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January 19, 2024 00:34
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| I got a BA in sociology. Got accepted to law school but opted out because I was burned out and hated everything. | |
| I went to work at a hotel and randomly fell into accounting. It worked for me and now I have a CPA. | |
| Life is a journey. | |
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| Psychology degree -> bartending | |
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| Got a psych degree, now im an electrician | |
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| *What do you do / With a BA in English?* | |
| Cloud application manager. | |
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| I have an art degree, in glass art. Have been a professional glass artist since 2000, just started on the 2nd largest commission of my career for a $60,000 suspended sculpture. | |
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| BA in Classical Studies. Senior Financial Analyst. | |
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| BS Kinesiology. MS exercise physiology. Software engineer now | |
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| Human Development. I’m a military officer (MajorDick now) | |
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| Philosophy degree. I think about life a lot. | |
| *EDIT:* I was actually a double major, in Philosophy (because I wanted to explore the Big Questions of Existence) and Economics (because I figured that many philosophers starve). | |
| But I didn’t end up directly using either body of knowledge in my work career. I was an editor for some technical publications, then I made an early-midlife swivel and became a middle school math teacher, which I did for decades. I really do still ponder those life questions a lot, though. | |
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| [deleted] | |
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| Was told as a naturally artistic child that there was no point in pursuing art, I needed to "go to college and get a real job." So, following this practical advice, I got a bachelors degree in botany. | |
| And a minor in art, and then did a one year MA with a focus in metals. | |
| I own over a hundred houseplants, thanks botany! ....and have been a jewelry designer and jeweler for about 25 years, and still paint and draw. | |
| You can't stop the signal. | |
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| BAs in English and Women’s Studies > fucked around as a copywriter, library clerk (to be a librarian one needs a Library Sciences MS,) managed a home healthcare office, other low-paying endeavors > decided at 30 to go to grad school > At forty I’ve been a psychotherapist for 7ish years and I’m now burnt out. | |
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| Film degree. Work in film production. Be careful what you wish for. | |
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| Bachelors in English/Creative writing => middle school math teacher => software engineer | |
| 🤷🏾♂️ | |
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| Independent Researcher\* | |
| (AKA, unemployed, or at least seriously under-employed, but I spend a few nights a week at the library pretending to be a post-doc, trying to write research papers on my degree subject because I miss doing my PhD). | |
| I studied volcanology, which I -definitely- don't think is useless, but it is niche and hard to stay in. I'm all for people studying what sets their hearts on fire and not letting people devalue their degrees, and I love to see it when people shut the naysayers up and make it work. | |
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| Psychology: operations/HR Manager | |
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| Did get the typically “useless” psychology B.A. but did go on to get my masters in marriage and family therapy, currently work as a therapist. So it has gotten its use! | |
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| Fine arts degree. Worked my butt off for years. Now in sales which comes so easy to me and I make so much more money. Wish I studied business or marketing and figured this out many years ago | |
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| BA in Theatre Arts | |
| BFA in Stage Performance | |
| Now I'm a Systems Administrator at a world-class art museum. | |
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| Fly planes. Creative writing degree. | |
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| BA in medieval studies from an Ivy. I work in VFX. I've wanted to work in the film industry since I was in college and I get to work on the coolest stuff. Love what I do. | |
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| Recreation therapy degree and now I grow weed for a living | |
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| Sociology- I'm retired but worked for Child welfare | |
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| I have a degree in accounting, that I used for six months 30 year ago. | |
| My roomate was a flight attendant and was having a blast, I decided to apply got accepted and spent 10 years traveling the world, until I had kids. Once they were older, I got into property management. Getting my degree in accounting was easy for me, and I thought I would be good at it. However, I started hating numbers real quick. | |
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| I got a Geography degree. | |
| I'm an electronics technician at a very large defense contractor | |
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| Not me, but a fair chunk of New Zealand were laughing at "Those Idiots" that got "useless degrees in basket weaving " back in the late '80's, early 90's. They are now bringing lost art back to life. They got jobs in movies as master artist creating those works for things like lord of the rings etc. Our Maori history is being showcased to the world through their work, people pay not just for their amazing baskets, but to see them work. | |
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| Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts -> E-Commerce Manager | |
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| Bachelor’s: English/Creative Writing | |
| Master’s: Liberal Studies/Peace Education/Educational Theory | |
| Job: Kindergarten teacher | |
| I teach full time on a sub license at a charter, and I’m living the dream. | |
| Edit: I have a sub license, but I was hired in as a full time teacher. | |
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| Make your way in the world. I have the very definition of a “useless degree“ (a BA from a disreputable public liberal arts college). But I found a career that worked for me. I’m self employed, own a house, have a partner, and I’m doing fine (with less than zero help from my parents). | |
| So fellow English majors, fellow underwater basket weavers, fellow sociologists, take heart. Be professional, charming, and smart. Show up on time and do your fucking best, even if you’re not 100% into it. Take jobs you’re overqualified for. Take jobs you’re underqualified for. Follow your instincts and seize your opportunities. It won’t work out for everyone (this being capitalism, after all), but it worked out for me. And it can for you, too! | |
| I know this seems like a Boomer comment but I’m 43. I felt absolutely hopeless (economically), in my 20s, but it got better. | |
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| History degree. | |
| Went to law school and got my JD. Went to work for a private developer doing government and public relations stuff. Now working for a nonprofit as an advocate for indigenous peoples working on social and political issues like human trafficking and climate change policy. | |
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| Psychology: Data Analyst. | |
| Side note, I don’t think psychology is a useless degree. It taught me a lot really great information, however in our society, the only education that is valued is the one that makes money. I wish we lived in a society where people could major in whatever they wanted without debt or worrying about how much money they’ll make. | |
| That being said I do love my current job. | |
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| Psychology degree -> real estate appraisal -> startup founder in gaming industry -> product manager at fintech company. It’s been a weird 20 years since college. | |
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| BA in English, thought I was going to be a librarian. Logistics management for a high tech manufacturer. | |
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| Sales. I do brewery tours for fun and often make fun of my German degree, and then teach them related words. | |
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| My dad barely graduated a 5+ year college run with an English degree. He wanted a business degree, but was declined from the program numerous times. Couldn’t find a job after graduation. Saw a newspaper ad for a concrete gig. Learned how to do the stuff. After a few years on the job, he quit and started his own concrete empire, I don’t know the exact numbers, but he from what I know, he pockets atleast 2 mil a year. | |
| His best advice is “All you need out of college is a piece of paper, to prove to an employer that you can put in time, effort, and hard work. It doesn’t really matter what’s on the paper.” | |
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| I have a theater degree. I teach theater. Even through several years of freelance, I haven't been without work for more than a week since 2011. | |
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| I got a bachelor degree in tourism management. I’ve been unemployed for 6 months | |
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| Bachelor in cultural anthropology > CPA | |
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| I got a chemistry degree in a country that doesn't value science degrees and pays non post grads minimum wage, if you can even find a relevant job, that is. | |
| I taught myself to code and now work as a software engineer making over 100k by my second year. | |
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| BFA in studio arts. I am a tattoo artist, co-own a studio, and intend to go back for my masters to teach when my body doesn’t want to tattoo anymore. | |
| I specialized in graphic design and do all the branding/marketing/interior design needed for the studio. | |
| I taught painting classes, worked in graphic design, and sometimes do commission artwork. I prefer to make stuff I enjoy. | |
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| Argue with morons on the internet. A cherished pasttime. | |
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| I got a degree in Communication with focuses in Journalism and English. I am now a senior video producer at a large nonprofit. | |
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| Sociology. I mostly tell people how to communicate now to not be an asshole. | |
| I work for child protective services to help kids get back to home, or keep them there if it's a good idea. | |
| Mostly my 40000 was spent learning how to write very specific types of assessments. | |
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| I got a degree in Geography in 1969. I thought getting a government job would be good. Since I had good grades the recruiter had me take a logic test. When I passed he offered a job as a programmer trainee. I retired as an IT person from the government in 2004 and as a contractor ID person at the same agency in 2016. | |
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| I feel like the most useful thing I learned in college was how to *keep* learning. How to spot bullshit. Critical thinking. Analysis. Logic. How to find and recognize *trustworthy* sources. I don’t ascribe to the current criticisms that your degree needs to teach you exactly *how* to do a job, or that you deserve *x* salary once you finish (that’s what a trade or technical school is for). But after working in Corporate America for more than a decade, it’s amazing how many people think that since they finished their degree and are working now that they don’t need to learn anything more, that they’re done. I have someone like that as a manager and he literally thinks he knows everything—supremely confident in his misinformation because he got an engineering degree 30 years ago and an MBA 20 years ago but hasn’t bothered to grow and learn anything else since then. | |
| “It's not what you don't know that will hurt you. It's what you think you know that just ain't so.” | |
| —Mark Twain. | |
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| Left school with 90% of a music degree. Became a controls technician for the automation field. Made more than the vast majority of the people I went to school with. Not a brag (I don't make a lot), just a commentary on how undervalued artists and musicians are. | |
| Too often, musicians break the cardinal rule: if you're good at something, never do it for free. And that drives down the value of everyone else. | |
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| Sociology degree. Software Product Manager. | |
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| I didn't get degree in it, but I did minor in women's studies since I already took a bunch of sociology classes and just needed a few more for the minor. | |
| I'm a doctor now and it's actually been pretty helpful in helping me recognize my own biases and how they might influence my medical decision making. | |
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| BA in Theatre/Directing. I now joust for renn faires | |
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| My liberal arts degree helped me understand how the world works a little better. Turns out that is very useful when applied to investing. I retired at 50. | |
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| Psychology degree > Sales | |
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| Philosophy major here. Didn’t go to law school. I’ve had a very diverse career ranging from sales, non-profit, corporate finance, corporate people management, CX, and training. I’m now in grad school, self employed and have two successful businesses. I live life on my own terms and I have created a life I don’t need a vacation from. | |
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| BA in history. Currently am a cardiothoracic surgeon. | |
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| BA in business admin and i do warehouse work. | |
| Precovid while in school and fresh out of school i kind of used it. Customer service associate -> shift lead -> department supervisor -> department supervisor at another location all within a year but it wasn’t necessary. I was also miserable and found out i hated being in charge. | |
| I’m much happier destroying my body with physical labor. | |
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| In the CEO of a mid-sized credit union. | |
| Majored in philosophy. | |
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| [deleted] | |
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| Anybody else scrolling and hoping you don't see your major/degree on here | |
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| Sociology degree…web developer | |
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| Advertising. I work in *pharmaceutical* advertising. | |
| Sometimes you make art. Sometimes you make rent. | |
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| I work as a sign holder. I got a business finance diploma. | |
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| OF | |
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| Education is never a waste, it always makes for better daydreams. | |
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| Religious Traditions of the West, which taught me how to do random research and write papers while also fulfilling my need for very very random trivia. I was mostly at college to play on computers on a sweet T1 ethernet connection, which is how I ended up in web dev, and then my ability to write led to me being in marketing for tech. | |
| I can tell you the pros and cons of using WordPress for your e-commerce site, or I can tell you about child sacrifice in ancient Carthage. Either way, get ready for an info dump. | |
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| Worked at a gas station for five years after my English degree. Went back and got an accounting degree. | |
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| Art degree > creative director | |
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| So many people thought or told me directly that getting a BA, MA, and PhD in Sociology would be useless. I do meaningful work, with people I enjoy, all from the comfort of home as a researcher for an environmental non-profit. | |
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| Degree: Hospitality & Tourism Management | |
| Current Job: Software Product Manager | |
| Restaurant manager > hospitality operations consultant > Prod manager for a start-up > Prod manager for enterprise software [found my niche and I’m continuing on this path] | |
| Every job is about people. Hospitality is more powerful than people imagine. | |
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| I got my english degree from kingston u and now i'm homeless mate | |
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| MA in French and another in Pedagogy of Second language acquisition. I teach high school French and love my job | |
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| B.A. Geography -> J.D. -> stay at home dad. | |
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| I got an English degree. I'm now a senior technical writer making very good money. My colleague has a PhD in poetry. | |
| I remember when I got my first big girl job, I was talking to one of the VPs on my first day and told her I was always scared about my career prospects with the degree I chose and was so thankful to find something. She laughed and told me she only has a degree in French and because it was so long ago she can hardly even hold a conversation in French at this point. There are a lot of degrees that are cut and dry, like STEM degrees. Then there are many in between where your degree doesn't always carry you to an exact job or career path, but it gives you a paper saying you accomplished something and builds your character. There are thousands of jobs you've never heard of. It's how you apply yourself, make decisions, network, and learn after college that gets you your career. | |
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| If you got a degree in Psychology and you are calling it useless- I’m thinking the blame is wee bit misplaced. | |
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| Waiting for someone to say, Barista. | |
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| I have a BA in English lit and a 6-figure job as a specific kind of technical writer. | |
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| I'm a translator, among other things. I got a degree in dead languages. | |
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| There are no useless degrees. I've worked with all kinds of people with all kinds of degrees and we were all doing the same job. | |
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| I have a BA degree in Journalism. I interviewed one time ever at a newspaper (in 1993) and they made me take a typewriting test ON A COMPUTER where I wasn't allowed to use the backspace key because typewriters don't have a backspace key. They didn't use typewriters. I failed the test because I had never typed on a typewriter. | |
| I am a computer programmer now with 27 years of experience. Fuck newspapers. | |
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| Associates in Fine Arts. Took over family business with my wife as a personal chef. Not a bad spot to be in but you can tell which one runs the business lol. | |
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| Anthropology -> production designer. | |
| I don’t regret my path for a second. People don’t seem to get it, but studying human culture lends itself so well to design & filmmaking, and I live abroad and get to work with people from a lot of different backgrounds. | |
| It wasn’t easy and frankly my degree didn’t ever open a direct door into employment, but it made me a better thinker, researcher, and communicator and I value those skills. | |
| Small caveat is that I’m Canadian and graduated 10 years ago when it was still possible to pay out right for a degree without a loan (I worked for a year before school and then part time throughout to pay for it) so I had the privilege of graduating debt-free. | |
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| BA(hons) Contemporary Performance Art and I doing my PhD in (broadly) Internet studies and visual culture, alongside a growing visual arts practice. | |
| There's no such thing as a useless degree (possibly hence your quotation marks) and the push by some STEM people and wider cultural forces to characterise degrees as such is part of the anti-expert cultural push. | |
| "Useless degrees" , art, humanities, social science just so happen to be the ones that require critical engagement with society. | |
| Edit: some previous jobs - front end web dev, social media manager, political adviser, fairly high profile TV actor | |
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| BA in political science. I’m going to cosmetology school right now! | |
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| English Masters>AV Technician at University>Project Coordinator for Nonprofit | |
| Ive always found ways to incorporate my capacity to write, organize, and strategize into the jobs ive had. | |
| Was scared coming out of school but wanted to record music with friends in a big city afterwards, they got me a job doing AV part time at hotels downtown where I became a team lead. | |
| An opportunity opened up at a university doing similar stuff where I implemented a robust inventory strategy and wrote training manuals both for our team and for professors. | |
| Those latter skills I used to get my current position where I research and write grants while running community programming to promote financial literacy and entrepreneurship in a rural community. | |
| From here I should be able to leverage this experience to get other community programming/project coordination work in the future. Thats the plan if this doesnt turn into my lifelong. | |
| Ive always been happy as long as I have the capacity to record music, so as far as Im concerned that useless degree was a lot of great experiences that taught me a lot of systems stuff. I dont really engage with English Literature, but I read, analyze, and write constantly and theres no way I would be as effective as I am without formal training. | |
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| I took nursing. | |
| I'm now happy selling cars by omitting facts and bending truths so I can "make a living." | |
| Instead of getting trays thrown at my head or kicked, I can exploit people by scheming so I can sell cars. | |
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| Computer science -> plumbing contractor | |
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| Should have named this thread to "Those who got psychology degrees, what do you do now?" | |
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| I wake up and watch the sun every day & night | |
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| Film. Executive at a studio. | |
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| Psych degree, masters in healthcare administration. I have my own consulting business working primarily with not for profits. I was an exec at a NFP for 11 years, doing this for the past seven. Can’t match my salary anymore as a staffer, so I am a bit stuck doing it. It’s lots of work running your own business, finding new work/clients, but I have hit that point where the phone rings instead of the other way around. Have four people working with me. | |
| Been a wild ride. You never know where you may end up. | |
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| Masters degree in linguistics, I'm an emergency vet nurse | |
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| I’m the most uselessly degreed person at awful restaurants. I did restaurants as a teen and it’s the only thing other than my useless degrees that I know how to do. Most bartenders and line cooks don’t want to hear about what Onassis did to Maria Callas, not big fans of what Verdi based La Traviata on, don’t care to hear how Madama Butterfly bombed on the opening night. But love how fast I am on the register and that I watch the front counters and help bus tables. | |
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| Seeing a lot of psych degrees here. Not sure why, is psych considered useless? | |
| Only ask because I got one (psych sci) and a MABA and I work as a psychologist specialising in disability and ABA and I'm doing very well. It's been pretty useful for me. | |
| I did get a bachelors in media communications years ago and never used any of that tho, got that and worked in a grocery store for 5 years | |
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| Idk about y’all, but I’ve had a pretty hard time finding work with my BA (burger associates) from FGU (five guys university). | |
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| No degree is worthless. It adds value to your growth as a human being. | |
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| Play video games in my mom's basement | |
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| I have a BA in art history and work in sports marketing and as a fitness instructor 😅 I also did television news for a while. | |
| FWIW besides growing as a person at university, the degree did teach me a lot about researching, developing a compelling argument, and writing. So those are skills that are portable to many areas. | |
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| It's not about the content of the degree but the skills you learned that can be widely applicable. | |
| You have a BA in English? Beef up your resume with critical writing, analytical thinking, experience in researching topics and how to judge the validity of online sources, argumentative skills, etc. | |
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| I got a bachelor’s in linguistics. Pretty useless unless you continue on in your education lol | |
| I teach English abroad in Korea now | |
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| English. I was in journalism for 22 years and finally gave that up last year. Now in a tech job for a major fiberoptic ISP. | |
| I don’t regret my major for a second, it expanded my worldview and forced me to think about life in a deeper way than what’s on the surface. I’m a better person for it. | |
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| There's either no such thing or they are all useless, depending on your point of view. | |
| I have a Masters in Electrical/Electronic Engineering which is what I do for a living so for me wasn't a useless degree even though its debatable how much of that knowledge I really use in my job. But about 80% of the people on my course went and got better paying jobs in finance/banking/accountancy etc after graduating. So for them I think I'd definitely class it as a useless degree. | |
| I don't see how it is any different to someone getting a degree in Fine Art then having a productive and successful career in sales or something. | |
| Really I think it's a symptom of this insufferable smugness that a lot of my fellow STEM people have that they are some sort of gods chosen people on the path of righteousness or at least 'usefulness '. That people who are interested in arts, humanities, music etc are some sort of inferior beings or not productive part of society. | |
| Anyone with a shed of emotional intelligence or life experience will quickly realise that the last thing the world needs is more gadgets and tech and we are all in desperate need of more art, music, and people understanding each other better. | |
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| I have a Bachelors degree in ‘Creative Writing’, majoring in modern history and minoring in journalism………. I’m a horticulturalist by trade 😅😅 | |
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| I have a BS in Chemistry, I am a truck driver. | |
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| Doubled in Music (Jazz Studies - guitar) and English. | |
| I'm an English teacher (which is exactly what I've wanted to be since my junior year of college) with a wonderful lifelong hobby. | |
| I would not read, write, play, or listen as well or as joyfully as I do now had I not pursued those paths in college. My life is unquestionably richer because of my "useless" majors. | |
| Also, I don't know if I ever would have been okay with not becoming a musician (what I wanted to be in middle and high school) had I not been friends with kids who would go on to become real musicians. Seeing that your passion for something is not as deep as somebody else's is deeply valuable, I think. | |
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| Web design. It’s not a useless degree, but i yearned to work outside and with my hands instead of sitting on front of a computer all day. | |
| I currently work in management at a consulting firm and sit in front of a computer for roughly 10 hours each work day. The irony is not lost on me. | |
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| I was once an ordained evangelical minister. Now I’m a gay firefighter. | |
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| B.S. in Exercise Science led to Personal Trainer --> Math/Science Teacher --> Data analyst at Facebook --> Filmmaker --> Earthship/sustainable offgrid builder --> M.S. in Information Technology --> GIS analyst --> English as a second language consultant/Education tech entrepreneur ... and I'm 32. Life's been interesting. | |
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| Work at best buy | |
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| PHD in Philosophy. Now pushing trolleys at my local shopping centre and sleeping out of my car. | |
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| Ba Criminology and Criminal Justice with a post grad cert in Justice, Majoring in Security and Intelligence. | |
| I do OnlyFans | |
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| Philosophy > Lawyer. | |
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| English / Psychology double useless major. | |
| I now own my own English academy (with my wife) in Korea. I've actually used both of my degrees in my lifetime. I got more money with an English degree when I first started teaching here, and prior to that I was a probation officer and needed a degree in psychology, sociology or criminal justice to be eligible for the job. | |
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| Psychology BA (just graduated) - might start a medical program or continue my studies in counseling | |
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| BA in Childhood Education. Bread vendor. | |
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| I got my Bachelors of Arts in Sociology, I am now a cancer research scientist at a pharmaceutical. Life is funny. | |
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| Bachelor's in History here. I drive specialist tractor-trailers and make a decent income (low six figs, company driver). At 18 I wanted to enlist in the military but my parents pushed me to go to college. If I could do it all over again I'd just walk out at 18 and enlist anyway. I resent the degree and have never been glad I got it. | |
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| Science degree in economics. Now a children’s librarian. | |
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| Got a degree in philosophy. Now I just sit in coffee shops, staring into the abyss, contemplating the meaning of life. It pays in existential crises. | |
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| Bachelor of Fine Art, I now have my own clothing line of screenprinted apparel. | |
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| Industrial Engineering. Now I'm a police officer lol | |
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| Not much | |
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| I (32f) got a BA in Psychology, a Master's in Criminology, and I'm all but dissertation with my Doctorate in Psychology but because it's not an APA accredited degree I can only use it to get licensed as a psychologist in California which I really don't want to live there so it's pretty useless. Anyway, I work as a Crisis Clinician and in the state I currently ll work in you just need to have a Master's degree in a counseling or related field and register as a QMHP making sure to meet the requirements and renew the certification every two years. But I'm pretty burnt out in the mental health field and debating on switching careers but I have like no other marketable skills since I spent the last 15 years of my life dedicated to this. 😅 | |
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| Philosophy. | |
| I'm an executive director of communications. Many of the others who graduated from my program wound up in government (the professionals who get things done behind the scenes, not the peacocks in the headlines) or law. | |
| There is value in being able to listen closely, think clearly and communicate directly in terms of the worldview of your audience. | |
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| BA in English. I write the emails you delete and the ads you block. | |
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| BA and MA in English. I'm a high school English teacher, AP Lit and Journalism, but I'm also the technology lead because older teachers were coming to me to show them how to use ed tech. If you can decipher Middle English, then you're probably going to be able to explain a new LMS every 3-5 years (Moodle, MyBigCampus, Blackboard, Google Classroom, and Canvas) to 60 year-olds. | |
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| Bachelor's in classical music composition. | |
| I have a private recording studio in New York City and I mix records for everyone from major label pop artists to Pulitzer-winning new music composers to unknown indie rockers. | |
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| I got a Liberal Studies degree, which is like a little more specialized liberal arts degree. Recruiting and customer service are my field now | |
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| Triple-major in history, philosophy, and Engligh. | |
| I own and run a brewery. | |
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| BA in psychology, Masters in HR. Stay at home mom. | |
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| Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I was a C- student in highschool and I was pretty sure I would fail out of a real college, so I went to art school. But I poked around with code on the side and that turned out to be a good idea. I am now a principle technical design manager at Microsoft, which pays real real good (and is fun!) | |
| "Learn to code" is such... incredibly... good advice. | |
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| BA in Creative Writing, I currently work full-time as a journalist with a local paper. | |
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| My bachelor's is in sociology, which seems to be considered one of the most useless degrees. I used it to get into a masters of social work program. I also got an associate degree along with it in addiction and recovery services and currently work as a substance abuse counselor. | |
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| BS in Human Development and Family Sciences. Graduated class of 2019. | |
| I actually worked for a non profit in a role that directly correlated to my degree prior to graduation for just under 3ish years. However I've since been a full-time reseller since 2019 and an occasional actor since Sept 2018. | |
| Definitely feel I wasted $80k. Seeing the world for what it is now, I don't even recommend college to most. Unless you want to be a Doctor, Lawyer etc | |
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| Fine Art Painting | |
| Now being an illustrator, making deco for festivals, making wall-paintings, working on my own comic (which had a little test-run in Japan and was well received), founder and chairman of a non-profit organization. Still paint.. but never for galleries and collectors etc. I dislike the "high-art-scene" | |
| Absolutely not rich but love doing this. | |
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| i have a masters of fine art, i sit home and mooch off my husband. | |
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| Associate's Degree in Motion Picture and Television Production. Now I live in a truck and travel to different national Parks and scenic destinations doing some form of housekeeping/groundskeeping work seasonally. | |
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| There is no such thing as a useless degree. As Stallone said in Tulsa King. It shows an employer that you showed up, completed a series of tasks, at a reasonably competent level, and if they hire you they can reasonably assume you would do the same for their company. (Not the exact quote) | |
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| Graduated with a degree in English & East Asian Studies. I taught English in Japan for 2 years before returning to the US and taking a job as an Administrative Assistant. Stayed with that company for 10 years and received several promotions just working my ass off and learning different skills and aspects of the business on the fly. I'm now in Supply Chain Management at a new job closer to home and have been there for about 2 years. | |
| In my experience, no one ever gave a damn about what my degree was in. Staying at one company and working my way up from the bottom over a decade certainly helped with that. When I was ready to switch jobs, I don't think anyone even asked me about my degree in interviews. | |
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| English Degree here...now I work in corporate real estate servicing cuz husband works here. Nepotism at it's finest. Ironically, he just wrote a book. | |
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| Bachelors in Fine Art/Sculpture. Art school is challenging if you truly apply yourself. I had a great time and learned a lot about myself. I’ve done all kinds of creative work from graphic design to sign making to musical instrument building, but it has always been a struggle to get by. I’ve been working as a remote Customer Service agent for an e-commerce platform for over four years now. It turns out I have strong communication skills (written & verbal) along with a high EQ Emotional Intelligence. I get paid very well, great benefits and co-workers. I still make art but there is no economic pressure to earn a living with it. Sometimes doing the thing you love for a living will make you hate it. | |
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| Associates in Video Production and Animation. | |
| BA in Metalworking and Jewelry. | |
| Currently working as a senior production artist for a promotion company. | |
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| English Liberal Arts, but refused to become a teacher (because I didn't want to deal with kids). I originally wanted to go into publishing, but lost interest in that when an internship wanted me to sign documents promising not to drink, smoke, and some other things. I didn't do any of those things, but hated the idea that someone wanted that much control over me. I did try writing a book, but that didn't pan out. I got an entry level job in a tech company. They had a fantastic tuition reimbursement program, so I got a Master's Degree in an IT field. I used both degrees and (admittedly many years later) am in a good IT job that pays pretty well. IT Software Asset Management. I manage software titles for my company. | |
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| English literature degree, dad told me I would never find a job in that field. I still tell him he was right. Working in occupational health, safety, and environment earning over six figures in a global role. | |
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| I got a diploma in photography. Now I work in a factory building and tearing down transmissions for cars. | |
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| Bachelor and Masters in Fine Art. I used to be a professor but quit to paint murals full time. It rocks. | |
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| My degree is useless right now, but I do have a long-range plan to use it. My degree is Arts Administration, and eventually, I plan to open a ballet studio, where I will need said degree. | |
| But right now, raising my family comes first. :) | |
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| Bachelor’s degree in Sport Management. Wanted to work in sports but graduated in 2020 so there were simply 0 sports jobs available to even apply to. | |
| Worked in wealth management for a couple years and then transitioned to commercial real estate. Now underwrite multimillion dollar loans for the acquisition and refinance of apartment buildings all around the US. | |
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| Bachelor of Fine Art, with an emphasis in Media Art: Film & Video, checking in. | |
| I work for municipality in the Communications Department. I manage our social media accounts, produce informational videos and podcasts, and I act as the official photographer for the city. | |
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| Bachelor's degree in dramaturgy. Am a dramaturge in a local theatre. | |
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| bachelor of arts, dropped out at the end of my masters of teaching, I just got a promotion at my job to become a bowling ally and arcade technician | |
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| Degrees in history and cartography. Used in my careers in military intelligence and in production cartography, (text books, encyclopedias and atlases). Basically a foundation in assessing the world clearly and as objectively as possible. | |
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| I have a BA in French. I now work as a patent and trademark attorney. | |
| I worked for a company that imported French films for a couple of years before I decided to go to law school. After law school, I began to work at a law firm specializing in intellectual property laws. At age 31, I went to night school to study electrical engineering and received a B.E.E. while working full-time. I am Korean American, so my Korean and French-speaking capabilities came in handy in making clients. | |
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| Art history. Full-time artist! | |
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| Urban Planning / Lawyer. | |
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| Sales | |
| Political science | |
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| Jokes on you, a degree is never useless if you learned something | |
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| What to do? Get a fucking job and go on with your life. A ‘useless’ degree means far fewer expectations about which path to follow, etc. Very freeing. | |
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| English Degree. I’m a software developer. | |
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| Quite a few of my friends majored in gender studies. Several now work in policy (some in government, some in NGOs, on things like housing, disability policy, family violence, child services etc), some in the community sector on similar issues, a few are lawyers. | |
| It's strange that studying gender or race has become this big part of the culture wars because professionally I think it's pretty well regarded. Gives you a very good foundation for all sorts of policy, governance and international development work and it's often studied alongside those things. | |
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| Cry as I watch people without “useless degrees” fall for mid grade propaganda because of their lack of critical thinking skills. | |
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| Philosophy degree. Work in the legal industry and love it very much. Dont consider my degree useless at all but i know some people do lol. | |
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| MA in philosophy. I work in IT and I am a landlord. I own 9 houses, 7 of them without mortgages. I guess I did ok. | |
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| Fine arts, Onlyfans. | |
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| Husband: English -> tech writing -> LEO | |
| Myself: Animation/Illustration -> own my own business selling stuff on Etsy | |
| Friend: Communications -> grocery store cashier -> event coordinator for big corporate events and weddings and he’s like the manager or something now | |
| Other friend: Radio/TV -> Radio DJ -> contractor for google | |
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| Social studies -> mostly clerical stuff | |
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| History degree , I’m a librarian | |
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| BA in American Studies. Was intending to go to law school but watched my siblings go into law practice right then and how much they hated their lives. | |
| Went on to do project management at first which I got into by being headhunted to translate then impressed the big boss. | |
| Now I’m in healthcare staffing and manage a team and I love it. It’s what I’m good at and I get the latitude to be what I am and it’s valued. | |
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| Communications degree. My career was as a healthcare food service rep, managed hospital accounts and made really good money. Retired now | |
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| coming from a family of doctors and engineers - I got a BFA in graphic design they were hesitant about me going to art school, been a designer since 2009, and working as a contractor for the federal gov now. | |
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| I have a BA in psychology. Followed that up with an MS and PhD in experimental psychology. I’m now the part b data manager at my state’s department of education. I love my job! | |
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| Bachelor of Arts (digital art) - Operations manager. Got here through a career in design. Turns out it wasn’t as useless as everyone told me | |
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| BFA in fine arts and now VP of International Sales for a Fortune 200 company. Had to learn the technical aspects about the products but that was the easy part. Knowing how to properly interact with people from all over the world is the main skill one must have. It takes time but it’s fun. | |
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| I have a BFA in Studio Art (Specialization in drawing) and most recently was working as an admin assistant. I've been off work for a few months after losing my father and questioning my future a lot. I loved going to school for art, I learned a lot and I've always been passionate about it, but it hasn't brought me much luck in the career department. | |
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| BFA, own an ice cream shop. | |
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| BFA in Animation. I’m an E-Learning Developer, Motion Graphics Artist, and Voice Actor. | |
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| Geography. GIS Architect. | |
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| Education + Masters in Ed Leadership / Entrepreneur (started my own clothing brand) | |
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| BA in anthropology- not technically “useless”, but I’m getting an Associates in mortuary science right now. The history of burial customs courses everyone said I’d never need were the ones that transferred over, go figure. | |
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| Neuroscience: software engineer | |
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| Cultural Anthropology. English teacher overseas. | |
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| MA Education: Sales rep. I work with school districts to staff their special education departments. | |
| It’s a hybrid job (mainly WFH) with a company card for work expenses, unlimited PTO, good health insurance, and other nice benefits. | |
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| Ba in motion graphics. | |
| I was a cop for a long time now I am an executive at a huge truck manufacturer. | |
| I am not related to anyone at work LOL. | |
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| I've got a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Studies of Religion (Comparative Religions). I work for the government in grant funding for businesses in key industries. I love my job - it's a lot of analysis and writing and working with clients. | |
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| Masters in International Relations, dropped out of law school because it was soul crushing. 10 years later I work at a call center speaking Spanish and play in a punk band. Meh. | |
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| Diploma in Linguistics and Anthropology. | |
| Didn't want to go into academia. Worked in a library while freelancing as a translator, pivoted into teaching English, then managed to land a job as a Technical Writer, mostly on the back of my translation experience. Not the worst outcome, I suppose... | |
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| B.A. Asian studies, Masters Applied Linguistics | |
| Self employed web developer | |
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| BA in history I’m a VP at an advertising agency | |
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| History -> Pipefitter | |
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| Similar paid work (just now) to before the "useless degree", to pay the rent. | |
