To ask which degrees you think are useful / useless?

[fizzthecat1]

I was just on this thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3062891-to-think-dd-should-pick-to-study-what-she-is-interested-in-and-not-what-she-ll-get-a-job-in

There were so many comments of "I did a degree I enjoyed but couldn't get a job, wish I'd done something more useful" etc.

I'm just curious what degree you did and whether it was the right decision, or what degree you'd have done instead. There were so many of these comments and I may retrain in the future so want to know what to avoid / what's good.

It's a funny one. You'd think that broad vocational degrees like Marketing, Business, Media Studies, would be more successful in getting people into those fields. But, in my experience, a good 2.1 or 1st in a traditional academic subject (either humanities or science), ideally from a well regarded university, is still very powerful.

I've been involved in the grad recruitment process for major global companies and the vast majority of those on the grad scheme will have degrees in subjects like History, Economics, Maths, English, Physics, Geography. The subject is not necessarily as important as the perceived vigour of the degree, as well as other things the person has done that demonstrates curiosity and the ability to work hard.

Unless you want to go into a profession with very specific requirements (e.g. medicine, nursing, engineering, architecture), I would recommend going for a more traditional subject that you enjoy than a vocational one. But at the end of the day, any degree can be what you make of it, if you are driven, enthusiastic and begin a degree with your eyes wide open.

Frege that is the downside of a history degree - you can write, argue and think your way out of anything if it was a decently rigorous one but unless you specialise in economic history or something, you don't get any numeracy skills out of it.

There are opportunities to do that kind of research, and develop serious skills with statistical and qualitative data analysis, if you pick the right specialism, but that's not something you'd generally do in a BA.

I did a degree in Engineering and finished it before tuition fees started to shoot up. I'm one of the few people who I graduated with that actually work in Engineering though, others used the degree to get into IT, programming, finance etc.

I enjoyed uni and also enjoy my job but there are others in my company that started as apprentices and did their degree part time while working for the company (who also covered their fees) they are getting a degree, on the job training, and a decent wage. I kinda wish I had done it that way.

I know a lot of people with media or communications degrees who have landed themselves very good jobs with the skills they gained.

I have a medical degree (I don't practice, currently) which puts people off now that I don't work directly in that field. Employers tend to think I'm too specialised and for some reason don't see my skills as transferable.

I have a degree which is mostly Earth Sciences, I've never used it (and probably never will). Thankfully it was free.

Media Studies.

Anything with Forensic in the title - any forensic science provider will be looking for a STEM degree (preferably a 2:1 or above), not some trendy bandwagon subject.

I have a science degree which I think has been pretty useful.

On the one hand I think degrees aren't worth the money these days unless you specifically need it e.g medicine. However I do think you learn valuable life skills that translate to working life. I wonder if they could be condensed into 18 months as opposed to 3 years.

One of my friends left school after A-levels & went straight into civil service. Worked her way up & then they paid for her to do a degree. Then she was fast tracked & earns loads. That's the way to do it.

This is really depressing reading. My dd is doing a broad range of gcses - triple science, history, geography, 2 languages etc but really dislikes the science/maths stuff. She is really creative and interested in social history and the arts. I can't see her doing a STEM degree but she is keen to go to university and would probably like to study history or languages. But would the debt be worth it??? It's so tough...

Something to keep in mind: Will the degree-relevant employment opportunities require you to relocate, or even relocate regularly? I too graduated in Earth Sciences and no shortage of jobs in that field but to get one I'd need to be prepared to work anywhere in the country, and I have family commitments that mean I'm not. So now I work in IT.

In general I'd say most STEM subjects are useful. Physical possibly better than biological. Be a little cautious about Computer Science, it can be rather theoretical and many employers feel CompSci graduates make poor software developers. Be cautious about anything trendy, and also anything obscure and specific.

Just about any subjects from a top university is useful, it's the general skills rather than the specific subject.

'Traditional' professional degrees like divinity, law, education, medicine, nursing, and veterinary medicine are near-essential to get a job in those fields. So how useful it is very much depends on how those professions are doing when you graduate. (Considering the way the government is treating the NHS, medicine actually looks dubious now IMHO unless you plan to work abroad). Some will be more widely useful too I think; I know from my university friends how tough medicine is and I'd look well on that if I was hiring for just about any job.

