Posted on 11/22/2010 7:34:57 AM PST by WebFocus
“Any of the hard sciences... engineering, medicine, biotech, computer science, nursing.
LibArts aren’t worth time and money.”
Also leave behind biotech, unless you go for a Master’s degree, minimum. Same for computer science. There are a LOT of people who’ve been sold those degrees, but not a lot of jobs.
Nursing is past the peak of recruitment also. The last class here locally, less than 50% had jobs on graduation, including people already working in hospitals. Where I worked, they couldnt even hire people the hospital had sponsored through N-school, no positions.They ended up writing off tens of thousands of dollars of tuition and books, because they couldn’t hire the new nurses, voiding the contracts. The economy has prevented the retirement of a lot of the nurses who were headed out, so there aren’t as many positions as projected. The hospitals are also starting to look forward at the coming of Obamacare and are already reducing people and services.
You make a good point, but I still disagree with you. A kid who finishes a degree in whateverthehellheorshelovestodoandwantstostudyinskool is light years ahead of the kid who doesn't really know himself or what he wants to do, and takes uncle Ed's advice and majors in finance or whatever and then loses his way because he's miserable doing something that's not him.
I know a guy in his 50's who started in what's arguably the best pre-vet program in the country, made good grades, and then changed his major to horticulture after a year. "Because he wanted to." His girlfriend's vindictive Lutheran mother forced her to dump him when she heard about it.
Today, the guy has a master's of public administration degree and a really nice job in the public sector. And he's a more well-rounded person because of the depth of his experience. (I'm not saying the guy's necessarily a friend of mine; I'm saying I know him and his story. Just sayin', just in case he's lurking.)
I also know of a young lady whose parents had planned for her to enter the business world and to someday make it big with a title and a corner office, etc.
She had different plans - she went to a State School in Texas and majored in Theater. Today, she's directing plays on Broadway. I'm not saying this is my cup of tea, but it is hers. She might or might not be there 20 years from now doing the same thing. Maybe she'll someday decide to open a restaurant, a women's salon, or a gun store back home in Texas someday. And she'll succeed at it because she started with success. Doesn't she deserve the opportunity to do what she wants to do?
OTOH, there's no law that says a young person has to go to college to have a good life. Trade and occupational schools are always an option, as is military service. I think the important thing is for a young person to do SOMETHING, and to do it well, instead of just going where the current takes them... like some people I knew back in those days...
“As a petroleum engineer, unless you make top management, you won’t make over $150,000.”
Not true. Those petroleum engineers starting out at $95k will be making well over $150k by the time they are 30. If they get an MBA and to into management the sky is the limit.
“””Also, some of the Petroleum engineers that I have known have had to live in some pretty awful places before they made top management, awful and dangerous.”
Look up the word hyperbole.
One of our good friends was the head of operations in Venezuela while Chavez was nationalizing the oil interests and he had to have 24 hour security guards for his wife because of death threats. That’s not hyperbole. Some of the other assignments that he had before that were almost as dangerous.
The basic approach is: If you’re good at it, and others are not, then that’s what you should do. It’s especially fulfilling if you enjoy doing it.
It’s very important to be self honest. For instance, let’s say I enjoy playing the guitar, and I think I’m really good at it. But there are tons of others who are good at it, and quite frankly, they are far better than me, so it wouldn’t be a wise career move to try to play in a rock band.
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