| the quality of my reading material is better | |
| more self aware, | |
| more confident to explore and foundation some new ideas independently for a biz | |
| more adaptable, more open minded, more chill | |
| I never have crises about 'getting older' or some kind of looks-based problem because the useless degree addressed the fundamentals of that kind of crap. it was a valuable re-set at a critical point in my life | |
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| I'm a professor in the same humanities field I majored in when I was an undergrad. | |
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| BA of Arts in Gender Studies. I used to work in creative strategy but I'm now an author. | |
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| Business management and Computer Information Systems. I work in finance. Hate it. I want to be a farmer and get out of the city. | |
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| Law degree, work as software developer | |
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| Cry myself to sleep | |
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| BA In television production 😅😅😂🥲😭 | |
| Managed to set myself up an apprenticeship a few years later and I’m now a Network engineer cursed with a lifetime of student debt/regret tax | |
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| Creative Writing and American Literature degree here. | |
| I write and edit for magazines. It’s great. It’s not super lucrative but it’s okay, money wise, and other people pay me to have fun. | |
| Was it partially who I knew? Partially. Would I have been fired if I couldn’t do the work? Absolutely. Was my degree important in getting the job? Without question. | |
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| Masters Degree in Fine Arts -> Project Manager | |
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| Theology. | |
| Work in finance lol | |
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| I got a BA in Economics. You really don't work in econ without graduate education. | |
| I'm an IT Project Manager now. My degree was paper proof I can learn things, got me in the door. | |
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| Russian -> anesthesiologist | |
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| I don't believe in useless degrees because I believe that any degree that's purely attained to achieve financial profit in the future is a waste of academic money and time. Anyone who gets a "useless degree" in a subject they find interesting and meaningful has not wasted anyone's time or money, albeit they were probably taken advantage of by loansharks. We've defeated the purpose of studying in higher education if we consider niche interest degrees to be wasteful or frivolous. | |
| That being said, I didn't get a useless degree per say but certainly a specialized one. Geography with a focus in ecological and archaeological sciences, and then a paleontology masters. I teach informal science ed, so I put my degrees to good use even if I didn't go the same route most fellow majors took. | |
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| BS in Biology with focus on evolution and ecology. Was never interested medical route (e.g. MD, PA, etc.). Took a year off after graduating trying to find jobs at animal sanctuaries or zoos, but didn't have much luck. Went back to school and completed a PhD in evolutionary genetics/computational biology, then a postdoc, and 3 years into being a professor at an R1. | |
| I enjoy what I do and have no regrets, but yea...didn't have my first "real" job until I was 32. | |
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| Bachelors degree in Medieval History. Work in software QA. | |
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| Bachelor of Arts in Asian Languages. Lawyer. | |
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| Musical Theatre Performance -> now a sound designer for video games | |
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| Bachelor's (and Master's) in Music Performance. I'm an energy attorney. | |
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| Women’s Studies major with a minor in Medical Anthropology. Working in health always interested me, but I wasn’t interested in being an RN or MD. I took a long time to declare a major, so I sort of fell into WS because that’s what I had the most credits towards. Became a medical assistant at a family planning clinic, which lead to me completing a phlebotomy certificate. Then I worked as a phlebotomist for several years before burn out hit. Now I work at a lab essentially cataloguing tissue specimens that come out of the OR. Still in healthcare but with zero direct patient care. It’s not the most riveting, but it’s easy and I can’t beat the hours or commute. | |
| ETA: I’ve had several people tell me to my face my degree is useless and scoff at why I would put myself in so much debt for such a degree. I tell them I don’t have student loan debt and they get PRESSED. | |
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| Two degrees in Judeo Christian theology. Work in the mortgage industry. Not even a Christian anymore lol. | |
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| Bachelor's in French literature. I'm a transit planner. | |
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| I work door at a venue/bar. | |
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| Bachelors in history, I bartend | |
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| Got a Bachelor’s in International Studies, a Master’s in International Policy and now I’m an attorney. | |
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| Unemployed, History degree(Class of 21) can't find shit, got laid off 8 months ago. | |
| meWent through network, staffing agencies everything basically told to go fuck myself. | |
| ​ | |
| Will probably off myself soon. | |
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| BA in Philosophy. I was a professional bassist for a long time. Now I'm in law school. | |
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| i got a BA in sociology and now i’m going back to school to become a licensed massage therapist LOL | |
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| Bachelors of Science in Conservation Biology. I’m a data analyst for a video game company. | |
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| Bachelors of science in health sciences. Work as a strength and conditioning coach currently while earning my masters of social work. | |
| I’m actually surprised how many social workers/mental health providers I’ve met that came from a fitness background or teach some form of fitness on the side. | |
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| Bachelors in literature, masters in southern literature, masters in fine arts in nonfiction writing. | |
| Now I’m a copywriter at a tech company. | |
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| Anthropology and French literature for undergrad. | |
| I teach French at a university, translate, and tutor people preparing for the exam to become diplomats in Spain and Brazil. Worked in book publishing for a long time. | |
| In the US, a bachelor’s degree is just a bachelor’s degree. You’re not actually “specialized” in anything, you just know how to read and write and think real good | |
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| Bachelor’s in medieval history. I teach pre school and am about to start my applications for an MSW program | |
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| Linguistics: Went back to school to get a masters in Communicative Sciences and Disorders, and now I make $135k as a speech language pathologist. | |
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| Bachelors in Theatre Arts. I’m a prosecutor. You can take any degree to law school in the US 😎 | |
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| Lawyer. Got a history degree and had to go to law school | |
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| Human services degree and I do background checks | |
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| Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice, now I work on the railroad. | |
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| Bachelor’s degree in Spanish. I’m a recruiter for one of the biggest employers in my area | |
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| Anthropology degree here from an Ivy League university. Been a chef for the last 30 years. | |
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| Women’s studies degree. I’m a receptionist. The social work aspect really burned me out. I meet a lot of other receptionists with the same degree. We laugh 😂 | |
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| Communications degree, I'm a pharmacy tech now. Have been for four years | |
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| Why is psychology considered a useless degree? Isn't that one way to get into becoming a therapist / counselor / social worker? | |
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| PhD in physics, am now a professor. | |
| Enjoy my pyramid scheme, suckers! | |
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| Degree in Theatre, now I work as a medical credentialing specialist. | |
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| I got a degree in Linguistics, which is more useful if you also have a master’s and or a PhD, which I don’t. I now work in the non-profit sector | |
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| Poli Sci degree. Retired at 56 after a 33-year career in government PR. | |
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| Got a bachelors in music education and now I'm a public librarian! | |
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| History- Originally wanted to be a teacher but decided it was not for me. Now I work as a Facilities coordinator for a university. Currently looking into academic/enrollment advising roles. | |
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| Software engineer., I got a BA in philosophy, then pursued a PhD in philosophy, but they let me take computer science courses for free (both undergrad and grad level) as part of tuition remission for being a research assistant, so I walked away with an MS Software Engineering degree also. I ended up doing software in the end instead of academia. Pays more, but am, admittedly, categorically less passionate about it than I am about philosophy. | |
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| BA in nonprofit studies. Worked in nonprofits a few years and hated it. I’m now an 8th grade social studies teacher (went back to school for a masters in teaching/license). Teaching is hard af but I love my job despite its challenges. | |
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| BA in English. BA in International Business. MBA. | |
| Owns my own construction company, micro company. I'm a certified contractor now. | |
| Side job: painting artist. | |
| Lol | |
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| engineering. i'm an engineer. kidding ofc but this job is insanely boring and a lot of engineers are just data entry and read procedures all day. wish i had done architecture or something a little more creative in school. | |
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| Bachelor's in Linguistics; I'm a software engineer | |
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| English Literature. Started in apartment maintenance but have been working various corporate jobs in the healthcare/insurance industry for the last 4-5 years. Currently trying to transition into data analytics/business analytics | |
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| My art degree is definitely useful in my IT career | |
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| Sister got a bachelor's in sociology (unsure of spelling??) And now she is a business accountant and records peep | |
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| BS in Psychology and now I am an IT Executive for a Biopharma company. | |
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| English-Creative writing focus—I’m a prosecutor! | |
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| Sociology Major, stay at home mother to 4 children under 8… sooooo kind of related? | |
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| I have a theatre degree concentrated in scenic design. I've been working full time as a set designer/TD/Production Manager since graduating 15 years ago. | |
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| Environmental science turned to fedex delivery driver 🤷♀️ | |
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| Bachelors in history. I ended up getting a job in customer service and then eventually made it to a PM role in supply chain. Currently looking for something more fulfilling. | |
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| I went to grad school and got a professional degree in a good field and do that. | |
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| MA English. —-> insurance adjuster | |
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| Degree in religion. Went in to get a doctorate in history. Now a museum administrator. | |
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| Psych degree and advanced degree- school psychologist making six figures | |
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| Got an English degree. I work admin for a drugs testing company (though probably for not much longer). | |
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| Got a degree in communications, I work in sales | |
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| Degree in French. I'm in real estate now. | |
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| english with double minor in poetry and philosphy. im a graphic designer lol | |
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| Bachelors in Philosophy. I work as a QA Engineer now. | |
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| Philosophy and Classics. Now I'm a lawyer | |
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| Got a filmmaking major. | |
| Now an assistant director on film productions. | |
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| My son got a degree in Communication and now he's a financial advisor. | |
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| BA in history and politics. Got an MSC in Climate Change and Policy | |
| Sell sustainability consultancy services to large businesses | |
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| Anthropology—-> retired—-> was VP of store operations for a large retailer | |
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| Political Science - I am a Quality Manager in 3rd party logistics. | |
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| History Degree - Operation Process Specialist in large government organization | |
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| Teacher, now aspiring web developer or curriculum creator. Working answering phones at an insurance company. | |
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| It makes me happy to see no one in here mentioning the degree im currently working on | |
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| PhD in Japanese Studies. I work in the space industry now… | |
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| BA in History. I went to med school overseas 😅 | |
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| Biology major -> space industry corporate strategy | |
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| Business. | |
| Security. That being said, I only work 4 months a year, full benefits, pension, $65,000 annually, and paid equipment/training. | |
| Not terrible 🤷♂️ | |
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| English degree, Masters in Ed., gov office worker w/Excel, primarily. | |
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| English degree. IT architect. Previously IT manager. | |
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| I got a marketing degree in 2014 and we didn't have a single digital marketing class. Actually we didn't have any classes or units on anything digital at all. I minored in writing and that has been far more useful. | |
| I still work in marketing, but i have somehow avoided doing any digital stuff that I couldn't just apply my writing skills to, like ad buying, social strategies (beyond copywriting), video work, etc. Now I just write websites (content) and do email marketing while overseeing others who do the stuff I can't do. | |
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| Fashion styling and photography degree and now working in compliance | |
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| Psychology, I was working to be a psychologist. Found out later, I'd need my masters or doctorate to really go anywhere, I couldn't afford it and I was burned out, so I stuck with electrical. Now I spend most of my day fixing electrical cabinets built by 20 year old somethings with engineering degrees. Judging by their work sometimes, I think their degree might be more worthless than mine. | |
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| BA English, BA Philosophy, MA English. I have like 80k in debt and it was worth every penny. Those classes were priceless. | |
| I am an academic advisor and have never had issues finding a job, with a one year gap in employment where I decided to raise my kids and do freelance while staying with family. I grew up in poverty, occasional homelessness, and none of our lives are a result of any kind of inherited wealth. | |
| I know I'll never afford a house probably and do consider what life would be like if I didn't pursue a "rewire your brain" education, but the mindfuck of poor kid public school, neocon parents, and a cult-riddled pacific northwest town left me little options if I didn't want to sell out my personal values. Also, I like big books. | |
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| This thread is just confirming people’s perceptions of useless degrees, both in the type of degree and the reality of shit employment prospects 😂😂😂 | |
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| Got a BS in biology (basically useless unless you go for a higher degree) saw a lab near us doing genome research. | |
| So like many other, software engineer. | |
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| Bachelors degree in education. I’m a baker now | |
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| Only rich people should do useless degrees - they have family contacts to bail them out and get good jobs through their networks | |
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| Sir, this is a Wendy's..... | |
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| Majored in underwater basket weaving, now a certified mermaid therapist. Because marine life deserves emotional support too. | |
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| Hotel management, Hospitality management. Sitting ducks now. | |
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| AS in comp science from ITT.... | |
| I'm an IT Director for a VAR now. I've not put my degree on my resume since 2008. | |
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| Gig work. | |
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| Bachelors in Spanish and Biology > Dental School > Dentist | |
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| Geography. Then went to the Navy. Now im a operating engineer(heavy equipment operator). Love the trades. | |
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| Most degrees are actually useless. It really only matters if you’re going into a specialized field. With AI coming fast and furious, I imagine even some specialized degrees will now be worthless. | |
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| So I got a Journalism degree, got a job in Recruitment, cuz they needed someone who had the ability to think on feet, and ask good questions for talent acquisition. Then during COVID I started coding as a hobby, and now I am a web developer. So big L on that degree. | |
| But I will tell you what a lot of my friends and folks I know from college who got a "I wonder what kinda job they will get" end up doing. | |
| 1. Roommate 1, Major: "Women, Gender, & Equality Studies". Current job: "Telemarketer". | |
| 2. Roommate 2, Major: "Medical Billing and Coding". Current job: "Nurse" (he went to a nursing school) | |
| 3. Some dude I knew, Major: "Creative Writing". Current job: "DJ at a club on weekends and some weeknights in Dallas, and a second job as a Store Associate at a Luxury Streetwear store" . | |
| 4. Coworker from Recruitment job, Major: "History". Current job: "Consultant" at a film company where he assists scriptwriters on shows. He was a history and fact checking consultant for many famous Netflix projects. The most successful of the lot. | |
| 5. Girl my roommates were friends with, Major: "Hospitality". Current job: "Manager of a fast-food restaurant". She used to work there in summer and during breaks, and after graduation, she decided to pick up shifts to earn while she applied at hotels, but eventually just stayed and became a manager, and I am sure she invested in a franchise of sorts with the same chain too. She is very happy, and lives pretty decently. | |
| 6. Someone I knew from college, he was my gym buddy, Major: "Business". Current job: "Real Estate Agent" and he does rentals for students, and low budget stuff. | |
| 7. Girl that was in a sorority that we used to do stuff with, Major: "English, and Business." Current job: She owns and runs her own tattoo business. Mad talent in her. | |
| Point being, you never know where life will take you. | |
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| International relations. Changed over to cyber security and now work as a sr IT consultant. Big difference in pay. | |
| ---- | |
| Studio Art degree —> Software Developer | |
| ---- | |
| My kid got a general humanities degree. Like "interdisciplinary humanities." | |
| She works in marketing making 62k at age 23 in a very low COL area where she definitely doesn't NEED 62k. | |
| ---- | |
| Make nearly twice as much doing a job that doesn’t require a degree. | |
| ---- | |
| Turn it into a useful degree. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree is not "useless" per se. In fact, I would rather go back into education if given the chance. The opportunities I would have might have changed my life now. | |
| It's about putting yourself out there. I make 9K profit from my 2 businesses monthly. But the amount of work I have to put into it, and the risks are not worth it. Both physically and mentally. | |
| I always envy people who make a lot more while working a lot less. And the stability that comes with it. 2 married teachers can easily have 2 figures household income complete with retirement package. Or doctors. Or lawyers. | |
| Engineers. 3 digit figures easy. | |
| I have to respect people with education. | |
| Btw I'm not from the US so mine is probably a different culture. | |
| ---- | |
| Software development | |
| ---- | |
| My degree is actually pretty useful. I got an associates degree in nursing and now I work as ..... an RN. I work in admissions for a long term care/rehab facility with around 120 beds. | |
| ---- | |
| I make >2x the median household income for the u.s. Fully funded college savings for my tween. On track with retirement savings. Paid off student loans. | |
| ---- | |
| I’m back in school | |
| ---- | |
| Graduate school | |
| ---- | |
| I wouldn't say useless degree because I do use 10 percent of what i learnt in the degree for my current job | |
| However the remaining 90 percent though can b considered useless in my current career | |
| ---- | |
| Video Production B.A. 2008. | |
| Received my M.B.A in Marketing in 2021. | |
| Community Outreach and Events Manager for a Personal Injury Law Firm | |
| ---- | |
| Do you want fries with that? | |
| ---- | |
| There was a guy who has a degree in design or something like that. He immediately regretted it the day he graduated and now works overnight shifts at Target for years | |
| ---- | |
| I'm a Cultural Resource Specialist for the Department of Energy. My degree is in Anthropology. | |
| ---- | |
| Job hunting. | |
| ---- | |
| Audio production. I am now a carpenter. I never made a dollar from audio production. 🤣 seems like the best way to make money with an audio production degree is to teach audio production, keeping the vicious cycle going | |
| ---- | |
| So many good jokes here | |
| ---- | |
| I’m in sales like lots of people with useless degrees | |
| ---- | |
| Should have done this YEARSSS ago but I am a professional driver. YES, rideshare and started my own private clientele, discovered a 6 figure startegy for drivers🥹 and just released a program for others to achieve the same success, tested and proven in mutliple states 100kdrive.com | |
| #Goodbye Finance | |
| ---- | |
| Joe Biden is my Daddy | |
| ---- | |
| Get a job at McDonald's & hope you can pay your student loans by the time you die. | |
| ---- | |
| While many occupations require specialty degrees, think doctor/surgeon/lawyer, useless degrees still prove to employers you are able to do assigned work in a timely matter and complete tasks. | |
| If you can do that, you can complete majority of jobs. The fact you got a degree might mean more than what it the degree is when applying for jobs. | |
| ---- | |
| Work for the Government. | |
| ---- | |
| Life insurance agency owner [National Protection](https://www.nationalprotectioncareers.com) | |
| ---- | |
| I have a BA on PPP (Poo Poo Projectile), and I'm pretty happy. As wise man once said, do what you love. | |
| ---- | |
| Hate my life | |
| ---- | |
| Get on the internet and complain that I shouldn’t have to pay back my student loans and school should be free | |
| ---- | |
| Life insurance agency owner | |
| Www.Nationalprotectioncareers.com | |
| ---- | |
| There is no such thing as a useless degree. There are only useless people, like the OP. | |
| ---- | |
| TCB. | |
| ---- | |
| Keep waiting to see how those Gender Studies Degrees are going .... | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Aeronautical Science (useless both in and out of the aviation field) -> Airline Pilot | |
| ---- | |
| I majored in communication and now I’m an Investor Relations consultant | |
| ---- | |
| Associates in network security with a bunch of comptia certs. unemployed and struggling to find a job. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA in printmaking and BA in ancient culture. Now I’m an IT director for a 120 person division at a research university. | |
| I did also get 3 more degrees (MLS, MIS, and PhD) along the way, so if you’re willing to do that, it will likely help. | |
| ---- | |
| Arts focused Liberal Arts -> information technology specialist | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology, tax lawyer/CPA | |
| ---- | |
| Got a BA in CS and it has no weight on the job market. | |
| ---- | |
| Communications -> Marketing | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy degree. I teach philosophy. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a BA in psychology. I'm a captionist. | |
| ---- | |
| Overnight front desk at a hotel | |
| ---- | |
| I have an associate’s in theater. I’m a 4th grade assistant teacher at a private school and I’m getting paid extra to do the costumes for the school play. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree: AA in Broadcasting with a focus on radio. | |
| Job: Manager and Architect, Front End Development. | |
| ---- | |
| I just make apps with micro transactions and ads. I make more money than I could ever spend in a lifetime. | |
| Oh, and I got a degree in biology. | |
| ---- | |
| English)teaching major now in recruiting. | |
| Making about $25k more per annum, far less stress. | |
| ---- | |
| Got an MBA...back in engineering. I sort of knew it was going to be useless when I got it though. | |
| ---- | |
| I got my BA in Theatre acting and directing, now I edit commercials for the NCAA. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a BA in English | |
| I used to work in a university library. | |
| Now, I'm a writer (dozen+ short story sales), self-taught bladesmith, and a machinist for the US Navy. | |
| ---- | |
| History and now I'm an ETL Developer | |
| ---- | |
| Computer Music -> Senior SW engineering manager in AI at a big tech company. | |
| The degree is pretty irrelevant. In the 18 years since earning it, I leaned a shit load more in continuing education and on the job training. | |
| ---- | |
| Not me, but I have a friend that spent 4 years getting a degree in network architecture. He's delivering packages for Amazon now. | |
| ---- | |
| Music > finance and accounting manager lol | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in “Integrative Studies”. Now am a Certified Residential Appraiser. | |
| ---- | |
| Studied philosophy and now I am a zen lay-monk living at a monastery | |
| ---- | |
| I got a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, which basically meant I had 3 minors in lieu of a major - English, Sociology, and Poli Sci. | |
| I’m a lawyer. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English Lit - I went on to earn the MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science), and have been a public librarian ever since. Going on 17 years now. | |
| ---- | |
| English. I’m a technical writer who assists with IT for a lab. | |
| ---- | |
| Marketing major. I'm in data analytics and customer service performance benchmarketing | |
| ---- | |
| BA in psychology, software engineer now. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Women's Studies=IV pharmacy technician. | |
| It's not the worst job. It actually pays well enough, is union, and has great benefits. | |
| ---- | |
| Psych degree. Work in tech. Making 150k | |
| ---- | |
| Environmental science | |
| Leasing agent and Realtor | |
| ---- | |
| I intended on using my BA in US history to become a history professor but Covid killed my travel plans for my research… not that I would have been able to afford it anyway. | |
| I am now an auditor for the leasing department of a corporate property management company. I love my job - hate what my company does - but I do love my specific job. | |
| ---- | |
| MA Int’l Studies, BA Int’l Affairs & French. Working in int’l education at a university. I’d say mine payed off. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Creative Non-fiction (wanted to be a journalist/author) | |
| I'm a contract IT Business Analyst | |
| ---- | |
| Be useless? (Keep in mind, I say "useless" as in the knee-jerk reaction definition. When general emotions go gloomy I'm sure people flock over to creations/productions made by those with 'useless' degrees. Look back to COVID times and entertainment media consumption). | |
| I just take unstable jobs (gigs, odd jobs) related to my field of expertise. My 'resumé' is word-of-mouth--it's not fast, but I'm terrible at listing my actual skills and I'd rather be employed by people who already trust me. It's not stable income, but I sure see lots of happy faces around. If that makes me useless then so be it. | |
| In the meantime I do more 'useless' stuff i.e. my hobbies (that could also be a potential side-gig). Come to think of it, sometimes I'd rather keep most of them a fun hobby than a grueling undergrad/masters experience. | |
| edit: I'm always open for a job, any job. But again, terrible at listing actual skills, pretty much have no actual other credentials, so I don't usually have random jobs fall on my lap. | |
| ---- | |
| BS IT Web Development | |
| Now a Union Millwright and couldn't be happier | |
| ---- | |
| Music- just finished a diploma in something useful. | |
| ---- | |
| Speech-communication. After a few years I realized it was useless so i went to back school and got a law degree. Lawyer now. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Journalism. With an undergrad in Poly Sci. I now work in an operating room, of course. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in intercultural communication. I stumbled into publishing right out of college and became a publisher for 20 years. I sold my publication a couple of years ago and now I am a partner in a biofuel business. | |
| ---- | |
| Wendy’s | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy and political science, now a lawyer. | |
| ---- | |
| Graphic design degree. Now I'm too disabled to work lol RIP. | |
| ---- | |
| Went back to uni to get a more useful one | |
| ---- | |
| Majored in English. Make 6 figures in account management. So I turned out alright but I think the most valuable thing about this path is it helped me understand that my job is just something I do. The person I am is still someone who just loves to read. | |
| ---- | |
| tech. | |
| I do work in a very different field than my studies and I worked very hard to get successful at it. It also took hustle, salesmanship, and a fair amount of "sacrifices"/cost that some would not find acceptable (international relocations, extended business travel, stressful work environment, long hours, a lot of competition, job hopping etc). | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of fine arts from art school. | |
| 6 figure salary in the tech industry using my degree daily. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in French >>> Going on 14 years as a psychotherapist in private practice | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Photographic Journalism- I then went back to school to become an RN. So now I'm a nurse with enough educational years I could've got a doctorate lol | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Dance. Ended up in data analytics for a top food company in the world. | |
| ---- | |
| History of Art and Visual Culture degree. I work in arts nonprofits as an admin. | |
| ---- | |
| Interdisciplinary Humanities (English, Art, Philosophy) -> briefly a teacher -> 5 years library assistant -> volunteer supervisor | |
| ---- | |
| Comms with an emphasis on PR. I work in logistics specializing in claims. A lot of litigious shit in addition to the usual shipping duties. | |
| ---- | |
| I graduated High School. I’m in Sales. It’s great. | |
| ---- | |
| B.a. geography (not a teacher) -> architectural surfaces sales rep | |
| ---- | |
| Lawyer. I got a BA in English. Surprisingly, I got interviews after college related to my degree— for copy editor positions, but decided I’d get bored very easily doing that. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in theatre design and production, MA in teaching, going on year 5 in the residential mortgage business ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ | |
| ---- | |
| General Studies. Outside sales for an aerospace company. Hardware & fasteners. | |
| ---- | |
| relative had a degree in japanese studies, doesn’t speak japanese or use it at all in her life now but she’s now a principal of a school | |
| ---- | |
| Music performance degree | |
| Worked an office job for a few years, went back to school for an MBA, started working at a university. Currently an IT product manager - I manage software implementation projects and provide ongoing support. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Theatre, and an MFA in Stage Management. Still working and paying my bills as a stage manager now almost 18 years after finishing my MFA | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre > IT. To be fair though, I accomplished some of my most important life goals (namely travel) with that theatre degree, so I can't complain. | |
| ---- | |
| Political science. I work in state government (tech/admin). | |
| ---- | |
| AA in accounting with an accounting cert and quickbooks bookkeeping cert. work in boomer retail as a cashier. I always wanted my english degree. I should have followed my own path. Accounting is a fucking scam taught by self-loathing and self-depreciating fat fucking boomers/older gen x. | |
| ---- | |
| environmental studies | |
| greenhouse tech | |
| ---- | |
| My wife has a psychology degree. (I don’t think this is a “useless” degree) She is the director of hiring for her company. | |
| ---- | |
| I went back to grad school to get a marketable degree and I’m getting myself into so much more debt. | |
| ---- | |
| My FT job is driving a motor coach (large tall long-distance bus). | |
| I'm also very PT at 2 other jobs: Private Detective and driving a party bus. | |
| ---- | |
| Political Science. | |
| Anesthesiologist. | |
| ---- | |
| I know someone with an art history degree from an Ivy works as paralegal/office manager. | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy degree -> neuroscience PhD student | |
| ---- | |
| Fine Arts. I’m on Disability. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Arts, majoring in military psychology and leadership: | |
| I'm an officer now flying military helos.money is great 😌 | |
| ---- | |
| Computer engineering degree: The most rudimentary computer tasks. You do not need a post secondary education to do computer jobs. | |
| ---- | |
| AAS MANAGERS degree > order picker | |
| ---- | |
| IT support diploma. I build roads instead lol | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Communications, concentrations in multimedia journalism and media law. | |
| I’m a supervisor for a private security company. | |
| ---- | |
| [deleted] | |
| ---- | |
| I got a Bachelor's in Fine Arts, Modern Languages. | |
| I majored in Russian and minored in German. | |
| My first language growing up was speaking Spanish, I learned English in elementary. | |
| In college, after leaving the Marines, I studied Russian and German. | |
| Became a firefighter and get $290 a month extra for my Bachelor's, another $50 on top of that for my second language, Spanish. | |
| Paychecks with OT I clear well over $3,300 biweekly. | |
| Paychecks with no OT, typically just over $2,100. | |
| ---- | |
| Music performance (classical voice, from a not very good school lol) - I’m an accountant now. Quit even the semi-professional singing and started playing guitar just for shits and giggles and I actually enjoy music again. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology- surgeon | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy & Literature: Heating Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| My rich uncle in finance always said regarding applicants “the degree basically shows me they can meet deadlines and get work done, doesn’t really matter what kind of degree.” | |
| ---- | |
| History degree and Process Management | |
| ---- | |
| What is a useless degree? | |
| ---- | |
| Film and Digital Media. Human Resources Analyst. wut | |
| ---- | |
| I didn't finish because I found what I wanted to do. 3 years into my psychology bachelor I find myself increasingly interested in the data and paper writing side as opposed to the subject matter itself. | |
| I work in data analytics/science | |
| ---- | |
| After reading this I feel good about my degree now. | |
| ---- | |
| Got culinary arts.... I now make $1 above minimum wage managing a taco bell and I'm pretty much ready to give up entirely. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Liberal Arts. Working in Engineering now which I got into after many years of building/remodeling work from high school on. I’m not sure whether or not I would have been considered for the job without the degree even though it is not relevant to what I do but probably not. | |
| ---- | |
| I grew up in academia, so I intentionally got what most people would consider to be an impractical degree with the knowledge that the actual fields of study ultimately didn't matter for what I ultimately went into. I studied what was interesting to me and got the piece of paper. It's all about that and the job interview and much more so who you know, if you have that, which I did not but it all worked out very well. My responses only relevant for non-technical or hyper specialized careers. I studied liberal arts and I do technology. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in animation. I worked at a top studio for a few years, now I'm in video games. | |
| ---- | |
| People are useless not degrees. | |
| ---- | |
| Anthropology: Technical Support Engineer | |
| Though I worked quite a bit in medical research too - anthropology was very useful in analyzing data of multiple groups of people and data sets. | |
| ---- | |
| I have an undergrad in Communication. I want to go back to school. And right now, I am not working. I get disability for mental/emotional health reasons. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Philosophy - I run a $60m online career site | |
| ---- | |
| HVAC | |
| ---- | |
| Pathology degree - sound editor | |
| ---- | |
| Lawyer. Still useless 🤷🏼♀️ | |
| ---- | |
| Business - repair wheel balancers | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Linguistics and German Literature. | |
| Product Manager. | |
| ---- | |
| Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, and Mathematics. Not useless degrees until you move to a place where nobody cares. So what you do then is run a company that specializes in sterilizing hospitals and chemical plants but will help other industries, too. And you teach university students in your very limited spare time. Can't find a clearing? Make one. | |
| ---- | |
| Communications with a tract towards TV production - work in finance since a year after I graduated | |
| ---- | |
| Playwriting and Film: Lead User Experience Designer. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in Environmental Biology. I teach pool cleaning technicians and companies pool chemistry. I like what I do and its somewhat applicable to my degree, but I never thought of this as a career outcome. | |
| ---- | |
| I'm in a consulting firm. Studied philosophy. | |
| ---- | |
| Phys Ed and recreation ->> construction coordinator (to be fair I got a drafting diploma after) | |
| ---- | |
| Japanese Language and Culture - physician. It doesn’t matter what you major in at med school. One of my classmates was a Music major. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Sociology now have my MA in Clinical Mental Health and I’m a therapist. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in History -> High School Video Game Development Teacher | |
| ---- | |
| BA Modern History, now DevOps engineer /Solution architect | |
| ---- | |
| Dropped out in the middle of a music degree. Data analyst. | |
| Turns out I teach myself technical stuff better than I learn it in a classroom setting and that, at best, I'm a mediocre musician. | |
| ---- | |
| Commercial Music —> Customer Service (hybrid position for global company). I don’t plan to work professionally in music at all. | |
| ---- | |
| Music, sang opera professionally (regionally) for 25 years. Went back to grad school in my 40s, am now an analyst for the fed. | |
| ---- | |
| Communications - perhaps the most inapplicable degree in existence. Currently, I’m a pretty successful project manager - a job a vague as my degree. | |
| ---- | |
| Visual Media Arts degree | |
| I use those skills as a freelancer to edit corporate videos for various companies. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Jazz Saxophone, I'm a professional saxophone player and freelance music teacher. | |
| ---- | |
| Legal studies —> paralegal. I knew what I wanted I guess. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Art in Political Science. I’m an EDI Analyst for a benefits platform. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology: Sr Software Engineer 🤷♂️ | |
| ---- | |
| I got a BA in psychology, which is a useless degree unless you go on to get another degree. I did, and got a JD. I am now an attorney. | |
| ---- | |
| Double Major in History and International Relations, double minor in English Lit and Political Science. I am FINALLY using them. However, until quite recently I was a Pageant Coach and Image Consultant. Tbh, I took a pay cut to put those fuckers to use. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in film and work at a financial firm! | |
| ---- | |
| English > Bartender | |
| ---- | |
| Chemical Engineering: Orthopaedic device rep | |
| ---- | |
| I hold an AS in television and a BS in business administration. I’m a hotel supervisor with ambitions to become a general manager. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA in art -> nonprofit fundraising | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Visual Communication -> hospitality | |
| ---- | |
| Graphic Design / HR Project Management | |
| ---- | |
| I originally was studying fine arts painting, switched to illustration to be more marketable, then after graduating worked in graphic and web design for a few years. The pay was trash and making art for people who know nothing about art was frustrating. I went back to school for nursing and am much happier and better paid now. | |
| ---- | |
| Studied history, went to grad school, now in the endless loop of trying to finish grad school while fighting for a foot in the door of a dying career field (the tenure track dream). | |
| My backup plan is to go into some sort of university admin role. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in Graphic Design from a school that no longer exists : Project Manager | |
| ---- | |
| I got an MBA and I used to be able to name my salary. I used to write business and marketing plans for IT startups; however, Im over 64 and retired now. | |
| ---- | |
| Forex trading with cool signals 😂😂 | |
| Earning like a lecturer a day | |
| ---- | |
| Fine arts. onlyfans 🫣 | |
| ---- | |
| I have an undergrad degree in Communications. I regretted it until I was 28, when I went to work in politics and lobbying, and read in Campaigns and Elections magazine that it's the most common major in my profession. I still do that work at age 61. | |
| ---- | |
| Useless stuff mostly. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Music - Jazz Studies emphasis | |
| I work in my field almost every day, and live in one of the few cities in the world where my degree matters. But only partially in the Jazz genre. | |
| ---- | |
| My wife got a "useless" BA in English Literature and now she's a Technical writer for an international Biotech company. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology —> IT | |
| ---- | |
| A lot of people told me getting a degree in audio engineering would be a waste. It’s actually probably true for most of the people in my class. I’m a supervising sound editor at one of the major studios in Hollywood. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a bachelor of health science, nutrition major. I got a job in a bank call centre for a couple of years, and now I'm a pick/packer in a distribution centre, and I love it. | |
| I met my second husband at uni, so it was worth it! | |
| ---- | |
| English: Firmware engineer, machine control systems. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Health Sciences pre-clinical nursing. Currently in grad school working on my masters degree in social work. | |
| ---- | |
| Hog Logging | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy. I manage a tutoring program at a University | |
| ---- | |
| I was studying music. Didn't even finish. Now I do sound effects editing. | |
| ---- | |
| English Literature / Regulatory guidance | |
| ---- | |
| Communication - Video Production | |
| I’m in Post Production Management for one of major studios in Hollywood. | |
| ---- | |
| BA: International relations. | |
| I work in administration/ sales. Nothing to do with my degree and was largely hired because of it. | |
| ---- | |
| Economics. Software Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| Not quite “useless,” but I never did anything with them. I have a bachelor’s in nuclear engineering technology and a masters in bioinformatics. I’m an instructional designer/training specialist. | |
| ---- | |
| English. | |
| Did journalism, now in corporate PR making decent money in LA. | |
| ---- | |
| BA Social Work now Real Estate Development; Project Manager and Corporate Compliance. Bonus points- switched majors 1 year from a biology degree; three people close on my team all had science related fields (physics, neuroscience, astronomy)...turns out we all like money. What a betrayal. | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy degree. Own an insurance agency. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology, bachelor's degree only. Now I'm a paralegal. | |
| ---- | |
| Fine Arts (emphasis on animation): was an English teacher for years, then went back to school for biology. | |
| ---- | |
| Associates in Intelligence Operations and Bachelor’s in Sociology. I’m now a Financial Advisor. | |
| ---- | |
| History, masters in Military History —> Military. | |
| Been good so far. | |
| ---- | |
| BSEE. I sit on my butt and collect them paychecks. | |
| ---- | |
| My cousin got a philosophy degree. Taught it for a while at a uni in Texas, but they never renewed his contract. He is currently unemployed, and has been for 4+ years because he’s a lazy, arrogant bastard and refuses to get a job that’s not in his field. | |
| ---- | |
| "Welcome to Costco. I love you" | |
| ---- | |
| My sister’s friend got a degree in geography and became a flight attendant. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of music, in violin performance. Now I’m an attorney. | |
| ---- | |
| English and German. Now teach English in Germany at a university. Actually pretty useful, as it turned out. | |
| ---- | |
| Broadcasting. Now an IT Network Engineer. I did do a couple years in radio but it was a vow of poverty and most positions later would get automated or piped to 3 markets | |
| ---- | |
| I'm the elected leader of my home community. | |
| I have a BA in Global Studies, a mixture of political science, economics, history and geography. | |
| So, mostly useless? | |
| ---- | |
| Art history taught me how to bullshit. | |
| I own a restaurant now ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ | |
| ---- | |
| I received a degree in graphic design. As someone who no longer works as a designer, life is wildly better. 😊 | |
| ---- | |
| BA Politics, History minor. | |
| I’m a marketing consultant. No marketing quals, just making it up as I go along | |
| ---- | |
| Women's studies/TV Accountant | |
| ---- | |
| No degree - Compliance Manager | |
| ---- | |
| Industrial psychology. | |
| I went for HR but ended up as a software consultant. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in history with a minor in philosophy. I work in a pharmacy. | |
