Posted on 01/07/2008 6:10:24 AM PST by raybbr
U.S. News & World Report, which has made a name for itself by ranking and announcing the Best Colleges every year, is now ranking and listing the Best Careers for young people. A comparison of the latest lists shows a shocking disconnect and makes for dispiriting holiday reading.
While the price of a college education has skyrocketed far faster than inflation, many careers for which colleges prepare their graduates are disappearing. U.S. News' Best Careers guide concludes that "college grads might want to consider blue-collar careers" because B.A. diploma holders "are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills."
__________________________
Society has been telling high school students that college is the ticket to get a life, and politicians are pandering to parents' desire for their children to be better educated and so have a higher standard of living. John Edwards wants the taxpayers to guarantee every kid a college education, and Mitt Romney says more education is the means for Americans to compete in a global economy.
But it doesn't make sense for parents to mortgage their homes, or for students to saddle themselves with long-term debt, in order to pay overpriced college tuition to prepare for jobs that no longer exist. Tuition at public universities has risen an unprecedented 51 percent over the past five years.
(Excerpt) Read more at eagleforum.org ...
Thanks!
Where did the higher-skill jobs go? Both large and small companies are "quietly increasing offshoring efforts."
Here is one of the reasons it won't get any better before it gets much worse.
Word on the street is, if you can say “Would you like fries with that” in un-accented English, you too can have a career at any of these Fortune 500 companies...
>> Here is one of the reasons it won’t get any better before it gets much worse.
+1
You simply cannot build a vibrant economy on government employment and health care.
Supersize your career!.......
It seemed to be an admission that english speakers weren't getting the jobs. There was no english translation for the bulk of the important announcement.
bump
Damn it, now I’m hungry! LOL!
On a more serious note, though, some of those places pay their store managers and area managers decent salaries (but you put in a lot of hours, and it’s strictly hands-off the cute 18 year old cashiers, or so I’m told).
A local Dodge’s Chicken / Minute market store is advertising $40k for a store manager with a sign on bonus......
So, pay over 150K for an education to earn 30K/year?
Let industry IQ test, and the need for phony degrees will go away.
Well let’s just have a look at the careers cited in the article:
Audiologist
Biomedical equipment technician
Clergy
Curriculum/training specialist
Dentist
Editor
Engineer
Firefighter
Fundraiser
Genetic counselor
Ghostwriter
Government manager
Hairstylist/cosmetologist
Higher education administrator
Investment banker
Landscape architect
Librarian
Locksmith/Security system technician
Management consultant
Mediator
Occupational therapist
Optometrist
Pharmacist
Physician assistant
Politician/Elected official
Professor
Registered nurse
School psychologist
Systems analyst
Urban planner
Usability/User experience specialist
______________________________________________
Most of these require a college degree. I don’t get the point of the article.
I couldn’t agree more. The types of jobs I wanted from the get-go required a college degree. I’ve returned to college in my 40’s to get the education degree I’ve always wanted and it’s a lot harder with family responsibilities.
There are ways to keep costs down, too. Go to a community college and live at home for two years. Most of the first two years are general, liberal arts type courses anyway and many four-year colleges have turned them into liberal propaganda engines. It’s far better for students to take these required courses when they can talk about the content with their family around the dinner table. If they live in an area with a college that offers what they want, they could live at home for the last two years. Even if they have to go away, they can look for colleges that aren’t as expensive as others and they have easily cut their educational expenses in half.
Bump!
Bump!
College grads are in a least two groups, super-educated, and high school completion.
There are always a few bright stars, and that is what most people want for their children. The rest are socially promoted out of HS without an education, the extra 4+ years in college are just to finish mastery of HS subjects.
I stopped reading at cosmetologist. That’s all I needed to laugh this whole piece off.
30K+35K+40K+45K=150K. Just because the dollar is worth less, doesn't mean the education is. The diploma is proof that you can finish what you start, and have the ability to learn. It is not proof that you already know everything.
Almost all of the college grads I know earn 3 times that much. Most non-grads I’m acquainted with are the ones mired in the 30’s.
Good advice! Our son just graduated college, but he’s 19, and instead of going out to get a job, we encouraged him to go on and get his Master’s. He has a graduate assistantship, so the cost is minimal. We told him, it might not help him, financially, immediately when he enters the job market, but 5 years down the road, instead of trying to juggle a job, family, and returning to school, he’ll be glad he perservered and got it out of the way.
That’s what a lot of people don’t get. A college degree doesn’t automatically mean a ton of money right off the bat, but 20 years down the road there is no comparison between the average salaries of grads vs nongrads.
