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I was seriously considering doing a PHD in Politics but I always knew there was a strong possibility of not getting a job and being pretty much unemployable/mov

I was seriously considering doing a PHD in Politics but I always knew there was a strong possibility of not getting a job and being pretty much unemployable/moving back in with my parents. So I said no to that! The problem is that colleges still regard themselves as educators and not job trainers, which most young people think of them as. I distinctly remember my politics lecturers telling us they weren't here to get us jobs but to teach us about politics. Which is maybe less problematic if college is free but obviously everyone wants a job after four years of study. The likes of bootcamps like Holberton School are the way forward. There is no skin in the game for universities. If a graduate doesn't get a job it doesn't affect them one iota. (ok, it doesn't look great for their job report but they can fudge that. ) Coding bootcamps for instance which only make money when their grads get a job are the way forward. They have their incentives aligned with the students. See this for an example: someone who was a broke artist did a coding bootcamp and is now a developer. But they would never have taken on the debt of a college degree because they weren't sure if they could get a job. The bootcamp gets them a job and if they are unsuccessful they don't pay anything. Bingo! https://www.nocsdegree.com/this-holberton-school-graduate-went-from-being-a-dancer-to-a-developer/ https://www.nocsdegree.com/this-holberton-school-graduate-we...

drinfinity 7y ago
He is not a developer. He fudges with scripts. Good luck bootcamping someone to engineer. Civil or otherwise.
ericmay 7y ago
> The problem is that colleges still regard themselves as educators and not job trainers I think the issue here is that employers have outsourced hiring validation steps to the university, and the university never has, nor should be a platform for training people for specific jobs. Why would you need to go to a 4-year university to become a business analyst when you learn those skills in the job? To me it makes sense that a university and its staff sees its mission as education and not job training, because that’s what it is. We need to find a way to change this and stop wasting resources and time. College for most people is a really expensive way to spend 4 years not doing a lot. It’s mostly signaling.
- WWLink 7y ago
  Ya know how a popular defense for ridiculous interviews is something like "well, they have so many candidates that they will definitely have one that can do that." What about having a 4 year computer science degree? If you grew up in the US, getting scholarships/grants to fund a 4 year degree is not rocket science. If you're smart enough to pass an algorithms interview you're probably smart enough to do that.
mantas 7y ago
> Which is maybe less problematic if college is free but obviously everyone wants a job after four years of study. Someone is still paying for the college. If it's not the student, it's society as a whole. And public money is not an infinite resource.
nine_zeros 7y ago
A lot of our problems are related to the fact that people need jobs. Why do people NEED jobs? They could've all started services, small businesses easily. Especially for something like politics, there is always a new business to come up. Ultimately, I think it boils down to student debt and healthcare. These two are weighing heavily on youngsters, stifling innovation. It's almost like a subtle throwback to medieval peasantry

drinfinity 7y ago

He is not a developer. He fudges with scripts. Good luck bootcamping someone to engineer. Civil or otherwise.

ericmay 7y ago

> The problem is that colleges still regard themselves as educators and not job trainers I think the issue here is that employers have outsourced hiring validation steps to the university, and the university never has, nor should be a platform for training people for specific jobs. Why would you need to go to a 4-year university to become a business analyst when you learn those skills in the job? To me it makes sense that a university and its staff sees its mission as education and not job training, because that’s what it is. We need to find a way to change this and stop wasting resources and time. College for most people is a really expensive way to spend 4 years not doing a lot. It’s mostly signaling.

WWLink 7y ago
Ya know how a popular defense for ridiculous interviews is something like "well, they have so many candidates that they will definitely have one that can do that." What about having a 4 year computer science degree? If you grew up in the US, getting scholarships/grants to fund a 4 year degree is not rocket science. If you're smart enough to pass an algorithms interview you're probably smart enough to do that.

mantas 7y ago

> Which is maybe less problematic if college is free but obviously everyone wants a job after four years of study. Someone is still paying for the college. If it's not the student, it's society as a whole. And public money is not an infinite resource.

nine_zeros 7y ago

A lot of our problems are related to the fact that people need jobs. Why do people NEED jobs? They could've all started services, small businesses easily. Especially for something like politics, there is always a new business to come up. Ultimately, I think it boils down to student debt and healthcare. These two are weighing heavily on youngsters, stifling innovation. It's almost like a subtle throwback to medieval peasantry