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This will be a blog about differences in career paths i noticed in the last year.
It has been 1 year since I finished university with a bachelor in computer science. After graduating, I didn't have that much trouble finding a job that was both well paid and that I liked (I work as a software engineer in a multinational company); it took me about 2-3 weeks to find this job.
I also have a lot of friends that finished another (business) university with bachelors in economics, finances, management and other business related areas. While they all managed to find jobs, most of them have jobs that are completely unrelated to the field that they studied. A few examples:
- 2 friends that has a bachelor in finances - 1 does indeed work in finances, but the other one is working in human resources
- 1 friend that has a bachelor in business management - she is now a flight attendant
- 2 friends that finished something to do with accounting (don't know how to translate it in english) - now works in PR
These are just a few examples (I have 3 times more), but by doing an average only about 20-25% of them work in the field for which they obtained a bachelor degree.
If i take the friend at my university, a staggering 90-95% of them now work in fields related to computer science. I am not sure if this is just something related to to education system in my country, or is something that happens in other countries (I would like to hear your opinions on this one) .
Also my friends for the business university had to search for a job for about 1.5-2 months before the were hired (most of them decided to get hired to the first company that accepted them, even if the salary wasn't what they initially wanted).
Some conclusions:
- engineering universities define your career path more than business universities; I know i can't do the stuff a mechanical engineer does, as he can't do what I do;
- by finishing a business school, it seems that you can do a wide array of jobs (not sure about how good you can do them), but also on any such job, there are much more people that can do the same job
I don't want this to sound that I am saying that engineering is better. There are some obvious disadvantages to being an engineer (from my point of view): if later on in my life I begin to dislike computer science, I can't as easily move to another job as my friends from the business university can (for example they could move from Human Resources to Sales - or the other way around).
I think the main point of this blog was to allow some people who come to this site and are thinking on a career path to follow, some insights that nobody will tell you otherwise.
Thanks,
CreationSoul
  
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
I'm aiming for a computer science degree or computer science and maths joint honours next year, glad to see that there is actually some demand for graduates, or maybe just in Romania? (back to worrying  )
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On June 03 2013 23:44 Targe wrote:I'm aiming for a computer science degree or computer science and maths joint honours next year, glad to see that there is actually some demand for graduates, or maybe just in Romania? (back to worrying )
I don't see the demand for people who know how to code stopping anytime soon. It's a hard job, that very few can do and even fewer know how to do it good.
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It sounds like you have something concrete until 1. You only compared engineering to a few other majors.
2. You used your friends to create statistically justified points.
3. You used a small area of your country to determine general points.
What fields are related to Psychology, Sociology and other social sciences?
Engineering isn't necessarily better or have distinct disadvantages, its just more oriented and geared towards specific jobs similar to finishing dental school (weak example). It just gives more direction and clairvoyance in what you'll be doing in the future.
With marketing and business jobs, a mix of great grades and impressive internships opens a lot of doors, the field is also a lot less clear-cut.
My understanding at least.
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Cheerio would totally hate this after he reads this. lol
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It's been almost 10 years since I graduated from an engineering school (cmu) and caught up recently with most of my buddies at a wedding.
Stats:
80% still work in "engineering"
2/5 electrical engineers actually doing CS stuff
Mechanicals I knew had a higher chance of using an MBA/law degree to get out of actual engineering.
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Just to reflect on myself (to help you) since I also am 1 year out from my bachelor's degree. I got my degree in Criminal Justice (USA for country reference) and instead of pursuing a job in local law enforcement I have continued to work at the bank I had started at 3 years ago as a part time job--now full-time with a promotion. Due to my goals I am now returning to school in the fall to seek my master's degree while I simultaneously continue to work full time to become competitive as well as developing in other areas such as beginning to learn some programming.
Basically, in the USA, a bachelor's degree or equivalent from a trade school is the minimum standard you must meet. All it tells employers outside of the specialized fields such as engineering/medicine/etcetra is that you have the capability to learn quickly and are thus employable.
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On June 03 2013 23:50 Torte de Lini wrote:
It sounds like you have something concrete until 1. You only compared engineering to a few other majors.
2. You used your friends to create statistically justified points.
3. You used a small area of your country to determine general points.
What fields are related to Psychology, Sociology and other social sciences?
Engineering isn't necessarily better or have distinct disadvantages, its just more oriented and geared towards specific jobs similar to finishing dental school (weak example). It just gives more direction and clairvoyance in what you'll be doing in the future.
With marketing and business jobs, a mix of great grades and impressive internships opens a lot of doors, the field is also a lot less clear-cut.
My understanding at least.
Yes, thanks for wording it better than me. I did give my friends as an example, but once out of curiosity i just went through my Facebook "friends" that had nothing to do with engineering during university and i saw a lot of mismatches between their bachelor degree and their current profession.
I think that what I was trying to say is about the direction some universities give you, while others are more vague.
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I graduated with a neuroscience bachelors a year ago, now I am doing freelance web development and plan to make a career from it and take related graduate classes. I just had no idea what I wanted to do until I was 22 years old 
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On June 04 2013 01:55 Rotodyne wrote:I graduated with a neuroscience bachelors a year ago, now I am doing freelance web development and plan to make a career from it and take related graduate classes. I just had no idea what I wanted to do until I was 22 years old
Not to take this too off-the OP, but could you elaborate on how you went from neurscience to web developing?
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You studied something in high demand(CS).