Ninety grand out of college? I don't buy it.
I am not saying that no one should go to college. I am saying the system is a scam and that there are jobs, like mine, that college CAN'T improve. I earn more than 30K and I have an Associates Degree which has no bearing on my profession.
Completely overlooked in the article are the many possibilities of networking (hate the word, love the concept) with others and the professional contacts you may well make; plus, perhaps even more importantly, the socialization past "high school hormone" based living and getting along with others.
Also overlooked is the potential for much better mentoring than you're likely to get in an academic environment vs what will surround you in no-degree-necessary jobs. Of course you may have to seek out and accept such mentoring, but it's likely to be within reach and folks like to help you out when you're young. It makes them feel sage. In the early jobs I worked, the mentoring was effectively mentoring to teach you to be a lifelong numbnut.
It also proves you don’t understand ROI.
“But it doesn’t make sense for parents to mortgage their homes, or for students to saddle themselves with long-term debt, in order to pay overpriced college tuition to prepare for jobs that no longer exist. Tuition at public universities has risen an unprecedented 51 percent over the past five years.”
It depends on what your degree is in.
My fiancee is a late-bloomer who is finishing her biochemistry undergraduate degree this semester, magna cum laude.... and then going on to get a ph.d in the same subject. She’s already been published in scientific journals twice for her research into optical sensors.
I don’t think she’s going to have trouble finding work.
I read the title and jumped into the posts. Some tiles beg for you not to read any further. This one is a perfect example.
If I had it over again, I would’ve been a plumber. They make BANK
>> It seemed to be an admission that english speakers weren’t getting the jobs.
Aw, nuts!
Another promising career down the tubes.
Guess I’ll have to “reinvent” myself again. I’ll get on it right after all the good shows on Comedy Channel are over this morning.
Thanks to the government, the costs are skyrocketing for college. We started putting money up for our daughter from birth only to find out we are going to be short.
Therefore, we are sending her to the local community college for her basics then we have the money to send her to a 4 year school for graduation. It does not matter where you get your basics but where you graduate from.
Anymore, good paying jobs are going to those with Masters degrees or some type of speciallized medical trainging. My husband has a Masters degree and does pretty well. Most employers who are hiring at his level, are requiring a Masters degree.
Maybe not ... but I know a number of former Bell Labs engineers and others with PhDs in physics and mathematics who have been kicked to the curb by outsourcing.
“Maybe not ... but I know a number of former Bell Labs engineers and others with PhDs in physics and mathematics who have been kicked to the curb by outsourcing.”
Bell Labs isn’t what they used to be.
Lucent sucks.
Were they willing to move out of that godforsaken corner of NJ and find another gig? What are they doing now?
“Therefore, we are sending her to the local community college for her basics then we have the money to send her to a 4 year school for graduation. It does not matter where you get your basics but where you graduate from.”
Make sure she gets good grades!
My fiancee did a lot of credits at a community college, but is getting her 4-year from a private college. She will “only” be $35k in debt from a 4 year degree when she graduates - she has a 3.6 GPA in a hard science degree and gets a lot of grants. Some of them she had to write essays and compete for.
Just like many other professions, they have priced themselves out of the market.
Bell Labs is not what they used to be because they stopped being what they used to be. :) You know, “today you will invent __________ (fill in the blank)”
Some moved, some took early retirement, and some went on to consulting gigs with the likes of Intel and so on. A bunch of the engineers did not find employment as engineers anywhere in the NY/NJ/PA area and are doing other things as far as I know.
AA Degree.
You’re probably from down South. We don’t have Sonic, Chik Fil A or a Mr. Gattis. Quite frankly, I haven’t heard of Mr Gattis until I googled it.
You’ve ever worked food service before? The hours are hard, the food stinks and the job is dead end. I can’t be paid 100K to be a manager for a food service place, much less 40, and the thing is, I work in food service.
Why yes, as A matter of fact I am from The South!.......We have Whattaburgers! too......................
You’ve ever worked food service before? .....Not since I was 18.............in 1973!...................
Some people may laugh at a college education but your education is one thing that can not be taken from you.
Certifications are cheaper and speak for themselves on the resume more so than a college degree. Unless it is something specialized, a degree is often pointless unless it includes experience in the related field. Other than that, it’s pointless.
You're from Texas!
NOPE! Florida......
You and your daughter are to be congratulated. The two of you know how to shop. Should she decide to live with her Grampa, he will be blessed from her decision as well, I bet!
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