3 ms·

This is stating that "workers who double majored in college have more stable earnings than workers who majored in a single subject, meaning they’re less suscept

This is stating that "workers who double majored in college have more stable earnings than workers who majored in a single subject, meaning they’re less susceptible to sharp swings in income." I think the world requires increasing specialization in knowledge and cross-/multi-disciplinary skillsets are required to achieve excellence. But for this particular effect from the article (earning stability) I wonder if it's more related to a selection bias. I believe people who successfully double-major these days are likely to be more reliable at work. With that increasing specialization, if your niche is experiencing a broad downturn it would seem especially difficult to find another role (though obviously when one does open up, there would be less competition for it). Particularly because: > “They have a wider funnel, a broader set of opportunities to select from, and this seemed to affect their earnings years later,” My feelings here differ from that OSU professor's. Personally I feel that after about 5-8 years of experience, it gets increasingly difficult to transition your career out of your original niche. For younger employees it certainly opens up the opportunity to change careers to any ~entry-level role related to either of their degrees, but mid-career and senior roles generally want someone with specific experience, and few entry-level roles will consider mid-career candidates with unrelated experience. So I do wonder if people who get dual degrees are simply the type of worker who are less likely to get laid off in the first place, regardless of whether they're filling a niche role or something that is garden-variety for one of their degrees.

echelon 2y ago
Double majors are smart, hard workers who can endure more pain than average. (Who willingly signs up for that except for driven individuals?) It'd be good if we had more proxies for assessing this.
- nonrandomstring 2y ago
  > Who willingly signs up for that except for driven individuals? Idiots who didn't read the prospectus. I doubled in CS and EE. In the UK that was called a "joint honours". Not sure many places run them any more, but that was the 80s. What they didn't tell us was that it isn't 50% or one degree and 50% of the other - it's 75% of a comp. sci degree and 75% electronics engineering, taught concurrently by two separate departments. I sometimes had to make a choice between which lecture to take when they were opposite sides of the campus.
- bruce511 2y ago
  I suspect it varies a lot by institution and subjects. When I did my degree in Comp Sci I completed most of a math degree as well. I bailed on it in the last semester because I decided I wanted to just relax and enjoy my last 6 months there. And my career was always going to be computers, not math. These days my alma mater requires you double major just to graduate.
- neilv 2y ago
  What about people who don't double-major because they need to also work a job, or for economic reasons they need to graduate as soon as possible, or minimize the credit hours and fees they pay, or they're doing undergrad research, or they need to focus on GPA, or they care enough about their major to spend any discretionary time on that? Why give double-majors any preference at all over those other people, who don't sound like slackers?
  - echelon 2y ago
    If people are doing good work, I trust they'll find a way to signal it. That doesn't mean you throw out good signal to equalize the playing field. Everyone can cut their own path to success. Some make themselves visible with their endeavors. It doesn't have to be a double major.
    - neilv 2y ago
      Point taken about not throwing out what one thinks is good signal. But I disagree that people will find a way to signal that they're doing good work. I didn't see much at all of that signalling until I was around the fancy-pants universities (and the difference was striking). And even there, the self-promoting level (skill, opportunity, and stomach for it) varied widely.
- the_snooze 2y ago
  >It'd be good if we had more proxies for assessing this. Work experience outside the classroom, basically: part-time employment, athletics, internships, undergraduate research, completed projects, organizational leadership. Of course, this is mainly for traditional students at four-year institutions where these opportunities are common. It's tougher if you can only take classes part-time.
projektfu 2y ago
Or survivorship bias. Perhaps people who manage to graduate while taking heavy course loads are also the type that, as others say, are good at getting work done in general. But the headline is "Why it pays to be a double major in college". This would not be true if graduation with >3.0 GPA becomes difficult, as graduating and getting a decent GPA are probably more strongly correlated with income than having two majors at some point.
jltsiren 2y ago
> Personally I feel that after about 5-8 years of experience, it gets increasingly difficult to transition your career out of your original niche. I had a professor who said that a computer scientist must reinvent themself every 7-10 years. Your niche won't exist much longer, so better not get stuck in it. It can be a matter of attitude. Why choose between being a generalist and a specialist when you can be both? Become a recognized expert in something, but at the same time keep widening your expertise and learning whatever you need. Then if a career path dries out, you are ready to jump to a mid-level or even senior position somewhere else.
mo_42 2y ago
I graduated in CS and in economics. I don't see much of a difference in work performance compared to my co-workers. I think it's because positions nowadays are very much created for predefined combinations of personality and education and I'm an outlier. I think the main benefit of studying two fields is intellectual satisfaction. It's a source of happiness for live because I understand more about the world on a deeper level than many others (at least I believe that).
m463 2y ago
Well, besides specialization - you do have 2x the jobs to choose from. And if one job area becomes weaker or goes away, the other can be your direction out without retraining.
- reaperman 2y ago
  One of my points is that you only have 2x jobs to choose from during a certain window after you graduate. If the well you choose dries up after 8 years, many companies will no longer consider you for those same other roles that you once turned down. I have experience in a number of disparate industries. But I can’t get jobs in fields I have years of experience in, because my resume doesn't have anything relevant to them in the past 5-10 years. I went to school for Chemical Engineering and worked in chemical plants as an operational/improvement/projects plant engineer, working closely with plant operators, technicians, and construction crews, intimate knowledge of the “dirty stuff” - steels, pumps, motors, boilers, flares, reactors, tanks, etc. But the only jobs I’d be able to get at chemical companies today would be ones where the intersection of my chemical engineering training and more recent software engineering experience is specifically valued (desk work). I wouldn’t be able to land a plant engineer role at a chemical plant, even though I know it very well - no one will hire me to work with the tradesmen anymore. At some point, the old wells you didn’t keep drinking from just dry up.