A humanity from a meh university is one of the less useful degrees you can do.

Languages should be pretty useful, though when it comes to jobs what matters is that you're fluent in the language, not how you learnt it.

"but really dislikes the science/maths stuff. She is really creative "

Seeing the contradiction here puts you at an advantage.

Thing is, AI is set to dramatically change which degrees are lucrative.

STEM fields will soon have fewer and fewer jobs available, as more and more lower level analytical jobs are done by AI. Eventually only the very upper echelons of hard STEM will be manned by human beings. And those jobs will require a high degree of education in ethics and humanities ... because we'd essentially need human beings to quality-check AI decisions to ensure they don't unintentionally violate our human norms.

Engineering might be one of the only parts of STEM that keeps being manned by humans. Because the professional associations of engineers, internationally, will act as unions, essentially. Will hoard the knowledge gained. Also engineering generally includes ethical training that will be useful in the upper echelon jobs I mentioned before.

Medical jobs will become scarcer, since machines are much better at diagnosing and performing surgeries than human beings are. Doula, chaplain, and related health-including-mental/spiritual-health roles will become much more in demand.

"Soft" skills, including ethical and spiritual knowledge and things like teaching, mediation, counseling and conflict resolution, will quickly outpace STEM as in-demand fields... since we are uncomfortable with machines doing that kind of thing.

The creative fields will also start coming into demand... because humans will have dramatically more free time, and much more spiritual ennui. The arts will salve that and will start to become the main field of human endeavour. Sporty things as well - being able to teach riding, dance, that sort of thing to a bored populace.

My DC are being quietly encouraged to learn cultural pursuits from a very early age. To focus too strongly on STEM will be a detriment to them in 20 years (IMO). Logic and ethics, the parts of STEM that overlap into the arts? yes very important. Pure arithmetic and that sort of thing, nope.

My degree is vocational and mandatory for my career, so is as useful as they come.

I studied learning disability nursing and worked as a nurse for 10 years. My passion was always english or french though, but i was pushed by my mum into doing science a levels, even though i wasnt that good at it, because ‘what can you do with english’ all my mum saw was being able to get a job at the end. I loved being a nurse and supporting people with learning disabilities, however the people i worked with, completely ruined my confidence, and i now have no faith in myself. I went straight from school, to uni, to working full time. I couldnt stay at home for long as me and my mum didnt get on, so i moved out and had my own bills to pay. I wanted to have fun, experiences and always felt what i wanted was overruled. I wish i had had the confidence to say, no, this is my life and i have to live it, and i’m doing what i want to do.
I have 2 boys and i will support them as much as i can to follow their own dreams, not mine!

I was very lucky I come from a generation where you didn't need a degree to get a good job, I let school at age 15 in 1970 without a qualification to my name got a job in a shop, within 5 years I was running the flagship shop in Oxford street with 25 staff under me, in the 80s I was getting bored and DH suggested I applied for a position in the west end advertising agency where he worked I applied even though I couldn't even type, ironically I had to do an aptitude test where I scored above average for a graduate, ended up account manager with 2 very high profile global clients, made redundant in the 90s, got a job as a picker and packer in the despatch department for a printing company, I am still in the industry but was able to work my way up the ladder and I am now a client services director.

I really feel for the younger generation who cant get a decent job without a degree, or who leave uni having racked up massive debt with high hopes of the career of their dreams only to find there are few jobs and too many other graduates chasing them, don't get me wrong I have a team of articulate, bright, committed young people working with me, any degrees they have are an asset to the business but they are in roles which in my youth any bright school leaver with a few O levels would have walked into and I think its really unfair.

My nephew is a case in point very artistic, his dream was to be a graphic designer like my OH, by the time he was old enough to make decisions about his future, the design industry was in decline, OH had been made redundant twice and had to go freelance, DN made the decision to abandon his dreams and got a plumbing apprenticeship, yes he is successful and earns good money without any student debt but that's not what he wanted to do with his life.

