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I'm a millennial. First we were told that we needed the college degree for a job. Any degree would do. So everyone went and got a college degree, and since so m

by joecot 4y ago

I'm a millennial. First we were told that we needed the college degree for a job. Any degree would do. So everyone went and got a college degree, and since so many people had it it wasn't a status symbol anymore, so that wasn't enough to get a good middle class job. And then a bunch of people were told they shouldn't have gotten those degrees and they were worthless. Then we were told to go into STEM. So lots of people went into STEM even though they didn't want to, there are not enough STEM jobs for all of them, and in some cases the reason there are always jobs available is because they chew everyone up and spit them out (looking at you, Amazon). I got lucky. A lot of folks did not. Then we were told what we really need is nurses. So folks went to nursing school in droves. I'm not sure where we are with that, because it seems like hospitals still never have enough nurses but that those folks that went to nursing school also didn't manage to improve their situation much. Now we're told the money and demand is in trades. And that might be true, and that might remain true, but we've been given the wrong advice for so long we just stopped listening.

yucky 4y ago
> we've been given the wrong advice for so long we just stopped listening. Shouldn't we recognize that things change and life can be unpredictable? Rather than being jaded that every adult in our lives didn't have a magical crystal ball, maybe there are more productive things that can be done? Gen Z & younger Millennials constantly get shit for blaming everyone else for everything always, and taking no responsibility or being accountable for their own actions...but I would argue that comments like the above aren't going to dispel that. Maybe it reads different than it's intended, but a huge part of being an adult is adapting to an ever changing world and finding a path forward towards your goals. (Edited to remove what could be perceived as a bit harsh..)
- joecot 4y ago
  The original premise was that trades are where all the money is, and Gen Z should be listening to that. My point is that we were previously told: the money is in college degrees, the money is in STEM, the money is in nursing. And people invested a lot of time and money in taking that advice and it went nowhere. Then we were called stupid and foolish and entitled for believing that advice. So why aren't Gen Z taking this magical advice on trades? Because they know older generations don't have a crystal ball, they've seen what happens if they listen to that crystal ball advice, and they're not falling for it. And if you talk to Gen Z, they have very little hope for the future, given we are doing very little to stop climate change, runaway capitalism, and they're watching jobs get automated without any change to the "cost of living" agreement when people are watching jobs disappear. Boomers don't have to worry about any of that anymore. And there's nothing more tone deaf than Boomers giving advice on a world that no longer exists for younger generations.
  - yucky 4y ago
    > The original premise was that trades are where all the money is Nobody has ever said the "trades are where all the money is". This premise is flawed already. > My point is that we were previously told: the money is in college degrees, the money is in STEM, the money is in nursing. And people invested a lot of time and money in taking that advice and it went nowhere. It still is. It sounds like too many people have deluded themselves into thinking college is a public jobs program and if they show up and get a piece of paper they will be the most in demand in those fields. However, that requires an illogical leap on their part to believe that any and every person in a field will be at the top of their field and thus command exorbitant salaries. It defies logic. Plenty of people still make good money in those fields, and still will years from now. But not everyone is entitled to make a ton of money in any fields their heart desires. Everyone learns the law of supply and demand before adulthood, or if they haven't then they shouldn't be going to college anyway. So if the supply of labor in a field increases beyond the demand, what would we expect to happen? Also, if you're really good at something people will generally pay you more than they'll pay people who are mediocre. Maybe the problem is younger generations can't wrap their heads around the fact that a lot of people are mediocre. Not everyone is special or a superstar or whatever, so maybe this egalitarian mindset is the issue. This isn't boomer shit, I'm far too young to be a boomer. It seems like common sense. Is this not common sense?
    - Avshalom 4y ago
      "Common sense", "laws of supply and demand" imply kids probably shouldn't all rush to go be plumbers because it will decimate the pay and most of them will end up in poorly compensated jobs because on they are, on average, not special. And wow, look, we're commenting on an article about how kids aren't rushing to go become plumbers so you're here saying what exactly? Or did you just want to go on about kids-aint-shit and the die landed on joecot this time.
      - yucky 4y ago
        > imply kids probably shouldn't all rush to go be plumbers Correct, every kid shouldn't go be a plumber. Kids who might enjoy being plumbers (or electricians, or HVAC etc) should know that they can earn a good living doing it, they don't need to rack up $60k in student loans to go to an out of state college to get a useless communications degree or whatever. Makes sense, right?
- ghaff 4y ago
