I don’t know.... I think that far too many students are taking courses to dead end careers rather than seeking out education that actually puts them in the market place.
My son graduates in May of this year with a Bachelors degree in Computer science/programming with honors (Cum Laude). He received his Associates degree Magma Cum Laude almost 2 years ago and did an internship at BCBS. When the internship was suppose to end, they kept him on.
For the past 2 months he has received a multitude of calls for interviews from many companies and he has chosen those that he wished to interview with. He was offered a job with a fantastic company and he could not believe what they were giving him for a starting rate. It was far more than what they stated at his interview which he would have been more than happy to accept as well. But this is so much better.
So I guess the saying goes - choose wisely which course you take. Literally! He chose well!
I would say that your son is the exception to the rule.
I am graduating in May 2012 with a Bachelors of Science in Economics from NC State Univeristy cum laude. A BS in Econ from this school is essentially applied mathematics with a major concetration in econometrics. I have experience with time series forecasting, multiple regression (all forms, cochrane-orcutt, IV, Logit, etc.), Box-Jenkins, among others. I can also do advanced mathematics such as Differential Equations, calculus, etc.
On top of that, I have about 2 years worth of programming experience with SAS (it was started at NCSU so they drill it into us), ForecastX, and Gretl. Hasn’t helped me do squat.
Finally, my job search has basically equated to nada. Why? Employers may be looking for people with experience in data analysis however there are many candidates with 2-3 years of actual on the job experience who are taking the entry-level jobs. This pushes me to crappy jobs such as Northwestern sales, etc. which are worthless for my chosen field of banking and data analysis.
Further, everyone I know who is graduating has absolutely NO job offers that are worth a darn. We’re talking 20+ people in majors such as engineering, stats, math, econ etc.
Your son is the exception not the rule.
At this point, I am considering going to Grad school for a Masters in Applied Economics and a Masters Minor in Statistics. The job market just plain sucks.
Failure to research the employment potential for one's chosen education and career path should be a red flag screaming "STUPID" to any prospective employer.
Nice.
I’ve got a CS degree myself but am having a bit less success in my job-search... though that may be because I’m looking more for a particular sort of programming job (using Ada) which jobs seems to want only ‘experienced’ people w/ security clearances. {I know I’d pass a clearance, but I’ve had very little in the way of formal-training w/ Ada; most of it is self-taught after a ‘programing languages’ course.} Maybe the problem is, so to speak, that ladder has no bottom rungs.