echelon 2y ago

Double majors are smart, hard workers who can endure more pain than average. (Who willingly signs up for that except for driven individuals?) It'd be good if we had more proxies for assessing this.

nonrandomstring 2y ago
> Who willingly signs up for that except for driven individuals? Idiots who didn't read the prospectus. I doubled in CS and EE. In the UK that was called a "joint honours". Not sure many places run them any more, but that was the 80s. What they didn't tell us was that it isn't 50% or one degree and 50% of the other - it's 75% of a comp. sci degree and 75% electronics engineering, taught concurrently by two separate departments. I sometimes had to make a choice between which lecture to take when they were opposite sides of the campus.
bruce511 2y ago
I suspect it varies a lot by institution and subjects. When I did my degree in Comp Sci I completed most of a math degree as well. I bailed on it in the last semester because I decided I wanted to just relax and enjoy my last 6 months there. And my career was always going to be computers, not math. These days my alma mater requires you double major just to graduate.
neilv 2y ago
What about people who don't double-major because they need to also work a job, or for economic reasons they need to graduate as soon as possible, or minimize the credit hours and fees they pay, or they're doing undergrad research, or they need to focus on GPA, or they care enough about their major to spend any discretionary time on that? Why give double-majors any preference at all over those other people, who don't sound like slackers?
- echelon 2y ago
  If people are doing good work, I trust they'll find a way to signal it. That doesn't mean you throw out good signal to equalize the playing field. Everyone can cut their own path to success. Some make themselves visible with their endeavors. It doesn't have to be a double major.
  - neilv 2y ago
    Point taken about not throwing out what one thinks is good signal. But I disagree that people will find a way to signal that they're doing good work. I didn't see much at all of that signalling until I was around the fancy-pants universities (and the difference was striking). And even there, the self-promoting level (skill, opportunity, and stomach for it) varied widely.
the_snooze 2y ago
>It'd be good if we had more proxies for assessing this. Work experience outside the classroom, basically: part-time employment, athletics, internships, undergraduate research, completed projects, organizational leadership. Of course, this is mainly for traditional students at four-year institutions where these opportunities are common. It's tougher if you can only take classes part-time.

projektfu 2y ago

Or survivorship bias. Perhaps people who manage to graduate while taking heavy course loads are also the type that, as others say, are good at getting work done in general. But the headline is "Why it pays to be a double major in college". This would not be true if graduation with >3.0 GPA becomes difficult, as graduating and getting a decent GPA are probably more strongly correlated with income than having two majors at some point.

jltsiren 2y ago

> Personally I feel that after about 5-8 years of experience, it gets increasingly difficult to transition your career out of your original niche. I had a professor who said that a computer scientist must reinvent themself every 7-10 years. Your niche won't exist much longer, so better not get stuck in it. It can be a matter of attitude. Why choose between being a generalist and a specialist when you can be both? Become a recognized expert in something, but at the same time keep widening your expertise and learning whatever you need. Then if a career path dries out, you are ready to jump to a mid-level or even senior position somewhere else.

mo_42 2y ago

I graduated in CS and in economics. I don't see much of a difference in work performance compared to my co-workers. I think it's because positions nowadays are very much created for predefined combinations of personality and education and I'm an outlier. I think the main benefit of studying two fields is intellectual satisfaction. It's a source of happiness for live because I understand more about the world on a deeper level than many others (at least I believe that).

m463 2y ago

Well, besides specialization - you do have 2x the jobs to choose from. And if one job area becomes weaker or goes away, the other can be your direction out without retraining.

reaperman 2y ago
One of my points is that you only have 2x jobs to choose from during a certain window after you graduate. If the well you choose dries up after 8 years, many companies will no longer consider you for those same other roles that you once turned down. I have experience in a number of disparate industries. But I can’t get jobs in fields I have years of experience in, because my resume doesn't have anything relevant to them in the past 5-10 years. I went to school for Chemical Engineering and worked in chemical plants as an operational/improvement/projects plant engineer, working closely with plant operators, technicians, and construction crews, intimate knowledge of the “dirty stuff” - steels, pumps, motors, boilers, flares, reactors, tanks, etc. But the only jobs I’d be able to get at chemical companies today would be ones where the intersection of my chemical engineering training and more recent software engineering experience is specifically valued (desk work). I wouldn’t be able to land a plant engineer role at a chemical plant, even though I know it very well - no one will hire me to work with the tradesmen anymore. At some point, the old wells you didn’t keep drinking from just dry up.