  I'm not even sure that all of the advice--with some nuance applied--is even bad today. STEM is not a great term in general given how broad it is. The pure sciences as a career path for someone with just an undergrad degree have not been that great since I was in school which was a long time ago. Those degrees can be parlayed into other things that are connected to the degree--or not. Pre-med was the historical reason a lot of people majored in biology or chemistry. Engineering broadly is not a bad degree to have even if you don't ultimately work in the area you majored in; I only did so for about three years. Nursing was never near the level of doctors in terms of compensation. But it has been pretty much middle class pay at the cost of what, to me, would be difficult working conditions. If someone's good with sitting in an office and developing some appropriate skills for that, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the trades. But, if someone doesn't like school, book learning, etc. it seems a pretty reasonable option. And there are degrees of things. Trades also includes working for things like construction engineering firms. Have a friend who didn't go to college but has worked in various roles of this sort. (My one real mechanical engineering job wasn't all that different in many respects at the end of the day.)
- thevardanian 4y ago
  You expect kids to not heed the advice of the adults around them? And when those kids grow up to be adults and realize that the advice they were given was all bullshit to suddenly not see the utter waste of time and energy into worthless goals put before them their entire lives? What are you talking about? The main responsibility of adults is to prepare the next generation. Realizing that failure is not being jaded, it's confronting reality about the failures of adults.
  - yucky 4y ago
    > And when those kids grow up to be adults and realize that the advice they were given was all bullshit You think the advice of going to college is "all bullshit"? It's still great advice for many people, is it not? I think the point is that it's certainly not for everyone, and because colleges aren't holding up their end up the bargain there are plenty of other ways to earn a living. Some people aren't cut out for the trades, just like some people aren't cut out for many paths available from college. The harsh truth is just because you can get a degree in something doesn't mean you'll be any good at it, and ultimately if you're not any good at something why would you expect people to pay you money to do something poorly? So the real question is: at what point should young adults be responsible for recognizing their aptitude and interests enough to make their own career decisions without blaming others? 18? 21? 25? Never?
dionidium 4y ago
> First we were told that we needed the college degree for a job. Any degree would do. Something strange is happening here that I can't quite understand. Jokes about English majors asking if you want fries with that are way older than me and I first started college in 1999. Yes, I heard a persistent low rumbling of "go to college," but the idea that "any degree would do" is alien to me. Of course I knew that some majors were more lucrative than others. Of course everybody else around me knew the same. Of course people my age at the time actively engaged in conversations about "what will you do with this degree when you're done?" Of course people who majored in less practical subjects thought about this (when they weren't actively trying to put it out of their mind). A character (played by pre-hairplugs Jeremy Piven) in the movie PCU (released in 1994) ridicules a student for majoring in Sanskrit, saying, "You're majoring in a 5000 year-old dead language?" Everybody in the audience is supposed to get why that's funny. And yet I keep hearing people say they had no idea that any of this was true. It strains credulity. Frankly, people have been repeating this line about how they couldn't possibly have known all this for so long that kids in college today weren't even born yet when it started. Eventually people are going to have to admit that they did know (or should have).
- reidjs 4y ago
  I think they realized they weren't going to make as much money, but I don't think they realized they would be poor. Poor people generally have less privacy, less dignity, and a harder life. So, maybe they are frustrated there weren't enough safeguards to prevent them from making a decision that lead to them becoming poor.
  - Xeronate 4y ago
    People didn't realize they would be poor if they were a barista their entire life?
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    Is this another way of saying we need to raise the age of majority to something like 25? At some point we have to accept that people are capable of making decisions for themselves and living with the consequences. We don't have to collectively accept blame when they make ill-advised choices. An adult can do research before choosing to go to college, choosing a degree path, choosing to finance it with debt. I have already had versions of this conversation with my own daughter, who is now 12. We've talked about college, when it makes sense, when it may not, and how to make that decision based on life goals. She's plenty smart enough to understand that she doesn't need a career goal at her age, and that even when she becomes an adult it might change, but what she won't be doing is blindly wandering into college with a random hope of success at the other side.
welshwelsh 4y ago
