research into the market before they went to school.

xaa 10y ago

There ARE jobs in biology. I have one. But IME, in fields like this, or creative fields like writing, graphic design, etc, students should know what they're getting into: extremely competitive fields where you can do very well if you're excellent at what you do, and can easily find yourself unemployed if you're only "good". It's like planning on the NBA or acting as a career: a high-risk proposition that requires total dedication in exchange for an uncertain chance of success. There are some people who are OK with that. I think the conclusion is that only very dedicated students should go into these fields, which would simultaneously reduce the supply of people trying to go into them, and reduce the number of unemployed people with these degrees. I have little sympathy for someone who chose a high-risk degree like biology and then complains it didn't work out (at least the author of the article didn't make THAT mistake). People who think they are guaranteed a job in any given field simply because they have a degree, or that all careers have equal odds of finding steady employment, are completely out of touch with reality.