| ---- | |
| Postal service 🤷🏽♀️ | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English, Classics and Medieval Studies. Masters in Medieval Studies | |
| I became a print journalist and won a Walkley Award (that's an Aussie Pulitzer) | |
| ---- | |
| Got an English degree. Worked as a technical writer for 8 years then wrote a bunch of romance novels and lived in luxury and traveled for a while on the profits without having to actually work for a few years. Then became a line cook and, eventually, a head chef. Now I'm switching again to spicy work. But still writing as well. | |
| Sticking to one career never made sense to me. There's too much to try. | |
| ---- | |
| What I learned from this thread is a psychology degree does nothing for you unless you get a doctorate. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of science in Human communication. I'm a sawmill production supervisor now | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Studio Arts - I am a full time business owner running a studio specializing in wedding photography :) | |
| edit: I never thought my degree was useless but I had so much pushback from every adult in my life about getting an art degree. I’m thoroughly glad to have proved them wrong. | |
| ---- | |
| International Political science: Training and HR Development at an international research institute. | |
| ---- | |
| Many of them around our way are flipping burgers and driving taxis. The smarter ones are driving buses and trains. (More money) | |
| ---- | |
| Master's of English language and literature> 7 years of teaching > Dropped out of PhD > 8 months HR & Admin assistant now | |
| ---- | |
| Art: house cleaner for someone else's business. Bonus: I make minimum wage. And I'm a superb artist. | |
| ---- | |
| BAS from ITT --> Microelectronics Support Technician. | |
| ---- | |
| Creative Writing -> Wildfire Mitigation | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English with a minor in drama. I'm a kitchen manager in a smash burger joint and a casual outreach worker. | |
| ---- | |
| Sociology degree. I’m an auto claims adjuster | |
| ---- | |
| No degrees are useless. | |
| ---- | |
| English/History BA, English MA. | |
| Many years as an editor and writer. Not one regret. | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy - I'm a data analyst who works with quantative and qualitative data | |
| ---- | |
| I’m a domestic violence advocate. I got a degree in English Lit. | |
| ---- | |
| Sold my stake in the company I cofounded and retired financially at 34. Currently raising my 3 kids and wish I had retired even sooner, but overall quite happy. | |
| My “useless degree” was GED so that a Fred Meyer would hire me about 17 years ago. | |
| ---- | |
| Sports Science and then a masters. My last job was bartending and now im unemployed and looking | |
| ---- | |
| very specific engineering degree. I do customer service back office support | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology> library assistant. Working on becoming a librarian rn | |
| ---- | |
| Film degree. I work at paramount plus’s live tv division | |
| ---- | |
| Fine arts major: I sell t-shirts, soap and candles at Furry cons. | |
| ---- | |
| Finance degree: FedEx package delivery | |
| ---- | |
| Music (Voice). I'm a professional singer but I'm only doing well because I used to be a software engineer. | |
| ---- | |
| BA Criminology. Just quit teaching after 10 years. Jobless. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in French & Communication Arts, and I do back end web programming, mostly ops because that's how I came to software development, through maintenance programming, bug fixes and enhancements to existing systems. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in biochemistry. Doing QC inspection work not related to anything biology nor chemistry getting paid slightly higher than minimum wage. | |
| ---- | |
| Useless degree in Billing and Coding. Went back to school to be a CNA. Hated it. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering. | |
| An administrative assistant in accounts department. | |
| ---- | |
| Art: I’m a Marketing Director | |
| ---- | |
| computer science -> boat captain | |
| ​ | |
| i make *way* more | |
| ---- | |
| English and Philosophy major here. I fucked around in education for about a decade, then went to grad school. Now I’m a therapist. | |
| ---- | |
| Associates in History, I work in a grocery store. | |
| ---- | |
| Computer shit. I fell into it on accident, but at least I’m not fucking my limbs and lungs up and now, I work in a warm clean safe place. | |
| My degree? Completely unrelated. | |
| ---- | |
| Financial planning services. I work as a receptionist and server | |
| ---- | |
| Creative Writing, BA, MFA: I write grants for animal shelters and train dogs. I've published some fiction but the pressure of getting published made it miserable so now I've devoted my energy to saving and helping pups. | |
| ---- | |
| Make more money than the person/relative that labeled my degree “useless” | |
| ---- | |
| BS Biochemistry. Now a Software Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| BA in History. I’m a GM for a large retail chain making double what I would if I used my degree | |
| ---- | |
| Political science + library studies masters -> business consulting, specialising in big change projects (think large software roll outs). | |
| Now back at school studying medicine of all things. | |
| ---- | |
| Biochemistry: software presales | |
| Not a traditional "useless degree" but still sufficiently niche to be fairly irrelevant unless you're going to work in research. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English Literature. Today I am the owner of an accessibility consulting company for building owners and managers. | |
| That degree is really helpful in explaining to non-disabled folks how to make their buildings more accessible in simple language that they can understand, while still being technically accurate. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology/Biology double major —> Hazmat chemist —> environmental project manager | |
| (I somehow picked two degrees that are fairly useless at the bachelor’s degree level) | |
| ---- | |
| English Lit degree. Currently a Legal Ops project manager for a large tech company. | |
| ---- | |
| Film. | |
| I now work for a film distribution company and make random shorts on the side (less often than I did, since my daughter is young, but I've been using spare time to write and plan things to make when she's older). | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Interdisciplinary Studies. I'm a Pharmacy technician now wishing I had continued my plan to go to pharmacy school. | |
| ---- | |
| Creative Writing. I build corporate Intranets. | |
| ---- | |
| PhD in organic chemistry. | |
| Worked a few years in the oil industry as an analytical chemist, switched and became a welder for a few years and is now working in municipal water as an analytical chemist again. | |
| Sure, it's chemistry, but it's not organic chemistry and you certainly don't need a PhD for it. It's not that it's*useless* to get a PhD but the number of jobs that actually require it are so few and you have to jump through so many hoops that it's just not worth it. | |
| ---- | |
| Got my Masters in Philosophy, had to endure no end of mockery from friends and family while studying. At the end, realised that I was actually doing it with no end in mind. Went traveling, returned, studied Publishing for a bit, ended up as a web designer (pre-Google, Flash was like a website had been touched by the hand of god). Moved on to internet marketing and SEO, again pre-Google. Rose up to lead my own team handlign multi-million pound budgets till I became utterly sickened by capitalism and quit in disgust. Became a teacher overseas, still doing that. Way less money, incomparably higher levels of life satisfaction. Hopefully going to start a pet hotel/doggy daycare/cafe/food store with my wife in the next few years. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA. IT program manager, and PM. | |
| ---- | |
| Psych degree: I retrained and now I don’t want to use that degree either | |
| ---- | |
| Criminology/Media studies- work in govt 🤣 | |
| ---- | |
| I’m a college professor teaching in a “useless degree” department making a nice living while only having to work 10 months a year. That “useless degree” was the best investment of my life. | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre degree. I appraise real estate for my county. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in cabinetmaking, and 2 certificates in CNC programming and operation. | |
| I'm very happy with my career as a casino dealer. Easiest job I've ever had, and I male way more Tha twice as much as I did in my trade. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology - cam girl | |
| I’m nursing school though now too :) | |
| ---- | |
| Forestry. | |
| I'm a male prostitute now. | |
| ---- | |
| Industrial Design, now I do appliance repair. | |
| I like the freedom of my job now, it’s very low stress and it pays quite well. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Public management: I'm mall security now. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree title is BA(Hons) Moving Image, which is basically film production with a fine art angle. | |
| Spent years in retail and tech support jobs, now working in medical tech as a technical trainer. To be fair though I am using the technical skills from my degree to make training materials and I used the communication and teamwork skills I learned at Uni in previous jobs. | |
| ---- | |
| Useless stuff | |
| ---- | |
| Culinary Arts; Ems | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre & film degree. I work on the ramp for a major airline. | |
| ---- | |
| Anthropology and Geography with a Minor in Chinese Studies. I've been at a UPS Store for a few years now since covid days and looking for something better! Anyone looking for a...me? | |
| ---- | |
| I have no degree at all, I'm a medical interpreter over the phone, although I have interpreted in person/onsite in the past as well. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor in Ad Design. | |
| Associates in graphic design. | |
| I'm a Union machinist for the military. | |
| ---- | |
| Multimedia design: web dev | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Performing Arts. I now work in merchandising. | |
| ---- | |
| Writing degree. Automation programmer. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in business management/Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy | |
| IT Project Manager for 7ish years | |
| ---- | |
| Journalism degree here! Went into content marketing, which is basically journalism, but for a company, and pays way better :) | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in english, philosophy and health management: I'm now in management and in charge of over 100 employees for a company supplying a global semiconductor foundry. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English - first assistant to a composer in film and TV | |
| ---- | |
| Studied Law. Decided at the end of the degree it wasn’t a career I’d be well suited for. Spend three years unemployed after college. Landed an internship doing admin work for the college when I studied. | |
| Almost 12 years later, I’m the project manager of an online post graduate medical course. Hoping to pivot to something different within the next year. | |
| ---- | |
| I look after my family business. | |
| ---- | |
| Studied Visual Communication (technically not useless, but the niche I focused on is near impossible to get into professionally these days). Project manager in an NGO. One of few experts in the country on my particular field. I find that I use a lot of skills from my degree in quite unexpected places. | |
| One of my colleagues studied English Literature. Works as community manager. Also one of the few experts in her field and constantly gets offers and consultancy jobs from other NGOs. | |
| A third colleague studied Fine Art. Is now running a country-wide Public Health program... And also doing occasional runway modeling. | |
| Then I have the colleague who has a degree in chemical engineering. He runs an education program. | |
| And the one who studied Anthropology, and is now a journalist, mostly known for independent investigations and some intense field work. Also had a short stint teaching tech workshops for middle school, which she absolutely loved and couldn't stop talking about. | |
| ---- | |
| Help save people's lives | |
| ---- | |
| Piano degree to techie, and carpenter. | |
| ---- | |
| Sell life insurance. | |
| ---- | |
| Associates in Digital Photography. | |
| I'm a was a manager, and now a trainer at a semiconductor company. | |
| ---- | |
| Biologist with a minor in psychology. | |
| I now research online user behaviour and carry out single blind experiments. I love it. | |
| ---- | |
| Pay thousands of dollars in loans. For a LONG time. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology degree --> law school. | |
| Sitting for the bar exam next month, planning on going into Labor & Employment law. | |
| ---- | |
| Film Production - now I'm a Senior Business Analyst | |
| ---- | |
| Got a graphic design degree... spent 2 years absolutely failing to get a job in that field because I got laid off from my previous retail job. Ended up going back to retail. | |
| ---- | |
| MA International Relations, I work as a Communications specialist for a big tech MNC | |
| ---- | |
| Master in Audiovisual Production + Master in Modern Literature. I am a Narrative/UI Designer for video games now. | |
| ---- | |
| BHSc(Naturopathy) - now back at my typing job | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English , comms specialist for healthcare org ☺️ I love it | |
| ---- | |
| BA in linguistics. Now a product manager. | |
| ---- | |
| Honours in Graphic Design, Masters in Applied Arts - now a part time youth worker at a mental health charity | |
| ---- | |
| Naval Architecture; Software | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of applied arts: | |
| Purchasing and logistics manager for a gift and homeware distributor. | |
| Spent time in sales, interior design and admin on my way here. | |
| ---- | |
| Work in a wood shop on Maui. Have a degree in communications. Completely useless | |
| ---- | |
| English degree -> airport line technician | |
| ---- | |
| Doctor of Philosophy - my PhD thesis was on digital sampling techniques in modern EDM and Hiphop. | |
| I’m a business growth coach, specializing in modernizing law firms. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in History. Now I am a (union) department manager for curbside pickup in a supermarket. | |
| Whatever I fooled myself into believing, I would not have cut it as a teacher. Enjoying my current workplace, even if I worry for my financial future. | |
| ---- | |
| bachelors of fine art majoring in photography now making 300k TC in tech | |
| ---- | |
| Art degree to project manager. Worked for some cool companies but those "cool" companies are the same ones doing layoffs. Now back in school to change careers. | |
| ---- | |
| B.Sc in Applied Animal Biology. Now I work in tech as a product designer. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s in English - Technical Writing | |
| Master’s in Journalism | |
| I work as a copywriter for a marketing agency. | |
| ---- | |
| I drive Uber. | |
| ---- | |
| Architecture degree, now I'm a school clerk. | |
| ---- | |
| Not me, but with a degree in Scandinavian Literature you can become office assistant to a bookkeeper. | |
| ---- | |
| Master in Sociology. | |
| I'm a captain in the army now (and I do IT 🫣) | |
| ---- | |
| Associates Degree in Logistics and supply chain management….gulp | |
| ---- | |
| BFA in Film -> Senior Web Developer | |
| ---- | |
| Wife: Theology and drama. IT support manager/Trainer | |
| ---- | |
| Got a masters degree in Sacred Art from the Vatican. I'm an atheist. But the degree fulfilled a loophole for immigration to Italy, so not exactly useless! | |
| ---- | |
| **BA. History, and PoliSci** | |
| *CEO/ Company Founder/ philanthropist* | |
| ​ | |
| Longer story from University until current: | |
| 1st - Anti-narcotics at a night club, 3 years (long story short, I was hidden right hand man for club boss who didn't want police involved, I was sent into problem solve quietly. Find people stealing from boss, and others who were doing illegal stuff in the club, and convince them nicely to leave, sometimes not nicely too. | |
| ​ | |
| 2nd - English Teacher. Night industry was too dangerous, someone died, stabbed to death from drug deal gone bad, and work was also wrecking health, flew 8000 miles away to Asia to get away and got a job as an English teacher. No one knows my past job. | |
| ​ | |
| Currently - CEO/company founder and local philanthropist | |
| Got screwed over working in Asia as an employee several times, so I tried to make it on my own after learning. (There are stories of gangsters, spies, pedos and kidnapping threats in my time working in the industry, it was f\*cked up, more than I ever imagined.)But got married and founded a small company in the multi $billion education industry with the wife. Business grew well, we became known nationally. Now I am a CEO and give a lot of money to help several local charities. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in 3D Digital Design with 2 internships - I work airport security now | |
| ---- | |
| Public Policy degree | |
| It’s not typically listed on any “useless degree” list but that’s largely because people don’t know it’s a degree. The common joke, though, is that it’s basically just pre-law, but I didn’t want to do law school. My emphasis was education policy and secondary was energy policy. | |
| So anyway, I worked for 3 years in energy efficiency. And now I’m a lawyer. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in Agriculture. Currently unemployed, stay at home mom. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and minoring in History. Initial intention was to do a teaching degree. | |
| Now I pick up horse shit for a living 😂 | |
| ---- | |
| I got a bachelor of interactive entertainment and games. | |
| I have a hobby youtube channel chatting to game devs but I earn my pay cheque from a career in early childhood education. | |
| ---- | |
| Equine Management Degree. | |
| Now unemployed and on disability | |
| (not horse related) | |
| ---- | |
| Culinary science degree. Im going back to school for a master's in IT management. I wanna do network engineering and some cloud stuff. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Studies. I am in tech sales | |
| ---- | |
| Interdisciplinary studies. I work in IT | |
| ---- | |
| Music. | |
| I'm a musician. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree in game art. I do weapons, armor, and vehicles for AAA games. I’m one of the lucky ones! | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s Degree in English Language Arts Education (grades 6-12). I teach 10th grade English. Trying hard to earn a masters degree in another field. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Communication --> work in commercial insurance | |
| ---- | |
| Politics & Philosophy at average university. 25 years later I’m Chair of the Board for a global NGO, associated with a UK business school and do consultancy work on the side | |
| ---- | |
| Econ degree. Found my way into a small financial firm as a tax strategist. Could by worse | |
| ---- | |
| According to the internet, Architecture is a useless degree... I am a 3D game artist. | |
| ---- | |
| BA Philosophy, Double Major Visual Fine Art: Commercial/Industrial Real Estate Advisor. | |
| ---- | |
| ### Masters of Computer Science | |
| (not useless, I know) | |
| I am now a Nurse for my nation's veteran nursing homes | |
| ---- | |
| Kinda controversial, but I went for a nurse degree but now I work as a firefighter and can’t do anything nurse related | |
| ---- | |
| Done web design, which wasn’t a given as a useful degree back then. Now I’ve gone on to do loads of different creative jobs in web, and eventually built and sold a startup in virtual events. Student Debt free since 2023. | |
| ---- | |
| BA English, online marketing and living abroad on a tropical island 🤷♂️ loans are all paid off too | |
| ---- | |
| I am a manufacturing technician. My degree was in the arts. | |
| ---- | |
| Glad to see no one mentioned my major | |
| ---- | |
| Some basket-weaving Arts degree. Now in professional aviation. | |
| Turns out the cure to burning a pile of money for a piece of paper was burning significantly more money for a different piece of paper. | |
| In all seriousness though I'm glad I obtained my degree. It legitimately taught me to think critically, parse arguments, and many other less tangible benefits. I'm a far better rounded person for it. Would still recommend. | |
| ---- | |
| just graduated with a BA in the classics in may 2023, i work at a grocery store now (making more than i would if i had gotten an entry level job in my field, lol) | |
| ---- | |
| "Let's add the fries and make it a combo!" | |
| ---- | |
| Exercise and sport science. I’m a CPA now | |
| ---- | |
| Fashion design > designer for a large luxury maison | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Music Performance, Degree in Theology. Working as a mental health support worker. No regrats. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English Lit and Art History, plus a diploma in digital design. | |
| I worked in print media as an editor and designer for 10 years. Now I'm unemployed. | |
| ---- | |
| Interdisciplinary Studies with concentration in Hospitality and Computer science. | |
| I’m a Logistics Analyst for a shoe supply chain company. I’m still aiming to be a Business/Data Analyst and then a Data Scientist a few years down the line. | |
| ---- | |
| .. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor in journalism. I work as Security Operator supporting endpoint antivirus. | |
| ---- | |
| IT -> ER doc + property management | |
| I enjoyed IT, programming (was accepted at undergrad into competitive CS school) and networking. Family death lead me to change careers earlier than expected. | |
| ---- | |
| Basically a circus entertainer | |
| ---- | |
| Surf Reddit all day and collect a paycheck. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Philosophy - now working in Product Management! | |
| ---- | |
| BA History I do project management for IT | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology degree | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Communications. Am a real estate broker now. | |
| ---- | |
| B.A. in Human/Social Services (Substance Abuse) | |
| After 2 of the worst years of my life working per-diem at a Detox Center, I finally quit and got my security license….. | |
| Now I work as a security guard for a casino and while it’s far from heaven on earth, having benefits and a 401K is pretty awesome. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in post modern detective fiction and westerns. I’m a writer. | |
| ---- | |
| Political science (arguably useless without great internships). Now I'm a singer/piano player at bars and breweries. | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy… I run my own business now | |
| ---- | |
| I want to hear from everybody else who got an art degree. I’m a cider maker now. 🤷🏼♂️ | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy bachelors. | |
| Now a first responder. | |
| It helped me to think through multiple sides of an issue and articulate my reasoning upon reaching a decision. | |
| ---- | |
| Onlyfans and webcamming | |
| ---- | |
| MA in english, i write web content from home and get paid well. I use my free time for reading and gaming. Pretty nice pay off, and also cost me barely anything for a masters. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in History. Now in Investment Banking. | |
| ---- | |
| We go through these economic cycles where college degrees are both overvalued and undervalued. | |
| Since there is a shortage of applicants in some fields, they replace a degree with relative experience. | |
| But they are many white color layoffs in tech and finance, so any college degree there becomes important. | |
| ---- | |
| [removed] | |
| ---- | |
| Bible degree. Fell back on my manual labor skills while wife in grad school. Have owned a business for 10+ years. Lotsa money now. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA in photography. Now a writer & director, mostly for commercials. So… not bad! Very happy with my career. | |
| ---- | |
| English Lit degree, my dad declared it useless and he wouldn’t help pay for school unless I majored in “business”. I’m an executive in a global creative business. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in nanophysics -> backend developer.. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a BFA in Painting. I work as a director for political campaigns now. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a Zoology/Neuroanatomy degree. I worked dissecting animals for almost 10 years, in which it was useful. I was demoted for not trusting management and caring too much about the people below me. | |
| I now work as a toolmaker and make way more money and have a way less stressful job. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology degree —- diplomat | |
| ---- | |
| Ahem…”Comparative Western Economics”. Profoundly useless as it was just a hodgepodge of classes I found interesting. | |
| Had to do a major pivot in my mid-twenties. I do aerospace medicine now lol | |
| ---- | |
| Kinesiology from SJSU. Did some PT post grad, but fell into working at a food bank after volunteering there. Worked at a couple food banks/soup kitchens for 15 years. Now I’m a chef and part-owner of a small cafe. | |
| ---- | |
| My undergrad is only useless if you don't go into that field - criminology. | |
| Went to law school, wouldn't recommend it unless you can come out of it with VERY little debt. Why, you ask? Because you can't travel with it very easily. Should have gone to business school..... | |
| ---- | |
| Biology degree (thought I wanted med school)… worked as a carpenter, then IT, then facility management, the office manager, project manager, now category construction purchaser. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Geography. I help build offshore wind projects. (I'm sitting for my PMP) | |
| ---- | |
| BSc International Relations and Politics - am now a web developer and love it and I have zero interest in Politics . | |
| ---- | |
| I got an Ecology degree. Work as a Wildland Firefighter. | |
| ---- | |
| I am not sure if I would call my degree in electronic engineering "useless". | |
| the reason I can't get a job with it is mostly due to the fact that I don't have a car and a driver's licence. | |
| anyway, I have got a job as an emploee in a super market. | |
| ---- | |
| Latin American Studies. I was a computer programmer for ten years. Been a lawyer for 15. | |
| ---- | |
| Law degree - Firefighter | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Criminology. I'm a waitress (due to health issues), desired path not an option anymore :( | |
| ---- | |
| I've got a B.A. in psychology, now I'm an electrician. I don't regret going to college; I learned a hell of a lot, made some great & lifelong friends, and had way more fun than I really should have. But still paying off student loans and basically having my productive life delayed by 4+ years is kind of a bummer. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in Music Performance, emphasis in Opera. I do sing. I'm just a graphic designer at a real estate firm during the day. I sing at the local big city opera house in the chorus and get paid way less than a reasonable hourly wage to pull 7am wakeup-12am arrive home days. We still struggle financially. We live in a dumpy ex-rental. We sometimes have to eat rice and beans for a few days now and again. But yay, I still "use" my degree, I guess? Statistically I'm in the top 10% of earners in my field. For making roughly a third of the local median income, and less than half of what is considered poverty wages. 90% of professional singers make less than I do. You don't hit living wages until the top 5%. | |
| And my brother is a Bachelor of Arts in Drama. He's an unemployed, homeless drunk driver whose partner left him and took their kid. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in public policy I now do fintech | |
| ---- | |
| Bsc in Geography - I am a senior care assistant in a residential home for the elderly. | |
| ---- | |
| Brother has a master's in businesses and finance. He's a a carer now. Another lad I knew did a bunch of video game stuff at uni, he works at Aldi. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a Liberal Arts BA (my university called it something different but that's essentially what it is). I graduated in 2017. | |
| I now work for my country's Parliament, doing project benefits work for an upcoming major construction project to the historic Parliament building. The building is historically and culturally significant, and grade 1 listed, as well as being a working building, so it's a complex project but so interesting and my team is great. | |
| I will be honest and say I fell into this. My degree taught me to write and present, and gave me a new appreciation for art and architecture. I grabbed the first historically-aligned public sector role I was offered (administration) then worked my way up to administrative manager, which then opened up opportunities for managing elements of project work which has got me here. I now have a direction to go for full project management and delivery as I enjoy and am good at processes and strategies, and am motivated by actually seeing the results of my work. | |
| I love what I do now. It's not what I imagined I'd be doing. | |
| ---- | |
| The industry changes too quickly/is ever evolving- more so than most- and they've replaced employees w/ apps/AI- it's a hobby/side project whilst I retrain- I wasn't really cut out for the industry/it's very competitive and cut throat- but there are lots of different branches/alternative types of work you can do independently- sure, the debt is insane. I've looked for appeal options/sought advocacy for debt relief but I'm not sure how likely that is- I think years ago you could, now it's more difficult | |
| ---- | |
| Political Science degree: bartended for 11 years now working for Lord Bezos in a warehouse. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters of Public Administration. Butcher. | |
| ---- | |
| One of my good friends majored in global studies, which was basically a catch all major the university had, so if you passed enough courses but hadn’t planned well enough to qualify for any other major, you could still get a degree. | |
| After graduation he worked at an Apple Store for around 5 years. He then got a job as an assistant at a tech company and slowly worked his way up to a salaried position. | |
| I have another friend who majored in Chemical Engineering, which she hated. She started working for an oil company after college and hated it. She then worked for a company that designed silicon products and hated it. Instead of quitting, she made friends with the people who worked in advertising at that company and convinced them to hire her for that department. Eventually she left for a better paying job at an advertising firm. | |
| ---- | |
| Political Sciences, Navy electrician now. | |
| ---- | |
| History degree. I work in IT operations. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor degree in Politcal Science. Works at a supermarket. | |
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| I have a BA in dance, I now work in insurance. | |
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| Criminology, became an electrician, hated that more, now I inspect plants for the government. | |
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| BA in Political Science. I work in Sales, Marketing right now. | |
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| Degree in Public Health. I work in Insurance (Property&Casualty). | |
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| Economics, I sell. 😜 | |
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| BA in Sociology (w concentrations in Anthropology & Gender Studies). Am an investment assistant/EA🤷♀️ | |
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| Bachelor's in biology- currently in HVAC school | |
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| Associates in culinary arts at a top rated school in the Midwest, decided half way through I didn’t want to cook. That was in 2013. 2019 decided to get an associates in nursing got my first nursing job starting at 41/hr with union contract for 64/hr | |
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| I used it to get a visa in the country I ended up deciding to live in, but otherwise nothing. It was a film degree, and I now work in IT making much more than I'd ever have made in film, with a much better work life balance. | |
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| Double major in Medical office Administration and Management, and a certificate in Medical Coding and Billing. I’m a security officer now. | |
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| 3/4s of an accounting degree, became an aircraft mechanic, now in the engineering department. | |
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| International business and Japanese. I'm a stay at home mum but preciously was working at a bank, but plot twist people with no degree were working there too (: including 18 year old freshly graduated. | |
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| I have a degree in international studies with a French language concentration and Spanish minor…. I’m an English teacher. | |
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| I majored in international business and Japanese and now I'm legally autistic. | |
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| Market Research. | |
| I went to culinary school. | |
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| I Have a degree in teaching middle school foreign language. I teach middle school foreign language. Ok I’m joking that it’s useless, but some days it like herding cats. I love it but sometimes I think I should have just done a dog grooming course! When THEY misbehave and move around too much, you can put them in little slings and leashes, give them a treat and they will love you. Meanwhile back at school it’s other types of fauna……. | |
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| BA in literature, MFA in fiction. I do the books, social media, and run the front desk for a business that we started during COVID. Before that, hotel management. | |
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| In undergrad I designed a major and called it "education and advocacy through narrative" then got an MFA in "arts polutics" and this year I finally got out of food service / hospitality to work at my municipal public transit agency as a "helper" (car cleaner) | |
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| Creative Writing major, graduated in 1995. I work in an office as customer service. | |
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| Culinary Arts, manage a weed dispensary | |
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| HR degree, working in IT | |
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| Entomology, now a marketing director | |
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| I got a Media Studies and Creative Writing degree and now work in marketing and use a lot of stuff from my degree daily. People always joked that it was a useless degree but it’s got me countless jobs | |
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| 911 dispatcher | |
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| to everyone saying, "Actually, I have a degree." | |
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| Associate in engineering graphics technology. Now 911 dispatch. | |
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| Fine arts degree now I run a multimillion dollar printing press making single use plastics. Good pay and a job I enjoy if I don't think too hard about the damage it causes the planet. | |
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| BA in English. Now a software engineer | |
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| BA in history, evenrually went back to school for a BSC, environmental coordinator for pipeline construction. | |
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| BA in Psychology > Bartending > Fullstack Web Developer | |
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| Business Finance. ER Physician. | |
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| Degree in Performing Arts / Dance. I'm a partner sales manager for a service ticket scheduling software. | |
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| I got a BS in Organizational leadership and supervision with a minor in business. I'm a data analyst for a financial services company now. | |
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| Studied music, then switched to art. I have an associates in art/digital media. Didn't take it further after seeing the cost vs the job market. | |
| I work in a book bindery. Our machines are so old, it's like a functional museum! | |
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| Teaching degree. Now a winemaker. | |
| Figured teachers need wine to function so i thought I'd jump ship and help make smarter kids. Far less stressful nowadays aswell. | |
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| BFA in painting, now a special ed teacher | |
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| Anthropology (archaeology track). Now I’m a physician assistant doing clinical research 🤷🏻♀️ | |
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| Bachelor’s in microbiology. I’m a lawyer. | |
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| Not necessarily useless. A bachelor's is still a bachelor's. I just don't do engineering like its title. I do drafting that really only needs an associates degree. But a bachelor's and a little fudging of the number of years I was drafting got me into places an associate couldn't. | |
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| Honors BA in psychology with minor in anthro work as a web dev now lol | |
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| BSc (Hons) Sound Technology | |
| I now work for a multinational hardware/DIY company as a senior analyst in supply chain. | |
| Basically settled down with my ex wife IMMEDIATELY after graduation so never got to build a career in my field, as she was in such a rush to have a house and kids and blah blah, so I went in to retail and worked my way up in to corporate position. | |
| I fucking hate it. | |
| I want to refurbish drums, gig, teach and do sound for a living. Maybe when the kids are grown up. | |
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| Bachelor’s Degree in Logistics, now a bank accountant | |
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| I get persecuted and bullied by Millennial Mean Girls while scraping by, trying to fund my Gen Z kids college, and keep me and my terminal illness wife alive and a roof over my head. Not what I was told college would get me 30-45 years ago. | |
| If I had to do it over again? I would have moved to Prague when it became free, started businesses. That was real opportunity. All my friends that did it are wealthy. I studied anthropology. | |
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| Finished my associates degree before going to pharmacy school. Life got in the way and had to cancel pharmacy school. Now I am a Senior heathcare analyst specializing in pharmacy applications making just slightly less than a pharmacist but with no school loans. | |
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| Oh wow. It feels good to be a sound engineer with a bachelors in Music Technology. | |
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| Psychology- I work for an occupational health company and wouldn't change it for the world. | |
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| I did a theatre arts degree and now I’m a Dramatherapist. So linked, I suppose. | |
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| Have a BSc in Mathematics & a BSc in Systems Engineering & Applied Computing. | |
| Was also Cisco CCNP. | |
| I’ve been working in healthcare for many years, my work paid for my nursing degree & my plan is to become a nurse oncologist/cancer specialist. | |
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| Ba psych. ..I'm a CDL-a with hazmat. I run a route picking up retail, industrial, and pharmacy hazardous waste. | |
| Btw, it isn't a useless degree. I learned how i learn best. Now I just learn whatever to make the beans. | |
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| BA in Communications, with minor in Journalism. I’m a licensed Professional Engineer & Professional Land Surveyor. | |
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| Commercial video and photography. Currently machine (CNC) operator. | |
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| I did a minor in Information science and work in IT now. A lot of my colleagues also have useless degrees (tourism bc covid, egyptian studies, and for me a language study) | |
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| Bachelor's in history, minors in theatre & philosophy, concentration in world religions. Currently own and run a laser tag/arcade family entertainment center with my husband after we both spent twenty years in other wildly unrelated jobs, lol. | |
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| Bachelors degree in global history. | |
| I work in a warehouse. Terrible carpal tunnel prevents computer work. Even after both surgeries it’s still intense pain after 30 min of Reddit comments. | |
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| Bachelors degree in Chinese - now I work in Clinical Research | |
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| BA in anthropology. It does come in handy; I'm a bus driver in public transportation. 😀 | |
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| Psychology degree. After nine years in human services work I switched to programming full-time in 1999. Never looked back, never been happier. | |
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| One of my colleagues has a BA+PhD in linguistics and works in data science now. | |
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| Film school... work in law now. | |
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| BA in English. Now run a home improvement business doing mostly carpentry and painting and a lot of small handyman jobs. | |
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| Philosophy, became an RN, now retired. | |
| Being able to think logically is the core of philosophy. A skill sadly lacking in too many people. | |
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| Got an art degree that my parents worried about. | |
| I knew there would always be a need for graphic designers. Was making $40k straight out of college. | |
| Saved up $120k by the time I was 25. | |
| I hit a salary ceiling of $45k that I could not break through. So I dropped graphic design and went into web. | |
| Now I'm a web manager working from home making $76k. | |
| I'm happy and work maybe 30-90 minutes per day. | |
| ---- | |
| None -> Senior software engineer | |
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| Sales of course | |
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| I see so many psych majors here, didn't know it was considered "useless". I'm a double major, psychology is one of them, currently on scholarship in grad school working towards my thesis, pretty much planning to be in academia for several years now. and use my psychology major a lot for my thesis | |
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| I smoke crack and steal trash bags to huff car exhausts | |
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| My community college counselor had a masters in Philosophy. | |
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| BA in Media Studies; work as a TV Engineer now. | |
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| Anthropology bachelors and masters. Now work in pharma in QA…so glad I failed out of my doctorate program | |
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| I have a degree in forensic psychology, I actually work with children in crisis vs the forensic side but I am using my degree at least. Plus it got me out of retail! | |
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| I have an associate’s degree in business administration. I work as a project manager at a procurement / supply chain business. I make just above $50k a year. | |
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| Sociology. I'm a private aircraft broker. | |
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| MBA. Home Depot. | |
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| I have a master's degree in library science. Literally every library job I applied to turned me down and a lot of the other ones are either part time or full time that requires more experience than I have. Weirdly enough, I do customer service for a book publisher now and they pay me more than some of the full time library jobs offered. | |
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| Drama degree. CEO of a multi million dollar company. | |
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| Bachelor of Digital Media (arts degree) | |
| I’m now in pharmaceutical manufacturing, which I love | |
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| Got my BFA in Photography in 2018; I’ve been running my own photography business full-time for the past 3 years 🥹 (although, of course, if I had known then that I was gonna take the entrepreneurial route, I would’ve gotten a business degree 😂) | |
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| Forensic science degree > supply chain | |
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| No joke, double minor on English and Folklore. I took the folklore bc my ADHD told me I wouldn't survive 5 years of uni without *some* fun courses.... I'm now an adult instructor. | |
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| Philosophy BA. English lit MA (doubled down on useless) and now I sell supplies to the food service and hospitality industries. Wish I'd gotten here a bit sooner... Better late than never I suppose. | |
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| Bfa in photography. I have made 100% of my income from full time photography jobs since I graduated | |
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| go to law school It worked 40 years ago | |
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| I’ll add my painting BFA on here even though it’s not really useless, but many in our society consider it that way. | |
| Make paintings and sculpture. Work as a self employed cabinetmaker/carpenter to pay bills, which I also usually enjoy. Also allows me to justify renting a larger workspace | |
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| Ba honours in game design and now I'm a psychiatric nurse | |
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| BA in creative writing. I'm a data analyst now. | |
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| Bachelor of Creative Media. I’m a paralegal. | |
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| ideate suicide mostly | |
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| BA Psychology | |
| MA Media Studies | |
| I work at a college, supporting faculty in best practices in teaching with technology as determined by research. Am also getting a doctorate in education. | |
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| Political science —> tech role at FAANG. Took an expensive grad school degree to fix that mistake | |
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| BA in archaeology and MA in museum studies - work for the gov designing exhibits. | |
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| comp sci. i cry | |
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| Music and Theatre Arts: graphic design, marketing, HR, and business operations. | |
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| I got my undergrad degree - BA in anthropology. I’m now a SR. supply chain manager and I absolutely love what I do. I ended up going back and getting my masters degree in supply chain management. | |
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| SImple, make tea, sip and netflix. (Popcorn too if u want to add ) | |
| ​ | |
| Prolly some course in coding/web-dev or build some course to teach pppl abt GPT :smirk: | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in Costume Design. I'm a full-time textile artist who does wool sculptures artist and specializes in needle felting. I've been a full-time CD and a part-time CD who also taught Art. I've been a full time Art teacher, but that drove me completely crazy bc the American school system is really screwed up, so now I teach felting while selling my art. I'm still building my business, but I'm having a blast and paying my bills. | |
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| Religious studies degree, I'm an English teacher in Korea | |
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| BA in Political Science/International Studies | |
| Started working as a technical engineer for a blasting/explosives company within a year of graduating | |
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| This thread is so uplifting. I don't know if I want to stay in the career I chose, and I see now that my college degree doesn't have to pigeon hole me. | |
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| BA in film and AA in graphic design. No longer have a passion for it. Now I work at a casino in the slots department and absolutely love what I do. | |
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| Two university degrees, Law and Business admin. | |
| After I finished, I started as a Tester> QA Analist > QA manager > Risk Assessment and process improvement> fuck it all. | |
| Studied a for a civil servant position and now I work as an admin. assistant, low wage, low stress, secure and with some benefits. | |