>since so many people had it it wasn't a status symbol anymore, so that wasn't enough to get a good middle class job This makes it sound like a degree is worth less today than it was in the past, which is not true. The income and wealth gap between college degree holders and non-degree holders is higher than at any point in history, and it grows bigger very year. Most degrees have an unemployment rate of about 5-6%. That's not bad, but it does mean that there are over 2 million college-educated Americans who got degrees and can't find jobs. This minority is much more visible today; they get lots of press coverage and talk about their struggles through social media. This makes it seem like things are getting worse, just like how people tend to think that crime is getting worse, but the reality is things are getting better and college becomes a better deal every year. >Then we were told what we really need is nurses. So folks went to nursing school in droves. And generally this paid off, since nurses are in demand and make well above the median salary. >Then we were told to go into STEM. Which is decent advice, with a caveat. Most people with STEM degrees could easily pivot into something highly profitable like software development. What people weren't told is that it's difficult to land a profitable role doing research/pure science, especially if you don't have a PhD. >And then a bunch of people were told they shouldn't have gotten those degrees and they were worthless. Which is mostly incorrect. Even folks majoring in stuff often touted as "worthless" like art history or gender studies still tend to do better than people without degrees. The catch is that you might end up working a business analyst or a project manager instead of an Egyptologist or whatever you actually majored in. The biggest offender here is Psychology: many new graduates are shocked to discover that no, you cannot actually become a psychologist with just a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, nor are there profitable research opportunities at that level. A psychology degree still looks great on a resume if you're applying to be an HR representative or something, though.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- XorNot 4y ago
  > it's difficult to land a profitable role doing research/pure science, especially if you don't have a PhD Honestly I'd modify this to say that unless your Ph. D is in physics, mathematics (and you're willing to go into finance) or data science... you're not going to be that much better off. And the time you spend out of industry you'll never make back. Take a CS degree, go work for any of the big ones and get "senior" next to your name as soon as possible.
jeffrallen 4y ago
The nurses start families and won't work night shifts anymore.
dinkumthinkum 4y ago
Who told you any degree would do? People have lambasted underwater basket waving and things like that forever.
- teeray 4y ago
  Not parent commenter, but I heard the same at the time and thought it was lunacy. The justification was “well, [relative/friend/aquaintance] has a great job in sales at megacorp and their degree is in experimental theology.”
- standardUser 4y ago
  Lots of entry-level office jobs want a 4-year degree so they know the candidate can read and write at a sufficient level.
- dahart 4y ago
  Where is underwater basket weaving a degree? (The answer is: nowhere, it doesn’t exist.) That term is a 50+-year old fictional pejorative used as a stand-in for useless academics. Sadly, the supposedly humorous point is entirely undermined by inventing a degree that doesn’t exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_basket_weaving https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_basket_weaving FWIW, the St Louis Fed publishes stats on incomes of degree holders, and I recently read them and found out that the average 4-year college degree holder has 2x the income of non-degree holders. (3x for advanced degrees.) Twice is a really big number and it surprised me, it’s much larger than I had suspected. Obviously some degrees make people more money than others, engineering and sciences tend to yield higher incomes than the arts. But, with an average of double the income across all degrees across all people in the US, it’s easy to see why people recommend any ol’ degree at all, and statistically speaking, it’s a valid point and good advice.
  - dinkumthinkum 4y ago
    Focusing on the idea that it is a made up degree is pretty weird. Of course it is. It is a way of conveying a point. Not everything needs a Wikipedia link. :) it reminds of people that whip their phones out to look up every minute thing mentioned in a conversation. The point is that people have talked about useless degrees to the point that they are lampooned for, as you say, 50+ years, which certainly predates 90s kids. Therefore, there was a widespread cultural awareness that a gender studies degree is not likely to be as valuable as electrical engineering. I think too often people think college education is not needed because they can just Google things but they don’t think how much more efficient it is to just know things and be able to reason for themselves.
Zamicol 4y ago
>Any degree would do. That's completely foreign to me. It was well understood that degrees in English, psychology, and the wider arts were useful for teaching, but they weren't going to pay well, unless you were the exceptional minority that had a clear idea of what you were planning on doing. I really think millennials should have got more real world work experience and internships before committing to overpriced degrees in industries that they didn't really want to work in. With a broader view of the world, one can make better decisions for happiness.
wardedVibe 4y ago
> Then we were told what we really need is nurses. So folks went to nursing school in droves. I'm not sure where we are with that, because it seems like hospitals still never have enough nurses but that those folks that went to nursing school also didn't manage to improve their situation much. To be fair, we just had a pandemic, and we're still reeling from that. Lots of folks quit because of burn-out.
boppo1 4y ago
"This" comments are not allowed on HN, but as a 31 year old millennial: I would have written this EXACT post about the situation. The only addition being "learn to code/program", but now interest rates are starting to narrow the reliability of that avenue.
gregw134 4y ago
We just need to give every high school student a print out and a website showing salary per career, years of college required, and percentage of graduates that find a job in their field.
- Tildey 4y ago
  Is this not a thing in the USA/world? Here there is a government/school system website for careers. Listing educational requirements, average salaries and high/low end ranges, how much demand there is for the career, working conditions, and often interviews with people in industry.

