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I wouldn't call biology students the most miserable... But as someone with a biochemistry degree (BS), I totally agree with the main point of the article: A PhD

I wouldn't call biology students the most miserable... But as someone with a biochemistry degree (BS), I totally agree with the main point of the article: A PhD in Biology does not guarantee a job. You spend all this time and money on what seems, to a layperson, to be an amazing degree with amazing job opportunities working on the cutting edge of technology cloning dinosaurs yada yada yada. Unfortunately, you graduate only to find out that you're only qualified to work in a lab at a research university! All your computer science buddies are now millionaires and they paid a quarter of the tuition you did. You're over qualified for most jobs in the private sector and you most likely lack the experience for private sector jobs that do require PhDs! You learn all these advanced specialised skills that end up being worthless--they're either being performed by machines or students/interns. The same can be said about other "purely academic" majors such as economics, international studies, political science, physics, mathematics, etc. That's my biggest problem with academia and university culture. They only exist to train a new generation of professors and other academics. They don't seem to care about teaching their students more vocational skills relevant to their major or highlight possible private sector career paths after they graduate. For example, Arabic and Chinese are hot topics right now, so as a student, you figure you should get an international studies degree in one of these cultures. You hear it all the time in the news how the defense industry is starving for these people. You graduate and find out that no one wants someone who can speak Arabic or Mandarin fluently unless they have a business, statistics or computer science degree... You might as well have gone to a vocational/technical college and learned Arabic on the side.

Lost_BiomedE 16y ago
It took me a while to figure out that Biomedical Engineering degree tracks were made in response to a need for grad students in this area and not a need in the industry. Industry asks, why hire a biomed when I can hire a mechanical engineer and a electrical engineer. Separate those two parts of the project and have a manager that understands the biology of the problem. The hope for one of these engineers is to get past the usual resume screens and convince the people hiring that they are as good at electrical as the EE and/or as good at mechanics as the ME. Luckily for any engineer, entrepreneurship is also an option.
timwiseman 16y ago
I can only speak to what I have seen so this is anecdotal, but I have not had a problem getting a job with a degree in mathematics (bachelor's not PHD). Now, it is true that those jobs tended to be in related areas (data analysis, programming) rather than directly in mathematics, but the degree has still served me well. I have also been turned down for jobs looking directly for mathematicians because I currently only hold a bachelor's and they required at least a masters. The same goes for physics. I have friends with master's in physics that have never had problems finding a job, though the jobs were rarely directly in physics. Rather they got jobs working with engineers or in programming (or in one case, pure management), but the degree still served them well.

Lost_BiomedE 16y ago

It took me a while to figure out that Biomedical Engineering degree tracks were made in response to a need for grad students in this area and not a need in the industry. Industry asks, why hire a biomed when I can hire a mechanical engineer and a electrical engineer. Separate those two parts of the project and have a manager that understands the biology of the problem. The hope for one of these engineers is to get past the usual resume screens and convince the people hiring that they are as good at electrical as the EE and/or as good at mechanics as the ME. Luckily for any engineer, entrepreneurship is also an option.

timwiseman 16y ago

I can only speak to what I have seen so this is anecdotal, but I have not had a problem getting a job with a degree in mathematics (bachelor's not PHD). Now, it is true that those jobs tended to be in related areas (data analysis, programming) rather than directly in mathematics, but the degree has still served me well. I have also been turned down for jobs looking directly for mathematicians because I currently only hold a bachelor's and they required at least a masters. The same goes for physics. I have friends with master's in physics that have never had problems finding a job, though the jobs were rarely directly in physics. Rather they got jobs working with engineers or in programming (or in one case, pure management), but the degree still served them well.