I think the younger generation have a right to feel short changed and angry when it comes to employment opportunities, student debt and high rent/house prices, my generation did have it easier

I studied American Studies and as much as I throughly enjoyed the multi disciplinary learning and year abroad, if I could go back and get a degree in something else, I definitely would.

I did chemistry. Good uni too. Useless! Might be able to get a science technician with it but that's about all.
Funny how everyone tells people to do stem subjects!
Nursing as a second degree. Very employable.

@Headofthehive55 - again, in banking there are plenty of 1st class hons chemists in very senior roles. It’s not your degree that matters in getting a good or prestigious job (in the UK), it’s your personality. If you’re charming and sociable and get the job done you will eventually progress no matter your degree status or subject.

I have a first class engineering degree.

Useless. Absolutely bloody useless. Turns out to get a good job in engineering you have to do loads of work experience BEFORE you graduate. Stupid me.

Also, being brutally honest, I experienced massive sexism and some very uncomfortable borderline harassment trying to get in to the sector. Not nice.

I wish I'd not wasted so much time and energy trying to get in to a sector that clearly was never going to be the right one for me. But difficult to know what else I could have done with that time.

Getting more people into STEM is a huge lie, there simply aren't the jobs.

My advice to anyone would be get loads of work experience before you choose a subject. And make sure you take a degree with an industrial placement or internship year. Ultimately I do think people should study what they enjoy though, studying is hard enough and I can't imagine how hard it would be if you didn't enjoy it.

@beesandknees That's a really interesting point. I think if you can combine cultural knowledge with an ability to interpret hard data, you will be in demand in the future. The world of work is set to change radically over the next twenty years....

Multidisciplinary degrees might be the way forward - a bit like in the US where you can major in, say, History but also take modules in chemistry, statistics, music etc.

I agree completely with HermionesRightHook. A good rigorous academic degree from a good uni will teach skills that can be applied across any field.

I did a BA in Archaeology and Prehistoric Anthopology. I was intending to do a masters and eventually a PHD but i also like to eat and have a roof over my head and nice clothes. Working in my original field would have had me living in a card board box under a bridge somewhere for years. I worked my way through uni by working night shifts at an insurance company processing claims. At the end of my degree, they REALLY wanted to take me on full time.

Though not remotely relevant to the field, my degree gave me skills in critical thinking, communications, time management, and the intellectual confidence to take the role and run with it.

I have now enjoyed a very lucrative 17 year career in Finance that has taken me from Australia to London.

You don’t want too broad a subject like geography

I found I was exceedingly employable with a first class BSc Geography degree - numerate, literate, analytical, good understanding of working with and presenting statistics. understanding complex arguments and evaluating evidence.

I found I was exceedingly employable with a first class BSc Geography degree

Well, there's the thing people won't always say, especially IRL. Some degrees may leave you employable if you do very well in them. Upthread someone was saying a chemistry degree had been useless... well, I, my DH and many of our colleagues and friends have found our chemistry degrees very useful over decades of employment in industry an academia.

Of course, it does also depend where you live (are you willing to move), your character (including how you interview) and whether the sector you're interested in is cyclical and if so buoyant or in a downturn.

A traditional subject from a redbrick university is useful.
Or
A vocational degree from a newer university is useful (assuming you want to work in the field you have studied)

But either way, you aren't entitled to a job just because. I did several bouts of work experience in the field (newspapers) I wanted to work in during my university holidays (and yes, I had a paid job too).

I think where people struggle after university is that they don't really have much of an idea what they want so they take some admin role in something and then just stop looking/getting experience/knocking on doors. Nothing wrong at all with taking an admin role (I temped for three months after uni) but lots of jobs are not advertised so if you are just scanning job websites while bored in your temp job, you won't see them. You need to be pitching if you want to work in certain sectors

Anyway I did a decade on papers, got interested in a topic while there and ended up going into the related industry while doing a MSc part time in a totally unrelated subject to my first degree. I've also learned to code in the last decade of working which isn't want I imagined doing with an arts degree but really what you study is not as important as the other experiences you gather on the way.