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| Bachelors degree in cinematic arts. I am a broadcast engineer at a tv studio | |
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| Humanities major. I'm a software engineer now. | |
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| Studio Art. IT | |
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| I double majored in German and Humanities. I run a print production and mail office now. In an English-speaking country. | |
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| Anthro/Sociology double major, Director of Compliance for a utility company. | |
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| I'm studying psychology and sociology so we'll see🥲 my friend studied geography and classics, is now a healthcare assistant studying to be a nurse. | |
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| Landlord | |
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| MA Geo/Environmental Resources | |
| Housekeeper | |
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| Graphic design | |
| I’m now a full stack designer/developer/engineer. Figured better to keep learning so I expanded my skillset past print design since web design was in its infancy when I graduated. | |
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| Political Science with an Emphasis in Strategic Sciences. I thought about going into government. But the more I learned about the American political system the more and more I became disillusioned; especially after my stint in Air Force Intel and seeing just the cluster-fuck little lies can do. | |
| Now I do wholesaling for plumbing and HVAC. I still technically use my degree with regards to following specifications to government contracts; but at least I know my work won’t directly lead to the downfall of the nation. | |
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| BA International Studies, now a territory manager for an imagery company. I guess it’s sort of related since I work for an international company, but most people with my major go into like UN-related stuff or the Peace Corp. | |
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| Studio Art degree here! And I’m in a high level marketing position for an A&E firm. | |
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| Bachelor's degree in healthcare administration. | |
| They lied when they said there's a shortage of healthcare admins. What they should have said was *"a shortage of healthcare admins willing to work for free as permanent interns."* | |
| Now I work as a shipwright welder. | |
| ---- | |
| English major. I work for a large book publisher. | |
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| Graphic Designer to Operational/Material Logistics for a major Non-Profits Disaster Services Department. | |
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| Psych degree: government employee | |
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| I went back for a nursing degree at 40, and worked in research. First degree was in French. | |
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| Undergrad in Art Art History, MFA in Opera (Tech and vocal performance) | |
| I produce/direct live sports for our TV network and for ESPN, CBS, etc. And I narrate as a side hustle. | |
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| BA history, work as a battery tech for an experimental aerospace company | |
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| BA in political science -> business immigration law paralegal 75k | |
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| I’m a pilot | |
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| BS in Graphic Communications with an emphasis in Print. I now have a risk and compliance job in the financial industry. | |
| I worked full time during college in banking then quit after graduating to take a job in the area of my degree (and a noticeable pay cut). Six months later I had to start paying back my student loans and couldn't afford to on what I was making so I went back to banking and grew that into a career. | |
| Still did graphic design stuff on the side for a non profit until all my tech became obsolete. | |
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| Bachelor in fashion design, now a restaurant manager | |
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| Sociology. Electrician now. | |
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| Sociology -> land development | |
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| Went back to school and learned a trade | |
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| i got a business degree and I work as a failure these days | |
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| Not useless per se but useless to me. Management Information Systems. I call it a cousin to an IT type degree. it’s supposed to bridge the gap between business managers and IT professionals but all it did was leave me in the gap. I interviewed for several jobs that this degree was supposed to be aiming for and I realized I didn’t actually know anything about IT. I even interviewed with a guy who has the same degree from the same uni as I went to, had many of the same professors as I did and he cut the interview off during the first question. He should know that that degree program doesn’t teach anything about fixing computers, lol. First question he asked was about how to use Task Manager to diagnose computer problems. This dude learned all of his IT/networking in the military so he already knows all of this stuff, I’m not a computer savant and don’t know shit about fixing them. I thought I was trying to be more of a business analyst. I did finish and have that diploma on the wall though. I’m a design engineer now which is fancy talk for a drafter, which is more my speed anyway. | |
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| Went to college for a degree in physical science, now I’m an out of shape tattoo artist 😂 | |
| ---- | |
| Undergrad is psychology, currently a software engineer. I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, but I loved the subject. | |
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| Classics — I run a small marketing team for a health tech company. | |
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| Dental insurance verification | |
| ---- | |
| Chemical engineering degree. Work as a translator and own a small 3D printing business. Also currently studying for a public job as a banking analyst. | |
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| I have a degree in communications, I work at a knitting wholesale company | |
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| Got a degree in media arts focusing on film and TV | |
| Now I cut dogs hair | |
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| Double majored: English and Studio Art | |
| Licensed Social Worker | |
| ---- | |
| I studied classical music. | |
| I’m a musician. | |
| Sometimes I just wish I were a cowboy. | |
| ---- | |
| Did my bachelor's in history and a master's in international affairs. I'm now a geopolitical risk consultant focused on the energy market | |
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| PhD in music and now I’m a systems administrator. | |
| ---- | |
| Work in real estate and development. Not saving the world like I'd hoped for but keeps me comfortable | |
| ---- | |
| MA in Folk Studies. | |
| I plan folk festivals. Love it but I make terrible money. Just graduated 6 months ago tho, haven’t reached giving up stage (yet?) | |
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| BA in Spanish, accounts payable now | |
| ---- | |
| Man. These responses are SO disheartening what people define as a "useless degree" *looks at English and psych double majors* | |
| ---- | |
| Got a journalism degree and it worked out. I'm in TV news. | |
| ---- | |
| BA french -> surf instructor -> program specialist at nonprofit connecting community w/ ocean for 6 years -> unemployed and living with my parents | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Communication Studies - now work in tech for a giant bank. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Japanese. I’m now an electrician. | |
| Funny enough, I actually did use my degree quite a bit post college. Lived and worked in Japan, work in Japanese companies. But ultimately it didn’t pay enough. | |
| Another reason it’s even more useless is because my Japanese is pretty bad for a person who has a degree in it. That’s on me for not trying harder though lol | |
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| Mathematics Degree > I initially went into Insurance, now I freelance Web Development | |
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| Graphic design major and now work as an rbt with autistic kids. | |
| ---- | |
| Have a masters degree in mechanical engineering, which—while not useless in the traditional sense—does nothing for my career as a software developer. | |
| ---- | |
| I graduated with an art degree. I framed pictures for several years, and I’m apprenticing as a glazier now. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Philosophy. Went to law school, passed the bar, became an attorney. | |
| 0/10 do not recommend. | |
| ---- | |
| Biology. I manage a fast food restaurant. | |
| ---- | |
| Bcs animal Biology , low level employee at a warehouse with happy boxes | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in chemistry. Was a crab fisherman for the first 2 years after graduating. Back in school now to figure out whether I want to go to grad school so that I can get a chem job in the states or something after getting a PhD, or transition into computer science instead. | |
| ---- | |
| Communication master degree. I'm a copywriter for a big national (Italian) sportswear retailer | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Digital Television Production. Feeling stuck as a Operations Manager/Head Crew Chief at a crewing firm. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Anthropology. After getting it, I became an Account Manager for a software company. It's because I worked at an auto insurance company and the software rep who would come in said I handled my annoying managers very well. I was working from home and traveling to see clients a few days a week. I had meetings in other states. I would stay at hotels and go shopping at night or walk the beaches in California. | |
| I met my husband at a client's office. After getting married and having a baby and losing that job, I've been a Target cashier, receptionist, wedding coordinator and florist. The places all had the worst small business owners. Then we moved to a new state and I found a place that trained me how to be a call center rep. That company said I had to start work at 4:30am when it got busy. So I quit and found a call center job at a medical insurance company. I was promoted last year to the grievances and appeals dept. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Criminal Justice. | |
| Last 24 years working in international commodities (oil) trading and trans-oceanic shipping. | |
| ---- | |
| Tool and Die. I stupidly dropped out 2-3 classes from graduating because I was burned out and also the job market was zero for that kind of work at the time. I never got a job as a machinist and bounced around until I got into IT. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Film Production, did freelance a few years then retired at 25, making roughly $10k/yr after travel expenses. Commercial Plumbing Foreman now, 10 years later, making six figures. | |
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| Bachelor's degree in Creative & Professional Writing. I'm a carer. | |
| ---- | |
| Mine is useless because I don't use it, not because its actually useless. Bachelor's of Science in Robotics Engineering. I'm an infantryman in the Army. | |
| ---- | |
| English Lit degree. Worked in construction, then became a stay at home dad and now I’m an English teacher. | |
| ---- | |
| English degree here. Now I manage a piping fabshop and am a welding inspector. Never made a nickel with that piece of paper. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's of Arts in Media - Joined the military | |
| ---- | |
| I got two « useless » degrees: English and French. I’m American, but I live in France now and work at a French tech startup. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a bachelors in English Theory, and a MA and Phd in Anthropology. I am a professional archaeologist now, and my degree in English has been instrumental in getting me jobs because archaeologists are generally terrible writers. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology, Stay at home mom | |
| ---- | |
| Applied Computing. Can't code. Humble warehouse worker. | |
| Considering government jobs. | |
| ---- | |
| Buddy of mine got a degree in Egyptology, the only job that comes from that is education so you can give others a degree in Egyptology. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Christian Ministry → ESL teacher abroad | |
| (Left the faith shortly after earning that degree) | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English & Art, now a VP/CIO. | |
| It has been a strange, strange path for sure | |
| ---- | |
| History degree. Now work as a market researcher. | |
| I even went a couple years in a history Ph.D program before realizing that the flat broke grad student trope wasn’t ending for a most of my colleagues once they finished. Finally saw the light and decided to pursue other options. | |
| However, I use many of the skills I gained from my degree every day in my job- research and analysis, writing, communication. So, there’s that at least! | |
| ---- | |
| Live out of my car. English and psychology | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in History. Assistant Project Manager/Safety Director for a small mechanical contracting company. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in 18th Century British History - I work in a call centre and want to unalive myself daily 👌🏻 | |
| ---- | |
| brew beer | |
| ---- | |
| I have a couple "useless" degrees a BA in History and Poli Sci and an MA in History. I'm a Network admin at a Fintech. | |
| ---- | |
| Music and HVAC. I’m an operations and HR manager for a biotech company. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English and philosophy. | |
| Marketing in biotech. | |
| So much for all the STEM folks who thought they had the ins on all the good jobs. I am not useless at all. | |
| ---- | |
| Bach in Psych. Work at a certain fruit stand lol | |
| ---- | |
| I have degrees in Psychology and Speculative Fiction Literature - yes, a BA in Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror Lit. | |
| I worked in the books biz and geek book and media events in various roles for 32 years. Then got a position at IBM as a tech and wound up in IT for 10 years. | |
| All through both of my careers, I've sold video game, book, and film reviews and market copy. | |
| I studied what interested me and gave me a good understanding of the modern world and in what I stayed interested in for the rest of my life. Having a background in Psych and Soc led to fascinating work researching dept sales trends in different areas of the US - you probably wouldn't believe how badly conservatives come off when analyzing trends of what types of book and which authors sell to whom in what combinations. | |
| I've never not made at least some of my money writing, regardless of my primary career path, and my learning about life and world through the lens of my chosen education has informed my every single day. So I certainly don't think of my less-than-concrete disciplines expertises as wasted effort or time. | |
| I may not be able to build an airplane, but I can explain why we need them and how we engage with the ideas of and the social and societal benefits of funding and studying that of planes. You'd certainly want people like me around when trying to find funding or sway an audience or impart information. | |
| ---- | |
| Studied Ecology and Wildlife, I work as a prison guard now. | |
| ---- | |
| BA Criminology and Criminal Justicr. CEO of a subsidiary of a major company in Korea. | |
| ---- | |
| Film degree…I work in manufacturing engineering as management. | |
| ---- | |
| Communication Theory, English and Irish Lit | |
| Initially worked as a route planner for parcels company "now defunct" also worked as a parts picker for a burglar alarm manufacturer, very short term. | |
| Applied for the Civil Service and was taken on as a management trainee moved into computing spent 10 years with MOD until made redundant. | |
| Worked as a systems trainer for DOE for a couple of years left because project finished. | |
| HP as sales technical support great job the printers sales team round the country doing demos. | |
| Film and TV production company for 9 years until I had a minor stroke, after 18 months clean bill of health did contract trucking days out only. | |
| Ended up running ad supervising Farmers Markets until I retired "this was the best job of all" | |
| So not bad for a so called mickey mouse degree. | |
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| Jounalism to Wildlife Trust advisor | |
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| Communications... I'm a caregiver to my disabled children and homeschool them because the schools are so, so terrible. It's some comfort that I didn't get a "good" degree and didn't have a lofty career. It would've been really devastating to have to give that up. | |
| On the other hand, I do think it has helped me advocate for them. | |
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| BA in Philosophy. | |
| 15 years later, I'm a professor, making 200k. | |
| Wouldn't change a thing. | |
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| I studied theater in school. Retired from the computer industry. | |
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| Fine arts degree -> line cook | |
| I worked in a print shop for years but the only ones making money were the owner and the head printer. | |
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| Bachelor's in philosophy and history, masters in history. | |
| Now teaching at a Quebec junior college getting paid 95k/year to teach exactly what I want. | |
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| Degree in history (wanted to be a teacher), I manage a gas station now. | |
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| BA Arts, Concentration: Graphic Design | |
| Minor, Visual Communications: Advertising | |
| ​ | |
| Worked at some branding studios and ad agencies before starting my own focusing on branding / design / animation. Adjunct lecture sometimes for universities. | |
| Without all the connections in the industry, accolades and client experience I made through the years, striking out on my own would have been wildly unpredictable. | |
| ( [PGCreates.com](https://PGCreates.com) ) | |
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| Political Science degree - now I am a Program Manager in a clinical trial software company. | |
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| I had a useless career as a useless academic. But I'm only playing on words when I say that. I had a great career, and I'm grateful for it. | |
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| International studies-Teach in China | |
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| So many English degrees! English and History double major here, now a project manager for a tech startup | |
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| Business Management- I work in a warehouse. | |
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| Associates degree in Psychology. Now a Sr Business Systems Analyst | |
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| Bachelors in Mass Comm and Electronic Media. I'm an engineering designer now. | |
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| Nutrition degree > Human Resources | |
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| Bachelor's in general studies and psychology. | |
| I drive a truck. | |
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| BA in English, now I’m a nurse. | |
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| Forestry/nature management degree ---> train conductor | |
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| BA in Communication. Worked in marketing, then switched to marketing analytics. Then did a MS in Data Science parttime, now I’m a Data Scientist. | |
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| BA in Psychology. Working overnights self diagnosing myself and others every single night :) | |
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| BA in Spanish, I work in digital marketing | |
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| Human Biology (premed), medical school —> now an accountant. I just did not want to be a dr when I grew up. | |
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| Political Science BS. Went for more schooling, but ultimately ended up as a high school history teacher. | |
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| Bachelors in psychology. I do engineering now. | |
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| With my criminal justice degree I became a handyman and currently help keep an apartment complex running. I get paid almost as well as a municipal cop with basically zero risk. They get better retirements, though. On the other hand I start an apprenticeship with the local electricians' union this year, so my retirement's gonna be sweet anyway. | |
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| Degree in Speech Communication (what’s speech communication you ask? No idea). Now i move plants around on film sets. | |
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| Bachelor of fine arts in animation. Now I manage a team of visual effects artists and make good money (combined with my spouse who has a literature degree and is a game designer we make very good money). Paid off my student loans (70k) with my income alone by 30 and bought my first house with a 20% down payment that I saved by 33. | |
| Still remember all the "you're gonna work at Starbucks" jokes coming from insecure assholes back in the day but they were wrong. That said being a barista is an important job and I always tip well because baristas deserve it. | |
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| International Relations/Studies. I work in finance as an AML officer now. | |
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| I don't know that Reddit would consider it useless, but I got my degree in English (concentration: literature) with zero intention or desire to teach. | |
| I am now almost a decade into a career in consulting. I helped my boss start our company as her only employee. We are hired by schools/districts to manage the federal meal programs (National School Lunch, School Breakfast, etc.) for them. Basically, we know all the regulations/compliance and we hand-hold through it all. We do the admin/paperwork side as well so they don't have to hire their own employees to handle it. | |
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| You can get a degree in Useless? | |
| I'm in, and can get credits for prior learning to I bet. | |
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| I have a BA in Theater and I've spent the last decade as a SharePoint developer and now moving into a Power Platform developer role. Although I don't think I would have gotten my foot in the door without the degree. | |
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| Ba in Poli Sci. I’m in construction | |
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| Ph.D. in communications. | |
| I run a collegiate esports program. | |
| It was not my plan originally, but I'm happy with the results so far. | |
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| BS in business management, graduated in 2009, just got hired at a cannabis farm so maybe it'll finally go to use in an industry I'm very interested in 🤷♂️ | |
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| Philosophy degree - Chef. Also my sous chef has a degree in Linguistics. We both prefer our line of work. | |
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| English degree, now a grant writer. | |
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| Accounting and finance bachelor's. | |
| Now working a payroll job that I'm the only person that has a degree. How'd I end up here? Because I graduated in 2015 (the peak of accounting graduates) and no one would hire anyone that didn't have 150 credits and one section of the exam done. Hell, AP/AR hiring told me I needed 5 years experience to get hired for their roles. | |
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| Psychology degree, am now an air traffic controller | |
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| English BA/ Financial Advisor. It’s actually a really good fit. | |
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| 1500 comments useless degrees | |
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| BS in Electronic Media and Film. I grew up playing music from a young age, and my recording/studio experience let me breeze through an "audio production" track after nearly flunking out of several other career paths. | |
| Now I work at a Consumer Protection law firm. | |
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| Not me, but a friend has a degree in Russian History and wound-up fixing computer monitors. | |
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| History degree, I’m an archaeologist | |
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| Majored in History. I teach Personal Finance now. Never thought I’d be doing this… | |
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| BA in English, I teach Special Education English to kids with disabilities like ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism. | |
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| Welding and Machining. I now just work in a welding supply store lol | |
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| BA in Fine Arts -> Diesel Mechanic | |
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| Bachelors Degree in electrical engineering. I serve tables in Ybor, Florida now. I make 85k a year working 30-35 hours a week. Even with a doctorate degree in my field, I could not match those numbers. | |
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| Family Science degree. Now I work in the life insurance industry. | |
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| Wait tables | |
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| Journalism. I’m a deli manager. | |
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| BA in Criminal Justice and Sociology and I’m a Sheriff’s Correctional Officer. Turns out law enforcement doesn’t care. It will get you paid a little bit more if you get into patrol but at the end of the day no agency cares. The good ole boy, buddy system and family will trump my BA every time. In fact I flat out know it has when I got out of college. | |
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| Haven’t seen a single person in here say bachelor of science or natural resource conservation. | |
| Guess I really am a failure. | |
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| Associates in social work which is as good as a high school diploma. Thankfully It didn't cost me anything to get it. Now I work for one of the bIG 3 auto manufacturers as a metal model maker making way more than social work. | |
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| Physical Education and Health Bachelor's Degree with a K-12 Teaching Certificate. I am in sales now. | |
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| Biblical theology degree, which I dropped out of after 2 years. Not remotely religious now. I was a web developer for years, now in the process of setting up a pottery business. The most useful it's ever come in handy is arguing with religious nuts. | |
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| BA in History. | |
| Grain Originator. I work for a grain elevator and I am responsible for buying and forward contracting grain from producers. | |
| Previous jobs: Mechanic, Truck Driver, Dispatcher, crop input sales, heavy equipment operator. | |
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| Fine arts degree, I’ve had a meandering career path but I currently develop software for motion capture. | |
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| Bachelors in psychology. Luckily I was wounded in Iraq (yea I just said that) and I get a nice disability check from the VA and social security. So no work for me and a lifetime of ptsd, but at least I have income that is definitely more than I’d be making working some shit job for 13 dollars an hour at a psychiatric hospital | |
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| Liberal Studies. Software Engineer. | |
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| BA in English. I sell new construction homes. I discovered I can talk to people on a wide variety of topics. | |
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| Fashion Design. | |
| I pattern industrial tool bags. I'm 1% happier when somebody asks for a color besides black. | |
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| History & Economics degree, now a data engineer | |
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| History. I now work in logistics for a trucking company. | |
| I did work at my dream history job at a museum for a bit part time. They wanted to hire me full time but it was significantly less then i was making in logistics and i had a new baby so had to pass. If they had offered me that job right out of college it would have been much more feasible. | |
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| B.S. in music/piano performance. Work in Tool and Die. | |
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| Trade show industry | |
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| Classics. I'm a translator now. Not for Latin, mostly, but I picked up Arabic at the same time and the Classics degree taught me how to translate in general, so I'm still using it. | |
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| BFA in graphic design. Turns out I suck ass at graphic design but my school didn't offer a degree in illustration. I'm an animal technician for a rodent lab now. | |
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| BA in English, MHP (Master's in Historic Preservation). After 25 years selling/marketing IT solutions, I own my own IT business. :) | |
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| BA in English Literature — I own a bar 🤷 | |
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| Psychology. Currently a stay at home dad. | |
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| BA in Digital Media Communications as it was the closest thing my school had to a Marketing/Advertising program at the time. Graduated and found that marketing is extremely difficult to get a job in (in certain cities before remote was an option and if you wanted to be anything other than an unpaid intern), so I spent a fair amount of time unemployed surviving on freelance work. I got a job that changed my life on Facebook working for a renewables company doing community relations, finally found my way into leading the marketing team, and then that team was shut down. | |
| Somehow - I'm in land development now. 🤷♂️ Life is weird like that. | |
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| I find it hard to think any education is "useless". Your formal education may not match your profession, but the work you put into achieving the education prepared you either directly or indirectly for whatever it is that you end up doing. Also, it makes you a more well rounded person. | |
| As a previous poster said: "Life is a journey ". | |
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| BA in Gender Studies and Social Justice. Surprisingly... coming into fashion however I work in sponsorships and events | |
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| 3d studio art, although there are a few exceptions that could work out by working for a company, selling art and freelancing digital is still hard to make a living from. So I work at a medical device company fixing imaging equipment for 55k a year. Not doing too bad and I wouldn't have gotten the higher salary / responsibility for my role if I wasn't educated, granted I have an electro mechanical background that helped me get my foot in the door. | |
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| B.A. in Advertising. Modern slave in a family business. | |
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| Bachelor's in Liberal Studies. Cybersecurity Engineer. | |
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| Associates in Graphic Design and a certificate in Multimedia Design. I worked at UPS during college and just stayed in supply chain changing jobs every 3-5 years to increase pay. I struggled for 10 of 16 years since then making no money to raise my family but I’m a Project Manager at one of the largest supply chain companies in the world and make well into six figures now. | |
| I ended up getting my BS and then my MBA both online at WGU relatively quickly. That contributed but what helped was the desire to do more and be more for my wife and kids. I was dead broke and poor from leaving my parents at 18 to roughly around 30 before I started to make money and things paid off. | |
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| city planning degree and I talk to truck drivers (fleet dispatcher) | |
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| Art History- medical librarian | |
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| Master's in creative writing. | |
| I'm a proofreader for municipal codes and am hoping to get my debut novel out this year. | |
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| Don’t work | |
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| I want my kids to read this subreddit. | |
| I personally don’t believe that there is a “useless” degree. I should’ve gotten mine. | |
| I know a human that has a degree from a University in nuclear physics. But he has been happily making a living repairing antique furniture for over 50 years. | |
| Make it so. | |
| Also, have No degree, own outright no mortgage , looking at buying a second home and have a sizable retirement. But lived poor and saved from working heavy industries. I have a broken back now. | |
| But the best thing is becoming friends with/finding Jehovah in your life. | |
| Sometimes in life your wife dies or someone else you really love dies, and you don’t worry about degrees. | |
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| BA in History. Wanted to spend my hours with an Archaeological team on historic sites, but the pay was garbage and most groups wanted you to do years of volunteer work first. | |
| Now I’m an Operations Manager at a manufacturing facility. It pays quite well, but I hate every minute of it. | |
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| Legal studies degree. I'm a tax attorney. | |
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| Philosophy BA, I teach 2nd grade. | |
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| MA in philosophy + a half finished PhD. I’m a baker now. | |
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| Journalism and Mass Communication, went back for 2 years to get Computer Science Bachelors. Now a software dev | |
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| High School dropout - IT Director | |
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| Political science at a fancy college in Washington, DC. now i work in sales LOL | |
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| English degree now Medical Billing Manager | |
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| Flew jets for forty-five years for both the military and the airlines. Couldn't have worked out better. | |
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| Was getting my theatre degree but dropped out. I'm on disability now. Most of my friends from school do several shows a year and support themselves with an arts-related job | |
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| I'm looking for the "I have a PHD in biochemistry, and now I have an old fans" post | |
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| Bachelor’s degree in history. Now I’m a SAHM. I guess it was my Mrs degree | |
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| Sport science degree, airline pilot. | |
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| Psychology and teaching English as a Second language degree. Tenured college professor now. | |
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| I enjoy watching television. | |
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| English literature degree. Am now a lawyer. I guess I realized my dream of writing for a living 🤣😂 | |
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| BS degree in Psychology, Chemistry minor. | |
| I've been a science teacher, lab technician, head brewer, and now I'm QA Manager for a cannabis processor. | |
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| BA in philosophy. Private piano teacher. | |
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| History, minor in Poli Sci- now I’m a director of engineering | |
| We need MORE liberal arts, not less. | |
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| Art-photography concentration :: IT Manager. To be fair I did use my degree to get in through media production. | |
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| B.A. Political Science, M.A. Public Admin, B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy. | |
| I build decision support systems (DSS), and moving into quatum computing-based DSS for highly complex problems. | |
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| Comparative Religion degree. I am a banker. | |
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| Got an art history degree. Now, I’m a research consultant working in STEM. Very useful that art history degree | |
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| Sculpture and art history. I’m a mechanic. | |
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| History degree.. HRIS admin now | |
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| Political Science. 74D. | |
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| Double majored in philosophy and politics. Ended up going to law school, though, and both of those gave me good tools for the more abstract parts of law that they teach you. Helped me as a writer and researcher, too! | |
| As an actual lawyer, though, I hardly use a quarter of what I studied in law school, much less what I studied in college. | |
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| I got my bachelor's in Recreation Management with a focus in Outdoor Experiential Education. | |
| I build and renovate homes! | |
| I plan to return back to my degree-related field, as it's really what brings me joy and what I'm passionate about. | |
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| Psych degree. I'm in sales. Under 40 hour weeks company car and a nice salary. Could be worse. | |
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| BFA, illustration. Worked as a graphic designer for a few years before switching into a software engineer. | |
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| Went back and got an actually useful degree in veterinary medicine. Now I’m a licensed veterinary nurse. | |
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| Studied theoretical/pure math, now a data scientist surrounded by other ex math and physics majors who had to endure ‘well what are you gonna do with that’ all through college. Wish I could see what they’re up to now. | |
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| I'm a tailor. | |
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| Anthropology. | |
| I work in real estate. | |
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| Bachelor's and master's degrees in art history. Lawyer now. No regrets! | |
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| Ask my brother. | |
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| My undergrad was in Global Studies (history and language). Couldn’t do anything with it upon graduating, so I went on to get my Master’s in Speech-Language Pathology. Hated working in it that field when I finally got out into the real world, so now, I’m a REALTOR® and love what I do. It was a long, weird path to get here, but it’s a journey. | |
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| International relations. Retail exec. 40 years. | |
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| BA in psychology. I’m a chef. | |
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| My degree is in k-12 art and design education. No one thought I’d get a job as an art teacher but I’ve been doing it for almost 8 years now. | |
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| Went back to study nursing - now clearing 130K/ year in northern CA | |
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| I'll preface this by pointing out that I live in the US. Outside the US, YMMV. | |
| I followed my useless BFA (graphic design emphasis) degree with a non-useless BS in computer science. | |
| Once you have one degree, you can get into "post-bacc" degree programs that generally just focus on the courses for your major. You already completed your general ed requirements so they don't need to be repeated. | |
| If you have a local community college and a number of state universities to choose from, odds are good the community college has transfer/exchange programs for many majors at the universities so you can take a nice chunk of the classes locally and for less $$ than at a university. Lots of universities do the e-campus thing, too, so you can complete your degree and graduate having never set foot on the university campus. (E-campus tuition tends to be priced like out of state tuition so that may be a deal breaker. Living near a university is best if you can swing it.) | |
| If that's not your thing, that's cool. I'd be dead in the water career-wise if I hadn't corrected my course with the second degree so I figured I'd suggest it. | |
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| Got my BS in Biology/Chemistry. Basically the Pre-Med degree. I went to school post military and by the time I got my BS, I was out of money and didn’t have much of a support system. Never ended up taking the MCAT. I got a job as a nurse recruiter. 7 years later I run the office I started at. | |
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| I got a sociology degree, I'm a software engineer now. I worked at a behavioral hospital once and knew it wasn't for me. I started repairing computers and teaching myself how to code, and applying for thousands of jobs. | |
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| Mines useful and I still don’t use it: Electrical Engineering. I’m a phlebotomist right now | |
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| Film degree -> Site Reliability Engineer | |
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| BA in Political Science, went to law school, am a lawyer. | |
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| BA in theatre because "there's always jobs in theatre." | |
| I'm an outsourced receptionist for a big accounting firm. They're very kind and appreciative. | |
| I still have many regrets. | |
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| Liberal arts degree to ad account services, now into operations. | |
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| Bachelor's of Fine Art in Animation. | |
| I now work part-time at a grocery store, and just applied for unemployment because my hours were severely cut! | |
| Weee.... | |
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| Have a degree in Communications. I am in middle management running a government contracting team. | |
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| Bachelor’s of Computer Science. I manage a Panera. I’ve had younger friends in the field tell me that no one will hire me because I’m too old. I’m only 34. | |
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| BA in English Lit and another in Criminal Justice. | |
| Worked for IBM for years, now working at a medical software company. | |
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| B.com degree 🗿 | |
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| BA communication-> Firefighter | |
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| Social Sciences degree -> working in tech as a data consultant | |
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| BA in English, I work in finance | |
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| Bachelor in Communications. I work in sales and use all my interpersonal communication classes almost every day. | |
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| It sure why that’s in quotes. Some are def useless | |
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| BS in Sociology, MS in Plant & Soil Science. Am an electrician. | |
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| Got a degree in music. Now I'm a dentist. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Music Technology and Violin, now I'm a freelance Gaffer and Semi-Pro Pool Player. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors Degree in Sociology. I’m in accounting for a multi-state labor union funds office now. Life led me here, I’m happy about it. | |
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| Music. I’m a musician. | |
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| Got my BA in Art History. I work in special events and sponsorships for a fairly large event management company. | |
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| BA in French and Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies and I’m now an Executive Assistant/Project Manager. | |
| ---- | |
| Bitching about why they aren't getting a bailout from sleepy joe because they wanted to follow their "passion", not what was practical. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s in Sociology with a minor in Classical Studies…I ended up working retail (it paid way more money) until I got pregnant. I’m a stay at home mom now. | |
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| I have a bachelor la in political science and I’m a national deployments manager for a fortune 100 company | |
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| BS Journalism, I do tech sales now | |
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| Bachelors in English. Sports director for parks and rec. | |
| It’s not totally useless but mostly. | |
| ---- | |
| Political Science, with intent for law school. I'm a programmer now. | |
| I had a short and turmoil filled career in politics (one of the few from my class who actually went on to do something with it), but I found that I liked doing all the data analysis work and pivoted into programming. | |
| ---- | |
| Fine Art (Painting), in Ireland. Now work with dogs at a Canine Country Club (fancy nature focused pet hotel) in Taiwan. | |
| ---- | |
| Economics degree and now a pilot at a regional airline. The one thing that degree did for me was help me save and budget adequately for all the flight training costs lol | |
| ---- | |
| History degree, director of sales for a multi national company | |
| ---- | |
| Sociology degree, now I’m a nurse- 2 bachelors degrees for the price of 2! | |
| ---- | |
| Got a degree in political science | |
| Now work in sales lol | |
| The most I ever used my degree was when people asked me about the 2020 and the upcoming 2024 election | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in Creative Writing, I'm a published author and touring spoken word poet. | |
| ---- | |
| Not me but someone I know. Liberal arts degree. They work in a Daycare center. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English Lit, working as a finance analyst in a healthcare system. I had a friend who’s an IT cloud engineer recently ask if I’d still get this degree, given the chance of a do-over, and the answer is unequivocally yes. Loved the process and subject matter, and learned a lot that has translated well into the non-related roles I’ve held. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA, painting major. Work | |
| in vet med now. Doesn’t pay great but it’s incredibly fulfilling and most veterinary places have programs to pay for further education, which I’m also pursuing. | |
| ---- | |
| 2 bachelors degrees in music. I’m a corporate buyer for a large distributor. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Literature and MS in education, I’m a middle school English teacher. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a BA in Political Science. I had originally wanted to work in Politics or go to law school. I decided I didn't want to work the hours more attorneys are required to work, so now I make an okay living as a paralegal. There's some decent growth potential and I make more money than some of the attorneys I know. | |
| I don't love working in law and I am always plotting my escape from the field, but it's engaging and interesting and it can be really fun. If you had told me even 5 years ago I would still be working in law now I would not believe you lol | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Anthropology. I'm a machine mechanic at the USPS. | |
| ---- | |
| Undergrads in Biology and Ethics, Masters in Conflict Studies, certs in counseling. | |
| Ended up as a Technical Project Manager and on a few research boards (TBI and veteran justice programs) | |
| ---- | |
| Political Science degree - I’m now an inside sales account manager for a paper and paper based packaging manufacturing company. I had been in restaurants for 10 years before, though… | |
| ---- | |
| Graphic design! Although I did learn some good info- it’s basically a useless degree. I run an embroidery department and make decent money. Taught myself everything | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in aeronautics. I fly planes now | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Film. I'm an airline pilot now. I always knew what I wanted to do and just needed a degree in anything, you'd be surprised how many of us have art degrees! | |
| ---- | |
| anthropology->dentist, lucky degree doesnt matter | |
