What is your degree in?
- Thread starter Macabre9037
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I hate to be a cynical bastard, but there are several people on this thread who are being less than truthful, I fear.Macabre9037 said:
Me? I'm a software design engineer, but my degrees are in completely unrelated fields: Abnormal Psychology and Forensic Science. I originally had plans on pursuing a JD and a PhD, but I received a job offer that was just too lucrative. (I've been working in IT since 1988, and in fact, it's how I put myself through school.)
Last year doing a BSc in Games Design. I get to walk out with pretty much nothing and an industry in the UK that's cutting staff in huge quantities or closing altogether =D. It should be fine though, just prepared to work any job I can get while building up a portfolio to apply a few months down the line I guess.
B.A. in Political Science (comparative politics concentration) with minors in Spanish and History. Yet, I am working as an elementary/junior high English teacher in Japan. Go figure.
Well, actually I do know how that happened. Unless you go to law school, political science has become another of the many useless degrees nowadays. Employers seem to only want business, tech or science related degrees nowadays. God help you in today's job market in America if you have anything else.
Well, actually I do know how that happened. Unless you go to law school, political science has become another of the many useless degrees nowadays. Employers seem to only want business, tech or science related degrees nowadays. God help you in today's job market in America if you have anything else.
I share your fear, I have found several of the degrees and jobs named to be a bit...fanciful?solidstatemind said:
Oh, believe me, walking into a job is not going to happen. Regardless of my degree. There are literally no jobs around at the moment, and the only firms hiring Maths graduates at the moment are the exact type of company I don't want to work for. Finance groups, banks, accountancy firms, actuaries, that sort of thing. I actually want to work in the games industry (and am steadily building up a portfolio to help me in that endeavour) or in the film-making industry anyway, which I'm also involved in through a university society (I was filming a short advert piece for a play today, I'm acting and helping crew a short film on Sunday, and I'm lined up as producer for another short film within the next few weeks).Mazty said:
Overall, I'd say doing a Cinema and Photography degree would be far more useful for my career ambitions than Maths ever will be.
Undertaking a bachelors degree in Biological Science, majoring in Zoology and Genetics. I want to be the next David Attenborough.
I did just over a year on a Games Design course, quickly learned that in a creative industry, like games or graphics design, a portfolio is what counts and a degree is basically worthless.
I then asked myself: If no-one will care about my degree, why am I paying £3000 to teach myself about art and games design?
So I quit.
I don't know about other places, but in the UK at least it is far too easy to get a degree. All a degree says is that you bothered to turn up to lectures for three years and are more than ten thousand pounds in debt. There were people on my course, which was an art and computer graphics heavy course, that could barely draw a stickman or operate a mouse. These people were vastly in the majority despite every single one of them having to turn up to an interview and show their work.
Basically noone failed.
Don't get me wrong, there were some real gems amongst them. But employers aren't stupid, they know that the degree itself is no indication of whether they're getting the genius or the dud who just stuck it out long enough to get the qualification. They'll ask for a portfolio and they'll give the job to the best one, degree or no degree.
I basically figured out that I could teach myself everything they had to offer using the internet and some books and set off building a portfolio by myself. I've ended up doing freelance graphics design and illustration and it's not actually going that badly!
If you want to do something creative, and you're thinking about going to university, seriously consider just doing it yourself. Right now. You have a computer, the internet and access to books that don't cost £3000 a year. Teach yourself everything, practice until you're blue in the face and you'll do just as well. Then you can spend your spare time earning money, instead of owing it.
I then asked myself: If no-one will care about my degree, why am I paying £3000 to teach myself about art and games design?
So I quit.
I don't know about other places, but in the UK at least it is far too easy to get a degree. All a degree says is that you bothered to turn up to lectures for three years and are more than ten thousand pounds in debt. There were people on my course, which was an art and computer graphics heavy course, that could barely draw a stickman or operate a mouse. These people were vastly in the majority despite every single one of them having to turn up to an interview and show their work.
Basically noone failed.
Don't get me wrong, there were some real gems amongst them. But employers aren't stupid, they know that the degree itself is no indication of whether they're getting the genius or the dud who just stuck it out long enough to get the qualification. They'll ask for a portfolio and they'll give the job to the best one, degree or no degree.
I basically figured out that I could teach myself everything they had to offer using the internet and some books and set off building a portfolio by myself. I've ended up doing freelance graphics design and illustration and it's not actually going that badly!
If you want to do something creative, and you're thinking about going to university, seriously consider just doing it yourself. Right now. You have a computer, the internet and access to books that don't cost £3000 a year. Teach yourself everything, practice until you're blue in the face and you'll do just as well. Then you can spend your spare time earning money, instead of owing it.
Not working on a degree yet, but going to be working on a BS in Aerospace Engineering, there's gonna be alot of work and sleep deprivation during college from what I've heard about this major and engineering in general, but Im sure an unhealthy overdose of caffeine will help =)
I've gotten my bachelor's degree in Archaeology, and I'm currently working on a master's in Classical Archaeology. Ideally I'd like to be able to get into a Ph.D. program in 2012, and once I get that I'd like to eventually teach at a university and do my own research and digs.
Maybe I'll reply to a thread like this again in 8 years, I'm just finishing a year out of education (which without money or a job is mind numbing like chloroform), and have just been accepted to do a BSc(Hons) in Molecular and Cellular Biology, though I'm still waiting to hear back from Kent about Biological Anthropology, but it seems unlikely I'll choose it even if I get in. I then need to achieve a 2:1 or 1st to continue study to get a MSc in Genomics and Pathways, or go to Kyoto and study Primateology and Wildlife at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto.
I'll get back to you in 8 years.
(The BSc comes with a years work placement so it becomes a 4 year course...)
I'll get back to you in 8 years.
(The BSc comes with a years work placement so it becomes a 4 year course...)
