10%? I would’ve guessed more like 50%.
As with others, my degree is in a wholly unrelated field. When I got out of school, there was a desperate shortage of geophysicists. I’d never thought about geophysics until I started looking and got a lead. I read the Encyclopedia Brittanica entry for geophysics the night before the interview and headed off into the future.
To observe full disclosure, I must note that there were very few places you could get a degree in geophysics at that time, so most people hired by the oil industry to become geophysicists had other degrees (typically physics, math, geology, etc.). I was an honors grad from a respected school with a background that included a couple of years of physics and the attendant math and chemistry through organic, as well as a good dose of biology and physiology (all things you could successfully dodge in my major). They figured they could teach me geophysics and get me cheap ($28K in today’s dollars). They were right. I spent the next several years taking evening classes at UH, mostly geology, but I never finished a second degree.
That was almost 23 years ago, and it’s kind of a moot point, as we don’t do much of anything the way we did back then, so everybody has had to learn new tricks, post-school. That’s something I’d et all you computer folk can relate to. Still, I’ve never met another geophysicist with my educational background. Somebody above (I type this as I am unable to access the board) mentioned their humanities studies as an exposure to many things, and I think that is a good perspective. My roommate of several years was an English BA who’s a very successful guy in advertising - he wasn’t going tech; he just wanted his mind colorized.
Since I was paying for it myself, was already way behind on the age curve anyway (I decided to go to college at 22) and kept my grades up, I was able to take stuff unrelated to my degree plan (was there one?) that sounded interesting, without having to ask anybody. I took anthro, soc, government history, home ec, business, economics courses for entertainment. I took nine hours of music classes.
Ya’ see what happens? When I’m unable to access the boards and you get long, rambling posts.
Still, only 10%?