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Science and math are as unemployable as the humanities. When people use "STEM" in this way they really only mean engineering.

BadassFractal 8y ago
I've seen math / physics majors make an easy transition into software development. I bet that is much easier to pull off than switching to programming from say, sociology.
- closeparen 8y ago
  Okay, but the employable activity there is still software development and not science or mathematics.
  - BadassFractal 8y ago
    That is true.
  - dddddaviddddd 8y ago
    Software is often a tool to perform science.
  - analog31 8y ago
    Most math and science students are aware that we aren't headed for academic research careers in those fields. But that's true for computer science students as well. I have a physics degree, and while I'm not employed as a programmer per se, programming is my main problem solving tool. It wouldn't be a quantum leap for me to move into a programming job if I wanted to do it. On the other hand, I also have two friends whose college degrees were in philosophy and music performance, and both became programmers.
- electricslpnsld 8y ago
  > I bet that is much easier to pull off than switching to programming from say, sociology. Sociology curricula are getting quite quantitative these days — the jump from sociology student to data scientist isn’t that far. I used to live with a bunch of sociologists back in grad school, and they lived and breathed R, Python, and SAS.
- fnrslvr 8y ago
  Is this a regional thing? I've had interviewers inquire perplexedly from across the table as to why in the world someone with a mathematics degree was seeking a software development job. Do employers in some parts really salivate over green math/phys grads with not so much as a github profile? Or do these anecdata leave off some key arc to the story where the grad does something substantial to bridge the gap between said major and software dev?
  - BadassFractal 8y ago
    Many employers don't care what your degree is as long as you can prove you can code what they need you to code.
pkaye 8y ago
Engineering is more immediately applicable. For science and math you need to go much further in your education if you want to pursue a career in the their fields.
icelancer 8y ago
If you mean within academia, I agree. If you mean in the private sector, absolutely not. Mathematics and physics majors have a ton of opportunity in CS-related fields. I hired a lot of them when I ran a data science team. Their understanding of software development from first principles usually seriously outranks CS graduates at the cost of not knowing how to program in advanced languages. I find it a lot easier to develop a Math/Physics graduate's coding skills than a CS graduate's underlying understanding of the physical world and formulaic thinking.
- closeparen 8y ago
  Okay, people trained in science can more easily transition to software engineering. They are still not getting paid to do science.
  - icelancer 8y ago
    This all depends on what you consider science, I suppose. If you define science as work with beakers and things, sure, yeah, those positions are dying out. But genetic research is more of a CS-dominated field than it is a purely "scientific" field these days. nVidia pays technical geneticists mid-six figures to work on their projects. Science is becoming more democratized and breaking out of the academic, federally-funded, very slow process model, and plenty of people are working in private science that have nothing to do with making drugs, but rather in brand new fields and exploding existing niche ones. Some of this isn't great, I'll be the first to admit with a lot of experience on both sides of the aisle. But overall it's a massive net positive. For everyone.
  - tnecniv 8y ago
    If you would like to be pedantic, only a small percentage of individuals use the skills taught to them in their major (or any traditional classroom setting really) in their daily job. The value of a classical education is that the student learns critical thinking and problem solving in a diverse set of frameworks, which allows them to adapt to the requirements of the job.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
Other people mention software engineering in comments, but last time I heard, investment bankers would hire mathematicians, then physicists, and only then software people.

BadassFractal 8y ago

I've seen math / physics majors make an easy transition into software development. I bet that is much easier to pull off than switching to programming from say, sociology.

closeparen 8y ago
Okay, but the employable activity there is still software development and not science or mathematics.
- BadassFractal 8y ago
  That is true.
- dddddaviddddd 8y ago
  Software is often a tool to perform science.
- analog31 8y ago
  Most math and science students are aware that we aren't headed for academic research careers in those fields. But that's true for computer science students as well. I have a physics degree, and while I'm not employed as a programmer per se, programming is my main problem solving tool. It wouldn't be a quantum leap for me to move into a programming job if I wanted to do it. On the other hand, I also have two friends whose college degrees were in philosophy and music performance, and both became programmers.
electricslpnsld 8y ago
> I bet that is much easier to pull off than switching to programming from say, sociology. Sociology curricula are getting quite quantitative these days — the jump from sociology student to data scientist isn’t that far. I used to live with a bunch of sociologists back in grad school, and they lived and breathed R, Python, and SAS.
fnrslvr 8y ago
Is this a regional thing? I've had interviewers inquire perplexedly from across the table as to why in the world someone with a mathematics degree was seeking a software development job. Do employers in some parts really salivate over green math/phys grads with not so much as a github profile? Or do these anecdata leave off some key arc to the story where the grad does something substantial to bridge the gap between said major and software dev?
- BadassFractal 8y ago
  Many employers don't care what your degree is as long as you can prove you can code what they need you to code.

pkaye 8y ago

Engineering is more immediately applicable. For science and math you need to go much further in your education if you want to pursue a career in the their fields.

icelancer 8y ago

If you mean within academia, I agree. If you mean in the private sector, absolutely not. Mathematics and physics majors have a ton of opportunity in CS-related fields. I hired a lot of them when I ran a data science team. Their understanding of software development from first principles usually seriously outranks CS graduates at the cost of not knowing how to program in advanced languages. I find it a lot easier to develop a Math/Physics graduate's coding skills than a CS graduate's underlying understanding of the physical world and formulaic thinking.

closeparen 8y ago
Okay, people trained in science can more easily transition to software engineering. They are still not getting paid to do science.
- icelancer 8y ago
  This all depends on what you consider science, I suppose. If you define science as work with beakers and things, sure, yeah, those positions are dying out. But genetic research is more of a CS-dominated field than it is a purely "scientific" field these days. nVidia pays technical geneticists mid-six figures to work on their projects. Science is becoming more democratized and breaking out of the academic, federally-funded, very slow process model, and plenty of people are working in private science that have nothing to do with making drugs, but rather in brand new fields and exploding existing niche ones. Some of this isn't great, I'll be the first to admit with a lot of experience on both sides of the aisle. But overall it's a massive net positive. For everyone.
- tnecniv 8y ago
  If you would like to be pedantic, only a small percentage of individuals use the skills taught to them in their major (or any traditional classroom setting really) in their daily job. The value of a classical education is that the student learns critical thinking and problem solving in a diverse set of frameworks, which allows them to adapt to the requirements of the job.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

Other people mention software engineering in comments, but last time I heard, investment bankers would hire mathematicians, then physicists, and only then software people.