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A question about college majors and careers.

H

HappyPuppy

Lifer
What percentage of college grads actually wind up working in their field of study? My best guess would be about 30% and the rest wind up either not enjoying the career they studied for or else life just led them in another direction.
 
I have a masters in (specializing in the computer track) EE but am working more as a programmer/developer. Does this count? I'm also working on a 2nd masters in Comp Sci now...
 
Sampson is right... it's said that if a teacher makes it past their either 3rd year or 5th year of teaching, they'll make a career out of it. I don't know, I'm still a student.
 
Originally posted by: StormRider
I have a masters in (specializing in the computer track) EE but am working more as a programmer/developer. Does this count? I'm also working on a 2nd masters in Comp Sci now...
Click to expand...


Working in a career that is related to your field of study would probably count. What I'm looking for is all the people with degrees who wind up working in totally unrelated fields.

 
Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Originally posted by: StormRider
I have a masters in (specializing in the computer track) EE but am working more as a programmer/developer. Does this count? I'm also working on a 2nd masters in Comp Sci now...
Click to expand...


Working in a career that is related to your field of study would probably count. What I'm looking for is all the people with degrees who wind up working in totally unrelated fields.
Click to expand...

Well, going back to the teaching profession... a lot of my middle school teachers didn't study to be teachers, but that's where they ended up. One of them was a lawyer and became a English/History teacher.
 
Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Originally posted by: StormRider
I have a masters in (specializing in the computer track) EE but am working more as a programmer/developer. Does this count? I'm also working on a 2nd masters in Comp Sci now...
Click to expand...


Working in a career that is related to your field of study would probably count. What I'm looking for is all the people with degrees who wind up working in totally unrelated fields.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to people who majored in say, history or political science, and then went on to medical school? Or are you just referring to people without graduate degrees?
 
Originally posted by: wkabel23
Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Originally posted by: StormRider
I have a masters in (specializing in the computer track) EE but am working more as a programmer/developer. Does this count? I'm also working on a 2nd masters in Comp Sci now...
Click to expand...


Working in a career that is related to your field of study would probably count. What I'm looking for is all the people with degrees who wind up working in totally unrelated fields.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to people who majored in say, history or political science, and then went on to medical school? Or are you just referring to people without graduate degrees?
Click to expand...



This should probably be limited to people with undergrad degrees. Those who go on to get Masters and Ph.D.'s are generally very interested in their field and unlikely to settle for something different. That's a guess on my part.

There a lot of fairly generic degrees that could lead on into a number of careers. I guess I'm looking for the ones who study something more specific.
 
the way i look at it, if person knows what he wants to do then go ahead and do it and don't waist your time going to school taking all of the ge classes and waisting your time. If you have no idea what you want to do then go to college, take all of those bs classes and hopefully by the time you finish you will know what you want to do in life
 
Are we just guessing here or are we suppose to know the answer..

I think it would be a more productive poll if you asked who is working in a field related to their major.
 
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Are we just guessing here or are we suppose to know the answer..

I think it would be a more productive poll if you asked who is working in a field related to their major.
Click to expand...

I think we're all just guessing unless someone can come up with some verifiable stats. I didn't ask how many are working in a field related to their major because the vast majority of OTers seem to either be in HS or collegs. The grads would be a minority and poll might reflect what people THINK they are GOING to be doing rather than the actual facts.

 
What about bio, or chem majors that end up going to medical school. or english/ philosophy majors goign to law school. There really isn't that many schools with premed/prelaw "majors" anymore.
 
I majored in Chemistry, because Cornell had an attractive "alternative major" that was mostly premed courses with about 11 extra chemistry credits on top. I'm now in medical school, and will probably never use the stuff that I learned in chemistry, which is fine by me because I've already forgotten most of it. What I mainly got out of chemistry was developing analytical skills.
 
Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Are we just guessing here or are we suppose to know the answer..

I think it would be a more productive poll if you asked who is working in a field related to their major.
Click to expand...

I think we're all just guessing unless someone can come up with some verifiable stats. I didn't ask how many are working in a field related to their major because the vast majority of OTers seem to either be in HS or collegs. The grads would be a minority and poll might reflect what people THINK they are GOING to be doing rather than the actual facts.
Click to expand...

I read a study once that said that something like 25% of people graduating with bachelor's degrees go on to work in a field directly related to their degree. Sorry, can't remember where I read it...I'll google around and see if I can find it.
 
Based on my biographical survey of roughly 70 Fortune 500 executives and directors (I'm serious, I do this for work), the majority of them are in positions or had experience in areas of work that have little bearing to the field they studied in college. Accounting majors seem to stick the most to their specific line of work as they advance, but a number of them (can't estimate a percentage, less than half) have the degree but move on to something else.
 
my first post-graduation job was in a related field -- I was an English major, and got a job in Marketing. but I left that job after 6 months and got into IT.

(I had a dual-major in Sociology, but I've yet to use those skills in the work force... there's just not all that much demand for a marxist literary critic 😛)
 
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