# What job are you likely to get with your major? A study reveals... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857 "2012-12-22T18:57:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/1 "2012-12-22T18:57:05Z")
> **[The Truth About What Kind Of Job You Can Get Into With Your Major](https://www.businessinsider.com/what-kind-of-jobs-you-can-get-into-with-your-major-2012-12?op=1)** > > Explore job opportunities related to your major, guiding students in their career paths. To quote the article: > [@](#): > > Williams College students Hayley Brooks and Kaison Tanabe analyzed the careers of 15,000+ graduates, and used CIRCOS visualization software to plot out the data. Scroll down to see the groupings split for clearer viewing. For those of you who majored in one of these categories, did their analysis come close to your current situation? For me, an econ major, they got it right - we end up doing whatever. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/2 "2012-12-22T19:13:49Z")
No wonder there’s a glut of law students. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/3 "2012-12-22T19:36:45Z")
They got the one diagram wrong : geosciences. The title of the chart says “Geoscience majors do pretty much everything”. But the chart itself shows that they do pretty much everything **except** geoscience! ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/4 "2012-12-22T19:41:34Z")
What is this type of graph called, and why is it so overused these days? Pie charts or stacked bar charts would be _much_ easier to comprehend. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/5 "2012-12-22T20:54:43Z")
Actually, it’s a great way to display the data. In my case, it’s hard to say. My undergraduate major was Social Sciences (Political Science and History, not Social Sciences), though I was primarily studying History by my senior year. My graduate degree was in English. I work in Technology at a college, which seems to be two different categories. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/6 "2012-12-22T20:59:36Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > What is this type of graph called, and why is it so overused these days? Pie charts or stacked bar charts would be _much_ easier to comprehend. I have never seen a chart like that before. What an unholy mess. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/7 "2012-12-22T22:00:59Z")
By the way, does that type of chart have a name? What if you have some degree of color blindness? That first chart would be pretty much impossible to follow. And I’m not entirely sure what the break-down charts are adding to this that more traditional charting methods that take up less space and everyone is familiar with already offer. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/8 "2012-12-22T22:08:55Z")
Doesn’t say much about applied sciences or engineering, and there are many many roles a degree trained engineer can do. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/9 "2012-12-22T22:10:30Z")
I majored in Artsy-Fartsy, and ended up in Technology. I think. I’m a clerk, mostly, who works with computers. So, for me, not too accurate. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/10 "2012-12-22T22:49:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > By the way, does that type of chart have a name? What if you have some degree of color blindness? That first chart would be pretty much impossible to follow. And I’m not entirely sure what the break-down charts are adding to this that more traditional charting methods that take up less space and everyone is familiar with already offer. I didn’t grok it until I saw the breakdown, but once I did, I liked it. I can go both ways with one chart: I can see that the overwhelming majority of chemistry majors go into health fields, for example, and I can also see that the majority of health care workers came from fields other than chemistry. It’s quite elegant, and captures what would otherwise take up several charts. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/11 "2012-12-22T23:05:52Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I didn’t grok it until I saw the breakdown, but once I did, I liked it. I can go both ways with one chart: I can see that the overwhelming majority of chemistry majors go into health fields, for example, and I can also see that the majority of health care workers came from fields other than chemistry. It’s quite elegant, and captures what would otherwise take up several charts. But, my opinion that it is a confusing unholy mess aside, what about if you have trouble with color perception? I personally don’t, but it’s something I think about when it comes to making charts. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/12 "2012-12-22T23:19:02Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > What is this type of graph called, and why is it so overused these days? Pie charts or stacked bar charts would be _much_ easier to comprehend. Because when it’s all stacked up, it’s neat to look at. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/13 "2012-12-22T23:26:19Z")
“Goverment” is meaningless to me and doesn’t seem to fit in with the other categories. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/14 "2012-12-22T23:28:15Z")
What the hell is “artst-fartsy” doing in this article? Is this _Cracked_? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/15 "2012-12-23T19:06:25Z")
I agree with the ‘terrible visualizations’ cries. Do the colors have any significance? I guess the grays are occupations, not college majors, right? If so, they skipped my own: Engineering and some other big ones like nursing, accounting, education and business. _“Artsy-Fartsy”_? There goes your credibility. Extra, Extra, Read all about it: Study finds Computer Science majors go into Tech. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/16 "2012-12-23T19:19:51Z")
I’m apparently “artsy-fartsy” (seriously?), and I ended up in arts/entertainment, college education, and retail (which I suppose comes under the general heading “sales”), so I guess it’s relatively accurate for me. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/17 "2012-12-23T19:44:07Z")
As I’m reading the article, all of the observations that go into the chart are from Williams graduates. As that’s a very selective liberal arts college with no business or engineering school, it’s not clear what kind of conclusions you can draw about graduates of other colleges. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/18 "2012-12-23T22:09:38Z")
My daughter did a double major at Williams in English and biology and is now chief copy editor for a publisher of scientific journals. About what you would have expected even without seeing those charts. I did math and wound up professing. My wife did French/English and wound up–astonisingly–as a French to English translator. Of my other sons, one did transportation engineering is working at a transportation consultant company and other did CS and is working at Microsoft. Somehow, I don’t think those charts told me anything I didn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/19 "2012-12-23T23:35:24Z")
Oops, that probably changes my response. I’d overlooked that it was only Williams grads. That makes much more sense. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857/20 "2012-12-23T23:37:14Z")
Damn, y’all are a tough audience. (Though I didn’t like the “artsy-fartsy” category either - why not merely put “liberal arts” (or whatever the chart-maker meant) without the dismissive wording?) There are also entire job categories missing - what about “operations” or “manufacturing”, you know, the actual making or doing of things? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-likely-to-get-with-your-major-a-study-reveals/644857.md?page=2)