by joecot 4y ago

yucky 4y ago

> we've been given the wrong advice for so long we just stopped listening. Shouldn't we recognize that things change and life can be unpredictable? Rather than being jaded that every adult in our lives didn't have a magical crystal ball, maybe there are more productive things that can be done? Gen Z & younger Millennials constantly get shit for blaming everyone else for everything always, and taking no responsibility or being accountable for their own actions...but I would argue that comments like the above aren't going to dispel that. Maybe it reads different than it's intended, but a huge part of being an adult is adapting to an ever changing world and finding a path forward towards your goals. (Edited to remove what could be perceived as a bit harsh..)

joecot 4y ago
The original premise was that trades are where all the money is, and Gen Z should be listening to that. My point is that we were previously told: the money is in college degrees, the money is in STEM, the money is in nursing. And people invested a lot of time and money in taking that advice and it went nowhere. Then we were called stupid and foolish and entitled for believing that advice. So why aren't Gen Z taking this magical advice on trades? Because they know older generations don't have a crystal ball, they've seen what happens if they listen to that crystal ball advice, and they're not falling for it. And if you talk to Gen Z, they have very little hope for the future, given we are doing very little to stop climate change, runaway capitalism, and they're watching jobs get automated without any change to the "cost of living" agreement when people are watching jobs disappear. Boomers don't have to worry about any of that anymore. And there's nothing more tone deaf than Boomers giving advice on a world that no longer exists for younger generations.
- yucky 4y ago
  > The original premise was that trades are where all the money is Nobody has ever said the "trades are where all the money is". This premise is flawed already. > My point is that we were previously told: the money is in college degrees, the money is in STEM, the money is in nursing. And people invested a lot of time and money in taking that advice and it went nowhere. It still is. It sounds like too many people have deluded themselves into thinking college is a public jobs program and if they show up and get a piece of paper they will be the most in demand in those fields. However, that requires an illogical leap on their part to believe that any and every person in a field will be at the top of their field and thus command exorbitant salaries. It defies logic. Plenty of people still make good money in those fields, and still will years from now. But not everyone is entitled to make a ton of money in any fields their heart desires. Everyone learns the law of supply and demand before adulthood, or if they haven't then they shouldn't be going to college anyway. So if the supply of labor in a field increases beyond the demand, what would we expect to happen? Also, if you're really good at something people will generally pay you more than they'll pay people who are mediocre. Maybe the problem is younger generations can't wrap their heads around the fact that a lot of people are mediocre. Not everyone is special or a superstar or whatever, so maybe this egalitarian mindset is the issue. This isn't boomer shit, I'm far too young to be a boomer. It seems like common sense. Is this not common sense?
  - Avshalom 4y ago
    "Common sense", "laws of supply and demand" imply kids probably shouldn't all rush to go be plumbers because it will decimate the pay and most of them will end up in poorly compensated jobs because on they are, on average, not special. And wow, look, we're commenting on an article about how kids aren't rushing to go become plumbers so you're here saying what exactly? Or did you just want to go on about kids-aint-shit and the die landed on joecot this time.
    - yucky 4y ago
      > imply kids probably shouldn't all rush to go be plumbers Correct, every kid shouldn't go be a plumber. Kids who might enjoy being plumbers (or electricians, or HVAC etc) should know that they can earn a good living doing it, they don't need to rack up $60k in student loans to go to an out of state college to get a useless communications degree or whatever. Makes sense, right?
ghaff 4y ago
I'm not even sure that all of the advice--with some nuance applied--is even bad today. STEM is not a great term in general given how broad it is. The pure sciences as a career path for someone with just an undergrad degree have not been that great since I was in school which was a long time ago. Those degrees can be parlayed into other things that are connected to the degree--or not. Pre-med was the historical reason a lot of people majored in biology or chemistry. Engineering broadly is not a bad degree to have even if you don't ultimately work in the area you majored in; I only did so for about three years. Nursing was never near the level of doctors in terms of compensation. But it has been pretty much middle class pay at the cost of what, to me, would be difficult working conditions. If someone's good with sitting in an office and developing some appropriate skills for that, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the trades. But, if someone doesn't like school, book learning, etc. it seems a pretty reasonable option. And there are degrees of things. Trades also includes working for things like construction engineering firms. Have a friend who didn't go to college but has worked in various roles of this sort. (My one real mechanical engineering job wasn't all that different in many respects at the end of the day.)
thevardanian 4y ago
You expect kids to not heed the advice of the adults around them? And when those kids grow up to be adults and realize that the advice they were given was all bullshit to suddenly not see the utter waste of time and energy into worthless goals put before them their entire lives? What are you talking about? The main responsibility of adults is to prepare the next generation. Realizing that failure is not being jaded, it's confronting reality about the failures of adults.
- yucky 4y ago
  > And when those kids grow up to be adults and realize that the advice they were given was all bullshit You think the advice of going to college is "all bullshit"? It's still great advice for many people, is it not? I think the point is that it's certainly not for everyone, and because colleges aren't holding up their end up the bargain there are plenty of other ways to earn a living. Some people aren't cut out for the trades, just like some people aren't cut out for many paths available from college. The harsh truth is just because you can get a degree in something doesn't mean you'll be any good at it, and ultimately if you're not any good at something why would you expect people to pay you money to do something poorly? So the real question is: at what point should young adults be responsible for recognizing their aptitude and interests enough to make their own career decisions without blaming others? 18? 21? 25? Never?

