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> Yes, I heard a persistent low rumbling of "go to college," but the idea that "any degree would do" is alien to me. I certainly knew people in ~2000 who were
by michaelt 4y ago
> Yes, I heard a persistent low rumbling of "go to college," but the idea that "any degree would do" is alien to me.
I certainly knew people in ~2000 who were going to college to study things like psychology, who felt the abstract skills of 'learning to learn', writing, reasoning with a bit of statistics and spreadsheet operation would help them get jobs like marketing, sales, analysts, strategic consulting, HR etc.
I suspect if you got your degree in psychology from Harvard, that might be true - but if your degree is from a mediocre university, probably not.
- el_benhameen 4y agoI dunno, I studied psychology at a good-but-not-great university and knew many psychology majors. I eventually Learned to Code (TM), but it seems that plenty of my peers leveraged those soft skills you mentioned to get pretty decent career-oriented jobs in the fields you mentioned. I would probably do things differently with the benefit of hindsight, but I have no doubt that the soft skills were a benefit to my peers, and even to me in my tech career.
- crazygringo 4y agoYup, and I think they were right -- I know a lot of people in marketing, sales, consulting, and program management who majored in psychology. In my anecdotal experience, it opens more doors than an Econ major, for example. And you don't need to go to Harvard at all. Certainly the school you go to counts for something, but it's not like psych is an "indulgent" degree that needs a good college to "compensate" for. It's a very normal degree. The social sciences tend to translate very well to the business world, a good blend of quantitative research together with qualitative analysis that mirrors business initiatives well.