Yesterday we had a retirement luncheon at a restaurant in town. On the way there, I managed to hear a bit of Neal Boortz’s program. It was pretty good, and Neal was true to his slogan, “Somebody’s gotta say it!”
The caller wanted to complain about the economy. Boortz calmly explained all the positive data, but this man would have none of it. “We’ve lost 2 million jobs in this country!” and went on to spew about out-sourcing. Neal was having none of it, and asked where he got his numbers. “It’s common knowledge.” No, where did you get the number? Neal pressed until the man told him he could look it up on the DNC web site. Aha!
Boortz asked if the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be okay as a reference. It was. He quoted the site as saying 2 million jobs had been created in 2003. The man went histerical, and complained “I’m not talking about jobs flipping burgers. I can’t afford to pay my health insurance.”
Now we get to the real issue. Boortz wanted to know what the man was doing for a living. “Working for a patent attorney.” What did he do before? “Well, um, I was…in the product development business.” I would have asked what that meant, but Neal was more polite. What education level did he have? “I have a BA.” In what? “Psychology.”
At that point, Boortz could stand it no longer. “If I owned a company that did product development, I would be searching for someone with a psychology degree.” The caller took the bait. “Why?”
“BECAUSE I’M AN IDIOT!” He went on to deride this 50-year-old man for making bad decisions, and wanting the government to make up for it.
I’m interested in education. And Neal made a very good point about choosing a degree program with some research behind the decision.
There are many degree programs at colleges around the country that do nothing to prepare a graduate for employment. Personally, I think a Liberal Arts degree is valuable as education. Yet it does nothing for someone’s employment prospects. It is also an education someone can get on their own by reading and being involved in life. There are degrees in Gender/Women’s Studies which don’t seem like much of an education at all. In fact, Bogey has friends who have this degree. I asked what jobs they might qualify for, and he responded “Teaching, writing, or journalism, maybe.” I doubt there are recruiters signing up students for interviews every semester in the Gender Studies Department, but maybe I’m wrong. The same can be said for a degree in English Literature. Getting a PhD in one of these makes sense, if your goal is to teach at a university. Other than that, the job market doesn’t offer much. Even something like microbiology, which is not an easy program, has limited employment opportunities unless you get an advanced degree.
Now that I have my degree in engineering (which puts food on my table) I enjoy taking liberal arts classes like world literature. It’s my own version of self-actualiztion. I got my masters in International Relations because I was in Special Ops, and the world was my playground. I thought it would help me do my job better. But it also allowed me to indulge my interest in history. So there are certainly ways to get a degree with practical application while satifying your personal interests outside that program. Certainly there is no law against getting some degree with a direct job path at the same time as you take courses you simply enjoy or feel will help you intellectually. I could have taken three engineering courses and three history courses each semester.
The problem is that you won’t finish in four years. So what? If you want an education, why not take six years? But get a degree which will help you get a job doing something you want to do! Best of both worlds. Pick a program which leads to a job that interests you, and also has a good rate of hire.