Well may be for engineering-- seems to me that y'all spend a heck of alot of time converting between units and whatnot-- but you wanna talk about five plus years of specialized education that nobody in industry would hire you for on a Christmas tree, look at physics.
I mean, look at me. Here I am futzing around with low-energy ion bombardment of surfaces and if I'm lucky I'll get a post-doc in plasma phys for a whoppin' $35k when I get out. If I'm real lucky I'll get some r&d position in industry, probably in plasma again... Point is, most of the stuff in my doctoral dissertation will mean dog-waste to employers. You wanna talk about limited usefulness of degrees... I kick myself in the a$$ every day for not going into engineering in the first place... I'd have a friggin' job by now, be making a heck of alot more than I am right now, haha...
The Powers That Be were discussing the difference between physicists and engineers. They couldn't seem to put their finger on it, until one of the PTB decided to set up a little demonstration.
This particular PTB set up a 100 foot room and placed a bag of gold at one end of it. He then placed an engineer and a physicist at the other. "Here's the deal," the PTB explained to the two men. "The first one to get to the bag of gold gets to take it home. The other one gets nothing. But, there are rules. You can only cross half the distance between yourself and the bag of gold without stopping. After you stop, you get to cross half the distance again. If you cross more than half the distance, we'll send you straight home and the other one will get the gold. Do you understand the rules?"
Each nodded his head yes. The physicist immediately realized that he would never reach the bag of gold and sat down to read his latest scientific journal, from which the PTB had interrupted him to set up the experiment. However, the engineer figured that after ten iterations he'd be close enough for all practical purposes and took home the gold.
Shalom.