A Degree of Insignificance (College Degrees getting to be useless nowadays)

.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, "college grads might want to consider blue-collar careers" because bachelor's degree holders "are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills."

Incredibly, U.S. News is telling college graduates to look for jobs that do not require a college diploma. Among the 31 best opportunities for 2008 are the careers of firefighter, hairstylist, cosmetologist, locksmith and security-system technician.

Where did the higher-skill jobs go? Both large and small companies are "quietly increasing off-shoring efforts."

Ten years ago, we were told we really didn't need manufacturing because it can be done more cheaply elsewhere, that auto workers and others should move to information-age jobs. But now the information jobs are moving offshore, too, as well as marketing research and even many varieties of innovation.

The flight overseas includes professional as well as low-wage jobs, with engineering jobs offshored to India and China. Thousands of bright Asian engineers are willing to work for a fraction of U.S. wages, which is why Boeing just signed a 10-year, $1 billion-a-year deal with a government-run company in India.

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.

OK, but read what they say. For the most part people are tired of teachers whining about their pay. We’d all like more money for what we do - esp. those of us whose jobs are either going overseas or whose government is importing workers (H1B) to fill our positions.

I challenge you to come up with one other profession whose members come on this forum and whine so much about pay and benefits.

You may very well be right, but I am perfectly satisfied with my pay. I get masters degree level pay for 6 years of experience. Plus, I augment my salary by working about 10 hours per week in my school's after school program, which is paid for entirely by voluntary fees. My wife is also a teacher who gets masters degree level pay for 3 years experience. She also works after school and teaches summer school, which I have also done. Additionally, my wife works on weekends and summers delivering newspapers, a job which she already did full-time while she was going to school.

In a year or two, I will go get another graduate degree to raise my salary even further. I think it's an example of the American dream. If others are complaining, I am puzzled as to what their problem is. Maybe they didn't work for 20 years in retail like I did. Talk about hard work. You work every weekend and most holidays. You might work night shift, 6-2, 10-6, or maybe 2-10. When you work overtime, the company wants you to take the time off later.

Boy do they waste money too. I remember when I was at Kroger. The president of the Atlanta division, along with the company president from Cincinnati were coming around for a visit. We spent countless overtime hours sprucing the store up to look perfect. Otherwise, our budgeted hours would never allow the store to look as good as it did during the 15 minutes the group of suits were in the store. Also, we ordered and stocked product that would never sell on a regular basis just to put on this huge dog and pony show. So, for a fifteen minute tour, we shot our monthly overtime budget, and ordered perishable product that would either be reduced or thrown out, thus making it difficult to meet the needs of our customers after the gaggle of suits left the building, and hurting our bottom line.

I don't miss retail one bit. I love my job as a teacher. Anyone who doesn't should seek employment in another field.

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