My college degree has nothing to do with what I do

In My Humble Opinion
1

I read that 10% of college educated people are working outside their degree. I’m one of them, I guess. I have a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and I’m a computer geek for a living. In college, computers were barely used as simulators and I had just one programming course in (God help me) Fortran.

I was trained in digital hardware design, robotics, and other assorted things that plug in but 14 years after graduation, I can’t design an simple amplifier, three phase power is a mysterious black art, and I couldn’t solve a calculus problem if Newton came back and threated my family.

I came out of college, made a left turn into computer administration, and just kept on truckin’. I’m not terribly upset - I actually like what I do and I think there’s a future in it. It’s just I feel that I wasted all that tuition on a degree I don’t use.

So, how 'bout you? Was four years of life wasted on a piece of paper that is only good as a resume entry?

2

I graduated with a degree in Television/Radio production. Now I’m a database developer/programmer.

However, I wouldn’t say that the four years I spent in college were wasted.

Firstly, while in college, I was a member of the Emergency Medical Squad on campus. It taught me a lot about personal responsibility, as well as helped train me to think under pressure and quickly.

In addition, while serving as the Personnel officer of BCEMS (Brooklyn College EMS), I computerized their personnel records (my first exposure to databases).

Secondly, the subject matter I learned (aside from my major) helped round out my education. Taking Brooklyn College’s Core Curriculum ( a set of 13 courses all undergrads must take ) helped give me a better view of the world. Likewise, while my minor in Creative Writing has never produced anything except A’s from my teachers, it nonetheless helped me in my writing.

So, in short, while I don’t work in the field relating to my college degree, I wouldn’t say my college years were a waste.

Zev Steinhardt

3

Sort of. My degree is in commercial art (“Graphic Communications”) – I learned all about typography, illustration, layout, design, etc. And this was in the early 80’s, when computers were first being introduced for general use, so I learned how to do all that stuff manually – using rubber cement, T-square, india ink, illustration board, and all that. I loved it. But I was always uneasy with the idea that I was being groomed to create ketchup ads and (ugh) billboards.

After graduation, I went off on a tangent and worked for a printing company in the prepress department, using my skills one step further down the production process. Then I turned myself into a freelance copyeditor, where I use a tiny part of what I learned in school, and only when I’m checking specs on page proofs while proofreading, which accounts for about 5-10% of my working time.

So my degree and the 2 years I spent being a computer science major are but amusing sidebars on my resume. I wouldn’t call my time in college wasted, though – it was a very enriching experience for little old me.

4

C’mon, people, try a humanities degree for complete lack of real-world applicability! I have a BA in Religious Studies and a PhD in Sociology of Religion – and I’ve spend the last 10 years working as a puzzle editor. Connection? None. Do I regret my education? Not a bit – it gave me the opportunity to think about many cool things – and also gave me skills in thinking critically and communicating clearly that are fundamental to just about any job more complex than flipping burgers.

5

If I had any brains at all, I woulda stretched college out to 6-7 years! Most fun I ever had, and I had to go and spoil it by graduating!

What a knob! :smiley:

I wish I knew now what I knew then!

6

I got my undergrad in history - wrote my senior thesis on Medieval medicine (just for background, here…). I then proceeded to spend most of seven years working in internal audit. Yes, I looked a business processes, controls, financial statements…the fun stuff ( :rolleyes: ).

I stopped doing that August 2…to go back to grad school for library and information science. So now, not only am I doing something that has nothing to do with my undergrad degree…it has nothing to do with what my business experience is in.

7

I have a B.A. in Social Sciences and an M.A. in English, but work as a computer technician. The English is vaguely relevant to my writing career, only I had already sold a novel when I went for my degree.

However, the point of a liberal arts education is to learn how to think, not to learn a subject. Lots of humanities/social science majors go into other fields simply because the skills they learn are transferrable to a wide variety of jobs.

8

I have a Comm. Degree and currently I’m a Claims assistant. I start work as an Account level I on Tuesday…

9

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%?

10

I got my BA from UC Berkeley in “Integrative Biology”, with an emphasis in evolutionary biology/paleontology. I currently work as a database programmer for a community college district. prior to that, I worked as an office assistant for the financial aid office at one of the colleges within said district. The closest my degree has come to being relevant to my employment was when I was working for the UC Museum of Paleontology, doing grunt work, as a college work-study student – before I even got my degree!

However, having a BA does get me an extra $100 / month or so, since we have a deal wherein we get a stipend if we hold a degree higher than that required for our position (my job class only requires an AA).

11

B.A. In Advertising, Minors in business and Psychology.

now a computer geek.

12

I’ve got a BA in Public Communications, and I’m essentially a glorified book keeper (and Chief Peanut Farmer) – I’m the non-technical part of an IT security consultancy. Got the degree because of intense parental pressure, despite the fact that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (and still don’t). I had several majors and ended up where I did because of the requirements – I could take all the credits from my 2.5/3 years of messing around and still graduate in 4 years.

What I really want to do now, tho, is get a master’s in Underwater Basketweaving or some such.

13

Earned a BS in Meteorology in 1985. The field was full of trained “weather forecasters” from the Vietnam era. Rather than spend a decade doing observations in Barrow, AK, I moved into a field I had a deep interest in. I work in a technology field for libraries. I could not be happier.

14

Double BS in Biochem/Molecular Biology. I also just finished my MBA. I am now a business manager for a biotech company, so I am actually using all of my degrees! In the next year, I will (hopefully) move into investment banking for biotechs, so I guess I would still be using my degrees.

I agree with Ringo that 10% seems low. I know lots of science majors that have moved into IS, marketing, or product management. Much more opportunity in those areas for BS level scientists, it seems.

15

BS in Secondary Education (minor in Spanish) from Villanova. I’m now in my 3rd year of law school.

I don’t know if it’s wholly unrelated. My concentration was in English language & literature, so I’m carrying a lot of my linguistic skills over to law.

16

Started as a Physics major, switched to European History (with a buttload of electives in Chinese history) in my third year.

Now an ad copywriter in Japan.

The classes were interesting, but I think I learned much more out of class when I was in college. Not sure how I’d do it if I could go back again.

17

BA in English (creative writing)
I’m a manager at a movie theater.

Sigh.

18

I have a degree in Marketing. So what am I doing now? I do printer testing. While I feel that I may have wasted four years in college, I did learn a lot from the subjects that I took, and I have a better idea of how things work in the businsss world.

19

BA in English literature
Photojournalist by profession, and occassionally write and copy-edit.

I never intended to go into a profession in which my degree was useful. In fact, I chose my degree not because of my love of English literature, but because when time came to play Wheel of Diplomas, it turned out credit-wise that I could only graduate on-time by majoring in English literature. (For some odd reason, I had a lot of English credits. I don’t recall how this happened. I’m a hard sciences kind of guy, normally.) If I didn’t graduate on-time, I would have lost my scholarship money and be in serious financial problems trying to squeak through that last trimester.

Now, of course, doing what I do, nobody even cares if I have a university diploma.

20

I’m going hyphen mad here; I think you can strike the bulk of 'em in the last post. You say you do a little copy editing and what is that law? Gaudere or whatnot?