dionidium 4y ago

> First we were told that we needed the college degree for a job. Any degree would do. Something strange is happening here that I can't quite understand. Jokes about English majors asking if you want fries with that are way older than me and I first started college in 1999. Yes, I heard a persistent low rumbling of "go to college," but the idea that "any degree would do" is alien to me. Of course I knew that some majors were more lucrative than others. Of course everybody else around me knew the same. Of course people my age at the time actively engaged in conversations about "what will you do with this degree when you're done?" Of course people who majored in less practical subjects thought about this (when they weren't actively trying to put it out of their mind). A character (played by pre-hairplugs Jeremy Piven) in the movie PCU (released in 1994) ridicules a student for majoring in Sanskrit, saying, "You're majoring in a 5000 year-old dead language?" Everybody in the audience is supposed to get why that's funny. And yet I keep hearing people say they had no idea that any of this was true. It strains credulity. Frankly, people have been repeating this line about how they couldn't possibly have known all this for so long that kids in college today weren't even born yet when it started. Eventually people are going to have to admit that they did know (or should have).

reidjs 4y ago
I think they realized they weren't going to make as much money, but I don't think they realized they would be poor. Poor people generally have less privacy, less dignity, and a harder life. So, maybe they are frustrated there weren't enough safeguards to prevent them from making a decision that lead to them becoming poor.
- Xeronate 4y ago
  People didn't realize they would be poor if they were a barista their entire life?
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Is this another way of saying we need to raise the age of majority to something like 25? At some point we have to accept that people are capable of making decisions for themselves and living with the consequences. We don't have to collectively accept blame when they make ill-advised choices. An adult can do research before choosing to go to college, choosing a degree path, choosing to finance it with debt. I have already had versions of this conversation with my own daughter, who is now 12. We've talked about college, when it makes sense, when it may not, and how to make that decision based on life goals. She's plenty smart enough to understand that she doesn't need a career goal at her age, and that even when she becomes an adult it might change, but what she won't be doing is blindly wandering into college with a random hope of success at the other side.