| ---- | |
| History degree... Now a software engineer... To be fair i was in an engineering program but fell behind in classes and would've had to add a 5th year to complete. History was one of the few options i had to graduate in 4 years and avoid adding another 7k or so in student loans | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Buiness Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems. Received it in 2018, spent 2 years looking for anything even just regular retail work. Rejected everywhere, pandemic hit, now I'm a househusband getting an associates in Computer Science. I hate being a househusband. I just want to sit in a cubicle doing paperwork or coding or something! | |
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| Psychology: trauma therapist soon to be working with psychedelics to heal trauma 🍄🙌🏽 | |
| ---- | |
| I guess it depends on who views the degree as useless. | |
| My father wanted me to a degree in civil engineering as he was a surveyor. I studied biomedical engineering (later got a master's in mechanical engineering). Up to the time I graduated, he told me that my degree was useless, and I should return home and learn a trade. | |
| I studied what I thought was interesting and I think college/university should be what expands your mind/interests/understanding of the world, it shouldn't be considered job training. Two separate things. | |
| Once I graduate, I never had to look for a job, I have always had works in the medical device industry. My first year out of college, my starting salary was more than he ever made as surveyor. | |
| ---- | |
| Learn the phrase," Would you like fries with that?" | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree in photography, work in software as a very senior automation test engineer | |
| ---- | |
| Husband got a Master's in Opera Direction. I didn't realize it when we married, (older couple). I couldn't stop laughing when I realized it. *Opera Direction??* What were you *thinking???* He said it was the early 80's, The Arts were supported then. | |
| Today he teaches high school history, psychology, civics. | |
| ---- | |
| Check the amount of transferable credits you may or may not have to lessen the amount of time/money on second degree. Maybe major your prior minor, if it's a little more universal. But before that, really consider your existing degree to see if you can spin its core discipline differently on your resume/CV. Focus on lesser aspects that may sound more attractive. I had a degree that people outside of the industry were just not interested in until I started focusing on the extreme technicality and precision required in the field, as well as the low failure tolerance and client side communications. | |
| ---- | |
| BA Sociology and Psychology. After graduation I became a corporate trainer. Then made the jump a Big 4 consulting firm. Left that and went in-house for a multinational corporation as an organizational change manager. Now I lead the global OCM team. Make 6 figures and work 35 hours a week. | |
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| BS Physical Anthropology MFA Poetry, work at libraries (circ, processing etc) | |
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| BFA here, it took a long time, but I actually have a job that uses my degree now! I make signs at a nice shop with my own office. I am a rare case, however. It took me about 10 years of doing things way outside of my field until I finally got here. | |
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| BA in Political Science and German. I’m an HR Change and Communications Consultant. | |
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| Dip in hmct, not useless its worthy but, I've been forced to do the course, now I'm an stock market investor. | |
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| I first got a philosophy degree. Then later I went back and got an engineering degree. Much more useful | |
| ---- | |
| I don't have a degree. Failed out of school twice, once at 19 and again at 24, mostly because of undiagnosed ADHD and no clear direction on what I wanted to do. | |
| I'm a Training and Development Specialist now. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s in geography. I work a dead end crappy insurance job. Livin the dream over here…. | |
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| I studied music—I got a stable desk job in music tech immediately out of college and have been there for 7 years. Decent enough pay, great benefits and I’m still able to perform 60-80 times a year in a touring band and take a ton of recording work for clients. | |
| It’s easier than ever to make a living in music right now, you just have to be smart, learn a LOT about how to sell and market yourself, and you have to be willing to sell out here and there. | |
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| I also have an animation degree, I still make animations and some are popular but I mostly make money by directing social media ads for TikTok. Currently trying to figure out how to cross the bridge into social media manager. I just paid off my art school debt, never wish that on anybody. Don’t go to art school it’s a major scam. | |
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| ITT- People who have chosen a different field, but don’t appreciate how their education in other areas is still valuable and plays a part in who they are. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree: Philosophy. | |
| I now have a second degree in Marketing, to answer your second question: Marketing. | |
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| Bachelor's in poetry. Now I'm a PM at a tech startup. | |
| ---- | |
| Deliver mail | |
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| Agriculture degree and now I'm in home improvement sales | |
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| I was on my way to get a Bachelor's Degree in Cyber Security. Got burned out and picked up the keys to a semi truck, and I've been driving ever since. | |
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| BA in Asian Studies. I fly airplanes now. | |
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| Military pilot. Although to be fair, I was going for a useful degree and switched to a useless one as soon as I chose this, in order to get here faster | |
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| Print Journalism degree, graduated in 2009. Somehow I didn't catch the hint when there were zero unpaid internships for the biggest paper in a semi-major city in 2007. | |
| I have job hopped industries every 3 years for the last 15 years. 09-12 were bullshit hand to mouth sales and service jobs. 12-15 corporate operations, 15-17 licensed financial services, 17-20 ran my own deli/catering small business, 20-22 retirement plan admin, 22-24 consulting at a national firm. | |
| I hated every one of these jobs besides running my own business. Working for myself I hated not making any money but at least I didn't resent the workload. | |
| Now I perform a useless task for a useless parasitic industry while full remote. There's no meaning, no fulfillment, barely even the satisfaction of making money. Any gains I've made were eroded by inflation. My savings have been washed away twice in the last decade. I'm 36, married, kid on the way, we own our home. Objectively maybe I'm ahead of the game compared to my age cohort. Subjectively this isn't the life I wanted and there's really no chance of changing it besides buying Powerball tickets. I love my wife and am hopeful for our kid but I have no ability to care for my aging father or save for a meaningful retirement. | |
| The work I wanted to do in college would have maybe meant something, changed some minds or affected the world. The work I do now could be eliminated from the economy with the stroke of a pen in Congress and absolutely nothing about anyone's life would change. Hence me writing this long winded complaint on company time. | |
| ---- | |
| Got a BA in History, actually worked in the field I studied for a few years. Mostly museum work. But now work in Finance... | |
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| Bachelors degree in Music and Masters in IT. I'm a broadcast engineer at a 3 letter entertainment company. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in Mathematics. I currently work as an IT Product Manager. | |
| Wife has a psych degree. She is currently a Project Specialist for the Executive Board of a nonprofit. | |
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| Degree in Philosophy, now building software | |
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| Two Bachelors in acting and vocal performing (singing, essentially). | |
| I work full time in tech, but do still teach children's acting classes part time, and run my own small voice studio! I also participate in about 1-2 local plays/musicals per year as an actor. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree from a diploma mill (college scam that cost thousands from the early 2000’s), I’m a truck driver for a food purveyor. | |
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| BS Biology (Only worthless since my grades were ass and couldn’t pursue med school) | |
| I’m a project manager for an environmental company. | |
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| Bachelor’s in Philosophy, now I’m a customer experience exec in tech. | |
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| Don’t know if this counts really, but I got two associates lmao. I’m a crew lead at a moving company. Definitely wasn’t worth $12000 of debt. | |
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| Bachelor's in Psychology and Criminal Justice, focus on Abnormal Psychology. | |
| Jet Fuel quality control at a private airport. | |
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| I have a BA in Psychology. I’m the compliance administrator for a Medicaid health plan | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s in Psychology and I’m currently job searching. It is way harder than it should be. | |
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| Philosophy Degree, I work for a nonprofit now | |
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| Studied Literature. Now I hold a senior Product Management role at a tech company. Developing and shipping products is actually very similar to developing and presenting papers, so my studies prepared me somewhat well for this role. | |
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| BA in Art History. I’m a Senior Product Manager and my current focus is on new product development in the pet industry. | |
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| Communication, I work in life insurance now | |
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| Interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in biology. Went to nursing school, now going to medical school | |
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| MDiv Masters in Divinity. | |
| HR Coordinator now for a nonprofit | |
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| I was always told my BA in psych was useless and would require a masters and years upon years of experience to land a 'real job'. | |
| Well.. I put in 6 months of further experience (that weren't really necessary per se, just a mere suggestion) to land a position on the school board where I work with kids with designations. Pay is decent, benefits/holiday pay are both great and the job is secure af so I'm glad I ignored those condescending comments. | |
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| Polysci degree from a school that had no reason to be teaching polysci. | |
| \--> US Army Officer chasing terrorists around the middle east | |
| \--> That sucked; get an MBA | |
| \--> Work in finance/accounting/databases | |
| ---- | |
| Have a film degree. I work as a substitute teacher for somewhat steady work and will work on production and casting for some game shows and got lucky enough to get a gig for the Academy Awards last year and looks like I'll be working it again this year. Really want to move away from reality-based film work to scripted, but only time will tell. | |
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| Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics. | |
| I'm a quality control tech for a herb company and I moonlight distilling cannabis oil. | |
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| Due to severe social ineptitude, a.k.a traits of autism preventing me from performing well in interviews, I work retail. I double majored in English and Psych and minored in Spanish. So it's a pretty bolstered degree but... | |
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| History degree... now im a lawyer. I used it to get into law school and for conversation fodder at cocktail parties. | |
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| One of the best parts of working as a chef for 20 years has been chatting with servers about their interesting but useless studies. | |
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| History of science degree! Now I do digital marketing and project management. | |
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| Film Degree, I work as a PC Build Tech for an MSP. And making an indie game on the side. Can’t let the creative gene die. | |
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| Bachelor’s in Human Services, minor in psychology. I’m a self-employed Nail Tech. Never used the degree. | |
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| Degree in Theater. Work in biomedical research (neuroscience and regenerative medicine) | |
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| Degree in Individualized Studies, minors in psychology and anthropology. Basically, I did not complete a major area of study. | |
| I work in manufacturing operations for the pharmaceutical industry. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in Christian Theology, failed out as a pastor within 2 years of graduating, bounced around aimlessly for a few years trying to find my path, ended up getting into tech and now work as a software development manager in information security. | |
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| Everyone is saying Psychology, which my degree was in, but I didn't find it useless because I am doing exactly what I wanted to do -- helping people. | |
| I got my undergrad dual degree in psychology / Justice Studies. When I graduated in 2008, the job market was the worst it had ever been, so I got a job as an environmental laborer for two years (cleaning oil spills, drilling bore holes, testing water, etc. So many odd jobs). I saved my money for grad school and doubled down on a more focused degree in psychology, Applied Behavior Analysis. This allowed me to get many jobs helping people (mostly children / students) with all sorts of behavior problems and learning disabilities. I currently work for a public school as a special education coordinator. | |
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| Nobody ever said so, but I'm starting to think that physics is one of these degrees. | |
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| Political science -> local government communications | |
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| Sociology Degree -> Operations Analyst | |
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| BA in Sociology - retired LE, getting ready to retire as national guard officer, currently federal NG civilian employee. | |
| A degree made me more competitive for LE, got me promoted faster, is required for military officers, made me more competitive for my current federal job. | |
| Nobody has ever asked me to do any sociology, although I've tried to apply Cialdini's work on compliance here and there. | |
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| Double major bachelors degree in history and literature. I’m in nursing school now. | |
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| Medical Billing/Coding and Medical Office Technology. I train new hires at a warehouse :( | |
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| History degree - tech sales | |
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| Studied cinema in university, now I’m a farmer. | |
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| Retail manager | |
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| My spouse - History degree and now a Sr Director of Software Development at a major tech company (think Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Adobe). Crazy | |
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| Bachelor in dropped out, I also deliver mail/packages | |
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| Bachelor’s degree in creative writing. Now a resident physician | |
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| Have a degree in Biomedical Engineering and now a fourth grade school teacher | |
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| Bachelor's and Master's in biology -> Recruiter | |
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| English rhetoric. Now a rancher and metalworker. | |
| The degree did help getting into early jobs as a DOD researcher... Lotsa writing, and lotsa editing other people's writing. | |
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| I have a master's degree in sociology. I taught adjunct at several college campuses until demand dried up; everything's STEM now. So, back to IT. I do web pages for a community college. I'm bored out of my skull, but the benefits are first class and I'll be retiring in a couple more years. | |
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| Logistics assistant and I graduated with a marketing degree after spending a year and a half unemployed. | |
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| I'm curious if there are any gender studies or art history majors out there actually working in that field! | |
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| BA in music and japanese. now i send emails selling urine products | |
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| Law - I don’t do law so it’s useless to me | |
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| Graphics design and photography // | |
| Social media management and lead graphics designer for a cannabis company 🙈 | |
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| BA in English with an emphasis in Language Arts >> MS in Education with an emphasis in Reading >> 16 years teaching English to high school students >> 3rd year as an Instructional Technology Coach | |
| ​ | |
| Basically now I work for the district I've always worked for, and I help develop training for teachers. I also work closely with teachers in any subject area to help them become better teachers, which includes helping teach, co-teach, model, and lead teachers through coaching cycles. | |
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| Bachelor's in psychology, minor in criminal justice. Now a content creator. I wanted to be a substance abuse counselor for veterans. I did clinicals and all. I started my degree just to challenge myself and because I'm highly interested in the human psyche and mind. Just have never used it. Although I truly did learn a lot in college. I almost went back for my master's. I guess psych degrees are common, as I've seen a lot of answers here for them. Maybe not completely useless, but hasn't done anything for me. | |
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| Philosophy and Religious Studies. Did my thesis on Star Trek lol | |
| I bred tarantulas professionally for 6 years, then bounced around for a bit, and now I'm a tattoo artist who fosters reptiles on the side. | |
| No regrets, honestly. | |
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| English major —> transcriptionist | |
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| degree in film currently in sales trying to hustle my ass. I used to say I’d never regret my studies but now I’m beginning to | |
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| BS in Biology (useless unless you're really into bench lab research or want to get an advanced medical/science degree) | |
| Decided med school wasn't something I'd have th grades or financial means to get through, was lost on how to apply my degree after graduating. | |
| Now a clinical project manager at a biotech startup. Degree came in handy but was definitely non-traditional route and something I stumbled into. | |
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| Psychology degree. I’m a Lineman. | |
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| Philosophy. I doubled downed and went to law school. Now I’m an attorney with lots of student loan debt. Don’t go to law school unless someone else is paying the bill. | |
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| I learned more and Im a backend developer in a good company. | |
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| Bachelors degree in social work and a licensed K-5 special education teacher. I work at a bingo hall. | |
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| English major | |
| Emergency physician | |
| Life…find a way | |
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| Philosophy. Analyst at a hedge fund | |
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| Construction management degree. I’m a tattooer | |
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| Diploma in broadcasting television and videography. I'm a Corrections Officer now | |
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| Degree in sculpture, now I file taxes for a payroll company. | |
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| Education degree, and I work in social work. The pay is actually a bit worse than education but the job is at least easier and nobody's breathing down my neck to get a Master's degree so they can give me a 2 dollar an hour raise. | |
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| I have a masters degree in security studies specialising in conventional (pew pew) warfare and nuclear weapons. | |
| I run an investment fund. | |
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| Bachelor's in History, joined the Army to "do my part" now I'm unemployed and suffer from crippling ptsd because it turns out having your best friend die in your arms is bad for your mental health, yet the VA takes a "fuck you, prove it" approach. But I'm glad the Pelosi, Bush, Trump, Biden, Clinton, et al families got rich in the process while my generation fought their war for them. | |
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| I got a computer science degree and now I do art history | |
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| Smoke weed, play video games. Write. In that order. | |
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| History and philosophy. Retired at 39 after the startup I worked for went public. | |
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| BA in music, executive director for a nonprofit | |
| ---- | |
| The same thing I was doing before. | |
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| 65k salary fancy data entry. Extra 20k side hustle owning a small business. | |
| Edit: Degree in English | |
| ---- | |
| I have the worst ones.. yes 2 BAs | |
| Philosophy and Art History —-> Graphic Designer | |
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| Economics degree, works in sustainability now. No link at all | |
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| I have a BA in Medieval Studies and then went for my MLIS, Master of Library & Information Science. I did work as a librarian for about 6-7 years, but now am a technical writer/document coordinator for a nonprofit, to keep up with that sweet PSLF requirement. | |
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| BA in English and MFA in Creative Writing. I edit books for a living and teach college part-time for fun/extra money. | |
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| B.A. In Mass Media- concentration in Radio. Currently working in insurance but applying for grad school to persue Library Science. | |
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| BA in Sociology. | |
| Technical Recruiter for an Aerospace company. Nice salary, no commission. | |
| ---- | |
| Journalism degree. Wanted to wrote stories. I'm a project manager in the tradeshow industry. | |
| ---- | |
| Communications - in the early 90's , by the time I graduated almost everything I learned was obsolete. | |
| ​ | |
| I now work in food science for a frozen food manufacturer, I took several certifications classes. | |
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| My dad got a music degree. He's been an AV equipment salesman since before i wad born | |
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| Got a Business degree, now I’m looking for work still. | |
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| I have an environmental studies degree and work at a liquor store. | |
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| Journalism major, now working as a Business Systems Analyst for a major software company. | |
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| BS in "University Studies" (i.e. Integrated Studies). Had issues staying on track for a BS in Mechanical Engineering due to ADHD and needed to get out of college so I was directed into the program since I already hade enough credits for my minor in Mechanical Engineering. I also have a minor in Mathematics as I was only 3 hours from obtaining that under the ME program and then a minor in Agricultural Economics. | |
| Most of my professional career has been in some form of wireless communications and/or networking. Currently a public safety radio system manager...pay is okay but retirement benefits are awesome. Also a dying trade and since I'm in my early 30's, I'm easily one of the younger ones in the field by a good two decades. | |
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| Bachelor's in Biology (key thing is the minor in education; this means all of my 'field work' was student teaching as opposed to lab work) ... only thing I could do with this degree was ... teach Biology. Once I had a family the pittance I was making was no longer acceptable; that's when I realized I was screwed. | |
| I am now a senior software engineer | |
| ---- | |
| I live with my rich but severely abusive parents and can't keep a job. I'm 32 now, and I've been in this exact same horrible situation since the day I dropped out of high school at age 16. | |
| My tooth hurts constantly because I went to a welfare dentist and he fucked up the root canal so badly it had to be redone by an expert who warned me I might need full extraction. I couldn't pay the money he asked for, so he retreated the tooth. My tooth has hurt constantly since then, so I live in chronic pain with my parents at age 32 and I'm autistic so I can barely qualify for any jobs bc I burn out after about six months and start having psychotic feature thinking and losing sleep and weight etc. I got a degree in English and liberal arts from a community College just so I could complete the GED program they offered too. I do nothing now and I'm so so fucking miserable. | |
| I didn't realize I was audhd until I was 28 and it all clicked why I was usually the smartest employee among idiots, but why I was never able to make my life work. | |
| Now, I have really smart friends, but no job and no resume and I'm so miserable. I will die on the streets realistically when my parents down size and I'm forced out. | |
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| B.S. Microbiology, B.S. Chemistry, PhD, Molecular ecology, 6pack maritime captains license. | |
| I work in software development mostly, but do boat stuff here and there. | |
| Finished undergrad into the 08 shenanigans, PhD was basically the only option to stay in the field at the time... Overqualified for most, under qualified in other situations. My education is worthless beyond impressing random people or making them wonder "why the F does the boat driver have a PhD?" | |
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| I am a consumer safety inspector. I have an AA in liberal arts.. I’m glad I stopped there. I make plenty of money and the sad part was no degree needed 😭 | |
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| BA in English. I do govt. shit. | |
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| I empathize strongly with anyone else who majored in something, got a job in it, and realized that they actually hated doing that job (or otherwise were not cut out for it). I've been there. | |
| I got a degree in English, thinking I would make it useful by concentrating in teaching ESL. After 2 years of assistant teaching and 2 years trying on my own, I realized that I actually hated it and I was terrible at it to boot, so I ended up back to square one. | |
| There were some bad times. I hated that I'd spent so much time and energy working towards a degree in something I ended up not being able to do. I floundered in various miserable customer service/receptionist jobs for about 10 years until I took a chance and interviewed for a job that I thought I was underqualified for. (I got hired!) Then, I found out that my employer would provide tuition assistance for certain degree programs. | |
| So now, I'm doing database work and taking courses towards an emergency management degree. (Even when I was a kid, I was reading our "what to do in an emergency" book over and over and had a fascination with disasters & the response to them. Maybe it was future me trying to tell me something.) | |
| ---- | |
| I got a bachelor's in electrical engineering. I neither enjoyed it nor was I any good at it. They were probably the worst 4 years of my life, education-wise. | |
| I did it because in my country you pick a major before you start college and later have no flexibility to change majors. So I was just stuck picking electrical after my dad said it'll give me job security in the future. | |
| I am a software engineer now. | |
| ---- | |
| English and Philosophy undergraduate, MA in English, PhD. in English, then a masters of information and library science. Now I'm a library director at a mostly online college. sweet gig. wish I hadn't tried to pursue literature in higher education though. | |
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| Not a useless degree but got a two year in IT. Now I troubleshoot electric distribution issues and dig holes. | |
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| Not necessarily useless but completely unrelated… Exercise Physiology degree (planned to be a PT) and now I work in e-commerce. | |
| ---- | |
| Philosophy degree here. | |
| I'm now a software sales VP, make a great living, and am happy with the way it worked out. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Physics. Manage a grocery store | |
| ---- | |
| I have an art degree with a focus on photography. I'm a copywriter. | |
| ---- | |
| Got a media and television comm degree back in 2010. Though I do work in video and media most people I work with did something else in college and learned online. | |
| Makes you wonder why you wasted the money really but it was before Youtube tutorials really took off so what are you gonna do? | |
| ---- | |
| History and Politics degree. 10 years later, working in procurement and commercial management. Make more money than I'd ever anticipated, spend it on traveling to the places I used to study. | |
| People skills and ability to learn wuickly are more important than specialized training in a lot of professional services. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in psych and some grad school for counseling. Was mainly in retail. Now I’m a SAHM :) | |
| Retail has made me hate the public | |
| ---- | |
| I had a degree in Information Technology with an emphasis in Network Systems Administration. | |
| I'm currently sitting in a dialysis center waiting room awaiting dialysis because I have diabetes, which gave me a stroke 10 years ago and I became disabled. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA Theatre Performance - Now a Producer and Unit Production Manager for Commercials, Documentaries, and Industrials. | |
| ---- | |
| Friend with BA in history. She was a party planner but now she is a stay at home mom. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA Theatre Design + Technology --> Software Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| Communications Degree in Broadcasting and now I sell wine and spirits. | |
| ---- | |
| Anthropology - I work in admin at a hospital | |
| ---- | |
| double BA in political studies & environment studies. | |
| i’m a QA automation engineer for a software company now. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in General Studies. I fly jets now. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in sports management -> IT service delivery manager | |
| ---- | |
| History of Arts and Multimedia Design, I was a Game Master, I repaired phones and now I'm a prison clerk. | |
| Life is a journey. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a bachelor's degree in computer science. After graduation, I started talking with a missions agency about being their guy in Africa. While I was in training at seminary, they rescinded their offer. I was enjoying seminary so I stuck around for my MA New Testament. Can't really do a lot with that, so I went on to get a PhD in religion and be a college professor. Along the way, I lost my faith. Oopsie! Then I couldn't get hired on anywhere. I started substitute teaching, and decided to go back for another Master's degree in Elementary Education. Before I finished my program, I realized I wanted to teach Special Ed. | |
| Now I'm finishing up my SpEd certificate and really hoping that I actually put this degree to some use. | |
| ---- | |
| I thought my English degree was useless but it has gotten me my last two significant positions/pay increases. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors of science in Kinesiology- I clean houses now | |
| ---- | |
| I make more money with better benefits working in local government. | |
| BA - Archaeology | |
| MA - Teaching | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s degree in psychology. I am an admin assistant for Yale now. 🤷🏻♀️ | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Anthropology. Worked as an archaeologist for a couple of years out of school but now am a survey project manager for a large multinational consulting firm. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree in film production. I manage an escape room company | |
| ---- | |
| I went to school to get a degree in clinical lab science, dropped out and now I'm a manufacturing quality Engineer. | |
| ---- | |
| Art history degree from UCLA. I now work as an in-home caretaker for someone with special needs and epilepsy and in animal care at an aquarium. I have no idea what happened. | |
| ---- | |
| Not really useless, but a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with about 2 years of internships under my belt. | |
| Considering abandoning engineering altogether and just becoming a park ranger and maybe running a small 3D printing design company on the side | |
| ---- | |
| Not really useless, but a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with about 2 years of internships under my belt. | |
| Considering abandoning engineering altogether and just becoming a park ranger and maybe running a small 3D printing design company on the side | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Music Composition. Now I am professional film composer and touring musician lol | |
| ---- | |
| I got an anthropology degree. I’m now in IT Support. Was accidental but I really ended up loving IT. | |
| ---- | |
| There are a lot of ways to define useless. Mine has been high profile and multidisciplinary, but exorbitantly expensive in more ways than just financial loss. My slip of paper is from an institution that continues to slide downhill, so in a way, it’s like inflation making your ability to feed yourself an impossibility. My peers with engineering degrees might feel themselves capable of weathering the storm, but again, they underestimate the gravity of a downward slide, insulated in a career they feel they’ve already established. | |
| Me too. :) | |
| ---- | |
| I have a bachelors of science with emphasis in ecology (i went to a weird hippy college that doesnt have true majors) | |
| Now im working in orthodontics. | |
| ---- | |
| Dance degree >>> barista | |
| ---- | |
| Associate's for Equine Science, I investigate insurance fraud now. | |
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| Started in Sociology and then BS in Supply Chain Management. FSQ Manager, I work as part of the chain but am not utilizing anything I learned from learning the chain. | |
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| Political Science, now practicing law. | |
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| I’m a fundraiser for charity. Only my friends who studied law, medicine, or business actually ended up overall better-off than me, actually. | |
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| Bachelor's in Philosophy, minor in Japanese language - am now a literal farmhand | |
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| Art degree, now I'm a surgery room assistant. It's a cute name for the person who turns over the rooms, and brings in/out the surgery equipment, including bio material. | |
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| Bachelor’s in Psychology with a minor in History - I am a technical product manager in digital marketing for a Fortune 10 company. To be fair, I also got a MSA, but not until 18 years after my bachelor’s. | |
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| BA in communications. MA in French literature. | |
| While I was working on my MA, my dad something that stuck with me. | |
| MBA in accounting. CPA | |
| I worked for one of the Big 4 accounting firms. Was about to be made partner but I couldn't live with the politics and sexual harassment. | |
| Have my own shingle. Ups and downs being self-employed. | |
| While I have a wide berth of freedom, it hurts when one of my clients chooses to go elsewhere. The few times it's happened felt like being fired (which I was, effectively). | |
| I worry every year in January. | |
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| BS in geology. I work in operations for a biotech company. BUT I’m pursuing a masters in geospatial information science and technology so that’s cool | |
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| i studied political science, but computers were always my hobby and passion. I learned it as a vocation through personal projects, reading the manual, starting a web hosting business in high school, and working tech jobs while in college. I studied poli sci because it was an interest of mine, and I wanted to study something enlightening, not just hard science. | |
| I currently work as a computer infrastructure automation engineer for a major payroll corporation | |
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| Went for communications with a minor in theatre. I own a barbershop now. Ha. My old businesses partner had a degree in graphic design. Both of our majors have been replaced by iPhone apps. Tweens can do more in their phones than we were able to do in college labs in the late 90s. | |
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| Anthropology degree. I'm a research consultant now. | |
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| BFA in stage management. I work in marketing. | |
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| My friend has a degree in English, but he used it to get a job in radiology. | |
| The radiology program was a 2-year program to get the license. All they required was that you had a bachelor's degree, it didn't matter the subject. | |
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| BFA in Fine Art and I work in non-profit marketing/fundraising now. Which I started doing before graduating. | |
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| BA in art history and now I work in pricing strategy for a tech company. | |
| It pays the bills but it's boring. Everything else in my life is influenced by what I got from art history though I have no regrets. | |
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| My ex’s mom once asked me “how are you ever getting a job with an ecology degree?”. I’m a researcher, the degree is put to use every single day. | |
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| In law school. Def don't recommend. | |
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| History degree. I’m in Business Automation and Development 🤷♀️ | |
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| BA in Art History. I taught 8th grade English for 10 years (had to go back for another degree) before I burnt out. Now I'm a SAHM who builds furniture for fun. | |
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| History. I got hired to help immigrants study for the US citizenship test. Now I have a master's in teaching English to speakers of other languages and have built a career as a professor/ adult education teacher/ program manager/ materials developer. I'm never full-time anywhere but generally have 3-6 contracts going in a typical semester, so I get by. | |
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| I hope a lot of young people who are thinking about going using money they don't have to go into something worthless read through this thread and change their minds. | |
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| Art major, work in utility industry as a cad designer. | |
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| Masters in marketing and communications/nothing | |
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| I got a BA in psychology, but ended up as a legal assistant. I might go back eventually, but thats definitely a heady maybe. | |
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| Ba psych | |
| Art director advertising | |
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| BA in Theatre: Im in theatre administration! | |
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| Got my film degree, worked in a few design and film schools. Now I’m a bicycle mechanic who freelances some design work. | |
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| Biomedical pre professional (for plastic surgery) I’m a project manager for construction now (fire sprinkler systems) | |
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| BA in Theology. Senior IT Consulting Manager. | |
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| Friend got a degree in comparative religious studies which lead to a career in fine arts auctioning which led to her to marry a very wealthy man and become a stay-at-home-Mom with a full time live-in care giver for the kids. | |
| She went from making her own clothes and touring with Phish to having a multimillion dollar home and self-warming toilet that speaks to you in about 3 years. | |
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| BA Psychology, MA Counseling, working on my PhD in Psychology. Currently, a therapist. I went the distance. | |
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| Criminal justice degree trying to get into law enforcement. Instead I’m in the wholesale supply industry. I’m not getting shot and I make a good living so I can’t complain too much. | |
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| Communications/Advertising degree, I’m a CNA in nursing school. Turns out changing diapers is much more fulfilling to me than selling them | |
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| I had a high value “useful” major: material engineering | |
| I’ve been a self-employed performance artist for a decade. Never used the degree professionally even once | |
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| BA English. I'm a VP of content strategy for a national bank. | |
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| Bachelors in trombone performance, I teach trumpet and piano. I make like $2000 a month. | |
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| Psychology degree...been in sales my entire career.. | |
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| Arts degree… now professor making 500k a year with lifetime job security. | |
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| I got a degree in health science and Im trying to get into real estate instead, but right now I work in data entry for flooring of all ryan homes | |
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| I have a bachelors in psych and teach elementary | |
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| Bachelor’s in Classical Studies. Now manage a Midwifery clinic. | |
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| Psychology: Head Brewer --> Brewing/Batching Recipe Manager and Production Scheduler | |
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| Major in theology->PR for Russian government-> corporate communications | |
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| English degree- I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination. | |
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| Bachelor's in Victorian Studies, I work for a museum...in IT lol | |
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| I have a Bachelors in English Literature and creative writing. I work Customer Success in tech and hate it. | |
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| AA in liberal arts | |
| AA in business management | |
| I deliver pizza now, it's temporary, I'll start a business someday. For now, tip your delivery drivers better people!!! Seriously, anything under $5 isn't worth my time! | |
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| Political science degree --> went to law school | |
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| Did bachelors of computer science with data science specialization just 2 years ago, with health issues and the few years left for me to live because of that, I just became a monk, make portraits, play instruments, I don't own anything expensive but still I feel I am at peace and mental stability the most than I was for my entire education period doing materialistic things | |
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| Music technology degree, spent a lot of my career in retail management, going back to school to become a therapist. | |
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| I have a BA in Music. I work on collections and repossessions for a bank now. | |
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| sheet metal worker and commercial fishermen. | |
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| BFA in Music and Visual Arts- I'm an opera singer and director, run 2 companies and do website and graphic design on the side. | |
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| I worked with a guy who was getting a Political Science degree. I asked him what people do with a Political Science degree. He said, "They get journalism or teaching degrees to make themselves employable." | |
| I ran into him a few years ago. He got his Political Science degree. Then he got an economics degree and a teaching degree roughly alongside one another. Now he works as a millwright in a rural lumber mill. | |
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| BA in communication and now I’m a SAHM. | |
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| BA in history. I'm a ride operator currently, though it's mostly so I can get some work experience. | |
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| Graphic design lol but I am working weddings now | |
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| BA in Sociology. | |
| Worked in medical billing through undergrad and climbed up a few leadership positions. Got my MBA during Covid — now a Director of Finance for a PE backed healthcare group. | |
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| Both my sister and a sister-in-law have interior design degrees. Daddy's money let them have the college experience with none of the hard work. Nether use their degree. My sister got lucky and married a wealthy dude and my sister-in-law had to go back to school on her own dime for a real degree. | |
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| I have a B.A. in Swedish (I live in America). After a brief digital marketing office job and four years as an Army Infantry Officer, I now work at REI and love it. | |
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| I got a bachelor's degree in economics, then worked in IT for a year, now I'm trying to get a master's degree in business intelligence (data science for business analytics) | |
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| BA in Philosophy. I work as a developer. | |
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| Psychology: school psychologist. | |
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| Got my Bachelor's in Sociology. My Master's was in Coaching and Athletic Administration. I coached at the college level for 10 years. I now work in compliance at a credit union. | |
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| International Studies: Russia and Eastern Europe | |
| ​ | |
| I work in Supply Chain and make +$200k/yr | |
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| most people aren’t saying useless degrees, just that they’re not using their degrees lmao. that’s a choice. | |
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| I have two MAs in English Lit, am now a mortgage underwriter for a bank. | |
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| Criminal justice…I’m a Data Analyst. | |
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| History major. I live in a mid-sized city so I knew there was a close-to-zero chance I'd use it, but I loved it. I've been in upper management roles in human services (working with the I/DD population) for 3 years, in the field for almost 7. It's my career now, and it's hard but rewarding. | |
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| Film degree, I do finances, mostly accounts payable/receivable. | |
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| SAHM, but prior I was a office assistant for a home care agency. I have Paralegal degree a certification in EKG technology | |
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| Master's degree in TV production, I do radio | |
