FBXL Social

What if I told you that aerospace engineering and physics were two majors with the worst unemployment rates?

According to data from the New York federal reserve it's true, making them the 8th and 4th worst majors for getting a job.

It's important not to just yell "STEM! STEM! STEM!" because there's more to career success than just doing a science.

What matters isn't the designation of the field, it's whether you can use the education to find a job in a place you're willing to work and at a wage you're willing to accept.

I think you're right. We have so many people at desks when what we really need is boots on the ground doing stuff.

Really annoying when you have a whole chain of command above one guy who actually does the work.

One big problem is that people mistake the map for the territory. They think the degree matters, but what matters is the competence the degree represents, and as the competence is erased, so is the use of a degree, and as they stop being useful it'll stop being used.

I talk a lot about 13 high schools in Baltimore failing to have a single student at grade level among graduates. If there are no students who can read, write, or do math at grade level, there should be no graduates. Fail the failing students, don't give them a diploma if they're failing to meet the standard. Simple as that.

Instead, they're graduating students from high school who can't do the work at a grade school level. At that point, why even care about a high school diploma? Just give them a high school diploma in grade 3 and be done with it.

Of course, it's a cargo cult. "Successful people have diplomas and degrees so if we have diplomas and degrees we'll be successful" -- in the past that was true, but in the past those people could read and write and do math. Just like building a radar dish out of bamboo and grass is a waste of time, so is a high school diploma for someone who is functionally illiterate.

"haaaalp! I got a phd but can't calculate that if I make minimum payments on my student loans for 600 years I will still have the same student loans I started with! I need the working class to pay my loans instead by taking out government debt that I don't intend to ever see paid down!"

You guys sure you don't want some of this here Canadian healthcare?

There are many kinds of bosses in the world, it's a shame a lot of them suck.

But I think people working with a good boss would often accept working hard and will not want to leave the moment they get offered another dollar.