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The moment colleges become even a little bit responsible for job prospects you will never see crap like 'project management' offered to the unemployed again.

api 7y ago
The biggest offenders are those colleges (the majority) that offered people who could not afford them debt-financed liberal arts degrees that are essentially unemployable outside the absolutely tiny number who end up employed in academia or maybe think tanks and non-profits. I'm not saying such degrees or programs shouldn't exist. I'm saying that if colleges cared about students' life outcomes they would be up front about the fact that this is not a degree or program of study with any earning potential benefit and discourage people who can't afford it from studying these areas (at least as a major, electives are fine). You would still have a few who just totally want to study that and don't care, but they should know what they are signing up for and be fully aware of the implications. I feel like a ton of people were not, and we should not expect 18 year olds to show a 35 year olds' level of maturity when it comes to doing their own homework and career planning.
- thisisnico 7y ago
  I'm sure the professors are keeping things hush-hush because it's the future of their own career. It's in their best interest to bring people in. Everyone in the process has skin in the game and they all want more students in the program. I feel like the universities/colleges should have mandatory 3rd party career specialists consult with students, in the students best interests.
  - api 7y ago
    Yes, that would be good. I guess part of the issue is that I think of a university as a public interest institution that should be looking out for the students, not a purely for-profit institution looking to monetize the students.
gwbas1c 7y ago
> crap like 'project management' offered to the unemployed again. The thing is, no one (who's responsible) will hire a project manager who has no experience in the field. At least in software, I'd never work for a project manager who has no experience as a software developer. There are just too many cases where naive assumptions are wrong. I suspect that Laura Ward (from the article) is in such a situation. She's trying to enter jobs in a management role where she's fundamentally unfit.

api 7y ago

The biggest offenders are those colleges (the majority) that offered people who could not afford them debt-financed liberal arts degrees that are essentially unemployable outside the absolutely tiny number who end up employed in academia or maybe think tanks and non-profits. I'm not saying such degrees or programs shouldn't exist. I'm saying that if colleges cared about students' life outcomes they would be up front about the fact that this is not a degree or program of study with any earning potential benefit and discourage people who can't afford it from studying these areas (at least as a major, electives are fine). You would still have a few who just totally want to study that and don't care, but they should know what they are signing up for and be fully aware of the implications. I feel like a ton of people were not, and we should not expect 18 year olds to show a 35 year olds' level of maturity when it comes to doing their own homework and career planning.

thisisnico 7y ago
I'm sure the professors are keeping things hush-hush because it's the future of their own career. It's in their best interest to bring people in. Everyone in the process has skin in the game and they all want more students in the program. I feel like the universities/colleges should have mandatory 3rd party career specialists consult with students, in the students best interests.
- api 7y ago
  Yes, that would be good. I guess part of the issue is that I think of a university as a public interest institution that should be looking out for the students, not a purely for-profit institution looking to monetize the students.

gwbas1c 7y ago

> crap like 'project management' offered to the unemployed again. The thing is, no one (who's responsible) will hire a project manager who has no experience in the field. At least in software, I'd never work for a project manager who has no experience as a software developer. There are just too many cases where naive assumptions are wrong. I suspect that Laura Ward (from the article) is in such a situation. She's trying to enter jobs in a management role where she's fundamentally unfit.