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| Bachelors in Asian Studies. I’m a cloud infrastructure engineer now at a Fortune 500 company. | |
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| Bachelor of Music with specialization in vocal performance --> strategic communications advisor | |
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| I've had a 30 year career developing and architecting software test automation systems. | |
| I have a BA in psychology. | |
| I've never taken a CS course of any kind. | |
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| I started as pre-med, and realized (A) my chronic medical condition would likely force me out of medical school and residency thru purely debilitating symptoms, and (B) becoming a doctor was less of the “doctoring” that historically it’s thought to be. So I completed my pre-reqs, just in case, then moved on to topics that interested me. I graduated with a bachelor’s in Psychology with a minor in History. I work in clinical research. Adjacent to doctors. | |
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| Associate's in liberal arts & sciences (was going for environmental science, decided I didn't want to do college anymore, but had the credits for the above degree, so I got it just to have something for my time spent there). Now I'm becoming a licensed boiler operator for a hospital. | |
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| I studied 10 years of fine arts, then I married into a rich family and became a stay at home mom who can draw. | |
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| Management > Medical Doctor | |
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| History degree. Water/sewage treatment plant operator | |
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| Bachelor's degree in education. I do IT support | |
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| BFA in Theatre. I work in IT now. | |
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| English degree and now I run a software startup. | |
| Thinking is thinking. | |
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| Bachelors in Geology. Never used the degree due to low oil prices upon graduating so went to work in the insurance industry for 17 years. Got laid off and now my primary income is from the stock market and a close second is gig work. Happiest I’ve ever been. | |
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| Media Studies (Focus in Video Production) BA with a Minor in English and a Game Studies Certificate. I now do complaints for a major Medical Device company | |
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| Bachelor of Arts in Nonprofit Administration, work in customer service. | |
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| BA Economics. SWE for surgical equipment manufacturing company | |
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| English Lit major, Special Ed minor. I’m an executive admin, after teaching high school for several years. | |
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| PhD English. I work in training coordination for aviation | |
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| BA Film Production, only just graduated, waiting to hear back from literally anything I've applied for | |
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| BSc Mathematics. The only direct career choices after that would have been teaching or accountancy, and neither appealed (though twenty years on, I wonder whether accountancy might have been a good fit for me after all). | |
| I ended up in office work, moving from the typing pool to data entry to report writing to software packaging. | |
| The degree itself is pretty useless, and I can't even remember most of it now, but having the degree demonstrated many personal qualities that served me well in interviews. | |
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| Unemployed | |
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| I am very happy I haven't seen any political science degrees listen on here. At least none I can find. But to be safe, I'll do my minor in economics. | |
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| BS in Computer Science. I wouldn't call it useless. I have a few sources of income now, but my main source is from reselling. | |
| I was about to eat a bullet after cranking out sub-par code for nearly a decade. I regretted getting into software development the minute I had to to do it as a job. Prior to that, coding was something that was fun. It was like working puzzles. Add a few suit wearing mofos throwing out unobtainable deadlines and the fun goes away. I saved up quite a bit before telling the bossman to GFY. I went out on my own. I undercut my prior employer on custom programming jobs and could get to them in a more timely manner. He hit me with a cease and desist, but couldn't do shit about it because I was writing my own code and not modifying his. Even on my own, I was so jaded towards dev work, that I just quit it entirely after I found some other sources of income. | |
| \*edit IMO all degrees are useless now that there is a world of information at our fingertips. I've learned exponentially more from Youtube than I did in college. Youtube is free too. | |
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| Master's in Human genetics. I've been stocking inventory in a manufacturing plant's stock room for the past 2 years | |
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| Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in jewelry. | |
| I am in school getting my nails tech license rn 🤷♀️ | |
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| Friend of mine has a Geology degree. Couldn't find anything that paid much more than just above minimum wage. Owns a pool cleaning business. | |
| Not because it's useless but sports management degree friend went into teaching because it paid more. Pro teams pay employees crap. Even upper management jobs (department heads) pay less than 6 figures. They work the usual 8 hour and then work the games in the evenings. | |
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| Degree in english | |
| Product manager (tech) now. | |
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| BA in communications, I’m now a creative director at a large tech company— I’d always done creative work as a side project, didn’t think it’d make for a “real” career, tried to go into anything else, still ended up here! | |
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| Work from home | |
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| I have a bachelor’s degree in French language and literature. I fully intended on being a teacher but I changed my mind, I don’t need that stress. I work as a pharmacy technician. I like my job a lot. I’m the second income so it’s not a big deal, I’m probably making the same amount of money I would as a rather. | |
| I feel like I’m being productive doing this job. Like I’m contributing. I give people shots, fill/mix medications, I deal with insurance claims and processing, and I can even provide health screenings like cholesterol checks. And then when I clock out for the day, I can just leave it all at work. Nothing to take home. | |
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| Psychology degree > joined the coast guard. 16 years in. 4 more until a pension then who knows what I’ll do. | |
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| #English lit: | |
| I don't work now, as I don't have to. But I had a cushy 15-year run of editorial & copywriting *on my couch before everyone was WAH.* | |
| I started as low-level editor at a university but only spent a year because I couldn't juggle my kids. | |
| So I established myself freelance with an LLC. | |
| My second to last year, my *profit* (not revenue) was 6 figures. | |
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| I knew a guy with a bachelor in psychology but was working with me in Target backroom. Another man who I was training was a former cop. (I wonder what he did) | |
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| Philosophy and American Studies. Spent a decade in tech, now in consulting | |
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| PhD in English Literature. I’m a Professor. I’m one of those anomalies. | |
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| The degree isn't useless, even if it doesn't lead to a vocation. The knowledge and wisdom gained from earning a degree engages every part of a person if they let it. It's not merely a dollars and cents utilitarian exchange. | |
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| I work in the field that I got my "useless degree" in. | |
| I think the American idea of "useless degrees" is leading to a lot of the social issues we have now where, for example, technology gurus create AI or social media apps without being able to consider the ethics behind AI engineering or social media. | |
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| I was a communications major and wanted to be a journalist. I now work a water district and it's been awesome. | |
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| College professor in my field (Humanities, won’t say which). | |
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| BA in English, I’m a librarian now so it’s pretty on brand | |
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| Writing degree; Nanny | |
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| Associates in Multimedia and Art. | |
| I work for a CAD firm fixing civil drawings. | |
| I guess I still get to be artistic. | |
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| Political Science, Procurement manager for an aircraft engine manufacturer. | |
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| BS in Family Studies. I did HR on a corporate level- hated it because adults are WORSE than children. Now I run a manufacturing business with my mom. | |
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| Physics... Now WFH A/R specialist... | |
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| “Don’t let anyone tell you that college wasn’t worth it, the general education classes and spring breaks you go on and the dating people will make you a prepared, well rounded person” LMAO yeah no. | |
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| BA in History, worked every type of retail/ customer service job including stints in car rental and public transportation systems. Got tired of working nights and weekends and crappy treatment. Now an assistant director/librarian for a medium size library when i sometimes work nights, weekends and deal with crappy treatment. I'm happy though | |
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| I'm a glorified janitor | |
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| Got a fine art degree but turned that into art librarian career! | |
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| A degree in medical imaging. I work in a call center now. | |
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| I have a degree in Japanese from Cambridge. I am a receptionist | |
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| My dermatologist got his bachelors in English, and he’s actually the best dermatologist I’ve ever had | |
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| Game design and development. I'm a professional janitor. I've cleaned crime scenes tho so thats cool | |
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| I'm a journalist. | |
| My degree is in sociology. | |
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| I got a telecommunications media arts degree (fancy words for video/news editor). I am now an IT guy mainly dealing with cell phones/mobile support for my company. Hoping I can swing my current role to getting a more IT related masters and possibly boost my salary eventually. | |
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| Bachelors in American studies. currently a stay at home Mom. Will go back to bartending in the future. | |
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| Degree graphic design. Now I work for the ministry of defense. Came out very good. Lots of opportunities and growth options. | |
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| Got an art degree. Am now a full time artist. | |
| Life is good. | |
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| History degree —> CNA (working on nursing degree) | |
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| I have a bachelor's in Fine Art, Drawing and Painting focus. | |
| I'm an admin assistant at a nonprofit now. | |
| I don't regret it though - Honestly having the artist background has helped me get almost every job I've had in some aspect, and if there's ever a creative type of thing to do at any of the places I've worked, I always get to do it :) I was under no impression from the get-go that I could just go paint the king once I graduate or anything, but maybe if the stars align one day I can do art full-time. | |
| For now, I'm lucky that I'm very versatile, worked full time through college so graduated with decent experience in sales and management, and have a knack for IT. Most of my most marketable skills are in soft skills and being very efficient. These things don't necessarily come from a degree of any kind, so I've never had a problem getting any job I've wanted (within realistic realms). I very much like my job right now, of course it isn't perfect though. | |
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| Some places don't really care what kind of degree you have for most of their jobs they just want people with a bachelors degree because any college education is at least somewhat useful in any office. They didn't care where you went or how you did either. Going to Harvard and getting a 4.0 is only impressive in some places, not most. | |
| Yeah that makes it easy to lie but if you lied yet can still do the work they typically won't care. If you've got a degree but are an other wise sucky employee you're going to be fired anyway. | |
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| Anthropology degree. I work as a lab technician in a corn mill | |
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| No degree (if that counts) and am an IT network operations and security lead engineer. | |
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| Kinesiology Degree -> project management/acquisitions | |
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| BS Psychology -> MS industrial organizational psychology. | |
| I am a training and development specialist 2 with my focus being diversity equity and inclusion. Exactly where I need to be right now. | |
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| Philosophy degree —> Data analyst | |
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| I got a degree in botany. Currently work as a person who contacts land owners for polygons and high power shit. Its not a real job and most of it is bullshit | |
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| BS Political Science -> US Army officer career -> PM | |
| Lockheed Martin -> retired | |
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| BA in English, MA in Education. Behavioral specialist for Head Start. | |
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| Culinary. Now working as hotel desk clerk | |
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| I got a degree in Human Relations (not Human Resources)... something completely useless that only existed at my university and a few others. | |
| Now I'm a Product Designer making more than my family members who are working in the field they studied. | |
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| Years ago, my brother in law had a bachelor’s in geology, was a stay at home dad while my sister finished her nursing degree, the ended up as the language writer for the govt on a team that did arms negotiations with allies(customers) all over the world. Never once owned a firearm😐 | |
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| English Lit with minor in creative writing here. I'm a content strategist (something like an editor-in-chief who specializes in user experience content design work for apps and websites). I've worked in big tech, healthcare, and government (my fav so far). I love it, and I actually use both the writing and research skills my degree program gave me. | |
| I absolutely adored my English lit program and wouldn't change a thing. I used to speak to the English major freshmen at my alma mater once a year to make sure they knew what they could do with their degrees. People tell them their choices are barista or teacher, but there's a whole world of writing and writing strategy out there to explore. | |
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| Got a literature degree. I then went back to school for early education classes and am a preschool teacher, now director. The only thing my degree has given me, is about a dollar more an hour than my non-degreed coworkers. | |
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| Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from a state school. I started out as a preschool teacher, then quit to freelance for several years, and am now lucky enough to write content full time with actual benefits | |
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| Bachelor's in what the time was called "Game Design" and is now called "Interactive Design". | |
| I am unemployed, scraping together small commissions from time to time. | |
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| English Lit, all the way to PhD level. I teach high school now. The cycle of uselessness continues. | |
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| Bachelor's in communication, I'm a marketing director now. It's pretty nice though a little stressful. | |
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| Bachelor's in Anthropolgy, been working in informal education (museums, zoos, etc..). Was an educator primarily, now more on the management end. | |
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| i got a “general studies” degree after my college dropped my major half way through and told me to fuck myself. i grow weed (legally) now. | |
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| Politics ---> Product Manager in IT | |
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| Getting a second one in Nursing after saving up for a few years | |
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| Everyone thinking about going to college needs to read this thread. | |
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| I have a theatre degree. I work as an educator and a theatre artist. | |
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| Political Science. I'm an app tester. | |
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| BA in Political Science. Now an air traffic controller. | |
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| Degree in music. I’m now a published author, work in tech, and make over 100K a year. Suck it dad. | |
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| Associates in fine arts, bachelors in business management. I work in data visualization | |
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| Project engineering / management in the renewable energy sector | |
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| BS Exercises science went straight into MAT Master of Arts in Teaching. Taught for five years and wanted out of the school system so bad. Went back to school for Masters in Clinical Mental Health. I am a therapist in a large group private practice. | |
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| Philosophy degree -> random odd jobs for a few years -> law school. Now I work on mergers and acquisitions (m&a) and financing transactions for large public companies. | |
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| Psych degree, Product Designer | |
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| John Mulaney enters the chat… | |
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| Bachelors in Philosophy. I’m a self taught software engineer now. | |
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| Bachelors degree in film. I’m a flight attendant now! | |
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| Studied Economics. Work in film now as Steadicam operator | |
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| Got my BA in Interdisciplinary Social Science. I make 6 figures as a Business Analyst. | |
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| i’m a land lord. so basically i’m an expert at being useless | |
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| BA in Poli Sci --> senior officer with the gov in my field and occasional manager. | |
| As I don't plan to move to the capitol, I am hitting my promotional ceiling, so I am looking into upgrading a couple of key courses in statistics to make an upwardly mobile move into my provincial government. | |
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| My wife studied Interior Design. Not a completely useless degree, but job prospects aren't great with a low starting salary. A friend at the time told me she got an interior design degree, it was totally useless so she went back to school for accounting, and suggested my wife (then girlfriend) should switch before it was too late. | |
| My wife is now sales at a commercial interior design firm making $150k and up, after 12 years in the furniture industry. She's already projected to blow away her quota for the year, in spite of plans to take 5 months off when baby #2 is born. | |
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| BA in English Lit - I'm a digital archivist. | |
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| English degree. Now a chief of staff in tech. | |
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| BFA in Theatre Arts. I am currently an insurance authorization specialist. | |
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| MA in medieval history. I work with national cyber security policy and governance. | |
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| I was told political science was a useless degree. Now I'm a university lecturer and the director and CFO of a small business. I make more money than all of my fellow classmates from high school except two CEOs of name brand companies you all would recognize and two of the physicians. This includes 12 engineers, several other physicians, and entrepreneurs. | |
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| Bachelors Degree in general studies. Graduated in December of 2015 | |
| Currently work as SVP - Sales & Operations | |
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| Psychology undergrad. Social work masters. | |
| Now a project manager at a software company. Sometimes wanting to talk to people all day doesn't always translate to wanting to take on their emotional burdens. Now I get to talk to people all day and make a lot of money and focus on me. | |
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| Sociology, data science | |
| ---- | |
| I got a degree in elementary education, followed by a teaching credential. I was so sure that was the only thing I wanted to do. Anyway, I graduated during the recession, and the jobs disappeared. Like, there's a website that lists ALL the education jobs in my state, and there were maybe 3 openings in my county. I didn't even bother. | |
| I ended up tutoring for a test prep company, and now I edit many of the books that you might have seen them publish. I am really happy with how it worked out, and I do think my degree gave me a good well-rounded education to do what I am doing now. | |
| I do regret the teaching credential, since that was another 2 years of school and it was useless. The credential actually expired, so IDEK what I would do if I decided I wanted to apply to be a teacher. I guess I'd have to complete the credential program all over again. | |
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| Bachlors degree in Cinimal Justice. Currently a substitute teacher studying IT. | |
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| Supervise a call center team. $85,000 salary. Flexible schedule and time for side hustle gigs. | |
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| Bachelor’s in Performing Arts, Master’s in Classical Theater, now I’m a 15-year veteran middle school math teacher. | |
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| Culinary Arts degree. I’m a Starbucks barista. | |
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| BS in Communication, MBA focused in HRM. Business Analyst for an insurance company. I kind of fell into my job and I’m grateful for it every day. | |
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| Masters in History and Philosophy of Science. | |
| Software Engineer,... useful undergrad degrees, useless grad degree. | |
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| BA in communication. At my school this was an HCI degree before HCI was offered as a degree, so over 20 years ago I started working in tech as a usability researcher. And that’s how I still live in the Bay Area with a comm degree. | |
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| Doctor 😕 | |
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| Fine art. I got my MBA a few years later, and now I work in brand management. | |
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| Got a bachelors in accounting. I manage the family business now. At least it isn't useless in practice.... just useless at qualifying me for jobs. | |
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| Degree in economics, now I’m a software developer. Covid really did a number on my life | |
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| BA in History and English. Enlisted in the military after college, worked in admin and data analytics for the government, now work in admin at a non-profit. My degree was just a degree in advanced googling, trivia, and having weird opinions on books. | |
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| BA in Geography. MA in Public Administration. | |
| I'm a transformation manager for a County Council. I hate it as its boring. Before that, I was a Dervice manager st a Unitary Authority with 160 reports. Was fun but exhausting. | |
| My current job will go in 18 months by the looks of the UK finances so it will be on to something new then. | |
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| Sales | |
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| Zoology. I wanted to work with animals. My degree required a bunch of chemistry courses, so now I work in pharmaceutical development. It's pretty soul crushing and I would love to change fields, but I have a family and can't afford any kind of pay cut, so pharmaceuticals it is. | |
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| Master's in Sociology. Taught Sociology and First Year Courses for a few years but adjunct teaching didn't pay the rent and full-time gigs were unavailable to someone with little admin experience. Went into healthcare doing decedent affairs (death paperwork) and registrations. Now I'm a caretaker for a sick family member and do part-time test proctoring for students with disabilities. | |
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| Honestly speaking no degree is 'useless'. Most of the time companies just want to see that you're willing to spend time and effort to stick with something longer than a year. | |
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| BFA in Fashion Design, now I consolidate credit card debt. | |
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| Bachelor of fine arts in painting with a minor in printmaking. I'm a surgeon. | |
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| I have a philosophy degree and I’m a software engineer | |
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| Bachelors in jazz performance on drums, I'm a product reviewer for A/V gear now. Not so far off oddly. | |
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| History to Wall Street. | |
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| BFA in musical theater. I’m a professional journalist and editor in LGBTQ media. | |
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| Theater degree. Regional coordinator/manager for a live event production company. | |
| ---- | |
| Getting a useful degree instead. | |
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| Psyc in BA, by 4th year realize the pay is pretty hopeless, finished the BA, then switched to study Computer science, now a software engineer | |
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| Work until you can consult in your field & get a solid solid side hustle | |
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| BS in psych. i do accounts receivable and general admin for a construction company | |
| ---- | |
| I did a psych degree. I’m now a doctor in psychology. | |
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| Got an arts degree, now I'm a director of technical program management at a software company... | |
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| Psychology. I ended up working as a preschool teacher for minimum wage. Finally saved enough to hopefully break into a better paying job. I loved working with kids, but I would also like to be able to afford to eat and live independently! | |
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| B.A. Philosophy | Minor Political Science | |
| Now work in commercial real estate. | |
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| Bachelors in communication/PR | |
| I work in IT — doing alright haha | |
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| BS in neuropsychology + minor in anthropology —> editing/technical writing for government. | |
| I never wanted to be a therapist. I like figuring out what makes people tick and research. With my natural knack for writing (that’s what people tell me at least), technical writing is a nice middle ground. | |
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| BA in Cinema | |
| Work for a medical lab doing records. | |
| Lots of regret obvs | |
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| Hi, BFA in Theatre Arts. I am a Supervising Principal for a Broker Dealer. So I essentially review securities business to ensure that what we’re transacting in is in the best interest of our investors. It’s risk management. You don’t need a finance degree to study for securities licenses. So I started in an administrative role out of college and my company allowed me to study and sit for a bunch of securities licenses and I made a career. | |
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| Not a degree but I have a (Uk) Level 3 Extended diploma in computer Hardware and Networking. I am a bus driver. | |
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| Education Field | |
| nice $ | |
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| Bachelor's of Science in Psychology. Also took a lot of chemistry. Now I'm a casino dealer. | |
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| I have a degree in geography and environmental studies. Tried for many years to work in the national parks or similar things. Always got rejected even after fixing my resume too. Was stuck working guest services at my local zoo for far too long. Husband encouraged me to sub for the local schools. One school in particular had me be a long term sub for their science department as assistant teacher. The lead in that department liked me so much I got hired on and stayed there for three years. Then I had my son, and since daycare is expensive, I'm now a stay at home mom who has become more of an assistant to her husband's self employed business. So not what I had in mind but I might try something again eventually. | |
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| BFA in creative writing. I work in IT. | |
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| Fine arts. I now am a scientist. | |
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| Received a liberal arts degree (Middle East studies), got job as a temp after graduation selling business magazine subscriptions. They wanted to put in a system to log notes, track sales calls, etc that I volunteered to help with. That turned into a 30 year IT career. | |
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| Philosophy degree. Lawyer. | |
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| B.S. in English, I drive a forklift in a warehouse. It pays more than teaching. | |
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| General studies with minors in management, non-profit management and English. I wanted to work in the animal welfare field, shelters municipal and private, wildlife rehab that sort of thing. | |
| I wasn't naïve about how shit the industry is but the *people* I was surrounded with in terms of coworkers and clientele about drove me to end it. Gawd but people suck. | |
| Now I'm a testing proctor at a community college. It isn't great but it is full time, I have health benefits, PTO both vacation and sick time and I no longer have to go out to my car and cry at lunch or after a shift because of some of the horrible things I saw or the horrible things people called me both over the phone and to my face. | |
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| Art degree, character Technical Director at an animation studio | |
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| BS degree in……. Home Economics. That was a looooong time ago, before desktop computing. I ended up working with spreadsheets, databases, and statistical software. It did help that I got an MBA in the 90s. | |
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| I dropped out of school for audio engineering and now work at a music store. | |
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| BS in Biology > Customer Success Manager | |
| Didn’t want to accumulate more debt by going to more school, so broke into tech by working support and then moving to Customer Success. I only work for tech/SAAS companies so it’s been pretty good/stress-free. | |
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| Bachelor of entertainment management. I manage artists and go on tour with them all over the world. Pretty pretty pretty good! | |
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| BA in English. I design enterprise software. | |
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| Architecture. Architecture. | |
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| Chemical dependency counseling. Now I do permitting for telecommunications. | |
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| Got a degree in biology. Now, I’m uhhh unemployed basically. | |
| Medicine was the aim but the post college experience I got turned me off. Wound up working for a small chemistry and technology company. I was the quality control chemist for the chemistry manufacturing and built / installed / serviced our one of a kind automated analytical devices. It could measure heavy metals in wastewater streams with with a resolution of .001ppm every three seconds ( absolutely unheard of industry). | |
| Should’ve been my career and my ticket to doing something amazing around the world except the owner of the company was kinda like Rick from Rick and Morty. Wicked smart but an all around ass hole and a major drunk. I left after two years. He eventually ran the business into the ground and sold the patent to the competition (i assume) and that tech will never see the light of day. | |
| I know the secret spice to how the device works if any engineers wanna get at me lolz | |
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| BA in Fine Art. | |
| MA in a Museum-related track. | |
| Spent nearly 20 years working in museums- dealt with layoffs, budget cuts, trying to stay positive. Covid was the death of that love. | |
| Fully re evaluated my life and applied to a job as a non-profit executive director. Totally not art related at all. After all that time working in museums, I knew how to do everything in how to run a not for profit. Got the job and love it. Now feel like I could do this job in any other applicable ED role after a bit more experience in this one, so that’s my long term plan. Though it is weird to have a ton of art on the résumé. | |
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| BA in Communication Studies, Grant and Contracts Coordinator. Landed here after a myriad of administrative jobs, had a manager take a chance on me and taught me the ropes of Research Administration. I fell in love with the project management aspect of it and am now currently working on my MS in Research Administration to make a career out of this. My Comm degree has helped a lot with the editing and just constant communication between universities and other departments. I write like 100+ emails a day. | |
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| Bachelor's in Information Systems Security. Never was interested in getting any certs nor really even *doing* that stuff, but wanted an easy degree. | |
| Programming now. | |
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| Political science turned airline pilot | |
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| Psychology degree, now a dental assistant. Found out i had lots of anxiety talking to people whoke comoleting my degree so i did assisting to help me gradually talk to people a bit and pay off my loans. Turns out I ended up enjoying it a lot! | |
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| Got a Phil degree, worked for tech start upps and later became a teacher. | |
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| BS Mass Communication -> barista | |
| Eventually went back to school for Masters in Accountancy | |
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| Well, I went for 4 years for “Communication,” which I guess I’m pretty good at now, but I dropped out senior year and now I bounce around waitressing jobs. | |
| Yay | |
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| I took a useless job so that I became what I studied so hard for. I'm pretty fucking useless right now, come to think of it. | |
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| Bachelors in screenwriting. I work in e-commerce. | |
| I had more internships than any of my peers, but never got the lucky, career impacting one. Looking at my peers in the film business, I think it probably wasn’t the right field for me. I’m a very work to live, and would never be happy participating in that kind of grind. Kudos to those that can handle that type of work | |
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| I’ve got a sociology degree. I’m a cook in a sheltered housing complex. | |
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| Graduated with a Psychology degree an now do marketing | |
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| Game Development | |
| Software Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre degree -> MFA in stage management -> event producer for nonprofits and corporate conferences | |
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| Bachelors in Kinesiology. went back and got my masters in nursing. | |
| ---- | |
| Well obviously, Useless Stuff. | |
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| I have a BA in Art with a triple focus in digital art, painting, and sculpture; and I have an MFA in branding focused graphic design. | |
| I worked as a graphic designer for about 12 years or so post grad, and had a lateral title change to a marketing operations and creative specialist last year. I basically do some graphic design stuff, but also do a lot of behind the curtain stuff for a marketing department. | |
| Having worked as a graphic designer, I can honestly say that had I known what the field held in store for me, I would've tried harder to learn how to code at a younger age. It was once a decent career, but it's been diluted by everyone thinking that knowing basic Photoshop makes them a designer and that professional graphic designers hold no valuable skills; so you either have to have a spectacular portfolio or great connections to find decent jobs. | |
| And I'm pretty banal by professional standards in addition to being a social cicada, so I haven't gotten far. | |
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| Work fast food, u shoulda got that environmental science degree | |
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| Got a B.A. in Philosophy and then went to law school. I passed the bar, but never got a job practicing as a lawyer, so I let my license expire. I'm now a Legal Project Manager. | |
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| Got a degree in animation…decided the game industry could fuck off after 2 years. Have been a DNS/Email Deliverability expert for 10 years. Work as a postmaster for corporations putting in about 10 hours a week of real work and spending the rest of the time sucking at Overwatch. | |
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| I got a practical degree (MS Ed) and now do art 🤷♂️ | |
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| Masters in Game Design, I run a graphics team for a sports broadcaster. | |
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| BA theatre tech, I work at Amazon now | |
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| Welding degree I work IT now. It’s not worth the 7 days a week work week nor is it worth the potential to louse limbs. | |
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| Administrative Management, Event Management and Project Administration degrees. | |
| I'm now a surgery scheduler for a hospital and refuse to be a manager ever again. But I make more than I ever did in the industry my degrees are meant for while at management level. | |
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| BA in English Literature. Been working as an editor for 15 years across different media. | |
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| Philosopher: Sales Leader. | |
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| BS in computer science, I'm now a software engineer. | |
| (University was less than worthless, I taught myself everything after I graduated) | |
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| Engineer. Have a science degree | |
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| I have a business degree. I work at the same chemical plant I worked at when I was in school because all of the management trainee programs I was counting on, and a lot of middle management jobs, died with Covid. In a year of applying, I got two offers for jobs that paid half of what I make doing 167x more work than I do. | |
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| Economics degree, probation service | |
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| My sister is a nail tech lol she likes it I think. | |
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| Bachelor's in Sociology and English. My Colorado teaching certificate was not good in CA (needed CA history). | |
| I ran the circulation dept in a college library, worked construction, worked ambulances, drove cab in NYC, Denver and San Francisco. If I had a career, it was as an itinerant cutler (traveling knife sharpener and maker). | |
| There were lots of other jobs, but I think you get the idea. | |
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| Engineer in a field I'm not interested in. Working as financial advisor, love my jerb. | |
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| No degree is useless but certain careers in the Arts have always had huge unemployment rates. | |
| The key is to find how you fit in to today’s job market or can use your skills to survive. | |
| I have Theatre major friends that teach, work in life coaching, and state public information jobs. | |
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| I have my AAS in radio broadcasting. | |
| I work in a n office mail room and do freelance writing gigs on the side. | |
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| Software engineer. Master's in physics. | |
| ---- | |
| My parents are trying to send me to school for this?!?! | |
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| Struggle every month. | |
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| BA in English. I’m a therapist now (after going back for a masters). | |
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| BS in Communication, now a Jr Software Engineer | |
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| BS in international studies, MS in geoscience- burned out of a career in cannabis compliance and now I’m a stay at home trophy wife lol 😂 | |
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| Bachelors in Human Nutrition with a minor in exercise science. | |
| I work in a market insights data related role. Before that I was in various sales roles for 3-5 years. | |
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| Not me but a friend. He got a masters in marine biology and the only job he could find was counting fish species at a nuclear power plant. He went to school at night in software and ended up doing Hubble Space Telescope software for 20+ years. | |
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| Technoanthropologist -bachelor 2016 | |
| Now construction worker | |
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| Bachelor’s in communication. Currently working as a purchasing manager in the medical field. | |
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| Bachelors of fine arts. Part time art teacher/part time bike messenger. | |
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| By useless, if we're talking about the major having some perceived market value, then history pretty much fits the bill. However, I've been told in a number of interviewers, that it wasn't the degree that got me the interview, it was the school. After all, who needs a history degree when they're interviewing for a software developer position? | |
| On a side note, while the market may perceive a study of history having no value, I find it personally rewarding and it has enriched by life. Unfortunately, personally rewarding doesn't tend to pay the bills... | |
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| Bachelor of arts in music performance. I'm a sales network engineer. | |
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| Poly Sci degree. Now I own my own machine shop. No such thing as a useless degree - Only a lack of creative thought. | |
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| Associates in Liberal Arts and a Bachelor's in English - Creative Writing. I work in sales admin for an engineering company. I sometimes can apply the degree to some marketing/proposal writing, but nothing near what it could have been. | |
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| 🔥🔥✏️📣📣T-t-t-t-teacherrrrr📣📣✏️🔥🔥 | |
| ---- | |
| I got a Bachelors in music performance/guitar. First 20-ish years I taught guitar- worked in Musical Instrument retail- worked for a guitar manufacturer. But the MI industry is dying (or already dead) and after a few years of trying to figure things out I walk dogs and do petsitting in Los Angeles. | |
| BUT! I have lots of free time, several albums and singles streaming, videos on YouTube, and I’m working my way into filmmaking. Some related jobs, but I really did learn so much in school it was worth it. (Plus I went to school late 80s-early 90s when it was affordable.) | |
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| I know someone who has a doctorate in philosophy and she's now a veterinarian. What can I say? | |
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| Bachelors and masters degree of music in flute performance. | |
| Currently working as an accounting clerk. | |
| ---- | |
| Political Science | |
| Program Analyst for Continuing Education programs. | |
| Are you an adult who wants to macrame or have a kid you want to be in interesting summer programs? I design the classes and find the instructors | |
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| Got an English Literature degree, now an executive of a tourist railroad | |
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| Art history degree, I work as a vet assistant | |
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| History Degree > Healthcare Administration > Firefighter/EMT. | |
| Been an interesting ride. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors Degree in Sociology, Business Consultant in the Insurance Sector | |
| ---- | |
| B. Tech Computer Science. | |
| I'm a freelance photographer. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a BA in Music 15 years ago. I'm a software engineer now. I still make music on the side, but it's not a major source of my income any more. | |
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| BA in Communication. | |
| I work in an industrial bacon smokehouse. | |
| ---- | |
| Not useless but I went to college for a degree in education. 20 years later and I'm a software engineer. Never made it past student teaching. | |
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| I work as an administrative assistant for a real estate department for a hospital. BA in graphic design | |
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| Political Science > Privacy Manager | |
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| Bachelors degree in Liberal Studies, started with 2 community colleges before pursuing Earth and Space Exploration program at state school and changed it after 5 years to get out with "whatever gets me a degree ASAP". I'm in construction as a pipefitter with 60+ unused credits. I don't remember most of my classes. | |
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| BA in History- I run my own digital nomad law firm | |
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| Public health BS. Back in school for BSN. Should have just done that from the start | |
| ---- | |
| Journalism degree here - I wanted to change the world. Instead I do UX for the software division of a big insurance company. Not thrilling, but at least the pay is good and I WFH. | |
| ---- | |
| BA: Politics. | |
| I’m now an IT business analyst. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a BA in communications - specifically Radio Production. | |
| Guess I could have gone into podcasts or something (wasnt a thing at the time) but had to pay the bills so got several jobs out of college. | |
