5 ms·

I have friends who got English degrees and went to medical school, law school or got jobs as assistants and moved up the corporate ladder; they're doing great.

by xzel 7y ago

I have friends who got English degrees and went to medical school, law school or got jobs as assistants and moved up the corporate ladder; they're doing great. I don't think its necessarily the degree that is super important, outside of engineering heavy fields of course. The real key is figuring out what to do next after college as early as possible and executing that plan. That is not to say that plenty of people get random degrees, have no plans and college ends up being a total waste.

ghaff 7y ago
Yep. I know tons of people who got English, History, etc. degrees who are doing just fine with or without advanced (typically law) degrees after that. There's a certain bias here that if you don't get an engineering degree you might as well plan of digging ditches for the rest of your life. But that isn't actually true. Lots of people (including many with engineering degrees) follow rather non-standard career paths that are still quite successful by any reasonable measure.
- siffland 7y ago
  Just to clarify I was not implying a English degree is a bad thing. My sister is smart, she just didn't use it for anything or have any goals for it. So that is why i posed the question if it was a good choice (i had to use references i was familiar with in my post).
RestlessMind 7y ago
Here is the best data I could find comparing average salaries with English degrees (71K) and Engineering degrees (109K): https://datausa.io/profile/cip/english?compare=engineering https://datausa.io/profile/cip/english?compare=engineering
- cableshaft 7y ago
  I think that's because lots of people take English because "I want to write" or "I want to teach English", and get stuck in the mindset that they HAVE to do that, compete with all the other English teachers out there, and don't think outside the box at all to use it to lead them to something more lucrative. My fiancee majored in Creative Writing and she ended up using it to write proposals for major companies and moved up and is now a marketing and proposal manager and making pretty decent money. When writing proposals she has to think a lot about how to sell the company and their business and that's been leading to a greater focus on business strategy lately too, so she could potentially make the leap into an executive position before too much longer.
metamet 7y ago
I have a BA in English and am a Senior Engineer at a Fortune 50 company. But that's largely irrelevant because I have a varied background. When we got our first computer in 97 (when I was in 8th grade), I learned basic HTML and started doing Battlebots (was on the last season on Comedy Central) because of the internet. I was able to learn about the relevant aspects of mechanical engineering that applied to what I was trying to do, which then led me to doing that as a hobby for a few years, eventually landing an apprenticeship as a machinist at a shop that wanted to help pay for my college to become a mechanical engineer. Spent my first two years getting an AA at a community college, getting burnt out on the trade. I had no financial help with my degree, and was the first in my family to go to college, so I was in new territory with understanding what I was doing. That's when I pivoted to becoming an English major, because I really enjoyed the elements of communication, critical thinking and art that the field offered. I got my degree, then worked in non-profit for a few years. I started a website that grew into a successful SaaS, then eventually left non-profit to apply my skillset in software engineering to a career. I've been doing that for 7 years now. The degree itself got me past all the HR checkboxes, but my personal interest in these fields (and the skills I learned along the way to earning my BA) are what led to me to where I am today. That's all anecdotal, but the truth is that I needed a Bachelors degree--in anything--to be where I am today. Without it, I would've been shut outside of those closed doors.
mdorazio 7y ago
On an individual level, I agree that graduates can overcome setbacks from particular degree choices. However, in aggregate it's not even close [1]. Studying a degree with few directly related jobs will cut your lifetime earnings in half in comparison to in-demand degree jobs. [1] http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/major_decisions_what_graduates_earn_over_their_lifetimes/ http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/major_decisions_what_g...

by xzel 7y ago

ghaff 7y ago

Yep. I know tons of people who got English, History, etc. degrees who are doing just fine with or without advanced (typically law) degrees after that. There's a certain bias here that if you don't get an engineering degree you might as well plan of digging ditches for the rest of your life. But that isn't actually true. Lots of people (including many with engineering degrees) follow rather non-standard career paths that are still quite successful by any reasonable measure.

siffland 7y ago
Just to clarify I was not implying a English degree is a bad thing. My sister is smart, she just didn't use it for anything or have any goals for it. So that is why i posed the question if it was a good choice (i had to use references i was familiar with in my post).

RestlessMind 7y ago

Here is the best data I could find comparing average salaries with English degrees (71K) and Engineering degrees (109K): https://datausa.io/profile/cip/english?compare=engineering https://datausa.io/profile/cip/english?compare=engineering

cableshaft 7y ago
I think that's because lots of people take English because "I want to write" or "I want to teach English", and get stuck in the mindset that they HAVE to do that, compete with all the other English teachers out there, and don't think outside the box at all to use it to lead them to something more lucrative. My fiancee majored in Creative Writing and she ended up using it to write proposals for major companies and moved up and is now a marketing and proposal manager and making pretty decent money. When writing proposals she has to think a lot about how to sell the company and their business and that's been leading to a greater focus on business strategy lately too, so she could potentially make the leap into an executive position before too much longer.

metamet 7y ago

I have a BA in English and am a Senior Engineer at a Fortune 50 company. But that's largely irrelevant because I have a varied background. When we got our first computer in 97 (when I was in 8th grade), I learned basic HTML and started doing Battlebots (was on the last season on Comedy Central) because of the internet. I was able to learn about the relevant aspects of mechanical engineering that applied to what I was trying to do, which then led me to doing that as a hobby for a few years, eventually landing an apprenticeship as a machinist at a shop that wanted to help pay for my college to become a mechanical engineer. Spent my first two years getting an AA at a community college, getting burnt out on the trade. I had no financial help with my degree, and was the first in my family to go to college, so I was in new territory with understanding what I was doing. That's when I pivoted to becoming an English major, because I really enjoyed the elements of communication, critical thinking and art that the field offered. I got my degree, then worked in non-profit for a few years. I started a website that grew into a successful SaaS, then eventually left non-profit to apply my skillset in software engineering to a career. I've been doing that for 7 years now. The degree itself got me past all the HR checkboxes, but my personal interest in these fields (and the skills I learned along the way to earning my BA) are what led to me to where I am today. That's all anecdotal, but the truth is that I needed a Bachelors degree--in anything--to be where I am today. Without it, I would've been shut outside of those closed doors.

mdorazio 7y ago

On an individual level, I agree that graduates can overcome setbacks from particular degree choices. However, in aggregate it's not even close [1]. Studying a degree with few directly related jobs will cut your lifetime earnings in half in comparison to in-demand degree jobs. [1] http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/major_decisions_what_graduates_earn_over_their_lifetimes/ http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/major_decisions_what_g...