Those other subjects you listed are not in high demand. Thats why they are having trouble to find positions in their fields. So there is a good chance that they basically wasted their time getting a, mostly useless, degree. Except for the few bright graduates, who make shit happen, of course.
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On June 04 2013 02:40 Roe wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2013 01:55 Rotodyne wrote:I graduated with a neuroscience bachelors a year ago, now I am doing freelance web development and plan to make a career from it and take related graduate classes. I just had no idea what I wanted to do until I was 22 years old Not to take this too off-the OP, but could you elaborate on how you went from neurscience to web developing?
I had done simple web development stuff as a hobby since like middle school/high school. Went to college, enjoyed learning about physiology/neurobiology, never really saw myself working in any related field or going to medschool. So one day a few months ago I did a $20 HTML fix for someone, then I did a $60 job, then I did some bigger ones. Now I don't take on any jobs under $400. Although it would be possible for me to make a living from doing this freelance stuff, I would rather be a salaried worker so that is what I am working towards this summer.
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I have an international relations degree but most of my work experience is in mechanical engineering and comp sci. It's more about who you know than what you know as long as you can and are willing to learn. I've learned way more since graduating college than I learned there. It wasn't until the last few years that I got into a field related to my degree and I'm trying to use that experience to move into a more technical aspect of the field again now.
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I think the engineering vs liberal arts discussion is a particularly interesting a relevant topic for college students/future grads in today's job market. Personally, I studied both economics and computer science as an undergrad; I have work experience in both fields but I'm currently in the financial services industry (doing economics work and completely unrelated to engineering). I think OPs observations are pretty accurate but I'll try to flesh out some of my opinions to further these conclusions.
The basic idea is indeed one of supply and demand: CS is all the rage in today's market, while a business major despite being one of the most popular majors nationally (http://www.businessinsider.com/best-college-majors-highest-income-most-employed-georgetwon-study-2011-6?op=1) is not in any sort of particular demand. But why? IMO it's a mismatch of the practical work applications of "business" versus what a business student actually learns in a classroom. Take computer science for example. In school you learn to program and likewise on the job market a lot of companies need programmers. On the other hand "business" itself as a major like some have mentioned, is very vague. When I was an econ major we used to learn all sorts of supply and demand curves, random equations with 100 assumptions not applicable to the real world, and in general a skillset that asides from proof of basic mathematical knowledge, gave very little real world application. Business majors are probably even worse. If it is management oriented major, how in the world do you teach a soft skillset like "management" in a classroom setting? Even if you were able to, why the hell would any company trust a 22 year old to manage any actual human resources? An entrepreneurial focus is just as ludicrous; there is no way you can teach someone to start a company by having them read some books and take some tests. Perhaps this could be of some tangential help, but anyone who has done entrepreneurial work understands that one of the most important factors is being proactive, taking initiative, and in general being a go-getter about whatever it is you want to create. I would not call your average business management major a go getter (in fact I wouldn't call your average any major a go getter, but the fact is they don't need to be one of that extent to succeed in their field).
Now of course a business/finance/econ major can also translate to an office job but this is still a skillset mismatch. If you have ever worked on wall street or any sort of major high finance firm, you would know that people often throw around the word "monkey" to describe entering analysts (WallStreetOasis anyone?). Asides from the fact that a lot of people in finance are just dicks, the word "monkey" is used because a classical entry level finance job such as an investment banker doesn't actually require that much human skill (a monkey could do it). So then you have this scenario where there's a high demand for finance job (because everyone think they pay well), and a low required skillset to actually do the job, and what ends up happening is what you learn in a classroom has very little bearing on your employment placement. Rather the industry becomes described by the adage "who you know, rather than what you know". The people who then end up with finance jobs are the well connected, well pedigreed, or in general highly skilled networkers and the classroom becomes fairly useless. This is of course a generalization of the industry, but I think its fair to argue engineering fields often look for more concrete classroom-taught skills than business fields.
A lot of people understand this or at least the basic notion of business vs engineering from a job placement perspective, but the sad reality is too many people shy away from the more difficult engineering majors in lieu of a business management role that by some twisted logic will make them rich while not requiring as much effort. A lot of people don't even care about the rich part, they just care about the easy part, which is why in higher education debates today there's been a big problem of an oversaturation of liberal arts graduates unable to apply any of their skills practically.
The advice I would give to current/future college students is just simply do what you love, but if you don't love anything do something practical. If you really love english, or psychology, or whatever its fine to pursue that track as long as you are proactive about making a practical job happen in the future. Don't do it just because you want to get drunk for 4 years rather than study. If you are like me and don't really have a particular passion in anything, engineering could be a great choice if you are willing to put in the effort. If you love engineering/math/science, well you're all set then. If you want to pursue a job in finance, despite all the seemingly negative sides I've given, could be a good choice if you are actually interested in it. It's a whole can of worms I don't feel like expanding on but the general gist is all here.
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from what I have learnt:
GPA > extra relevant activities > Major
this applies to almost any kinda job unless you are aiming those which requires very specific skillsets and knowledge (which most business major won't have, other than Finance, Law, Psychology and probably stats and IT related)
What I have chosen:
Major > extra relevant activities > GPA
So I am kinda doomed
chose double major (luckily one is econometric which has pretty advanced stats stuff and business management spreadsheet models etc) and can't handle the work and sitting on very poor GPA
But in general, my coverletter will be a little bit better than average business major grads because of the professional softwares I used during my course in econometrics. Let's hope that's still the case when I grad and job hunts :D
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EPT