| Now almost 10 years later I'm an office manager at a large commercial construction company. I basically do a little of everything, accounting, billing, hiring, etc.. it works for me. I work for a great company and love my job. | |
| ---- | |
| Nursing degree. Never worked a day as a nurse. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in Psychology. | |
| Now a pediatric RN. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in Environmental chemistry. I work for a major international chemical company . Glass door reports I am top 5% earner. I feel broke and wear tshirts and eat chicken and rice. | |
| ---- | |
| I tweet at people to pay for my degree. | |
| ---- | |
| I really wanted to make sure I was unemployable, so I double majored in Art and Spanish Literature. Then I went all in with an MFA in film to ensure employers kept their distance. Thankfully I've been able to make a living as a freelance editor. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Anthropology. | |
| I'm a costume designer/seamstress/auto upholsterer. | |
| ---- | |
| Grad school | |
| ---- | |
| Psych degree. I’m an RN now. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in Physics. I'm a Baker now lol. | |
| ---- | |
| I investigate car crashes for insurance. I have 2 claims today alone that are getting denied, both for several thousand dollars. I hate that I’m the guy who has to tell these people they’re not getting paid after what they’ve gone through but that’s life | |
| ---- | |
| Double major in Evolutionary Biology & Publishing, but there's a happy ending — I work at a toys & games publisher in product & rules design. Sometimes running your college clubs, in my case tabletop club, is what actually gets you your job! | |
| ---- | |
| Liberal Arts/ Humanities is what I got for my AA. Now I do Dental Hygiene, part time Podiatry (foot care) medical assistant. | |
| ---- | |
| Computer Science. Currently leaving my job to become a farmer. | |
| ---- | |
| Political economy: AR specialist. | |
| ---- | |
| I double majored in "integrated studio arts" (fine arts basically) and German. I'm a horse trainer in New Mexico, and I volunteer at a local pottery studio teaching classes. Could have been worse. | |
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| psych degree, spent a few years working in an interesting intersection of higher ed and made many wonderful connections! now going back to school for a masters in higher ed at a pretty good program and life is honestly everything i wanted it to be post graduating | |
| ---- | |
| English Degree. Work for a utility company. A degree, any degree, is required for many promotions... so maybe not completely useless? | |
| ---- | |
| Communication and work as a Film distributor and I am working on my web series. | |
| ---- | |
| degree in public health, not useless but idk what to do with it. now i work in finance | |
| ---- | |
| BA religion, MA Celtic langs = > Business Analyst | |
| ---- | |
| Double BA in Sociology & Criminal Justice, I now own an insurance agency. Although, after 20 years in the business the basic concepts have come in handy… | |
| ---- | |
| Political science with honors, minors in philosophy and gender studies. | |
| I purchase used motorcycles for a dealership and manage a racing team. | |
| ---- | |
| Music degree, I’m now an audio/video engineer working in event production. Great money and really fun job | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre degree (AB). Voice Actor/Narrator, and I work as a Brand Ambassador | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, but I specifically studied North and Central American Archaeology. My minors were in Art History and Conservation Ethics. I wrote a *lot* of 20-page bullshit papers. | |
| Now, I am a state-certified paralegal and local government contracts & purchasing compliance analyst. It's good money, leans on my writing-heavy background, and no advanced degrees were necessary. | |
| ---- | |
| I work part time building high end dildos for OF stars | |
| ---- | |
| I've got a theatre degree. I'm a restaurant manager. | |
| ---- | |
| Sociology Sonoma state university. Going on 17 years working in a wine cellar. | |
| I had no idea what to do after high school. Luckily at the time in the year 2000, state college was very affordable. I paid my college tuition by working as a deckhand on a fishing boat in the summers. | |
| ---- | |
| Theater degree with an acting emphasis. I do executive operations. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a useless high school diploma. USMC, Oilfield equipment operator/hand/driver. Now a fuel hauler. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in geology and I work in behavioral sciences now | |
| ---- | |
| Regret every choice I have made | |
| ---- | |
| BA in History. Now I am a legal admin. | |
| ---- | |
| Poli sci and economics degree, graduate early and instantly regretted going to school. Looking at trades now cause college is bullshit and I encourage most people that want some stupid degree beyond teaching, premed, engineering or med to reconsider cause college is a scam | |
| ---- | |
| Classics (Roman languages and culture). | |
| I make a living wage teaching at a public high school in a HCOL area. Plus I love my job! | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors Degree in Game Design. Currently a pixel artist for video games but looking to retrain cos I’m sick of it. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Graphic Design with a minor in World Religions. Now a Scientist/Engineer. Help. | |
| ---- | |
| Advanced degrees in the humanities. I work in the creative side of the tech industry | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Media + Comm. to stay away from math/science and numbers | |
| I'm a Web Data Analyst on the Data Science Team. | |
| ---- | |
| English Lit major, now a Biotech Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Theatre Arts and now I work in Commercial Insurance | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Military History from American Military University. The degree was pretty decent amount of work, with lots of writing and reading. I feel like as far as an education goes, it did a pretty good job of teaching me about writing, research, sourcing, and all that fun stuff. | |
| The degree is so absolutely useless that I can't even think of a funny answer. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree in Physics. Work as an Engineer. | |
| ---- | |
| Got a degree in film and media production. I did work in Film for many years, but stepped away to start my own business (non media related) for money. | |
| I'm thinking about going back into the field now that I've saved a considerable amount and am not struggling any longer. | |
| ---- | |
| I won't say what my degree was as I am worried about doxing myself, but I am working in the finance industry and my degree was definitely not in finance or hard sciences. However, it was weird enough that it made people curious and that's how I got interviews sometimes. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors and Masters in Aviation. I’m a finance manager in the insurance industry. Still paying those student loans though. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in sociology. | |
| Masters in social work | |
| I’m a therapist. | |
| ---- | |
| Four music degrees. I teach special ed english. | |
| To be fair, I did work professionally in music for about 15 years. Now I make more money, don’t have to constantly be traveling, and get to play music just for fun. Oh and I never have to even think about promoting myself ever again. I’d pay for that privilege, were it not free. Social media and the way it altered musicians’ job descriptions largely ruined my love for my former career. | |
| ---- | |
| BFA theater performance. | |
| Now I bake and get baked for a living. | |
| ---- | |
| I don’t think any degree is “useless”. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Anthro. Fell very easily into social work and human services. My current role comes with some stress and a lot of emotional labor, but pay and benefits are pretty good and it's a gov't job. | |
| I feel like I am doing way better than all the naysayers in college led me to believe. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Sports. I got lucky and am now a university lecturer on sports/anatomy subjects and just got a job for a municipality as an advisor for sports clubs. | |
| Of the 200+ people that graduated alongside me, about 5 found a job in sports. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters degree in art history-- I work in my field as an art registrar (best/quickest way to describe it is that I'm kinda like an art librarian for art storage/collection.) It's pretty rad because I get to see a lot of art and in doing condition reports etc I get to get much closer than I would in a museum/gallery space. I don't use as much of the academia side of my degree all of the time, but it's rad either way. | |
| In undergrad I wanted to get into art conservation, but I freaking hate chemistry, so I gave that idea up. Still makes me a bit sad, but it ain't so bad. | |
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| *Almost* finished my degree in psych (ran out of funding with only 9 courses left) now I sell cannabis and cannabis accessories. | |
| ---- | |
| I have 3 degrees including an advanced one, but my career is in IT, which is unrelated to the aforementioned degrees. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a teaching degree, which my advisor called useless (Science Teaching, a small enough program that my advisor was from the science department). It is a pretty useless degree, aside from being a teacher or working with kids. | |
| I now do what I always knew I would end up doing; click-clacking in an office on a keyboard, as an account rep. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Film. Computer programmer. | |
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| I have a history degree and minored in philosophy for a while. | |
| I work in corporate communications now, currently in tech but I've also worked in government regulation, public services, civil engineering, higher education, manufacturing, etc. | |
| It makes me so sad that history as a major is massively down in enrollment. Every time people ask what I studied in school I always get a "oh I wish I could have studied that". I wish they did too, people's historical knowledge is generally abysmal, and people's ability to research it even moreso. | |
| ---- | |
| Poly Sci degree. I work in government. | |
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| Psych degree, went back several years later and got my RN BSN | |
| ---- | |
| I can’t count how many gig workers I’ve met in Vegas who have a gender studies degree. | |
| ---- | |
| Anthropology! Project Manager. | |
| ---- | |
| my degree is in journalism and communication and i work for a news website. i'm VERY aware that i'm one of the "lucky ones." some studies say journalism is the most-regretted college major, but i couldn't imagine doing anything else. (again, i'm painfully aware how fortunate i am.) | |
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| Bachelors in Journalism. I write smut now. | |
| ---- | |
| An acquaintance got a BA in medieval studies and became an ambassador to an African country. There are no useless degrees. It’s what you make of it. | |
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| I got a Creative Writing degree. I work editing podcasts for a public radio station, and have had a few books published by small presses. All in all I've done alright with my useless degree. | |
| ---- | |
| Masters in Art History. | |
| I'm a catering supervisor. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Journalism. Now I'm a digital marketer. I hate my life and regret my major choice every day. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in “General Biology”. I’m a civil litigation attorney now. | |
| ---- | |
| About to finish up a second bachelors. | |
| ---- | |
| Sociology degree. I do digital forensics now. | |
| ---- | |
| Mass Communication. I do IT work now. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Modern literature. Now a Science Content Manager for a company building quantum computers. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in business administration, I'm an office coordinator. 😑 | |
| ---- | |
| Painting Degree ---> Ed Tech. | |
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| liberal arts. retired after a lifetime as a waiter | |
| ---- | |
| Medical bachelors, now im a heavy machine mechanic…. Guess I still like fixing things, but they don’t bleed or bitch so maybe the same? But different | |
| ---- | |
| Music degree/audio recording science | |
| Full time guitar and guitar amp tech. Absolutely nothing I learned in school applies to what I do day to day. I'm pretty much self taught, and I feel like I would be better off if I'd studied electrical engineering or something. But I'm not good enough at math to pass those courses. | |
| ---- | |
| DoD contractor, project management to a customer, started my own business. Make six figures. Not being an engineer but understanding them is actually valuable. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management. Was laid off from that world during Covid and found my way into data analytics. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor’s degree in English pursuing a master’s degree in English—park ranger for the USACE. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in Entertainment Technology, now I work at a factory. | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre/Journalism here. Tech I.T. means I’m not stuck eating top ramen forever. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Philosophy. I work a brewery. | |
| ---- | |
| Physical therapy. I’m an IT product manager now. | |
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| My sister has an archaeology degree and works in HR lol 😆 | |
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| Bachelors in Film and Media Studies because I loved movies. | |
| I now work in Set Design. | |
| I’m in IATSE, make over six figures a year, usually only work about 8 months out of the year and spend the rest of the time traveling, being with friends and family, and enjoying the city I live in. | |
| I have excellent health insurance and retirement benefits (pension, annuity, and 401K). I will probably retire early (before 65). | |
| I have worked on many films and tv shows I am very proud of and have met/worked with many directors and actors I admired growing up. | |
| Do not regret choosing film as my major at all. | |
| ---- | |
| Associates Degree in Visual Communications from the now defunct ITT Technical Institute | |
| The degree in of itself is probably worth less than the piece of paper it was printed on. | |
| However I feel pretty accomplished considering I'm actually working in my field of study, while virtually everyone I've kept in touch with over the years from school are in completely different fields altogether. | |
| I work as a field support specialist for a print, marketing, graphic design franchise. | |
| ---- | |
| Art history, I do corporate development | |
| ---- | |
| Sport and Business degree. I now dispatch oversized truck loads | |
| ---- | |
| Got my bachelor’s in Political Science. Went out of school for a year, turned around and went to grad school in Statistics. | |
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| business degree - i now am a content editor for web pages | |
| ---- | |
| BA Graphic Design. I manage an apartment complex. Free rent. | |
| ---- | |
| Had to scroll way too far to find undergrad in art history! Now I work in long duration energy storage policy (not 100% sure how I got here but it involved many jobs and realizing I liked working for small nonprofits who care about their people) | |
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| Masters in Nursing Informatics. I’m an ICU nurse 🤣 | |
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| Data entry. It actually pays a hell of a lot more than what I was making when I got a job in journalism. | |
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| International affairs, and I run a food pantry. My boyfriend has a BA in philosophy and he is a chef. | |
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| MA In philosophy. Software QA. | |
| ---- | |
| Physics -> software engineer. | |
| Not the craziest switch. Or the worst degree. But most (s)tem grads I know didn’t end up in the life sciences. | |
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| I got a degree in entomology. I don’t work in that field now though. I’m a sysadmin. | |
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| BA in art history. I’m a fundraiser for a hospital. | |
| ---- | |
| I hate my job. That’s what my useless BA in art history got me. Decades of drudgery. | |
| ---- | |
| Bartend | |
| ---- | |
| Drive a truck | |
| ---- | |
| Clinical psychology. Went into medical marketing. Basically my job was "how to create social media buzz and get physicians to buy our products". It was soul crushing and I quit. | |
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| Software development | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in History, Masters in Library and Information Science. I'm unemployed. | |
| ---- | |
| As a holder of one maybe-sorta-kinda useful degree and two other "useless" degrees, I now have a high profile career and lead national level research and social service projects that intersect with all these "useless" talents. While some fields are highly regulated, for the most part, opprtunities are made of your talent, planning, persistence, timing and network. | |
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| Bachelors in art with a concentration in photography. I am a brick/stone mason now. | |
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| BA in Arts specialization in photography and now I’m a mortgage escrow officer. | |
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| Poli Sci > Non Profit(s) > College Administrator | |
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| Degree in English/Creative Writing- I am now a psychotherapist. To be fair, I do a lot of writing for my work, and you can analyze people like you can analyze great works of literature. | |
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| BA in Art History. | |
| Happily retired but I had three careers—6 years in museum administration, 12 years in classical-music admin, production, and tech consulting, and then 20 years with the State Depatment as a foreign-service officer. Used what I learned as a undergraduate every day in all of them. | |
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| Not me but a friend of mine got a degree in kinesiology, took a coding bootcamp offered by Citi, and started making 6 figures her second year out of college working with Citi. She had 0 coding experience before she started and now shes highly successful as a programmer | |
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| Psychology. I am a Psychologist. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Communication. | |
| Went to get MBA in Accounting | |
| Proceeded to get a job as a Financial Adviser, i.e. something not really using either degree. | |
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| Majored in Sport Management. Now chopping down trees. | |
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| Master’s Degree in English with a Concentration in Composition and Rhetoric…. I used to be an English teacher but now I’m a Stay at home mom, though I may have to go back to the classroom if the prices of shit don’t chill out | |
| ---- | |
| Answer random questions on Reddit | |
| ---- | |
| There is no useless degree really, the degree is usually the proof that you can commit to something for 3-4 years, show up, do the work and complete the thing. So it is more or less an insurance that you will be able to do the same at work. No one cares much about what your degree is in, unless it’s a medical, highly technical, legal or other professional subject. | |
| ---- | |
| I give useless lectures about my useless field of study at the University of useless. | |
| Nothing against my college and coworkers, they are all lovely and my students are cool. But I'm growing unsatisfied and depressed about the irrelevance of my job in the middle of pre-collapse capitalism. | |
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| Psych degree. I work in tech during the day, specifically in research and data analysis. | |
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| Criminology, manage a gym now | |
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| Political Science > Software engineer that just gets acutely anxious about politics now. | |
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| Got liberal arts:philosophy. Work at Walmart. Make the same as my kids who work there with me. It’s their first job ever. I have two degrees. Other one was web design back when that meant hand coding html and css. | |
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| political science. Now a firefighter. A lot of great jobs do not require a degree! | |
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| What is a useless degree? My daughter is getting her BS in philosophy. This is one of the best majors for preparing you for law school. | |
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| BA / MA in History. I’m a full-time coffee roaster for a large, international specialty coffee company. | |
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| English degree. Got an MA and I work in communications for a charity now. I could make more money somewhere else but I like doing something that helps people. | |
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| General studies AA. | |
| Yeah, still trying to find a job. | |
| So sorry job world I’m not bachelor or master smart ;-; | |
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| I worked full time as an ABA Therapist and got a BA in psychology doing night school. There's plenty of difficult, low-paying work available to me. | |
| Career services told me they could set me up with an unpaid internship so I could get a better job, but I have no family support, so I couldn't take an internship. I had to keep doing the dead-end autism work. | |
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| Political science - eDiscovery Analyst | |
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| BFA, focus on painting. I'm a carpenter. | |
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| BA in Church Ministries. Tried my hand at missionary work and failed spectacularly. Served as an assistant for a year then got out entirely. Worked 20 years in low paying, physical jobs before going back to Community College and landing an IT internship. That has led to a career in Cybersecurity and a second BA. | |
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| BA in English from a private liberal arts college, now I'm working in medicine/healthcare/biotech research | |
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| UI/UX design. I had some creative elements in my degree path that have crossover with design in apps/websites, and I also did some minor front-end development when I was in college as basically a focus. | |
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| Pre-med, now in construction management, although I’ve also worked (since graduating) | |
| as a waiter, fire alarm sale salesman, lab tech, and private investigator. | |
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| BA history and psychology, MA and PhD history. I'm a historian | |
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| My sister got a BFA in illustration. Going on a decade from graduation and she's still a dog groomer. | |
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| Philosophy degree, im a lawyer now | |
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| Degrees in history of arts and journalism. Both dropped out. | |
| Software developer for more than 30 years now. | |
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| Got an English BA, went back and got a social work masters. I’m now a transplant social worker. | |
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| BS in psychology. I’m a data scientist. | |
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| BA in equine management. Wanted to train and show horses full time and told myself I’d never work a boring desk job. Currently work a (mostly) desk job for the state. | |
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| English major and working in marketing. You need to be able to communicate persuasively, and copywriting is a key skill in this field. | |
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| BA (not a BS) in Environmental Science. | |
| I work for the Clerk of Court. | |
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| Went to bartending school and never did anything with it. I'm an industrial maintenance tech for a condiment company | |
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| Japanese Studies BA with minor in Japanese Language -> premed studies for two years almost getting a BS in biology -> MD -> MPH -> Data Engineer/Data Scientist Lead for public health modernization | |
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| BA in Communications. I’m a backend system developer now and make way, way more than I ever would have as PR specialist. | |
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| I got a degree in theater at the age of 42. I used to get paid to talk and drink, but now I schedule tanker trucks | |
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| Idk if my degree is useless but I definitely went to a different industry. I got a degree in Video Game Development and currently lead an all digital team at a multi billion dollar Fashion corp | |
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| BA in anthropology, now very happy working as a professional archeologist (and have been for my whole career). | |
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| Bachelors degree in political science. Continued education and I’m a lawyer now. | |
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| Master’s in admin science from a private university in NJ. Was (operative word “was”) a security guard at a weed dispensary until the joint (pun?) folded due to gross mismanagement. | |
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| I went for a Studio Arts degree, now I landscape. Definitely worth everything I learned and the friends I made, but not the $40-$50k it cost to go. | |
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| BA in marketing. Got a job as a delivery driver right after college. Was the highest paying job I could find & had to move out ASAP (lived with my alcoholic, bipolar mother) | |
| I’m in the teamsters union now doing the same job for a different company. The pay is fine, but the health insurance is what’ll make me a lifer. That $750 deductible is sweet | |
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| Studied dance. I dance, teach dance for the community and local university, and make dances. Still on that starving artist life though. | |
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| BFA in Theater. Bartender the last 28 years. | |
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| Associate's in Mechanical Drafting. Unlike most of the responses I've seen, my degree is *actually* useless as engineering software has come far enough along that engineers can easily draft their own drawings for parts. | |
| So anyway I work at a distribution center for retail now. | |
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| I went back to school. | |
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| Degree in Anthropology and now after a bunch of intersting turns, 40 years later I am in Cyber security analysis and wri | |
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| Got essentially the pre-degree to a medical graduate degree, which without the grad degree is worthless. I realized I don’t want to go to grad school, now I make custom toys for research animals and do dental work on dogs and primates. Wouldn’t trade it for the world | |
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| Sociology degree, I hike dogs for a living | |
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| Bachelor's in Latin & Literature (concentrating on Virgil & Dante). I've been a systems librarian for the past 30 years. | |
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| BFA in Fashion Design now I'm a fashion designer for an American department store. I'm hoping to go back to school this fall so I can teach! | |
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| I double majored in English and Poli Sci (both useless imo). Now I'm a lawyer. | |
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| Bachelor’s in Computer Science. I’ve spent the last 2 years filling out thousands of applications and still filling them out. | |
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| Grad degrees in Philosophy and Theology. I teach online now for seven universities. | |
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| Actually, realized “business management” degree was useless when I was a sophomore. Entered work force and worked up a decent enough resume and experience over the years. Learned how to communicate and strategize…15 years later, I’m debt free while all my college friends drown in debt. I’m a supply chain manager (no degree) clearing 6 figures…experience > college education | |
| ---- | |
| Cry. | |
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| Biology. Then covid happened, a bunch of money flowed into the biotech industry and rescued me from a dead end job | |
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| English Literature. | |
| Film industry (Freelance Script Editor and Post Production Supervisor in studio movies). | |
| Degree has been very helpful. | |
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| Uber | |
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| Got a B.A. in theatre. I've worked professionally in theatre as an actor and administrator for close to a decade now. I've gotten serious burnout from the industry as a whole so planning a career change in a few years, but looking back I've gotten to work with several interesting people, never had to work a side job from my main career path or pay for housing the entire time I've done theater, so I feel pretty darn lucky, all things considered. | |
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| went to CC for photography, now i take care of snakes and photograph them for product listings | |
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| Optometry > Event Management | |
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| Criminal Justice degree led me to join the Army. Did 21.5 years and am retiring at 46 with a pension. | |
| ---- | |
| It worked for me - I'm retired! | |
| ---- | |
| Find a company that is not in the animation business but needs a steady flow of work. Think medical, industrial, law enforcement, etc. Then do portfolio work targeting that niche. Then go to trade shows in that industry a try to find out who the department heads are. Takes a lot of work but is possible. | |
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| Horticulturist by degree, airline industry now. Best decision ever. | |
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| I run a dinosaur theme park! | |
| I got a degree in Music and another in Communication. | |
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| I love it how most the answers here are just flexes, “psych degree, now build spy car countermeasures for CIA, life is unpredictable bro”. No, most people that get bullshit degrees are doing shit like waiting tables, driving trucks, working middle management, selling cars, staring at spreadsheets, etc. | |
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| BA in sociology. Work in federal agency doing research/analysis, hitting 6 figures 2 years in. | |
| I got a masters in policy which helped but didn’t teach me hard skills either.. | |
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| BA, double major in linguistics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. | |
| Now do in-house PR / content at a financial services company. | |
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| BA in English (from a liberal arts university); Director of AI services at a *giant* US tech company. | |
| Took a job with a defense contractor out of college, in tech writing; basically doing user manuals for military software. A capacity for learning, excellent communication skills, critical reading and thinking skills, and an extremely opinionated personality have gotten me very far. | |
| I am a successful professional for a handful of reasons, and one of them is the education I received in the path I chose. Would change nothing, and it breaks my heart to see the corporatization of our (US) colleges and universities. Long live the liberal arts! | |
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| Music degree > HR manager and thinking about law school for Career #3. But I do make about $2k per year in one-off music gigs, so technically I'm using it? | |
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| Communications degree- public relations specialty. | |
| I work in operations for a tech company and I'm an executive assistant to a co-founder for a VC. | |
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| Degree in Communications. Have worked in HR for 8 years. | |
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| Psychology. I work in healthcare providing support to trans folks. It requires the degree, so I guess you could argue that I got lucky. | |
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| Read from these questions haha | |
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| Media Studies degree. Now CEO. | |
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| I sell propane and propane accessories. | |
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| I have a B.S. in the management and contract negotiation of *telephone* contracts, because in the 80s and 90s they were so insanely complicated you needed a degree for it. | |
| Fortunately, I learned enough about networking, nascent cellular networks, and computer programming to parlay it into a career in IT programming and management. It was either that or business law. blech. | |
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| BA in English | |
| I’m a medical biller | |
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| Not a “degree” but went to and finished paramedic school. Graduated with honours. Got a job as a medic. Did it for a while. Like many of my other friends here, realized I hate humans a lot. | |
| Now I work for the federal government. I give out free money to people who are entitled to said free money. I enjoy what I do. | |
| ---- | |
| Associates degree in General Studies, I recently went in on a Franchise. Though I originally intended to get a degree in Creative Writing. | |
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| Undergrad English lit. Grad professional writing. | |
| Got really good at spinning its relevance until I got hired doing bid response and contract writing, then moved into procurement. | |
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| I'm useless. Duh. NEXT QUESTION! | |
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| arts degree with focus on metals and jewelry. currently working in jewelry sales but i’m planning to go to grad school for metalsmithing! | |
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| History degree working in software sales. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree in entrepreneurship. | |
| I’m a irrigation technician | |
| ---- | |
| Not a degree necessarily but i went to the top welding school in the country. Graduated top of my class. Got out and the pipeline had a mass layoff so the lifelong pipeliners took the other welding jobs in my area. Ended up getting snagged up by a commercial metal framing company and now im a project manager and transitioning into a very good paying position doing bids and estimating. | |
| But my education is good to have still even though im not really using it as my career. I will always be useful with it in my back pocket. As long as steel exists, there will always be demand for people who can zap it together. It has also made me a lot of side cash. Instead of hundred dollar side gigs and shit like that i can pocket 5k+ from a project at a time. Was definitely worth the money and i was able to pay it off in a year. | |
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| I used my BA in History (not History Education) to get a post-bac in Computer Science. | |
| The funny part is my friend did 2 years of History before switching to CS. | |
| I took 5.5 years of college to end up with a CS degree and a History degree and he took 6 to get just a CS degree. | |
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| Undergrad in psychology. Completely switched gears a couple years ago after being diagnosed with anxiety disorders and now work for a well known game dev company and adore my job | |
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| Creative Writing Degree, Retail -> Bullshit Corporate Job I kinda loved -> Call Center Worker | |
| I loved my degree and the program and I met my now wife because of it. But I really wish I had done something else. I basically only have done jobs that built few wanted skills and gave me severe mental health problems. | |
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| Health sciences degree then nursing. Now I’m an RN | |
| ---- | |
| My degree's in public relations. I learned I didn't like being on call 24/7 in case something happens. I'm an IT project manager. I like deploying tech platforms, theorizing / guiding what can be, connecting different depts, negotiating contracts. | |
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| English major. I‘m a Director of Marketing for a renewable energy company and can’t believe I turned that into a serious professional job. My degree is from a state school and I have colleagues who went to Harvard. It’s really about whether or not you can do a job and if people want to work with you. I definitely faked it until it worked and it took a little longer, but I’m proud of the work. | |
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| What are people with biology degree doing now? I am doing a biology degree and have been told my job prospects are 0. | |
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| History, I work for the DOT. Studying to go to law school. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a BFA in lighting design for entertainment production, and now I make $100k doing lighting design for entertainment production. A “useless degree” is only useless if you don’t put in the work after graduation to build a career. | |
| ---- | |
| Had a history-type focus, now I help nonprofits raise money for their missions. | |
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| Associates in media business, assistant store manager in retail | |
| ---- | |
| I got an AA on criminal justice. I work in IT | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in Film Production. Had some mental health issues and worked in retail for the last six years, mainly at a grocery store. Unemployed now but finally starting to do better mentally. | |
| ---- | |
| Journalism degree that primarily focused on old school media (newspapers, tv news) when everything is online. Minored in child development though and now I work as a preschool teacher. Idk how but on average I get paid more than my j-school peeps. 🤷🏻♀️ | |
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| Art degree, cast metal sculpture -> strategy consultant | |
| ---- | |
| I’m a music major who now owns a business installing draft beer systems for bars and restaurants. 🤷♂️ | |
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| Theology -> Software Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| 💀💀💀💀💀💀 | |
| ---- | |
| bro stop the puns | |
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| Degree in Photography. I'm a software engineer now. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors in psychology ... 30 years of IT | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Law Enforcement —-> now a research coordinator for a psychology lab at a top tier university. Total 180 and couldn’t be happier | |
| ---- | |
| Masters degree in political science. Do software engineering now. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Theology. I’ve worked in software/IT for the past decade. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a degree in humanities after seven years in college. I’ve been in software development for almost 30 now. | |
| ---- | |
| I know it’s cliche but I’m a stay at home dad. Communications Studies degree in 2002 wasn’t worth shit if you didn’t have enough money to get a masters or a doctorate. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a music degree. I was a k-12 music teacher for 10 years. Now I work in higher ed designing courses. My job is hella easy, low stress, good pay and benefits. Between my 9-5 and all the contract work I do on course design with other universities, I bring home more than my husband (who is a mid manager in finance with an economics degree). We are doing okay for ourselves. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology degree. Came so close to getting a PhD before deciding not to pursue it. Took a few years to work in research, took advantage of the tuition discount and got my MBA while working, and now work remote at a Fortune 500 company in marketing. Really enjoy it for the most part! | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Photography. I'm currently a photo editor at a global magazine under one of the largest publishers. I hire photographers to shoot stories for us. It's a really fun job and one where I don't feel the pressure of selling my own work. | |
| ---- | |
| Got a bachelors in English Literature. Currently pretending to write my novels, crying, and am unemployed lol. | |
| ---- | |
| The book “From Good to Great” says you need to find a career inside three intersecting circles (as in a Venn Diagram) — what you love doing, are good at, and the world will pay for. | |
| ---- | |
| While it isn't a useless degree if you become an author or teacher, when you don't, it's kinda useless...I have a Bachelors in history, and I work at a dotcom selling aftermarket motorcycle/ATV parts. | |
| ---- | |
| Got to my final semester of an elementary education degree only to realize that being a teacher is my worst nightmare. Now I manage a restaurant. I wake up excited to go to work every day. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a degree in Art History, why? Because it was easy and I was good at it. | |
| I only thought about the degree after I took Art Hst 101 part of those useless requirements. I sat by a group of art history majors and they were failing the class while I was acing it with no studying. | |
| The professor was pretty cool, she would chat with me about the class and ask about how much time I spent studying, was a bit surprised when I told her the only thing I did was pay attention in class. She convinced me to take a few other classes, turned out art history was right up my alley. Unfortunately working in the art world is for rich people. At the time you needed a masters for a $35k job. The masters included fluent in French, German, or Italian, I was neither. I also did not have the grads to get into a master's program. I was going for business and having a terrible time with 2 fiance courses. | |
| Anyways, I now do pharmacy reconciliation. Basically, I work about 45 minutes at an 8 hour job. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Religious Studies which really helped propel me into Operations Managment.... Sorry Mom | |
| ---- | |
| I have a certificate in healthcare because we are not allowed to say that a Bach of Science in Nursing is just being a legal glorified drug pusher … so I have a cert that allows me to basically do everything the RNs do but not push drugs… and the way hospitals push opioids and prescribe them is exactly that , legalized drug pushing… | |
| I’m changing careers though, have taken up photography and am looking into electrical repair / ac hvac / automotive repair… | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's in Public health and masters in health administration, now an ethical hacker consultant. | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in psychology that eventually led to a PhD. I am a University Vice President now. So not really useless in the end. | |
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| BA in film production with an advertising minor, I work customer service for a construction company. News is all bad as I’m making more money at my current job than I ever did in film. Bought a new car 2 years ago, got married last year. Now my wife and I are looking for a house! | |
| ---- | |
| I have a bachelors in Political Science. Currently I work for the city clerk in my town. I’m going back to school for nursing. | |
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| My husband has an associates degree in Criminal Justice. He is a software salesman for Axon | |
| ---- | |
| Psych BA -> MA in Industrial-Organizational Psychology (This was my plan since senior year of high school though, not enough people know about I-O psych) | |
| ---- | |
| International political economy - then didn't get a law degree. | |
| I did hr, then employment immigration at a university, then hr management including managing international employment at the same university. | |
| I'd say it worked out great. | |
| ---- | |
| Theater. I am a lawyer | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Criminology and Criminal Justice. I work in procurement contract management. | |
| ---- | |
| Environmental science degree. I own an HVAC company. | |
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| Got a film degree.. not once in my whole film career.. and it's been long and successful.. have I ever once.. not once!.. ever.. I mean ever.. been asked if i have a degree.. or even went to school for that matter.. so yea. I guess you could say it is a very worthless degree. | |
| ---- | |
| BA Psych, working in journalism | |
| ---- | |
| Insurance at Statefarm | |
| ---- | |
| Elementary Education.... though I am still an elementary teacher. | |
| **I** don't think it's useless, far from it - I think education is vastly important; however... everyone else *thinks* they know what you know, from parents to politicians, and try to tell you exactly how you're doing your chosen profession wrong, and that makes it *feel* useless. There are bad teachers, for sure, but you can't legislate a bad teacher in a good one. You can, however, legislate a good teacher into a bad one if you tie their hands enough. | |
| If an elementary teacher ever thinks of leaving the profession, as so many often do, the degree does not offer many other career pathways. With the turnover rate so high, I often tell people thinking of getting into teaching to get a degree in something else and transition into teaching. If it's something you like, then great; keep teaching! Otherwise, you have a degree in an industry you're interested in to fall back on. I hate to say it, though, because many of the pedagogy courses I had to take were eye-opening and useful, but the fact of the matter is, most teachers who enter the profession leave within 5 years. | |
| ---- | |
| Psychology -> Data Scientist | |
| Research psychology creates a strong base for data science | |
| ---- | |
| I have a degree in education. I'm doing child welfare now, looking to move into selling insurance. | |
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| BA in Arts in majoring English and History. | |
| I work at a job at a supermarket. | |
| ---- | |
| I have an AAS in Audio & Recording Technology. | |
| I work in the Fraud Department at a Credit Union. | |
| Most of the time, I keep the CU from losing money. But sometimes, on really good days, I help scam victims get back thousands of dollars they lost to con artists. | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors In Economics: Software Engineer | |
| ---- | |
| Lawyer lol | |
| ---- | |
| I work in a prison now. It has its moments. Pay is great, time off is great, benefits are good, pension. | |
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| I’m not going to say what degree I had but I’m an electrician now | |
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| Photography with a focus on Photoshop. I work in finance now. When I say I *never* saw that twist coming, I mean it lol | |
| ---- | |
| BA Anthropology/ Minor in Dance, | |
| MS Information Studies (library science) the masters was the true waste of time & $. | |
| Now, SAHP and learning Revit and Autocad. | |
| ---- | |
| BSc in mathematics. | |
| Not necessarily a useless degree, I know a few people who use their math degrees now. | |
| I do not. I fly planes. | |
| ---- | |
| useless degree = dumpster diving | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education | |
| Loading trucks for FedEx and UPS | |
| ---- | |
| BFA graphic design. | |
| Now I'm a bike mechanic. | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre Arts / English Lit. Not useless! But yeah...i worked as an actor for a few years. Now I'm an art director. I dunno. Paths are weeeendy windy. | |
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| Triple majored in anthropology, history, and religion, got a graduate degree studying Buddhist history. Now I work in the special education department of a high school. I'm getting a masters in education so I can teach history and at least kind of use my education. | |
| ---- | |
| History ==> non-profit management | |
| ---- | |
| BA Psychology, worked in social work for 20+ years where a degree is required; now an author and poet, social media for writers and authors, and nonprofit work. | |
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| Digital Video —> medical Coding | |
| ---- | |
| Degree in English (no teaching certificate.) I’m an admin for a municipality. | |
| ---- | |
| Communications. | |