welshwelsh 4y ago

>since so many people had it it wasn't a status symbol anymore, so that wasn't enough to get a good middle class job This makes it sound like a degree is worth less today than it was in the past, which is not true. The income and wealth gap between college degree holders and non-degree holders is higher than at any point in history, and it grows bigger very year. Most degrees have an unemployment rate of about 5-6%. That's not bad, but it does mean that there are over 2 million college-educated Americans who got degrees and can't find jobs. This minority is much more visible today; they get lots of press coverage and talk about their struggles through social media. This makes it seem like things are getting worse, just like how people tend to think that crime is getting worse, but the reality is things are getting better and college becomes a better deal every year. >Then we were told what we really need is nurses. So folks went to nursing school in droves. And generally this paid off, since nurses are in demand and make well above the median salary. >Then we were told to go into STEM. Which is decent advice, with a caveat. Most people with STEM degrees could easily pivot into something highly profitable like software development. What people weren't told is that it's difficult to land a profitable role doing research/pure science, especially if you don't have a PhD. >And then a bunch of people were told they shouldn't have gotten those degrees and they were worthless. Which is mostly incorrect. Even folks majoring in stuff often touted as "worthless" like art history or gender studies still tend to do better than people without degrees. The catch is that you might end up working a business analyst or a project manager instead of an Egyptologist or whatever you actually majored in. The biggest offender here is Psychology: many new graduates are shocked to discover that no, you cannot actually become a psychologist with just a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, nor are there profitable research opportunities at that level. A psychology degree still looks great on a resume if you're applying to be an HR representative or something, though.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
XorNot 4y ago
> it's difficult to land a profitable role doing research/pure science, especially if you don't have a PhD Honestly I'd modify this to say that unless your Ph. D is in physics, mathematics (and you're willing to go into finance) or data science... you're not going to be that much better off. And the time you spend out of industry you'll never make back. Take a CS degree, go work for any of the big ones and get "senior" next to your name as soon as possible.

jeffrallen 4y ago

The nurses start families and won't work night shifts anymore.

dinkumthinkum 4y ago

Who told you any degree would do? People have lambasted underwater basket waving and things like that forever.

teeray 4y ago
Not parent commenter, but I heard the same at the time and thought it was lunacy. The justification was “well, [relative/friend/aquaintance] has a great job in sales at megacorp and their degree is in experimental theology.”
standardUser 4y ago
Lots of entry-level office jobs want a 4-year degree so they know the candidate can read and write at a sufficient level.
dahart 4y ago
Where is underwater basket weaving a degree? (The answer is: nowhere, it doesn’t exist.) That term is a 50+-year old fictional pejorative used as a stand-in for useless academics. Sadly, the supposedly humorous point is entirely undermined by inventing a degree that doesn’t exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_basket_weaving https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_basket_weaving FWIW, the St Louis Fed publishes stats on incomes of degree holders, and I recently read them and found out that the average 4-year college degree holder has 2x the income of non-degree holders. (3x for advanced degrees.) Twice is a really big number and it surprised me, it’s much larger than I had suspected. Obviously some degrees make people more money than others, engineering and sciences tend to yield higher incomes than the arts. But, with an average of double the income across all degrees across all people in the US, it’s easy to see why people recommend any ol’ degree at all, and statistically speaking, it’s a valid point and good advice.
- dinkumthinkum 4y ago
  Focusing on the idea that it is a made up degree is pretty weird. Of course it is. It is a way of conveying a point. Not everything needs a Wikipedia link. :) it reminds of people that whip their phones out to look up every minute thing mentioned in a conversation. The point is that people have talked about useless degrees to the point that they are lampooned for, as you say, 50+ years, which certainly predates 90s kids. Therefore, there was a widespread cultural awareness that a gender studies degree is not likely to be as valuable as electrical engineering. I think too often people think college education is not needed because they can just Google things but they don’t think how much more efficient it is to just know things and be able to reason for themselves.

Zamicol 4y ago

>Any degree would do. That's completely foreign to me. It was well understood that degrees in English, psychology, and the wider arts were useful for teaching, but they weren't going to pay well, unless you were the exceptional minority that had a clear idea of what you were planning on doing. I really think millennials should have got more real world work experience and internships before committing to overpriced degrees in industries that they didn't really want to work in. With a broader view of the world, one can make better decisions for happiness.

wardedVibe 4y ago

> Then we were told what we really need is nurses. So folks went to nursing school in droves. I'm not sure where we are with that, because it seems like hospitals still never have enough nurses but that those folks that went to nursing school also didn't manage to improve their situation much. To be fair, we just had a pandemic, and we're still reeling from that. Lots of folks quit because of burn-out.

boppo1 4y ago

"This" comments are not allowed on HN, but as a 31 year old millennial: I would have written this EXACT post about the situation. The only addition being "learn to code/program", but now interest rates are starting to narrow the reliability of that avenue.

gregw134 4y ago

We just need to give every high school student a print out and a website showing salary per career, years of college required, and percentage of graduates that find a job in their field.

Tildey 4y ago
Is this not a thing in the USA/world? Here there is a government/school system website for careers. Listing educational requirements, average salaries and high/low end ranges, how much demand there is for the career, working conditions, and often interviews with people in industry.