| Communications. | |
| ---- | |
| Theatre Arts. Working in a Lab now. 😊 | |
| ---- | |
| My grandmother got a degree in art history at age 65. When I asked her, her response: “Eating chocolate, mostly. Sometimes I read my mystery novels.” | |
| In her defense she’s 88 next week | |
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| My wife earned a theatre and dance degree. Now a licensed massage therapist. Her true calling! | |
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| Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts, because my ADHD prompted multiple major changes until I finally graduated by default. Spent a fantastic career as a federal agent then financial sector crisis manager. Retired in my 50s, with a really nice pension and 401k. Somehow have an incredible range of hobbies. Woohoo! | |
| ---- | |
| Sociology-> software developer | |
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| Bachelors in philosophy- started/own a few businesses, some failed, one is doing well | |
| ---- | |
| Earn good money doing product management with a sociolinguistic degree. | |
| ---- | |
| Political science. I’m an emergency room doctor | |
| ---- | |
| Entertainment! So I get to use my degree a little bit. 😀 | |
| ---- | |
| I’m going backwards in this endeavor. Have my bsn, getting a degree in philosophy. | |
| ---- | |
| I have a Master's degree in Information Design and Technology, which is all about designing visual information pieces, (web page, print, etc.) in accordance with how the human mind interacts with such things. Human-computer engineering, Human factors in the design process, etc. So here's some rich irony for you: I ended up working where they have the most viciously user-hostile software, reports, etc. The Department of Defense! | |
| i have offered many times, in fact practically begged them, to let me use my skill set to rewrite their atrocious standard operating procedures and training guides. Maybe some actual work would get done if people had actual guidance they could understand. But no, the agency would rather let the functional illiterates who don't know the difference between THEN and THAN write these things while I'm sidelined doing data entry work a trained pigeon could do. | |
| THANK GOD I'M RETIRING IN LESS THAN A YEAR!!! | |
| ---- | |
| BA in psychology -> user experience designer/human factors researcher/graphic designer (I wear many hats) | |
| ---- | |
| Got two BAs, psych and comm. | |
| MBA after. | |
| I’m a data analyst for a nonprofit healthcare center now. | |
| I really like excel spreadsheets. | |
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| Pediatrician | |
| ---- | |
| IT | |
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| BA in English literature. I file taxes and my side hustle is retail | |
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| Bachelors in HR. Graduated at the height of the pandemic so went full time at the job I had all through college at an eye doctor. Ended up taking on more responsibilities and becoming a licensed dispensing optician. Still doing it almost 4 years later and really enjoy it. | |
| ---- | |
| English degree. Then went to medical school and now I’m a physician. But to be fair that was the plan all along. | |
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| Bachelors in anthropology. I do accounting at a country club while I get my masters in social work | |
| ---- | |
| Got a degree in Theatre Arts (I was a stage manager). I'm now a senior IT Project Manager and life is good. All about transferable skillsets. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in History and Anthropology, now I'm in IT sales probably making multiples of what anyone in those fields make. | |
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| BA in political science I’m now in pharmaceutical manufacturing | |
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| I have a b.s in business admin and a masters in marketing and I work in a fuckin warehouse and wish I was dead | |
| ---- | |
| Bachelors degree in psychology and clinical counseling. | |
| Career in commodity sales and logistics! | |
| ---- | |
| Two bachelors, one in Sociology and one in Criminology. Now I am a tax accountant😂 | |
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| psychology degree —> assistant to billionaire | |
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| Theater Arts --> MA in Counseling | |
| ---- | |
| Pianist Performance:Data Center Engineer for VMware…. Code is like music to me. | |
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| BA in music. Now a Mohs surgeon (skin cancer surgeon). | |
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| BA in communications. I am a technology consultant for a FAANG. | |
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| Associates in military intelligence systems. Like, capabilities of certain uavs, masint instruments, osint, all that stuff. | |
| It came with my military service. | |
| After that, I managed a pizza restaurant for a number of years, then I was a zookeeper for 4 years, and now I'm an unarmed security guard working on my carry license. | |
| Needless to say, neither one of those jobs requires me to task a Global Hawk. But the discipline and teamwork skills I learned during my military service has served me well in every job since then. | |
| ---- | |
| All degrees are useless. When you start your job with that megacorporation they will tell you how to do your job. | |
| ---- | |
| I'm an engineer. | |
| ---- | |
| BA in Art & Design, no minor (wish I did a business related minor). | |
| Currently work in Marketing, where I get to use graphic design often. Dislike the designing part the most. | |
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| BA in ceramics. I’ve had lots of interesting, creative jobs and now I make mannequins. | |
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| Humanities degree. FAANG SDE | |
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| Mass Communication. Eventually worked for a Union. I started as a secretary . After 9 yesrs I was promoted | |
| Among other things, negotiated labor agreements worth millions. The rest of the time I enforced labor agreements and labor laws on behalf of the union members I represented. It was a great career. | |
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| Masters in economics, I’m a recruiter now | |
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| Something like 90% of people don't "work" in their "field of study". This of it this way: getting a college education shows that you know how to learn. That is what employers are looking for. | |
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| bachelors degree in commercial music and i work compliance for an auto refinance company | |
| ---- | |
| I have a associates in personal training and Fitness science | |
| Today I am a midagation technician (Restoration business) | |
| ---- | |
| Sports medicine (kinesiology) wanting to be a PT…. now im a mechanical engineer | |
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| English degree. Now I teach French | |
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| I wouldn’t call my BS in Psych useless, but I’ve definitely seen the bad side of therapists when I worked with them. I decided I didn’t want to go down that route. | |
| Right now I’m working in the accounting department of a nonprofit and it’s rewarding work that is low pressure. | |
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| Film degree. Work in film production. Be careful what you wish for. | |
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| BA in Japanese/Intl Studies, moved to Japan and got a masters in Japanese linguistics. Now a senior financial analyst since bilingual talent is incredibly scarce here. Had to wade through the weebs and “what are you gonna do with that degree?” but hey it pays to specialize 🤷🏾♂️ | |
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| B.A. in writing, editing, etc. | |
| Now an antiques dealer. | |
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| Electrician with physics degree. | |
| It's way more lucrative to be well educated in a low education field than be a smart guy in a sea of near geniuses | |
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| [removed] | |
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| I just use it towards my own goals | |
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| International Relations & Politics - I'm an analyst at a robotics company | |
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| work part-time, boring job | |
| ---- | |
| Anthropology - HR Manager. Not completely unrelated I guess, but not quite working with the primates I wanted to… | |
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| BS in Information Technology. Now a technical writer. | |
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| Got a BS in Early Childhood Education, worked as a Special Education teacher, loved it but that's how I discovered I had autoimmune problems and couldn't stay healthy. Went back to school to get a certificate in Medical Billing and Coding, thinking I could get a job with a clearing house or something...nope, only hospitals and doctor's offices. You know, face-to-face with sick people all day everyday. So now I'm an immunocompromised, stay-at-home-mom because I can't stay healthy enough to function in public. | |
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| My BS is in sociology with a double minor in psychology and conflict resolution, now I work for a solar company | |
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| I have a degree in communications, and now I build rockets, which requires no degree | |
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| I've worked with dozens of cooks w bachelor degrees in not cooking | |
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| Psychology degree. Data engineer now. | |
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| Environmental Analysis, wanted to save the world. | |
| Now I have my own mostly online ESL and test prep company. | |
| ---- | |
| Work for the government! | |
| ---- | |
| Sociology. | |
| ​ | |
| I teach Counselling Students. I was a stripper for a long time though! | |
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| Bachelors of Fine Art in Illustration. I’m an art director for one of the larger TTRPG games in the industry. I’ve been very lucky tho, and connections I made while in school were integral. | |
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| My history degree can only get me web customer support after my felony. To be fair, I am probably making the same as a teacher's salary anyway | |
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| History degree!! Useless as it gets! I’ve been doing construction for 20 years now and I’m still in debt | |
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| Bachelor of psychology - totally useless and a ton of people have them. I got a part time student position working for a federal agency while in university and was able to stay in an entry level position upon graduation. I’ve been there ever since and worked my way up to HR labour relations advisor, which I feel kinda uses some of my knowledge from my degree lol | |
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| My archaeology degree comes in handy as a government drone. | |
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| My daughter: education and anthropology degrees. She's now a systems engineer in charge of explaining the network systems to lay people and vise versa | |
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| I got three useless degrees and now I’m married to a doctor. SAHD. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a BA in psychology. Started a doctorate program for Occupational Therapy and quickly realized healthcare isn’t morally what I want to get behind. Then, I was a 4th grade teacher. Now, I am a project manager for a tech company and love it! Never be afraid to try something new, or be too ashamed to start over. | |
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| BA in English Communications with a focus in creative writing. I'm a pest control salesman now. Wouldn't call it a complete waste though. I use a lot of the dialogue writing skills I learned in college to write sales scripts for my office now. | |
| ---- | |
| I got a degree in video game programming. Now I'm journeying out as a union electrician. | |
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| Masters in Sociology. I am an Assistant Director of a social services nonprofit. I use my degree and would not have gone to school for something I didn't really find interesting. I'm lucky though. | |
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| BA in Journalism. Minored in Film Studies. Was a copywriter, now in User Experience Design. | |
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| So... useless degrees mean you end up working in IT or finance/ accounting? | |
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| Bachelor's in English and education. I work in cannabis and make diamonds | |
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| Was a taxi driver a market stall trader and now unemployed gona go back to market stall trading in june | |
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| Sociology BA at a Russel Group uni. | |
| Account Manager now. AKA a stressed out customer service rep. | |
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| BA in Criminology and I’m working in a cafe. I don’t want anything to do with crim. I’m burnt out with it. Tbh I don’t like the cafe stuff much either. But I’m saving money rn to travel a bit. | |
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| I’m getting a second education in a field that I like | |
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| BA Media Production. Now a Client Services Manager. | |
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| I have a law diploma, a degree in Creative Writing & English Literature and a Masters in Rural Land Management. | |
| I'm a chimney sweep. | |
| ---- | |
| Interdisciplinary Social Sciences >Psychology/ Sociology. I worked in the community mental health field for a few years. Now, I am an Underwriter for insurance. | |
| ---- | |
| Major in computational mathematics>waiter | |
| ---- | |
| Associates of Applied Science. I am a IT assistant for a window manufacturing plant. | |
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| Are you animated when you deliver mail? (sorry, had to do it) | |
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| Master's degree in Animation, I am a Front end web developer for a company that uses AI to diagnose cancer lol | |
| Not really in the same ballpark haha | |
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| Aardman studios want a word. | |
| [https://www.aardman.com/careers/](https://www.aardman.com/careers/) | |
| ​ | |
| and Wētā Workshops | |
| [https://www.wetaworkshop.com/recruitment/](https://www.wetaworkshop.com/recruitment/) | |
| ​ | |
| Have a crack, the worst they can say is no. - Good luck. | |
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| What kind of animation? Like computer animation? hand drawn cell animation? Claymation? | |
| Doesn't sound like a useless degree. Sounds like an awesome (but highly competitive) career. | |
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| Just curious why you didn’t keep pursuing a job in animation? | |
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| Do you break out into song and have Pony Tea Parties in 2D Animation? | |
| ---- | |
| Hey I also have a bachelor's in animation.....I work at a call center now :/ | |
| ---- | |
| For what it's worth after I left uni it took me like 8-ish years and some dumb luck. | |
| A lot of it just came down to how the economy was doing I graduated 2007 when the market crashed. A ton of projects were canned and suddenly studios were not interested in interns, runners, jr positions and I ended up in retail and it didn't help that in the UK really only three or four schools have good connections and run decent courses, other uni's see animation as more of a cash generator than an actual craft. So to be fair my degree was fairly junk and it was the work I made after that got me the spot I have now. | |
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| I also got my BA in sociology. I’m applying to mortuary school to become a funeral director. | |
| Life is definitely a journey | |
| ---- | |
| Socio BA here, too. I’ve helped a few new small businesses open - writing manuals, policy & procedures, setting up databases/inventory. A few management and record management jobs. Currently working for my family business so my grandparents can retire. Who knows what is next. | |
| While I’m at it - does anyone know an accurate title for assisting new small business owners? Seemed kinda like consulting, but not sure the specifics. | |
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| Ditto on Sociology, now work in HR | |
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| Also BA in sociology! And an MA in peace and development. | |
| I'm a business analyst for an insurance company now, and actually really like my job; if I knew what I know now, I may have chosen a more technical route. Life is indeed a journey. | |
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| Same! | |
| Went back for a BaS in organizational management. I’ve mostly done operations work with a retailer and investigative work for the state lol. Turns out liking studying people can translate into good people skills 🤷♀️ (but retail has made me dislike them haha) | |
| ---- | |
| So many of us with sociology degrees! I’m a copywriter for a tech company. | |
| ---- | |
| B.S in Sociology & Biology. | |
| I am now a UX researcher and sometimes UX designer in tech. Sociology was a great major for my job cause it mostly consists of studying human behavior. | |
| Got my Master’s in HCI before going into tech. Prior to that, spent three years doing admin work for a med school cause I thought I wanted to go to med school, then nope’d outta that plan. | |
| I know lots of people with “useless” degrees in tech across UX research, UX design, product management, etc. Really the only crucial skill you need is ability to think critically and analyze data to pull out insights, which the humanities and social sciences teaches us. The nuts and bolts of everything else can be learned elsewhere. | |
| ---- | |
| Refusing to go to Law School despite my parent’s insistence was my first major “rebellion”; I was already burnt out as well | |
| ---- | |
| I’m surprised more people in Sociology / Psychology don’t end up in sales | |
| ---- | |
| We do live in a society | |
| ---- | |
| Can I have a vodka sprite with a splash of insight? | |
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| I like phycology because I like to understand how people think and function on a deeper level. Bartending in a nice social area is also hella intriguing. How has this worked for you? | |
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| lol so many psych degrees in this thread.. I went psych —> surgeon | |
| ---- | |
| No references to Britta under this comment when its been 4 hours. Im disappointed. | |
| ---- | |
| Britta Perry? | |
| ---- | |
| Was it hard to find a job in the field or just lost interest? | |
| ---- | |
| Britta? | |
| ---- | |
| Also psych degree, but I'm a stay-at-home-mom. But my kids are neurodivergent, so...mission failed successfully? | |
| ---- | |
| In case anyone is wondering why the change, i realised at the end of the degree that I hate people and didn't want to hear the same sob stories over and over as a therapist, no matter if the money is better. Working with your hands and doing actually physical problem solving was a better choice for me. | |
| ---- | |
| Most of the people in my psych classes at uni were in there to find out why they were so messed up. I think maybe 4 or 5 became actual psychologists. | |
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| Is it called that because you're like, "I'm gonna use this!" And they go PSYCH! | |
| ---- | |
| Psych degree is only useless if you don't get your masters or PHD. But the jobs you will get might not pay great it seems. Our friend with a masters in psych is struggling to make ends meet as a school counselor, unfortunately. Really sucks because they did everything right and its a much needed profession | |
| ---- | |
| As an Electrician, I wish I had a psych degree; ever try to wrangle a large crew of intelligent assholes? 😂 | |
| 😭 | |
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| Also got a psych degree, I work for the water dept. | |
| ---- | |
| This might be the first degree in this thread that would be considered useless for your current profession. | |
| I bet you learned something while getting the degree that is useful currently, though. 🙂 | |
| ---- | |
| Interesting. My brother took the same path. Worked out well for him. | |
| ---- | |
| I hope we have similar situations... I just made the tough decision to drop out and become an electrician instead of finishing my psych degree. Here's hoping it works out as well. | |
| ---- | |
| had a boss at my last job who had a degree in english who was the IT director for a division of a university | |
| ---- | |
| BA in English. into finance. I thought I was avoiding math getting that degree | |
| ---- | |
| English major also. I am a content designer for tech companies. But I have also done a lot of other things too, most not nearly as well compensated. | |
| English majors may be useless for pipelining you directly into a high paying job, but you can get there with experience and I have always been able to find some kind of work that uses my degree. Even when unemployed, I’ve been able to get by with freelance work until I find a full time job. In other words, I haven’t found it useless at all, just because it didn’t immediately make me rich. | |
| ---- | |
| I have an English Degree. I now am basically an Account Manager for clients who utilize our discount program. Imagine, like, a Groupon that has pretty big discounts and your company pays for you to have access to it as an added benefit. It is what it is. My writing ability usually pays off with my communication process, but this isn’t exactly what I dreamed of when declaring my major. | |
| ---- | |
| BS in Psych from a no name university in the northeast. HRIS Senior Analyst pretty much making 6 figures. | |
| ---- | |
| Another English Literature BA here: | |
| Technical Writer/Editor supporting Engineering Operations for an electric utility company | |
| ---- | |
| The thing with a degree in English is that it suggests you can communicate and think critically, which is useful in all fields. I've known hiring managers who will take someone with a degree in English any day of the week over someone with a degree in business, because they've learned that you can teach an English major how to do business easier than you can teach a business major critical thinking and communication skills. | |
| ---- | |
| Love the Avenue Q reference. | |
| ---- | |
| Same here. Chief of Staff at a tech company. It's all about effective communication. | |
| ---- | |
| Yes! English degree —> Sr Manager Internal apps. Manage a team of backend devs creating internal apps for various support teams. Sales, content, and general customer support L1 and L2 teams. | |
| ---- | |
| Could’ve gone to law school like the rest of us burnt out bastards | |
| ---- | |
| Came to say similar! | |
| *The world is a big scary place | |
| But somehow I can't shake the feeling I might make | |
| A difference to the human race* | |
| I’m a college advisor. | |
| ---- | |
| 🙋♀️ Program Manager | |
| ---- | |
| Also a BA in English and I work in higher education, but I am a program coordinator for a school that has nothing to do with literature | |
| ---- | |
| Instructional Designer here! | |
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| This is really bumming me out. I was an English/CS double major around 2003. Now, twenty years later, I'm in a situation where my school isn't gonna let me finish my master's in CS because I moved too far away. I only lack two classes. | |
| Meanwhile, my friend with a liberal arts degree in Music Composition is a CTO at a Fortune 500. | |
| I just want to work in the damn field. | |
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| Also have an English and linguistics degree and went into software. | |
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| English degree here, Product Manager at a Small Software company. | |
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| Tbf you do use English at work, right? | |
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| Nice. I’m a Technical Assistance Manager for an Edtech. History degree. | |
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| As someone who minored in theatre, I LOVE THE AVE Q REFERENCE 😭 ❤️ | |
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| My sister proof read books for awhile with hers. 👍 | |
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| LMAO I thought about that quote a lot when I was getting my English degree. Now going for a comp sci based associates | |
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| What do you do with a ba in English? | |
| Become a machinist and then slowly work your way up the corporate ladder with your decent writing skills and bombtastic, succinct email chains 🤗 | |
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| BA and MA in English. I'm a motherfucking high school English teacher. Plus I write erotica/smut/fetish porn on the side. | |
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| What about a BA in Baracus? | |
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| English and Latin degree. I'm a UX designer at a game development studio. | |
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| Four years of college, and plenty of knowledge... | |
| I work in a plant nursery. | |
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| BA in English. Worked in a government medical office. A university degree was the basic requirement for new hires. | |
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| The two people I know with English degrees are probably the most successful I know. In two completely unrelated fields as well 🤷 | |
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| Also BA in English (with a minor in Journalism) - work in fundraising at non profits, and have found the writing and communication background so useful for copywriting, relationship management, presentations, persuasive writing etc. | |
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| I peeped your profile - you’re extremely talented - it always makes me happy when people are able to make a living with their art - wishing you continued success! | |
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| That's an expensive bong | |
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| that's fantastic! I'm glad you were able to make the art degree work. I uh, transitioned from digital art to tech support 'cause I couldn't hack it. Glass art is really interesting to me. | |
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| Respect! | |
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| Glass art is the one art I will appreciate forever and wish everyone else did. | |
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| You make really cool shit. | |
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| Whoa, that's awesome. I took a look at your profile and I see you're in Denver. Do you have a storefront somewhere? | |
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| Seeing your work def understand why someone would pay ya 60k for a sculpture. Keep it up! | |
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| You still doing the 'stone' glass for residential? Got a website? | |
| Edit: Found your website ... not sure if I can share it since it has your name in it. | |
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| Both of my parents were classics majors. My mom became a Latin teacher and my dad recently retired from a long and successful biglaw career. | |
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| How did you break into financial analysis? | |
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| I too have a BA in Classical Studies. Went back to school 10 years later and got an engineering degree. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made. | |
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| Hey, me too (or similar, at least). BA in Classics and Theatre, now a senior data analyst. | |
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| How | |
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| How'd you get into software engineer? | |
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| Thanks for developing humans, Major Dick | |
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| I mean depending on the branch and battalion you’re either developing humans or herding cats. | |
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| Major Dick is a good rank. | |
| Years ago I met a Captain Kirk. She was cool. | |
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| Ngl I had to do a double take reading this post. | |
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| My favorite joke: | |
| > An engineer, a physicist, a mathematician, and a philosopher are in a coffee shop. The physicist says, “You know engineering is just applied physics, right?” And they all laugh. Then the mathematician says, “Well, you know physics is just applied math, right?” And they all laugh. Then the philosopher says, “Well, you know mathematics is just applied philosophy, right?” And the engineer says, “Shut up and make our lattes.” | |
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| Also a phil major, now lawyer | |
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| Got one of these too but I’m a PM in telecom | |
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| [Stand up philosopher](https://youtu.be/9nrnpRbVacw?si=uylxJeAbrj2Toqwp) | |
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| Before 1850 STEM was called natural philosophy. Some of the oldest scientific journals have the title "Royal Philosophical XXX Society". | |
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| Steve Martin relates: | |
| "If you're studying geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life." | |
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| You win. BA in Anthro and I’m a bartender lol. | |
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| BA in cultural anthropology, working for a nonprofit now, but needed a msc in international development first | |
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| BA in history but minored in Anthropology. I’m an archaeologist now. | |
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| BA in anthropology- been a teacher, a website manager, and now a disability support worker doing a nursing degree at the age of 53. Hoping for at least 20 years as a nurse, I never want to retire. | |
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| Currently getting my BS in anthro. Came here for this comment and was not disappointed. | |
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| BSc in Anthropology, financial fraud investigations at a multinational bank. | |
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| BA in cultural anthropology. | |
| Became a product designer, working in tech. | |
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| Fun! I minored in Anthropology and it has never failed me once. The study of man… well that practice could take a lifetime to learn about. ;) | |
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| BA in Anthropology. | |
| Ran a commercial kitchen/bakery business for a while, now I'm an insurance underwriter. | |
| Still no regrets, loved my coursework. | |
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| BSc in Biological Anthropology/Ecology. I’m a navigation officer on ships. | |
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| BA in Anthropology - I'm now an admin at a tax/audit company. I've previously been a government admin contractor, cake decorator, bookmobile librarian, and had a brief stint at an aquarium. | |
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| BA in anthropology - I do medical research at a university now | |
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| kinda related - MSc in Forensic Anthropology | |
| i'm in admin | |
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| Got my degree in anthropology, work as a housing navigator for a non profit | |
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| BA in anthropology, now a mammographer | |
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| BS in Anthropology. I work Admin at a Hospital | |
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| Oh hey! I was taught that being a writer isn’t really a profession. Ditto on having a knack/love for history. I got a BS in English, an MS in Adult Education, and have worked in business and finance for years. I am writing a historical true crime book, though. | |
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| Good for you! I was told to peruse science instead of art as well, and always wish I had at least gotten a minor in art. I am a scientist, but hope at some point I’ll swivel to include art again :) | |
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| Can you expand on what has burned you out as a therapist? | |
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| I'm currently getting my bachelor's degree in English (creative writing) before moving onto Library Science as a master's. Any thoughts? | |
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| Would love to hear more! When I was a kid I wanted to be a movie director. Nowadays I do feel like in an alternate life I’d maybe have enjoyed being a movie producer … despite not toootally knowing what they do. | |
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| I came here to make this same joke. Film degree, location sound mixer and part-time editor. | |
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| My condolences. I work in post. | |
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| I'm also getting my bachelor's degree in English creative writing! I am starting to wonder why people think its a useless degree though. I've seen it listed so far more than other majors in the comments and it has me a bit worried now. I enjoy the degree and I plan on going into Library Science, but...well, actually most of these that I've seen, the people became something with software or teaching and I don't mind either, so I guess I'm going to be happy no matter the turn out. | |
| Sorry that my brain just dumped all this into a reply on your comment. You can just ignore this... | |
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| How did you break into software engineering? | |
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| So real esp library part..its funny bc its agonizing trying to finish my PhD cant imagine missing it | |
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| Hear, hear. Degree shaming is just stupid and demoralizing. It speaks more about the shamer themselves, really. | |
| FWIW, I have a degree in English translation, and don't regret it one bit, as I managed to translate [sic] it into a rewarding freelancing career for the past 18 years. These days machine translation engines are reshaping the industry in a massive way, though, so people and businesses need to adapt. | |
| I also run a small dairy farm with my wife. Cows don't really understand English, so my degree is all but useless in the shed. | |
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| Have you tried looking for work in Hawai'i? I took a volcano related elective so I imagine that means there's lots of volcano academia here | |
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| [Volcanologist vacancies](https://www.indeed.com/q-volcanology-jobs.html)….somewhat. Live your dream! | |
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| A big part of HR is industrial organizational psychology so it is related somewhat | |
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| May I ask why you didn't go through with being a psychologist? Or were you planning to use the degree in something else? | |
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| My partner's dad studied psych bc "the building my was closer to my dorm, and it had hot girls" and his mother told him "I'm proud, it'll be useful once you get a job. But it won't help you GET one!!" | |
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| Psychology is used everywhere. Definitely not useless. | |
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| The rare psych BA that actually does psych. | |
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| Well you saying this made me feel less stupid about getting a marketing degree! | |
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| I have colleagues with similar background as yours. Met a lot of engineers too. I guess we all had the itch to fly | |
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| How did you end up doing that? Very curious! | |
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| I know someone with a degree in Latin from an ivy that was hired to run a defence contractor. It seems there is no correlation between the degree and the skills they are looking for. | |
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| Makes sense. I find weed to be recreationally therapeutic! lol | |
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| I just finished my BA in Therapeutic Recreation and I don't like the jobs I'm getting. I'm 31, don't know what to do with my life and I feel so fucking lost that sometimes I wanna kill myself. | |
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| Accounting can help you with pretty much anything in the entire business world. It's about as useful and high demand as anything these days. | |
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| Which numbers in particular? Number 7 has always given me trouble. | |
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| Hey! I also got a geography degree. I’m working in a data science team :D | |
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| i recently visited NZ! we were at the maori cultural centre in roturua, got to see all of the basket weaving that you’re talking about, it’s actually incredible. even saw the maori dance ( i keep blanking on what it’s called but it’s a dance to show the pride and strength of the tribe) i had goosebumps haha. | |
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| I got mine in interdisciplinary studies, too! | |
| I work as a client coordinator at a non-profit, though. | |
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| Similar to mine. BA in Literature, Psychology, and History. Then a Bachelor of Education. I'm not an English and History teacher and will probably never do anything else as my main job because I actually like it. | |
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| Right on, "useless degree" is just a mindset. For many jobs the degree just shows you can be trained and can communicate/write in a clear, professional manner. I studied Criminal Justice (regarded by many as useless or a joke degree), been working in financial crimes pretty much since I left college 10 years ago. Funny because I avoided math as much as possible in college, even took formal logic in place of calc so I think the only required math course for me was stats. Still ended up working with numbers and data all day. | |
| My view is that unless you go to undergrad for a major more focused on direct job training (accounting, some CS degrees, nursing, etc) you might as well study something you enjoy for 4 years. Your grades will likely reflect that too. I fucking LOVED my major, got to study and write papers about cool topics all day and as a result graduated with a 4.0. For a lot of generalist degrees it doesn't truly matter much what you studied in college. I'm a hiring manager now, have worked with and hired people from tons of "useless" majors, no one really cares about your degree unless it's a specific requirement for the job or just obviously needed (CS or similar for SWE's for example). | |
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| Started in history, progressed through to PhD (dropped out) now working as a critical care nurse and nurse educator. Definitely still benefit from the earlier studies | |
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| Hi. I’m starting a similar position advocating for healthcare policy soon. I hope it’s going well! | |
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| Sounds like you are making a difference. | |
| History degree as well, thought I was on a path to get my JD, decided not to go to law school. Got an MBA ten years later, now do retail consulting. | |
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| So, happy?! Maybe not the most lucrative but sounds like you have enthusiasm and purpose. That’s most important | |
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| Moin! | |
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| All the success stories here say he’s right. | |
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| Do you live in a touristy place? | |
| Otherwise, do you speak a second language? | |
| If you are bilingual, trilingual, or a polyglot, then congratulations! You’re able to move abroad and make money that way! | |
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| *high five* yyyeahhhhh team Anthropology! | |
| BA in cultural anthropology-> lawyer. | |
| I have no regrets, tbh. | |
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| how can self taught programmers make so much given university Cs students are so smart already and the market is quite saturated? | |
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| I can sense you're European. Same thing with me and my degree in biology / bio healthcare. I work as a multilingual IT consultant since I finished uni and I'm much better paid than the slightly over minimum wage post docs working for state labs get. | |
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| I’m getting my degree in graphic design now! Can I ask how stable/liveable tattooing is, and what it was like for you starting out? | |
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| I just read somewhere how hard it is because you sometimes have to contort yourself for long periods of time. | |
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| No it isn't | |
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| [deleted] | |
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| That's beautiful, Dr. PMME\_ur\_lovely\_boobs. | |
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| How'd you manage that without a related degree? | |
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| I estimate I've had to postpone my death by at least 15 years, never mind retirement because I ... did not invest so well. | |
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| Viewing this thread has made me see a lot of doctors get BA in history and a lot of lawyers get BA in philosophy and I found myself surprised because I realized i just thought docs would get a BA in something like kinesiology and lawyers' would go for something like political science. I didn't realize how 2 dimensional I just assumed the people in such profession must be, which has made me wonder what other people I've put into some box I think they belong in simply because of what they do. Very eye-opening | |
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| Oddly appropriate. The customers can be confident to get solid copy editing haha. | |
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| Nah. | |
| I’m an engineer. | |
| I’m just here to eradicate my bias. | |
| I am happy to see that for some, a degree was a stepping stone to something that led to an opportunity to learn and grow and eventually to become more than what they thought they’d be. | |
| Sure, some didn’t end up where they thought they would or making as much as they would, but they’re happy. | |
| My wife doesn’t even have a degree but she just accepted a job making almost as much money as me (salary-base) and I’ve got a masters in engineering. | |
| My bachelor degree helped me get my foot in the door. My masters helped me with stocks and making financial decisions that are good investments and now our investments are making almost as much money as one of us. | |
| Degrees open doors and provide opportunities, the real talent lies within us. | |
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| And larger debt | |
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| And now you own the gas station...? | |
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| You mean hand-crafted beverage artist? | |
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| i worked at st*rbucks when i was a college freshman. manager had just got his doctorate in philosophy. i asked him what type of job a philosophy doctorate would get him and his response was “a job at starbucks” | |
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| I admire the self awareness | |
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| That's hardly a degree that falls into the "useless" category. | |
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| I’ll bite. I have double degrees: sociology, psychology and a minor in women’s studies. I manage a global organizational change management team. I make 6 figures and work 35 hours a week. | |
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| Must be harder at night. | |
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| Any experience you have adds value to your growth as a human being, but degrees are expensive | |
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| Sounds like something someone in student debt would say idk | |
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| La de dah, look at Fancypants with a basement. | |
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| Ngl. You have a nice ass. | |
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| you won the game | |
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| Surprised it took me this long to find another political science major. Talk about a useless degree. | |
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| Bingo! There it is. A bachelor's degree is a bachelor's degree. Majors like psychology allow people to gain entry level jobs in whatever they're interested in right after graduation. If people are unable to find a job, that means they didn't do internships/other resume builders during their time in undergrad. | |
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| BS and MS in geology. I’m a software engineering manager. | |
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| Yes, and given what’s happened over the last 10 years or so in our culture, psychology careers have exploded. | |
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| All public education teachers should quit on the same day, all across the nation. All of them. I bet you’d get more money a week or two later. It has to be every single one of them, though. Make it count. We all want you to make more money to put more effort into actually educating, but instead we got teachers who can’t do anything else so they take the poverty pay and half-ass the lessons, telling our kids the Barbie is a woke movie. A female teacher telling a little girl the movie is too woke… Good luck and happy coding! | |
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| Don't think anybody would have called that a useless degree. | |
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| GGWP LMNOP | |
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| What kind of publishing | |
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| Dance?? I thought majoring in photography was stupid enough | |
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| Same! Nonprofit fundraising for me. | |
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| They could help with grammar. | |
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| Why on earth would you advocate for more domestic violence? | |
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| I got a degree in history. I tried air traffic controller but got washed out in the final round of interviewing. | |
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| On the science or business side? | |
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| Do you write for just one politician or freelance for a lot of people? Seems really hard to break into. | |
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| I think you mailed in that joke | |
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| You have a great job and a cause worth working toward. Good on you mate. | |
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| Unrelated to the topic but can you talk about how you found your role? I’m looking to transition out of patient care into a health tech role and know some web design. | |
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| Woah same! Animation degree, now software engineer. Never met anyone else on this strange track 😀 | |
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| Unless they wanted to get out of the industry, in which case the worst they can say is yes. | |
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| You'll notice that neither of those companies (like most in the industry) have entry-level openings. Its an incredibly difficult door to crack. | |
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| All of the above but with a focus on traditional hand drawn animation. | |
| I went to a well known, well respected animation school that had the idea to change their program to a Degree so they could charge more for tuition. | |
| To teach a Bachelor's degree, you need a Master's degree. Not a lot of masters degrees in animation out there. Most of the well-respected faculty were laid off as they no longer met the requirements to teach there. Instead we had teachers with masters degrees in fine arts, film history, and things related to animation but not actually animation. For a brief time we had a storyboard teacher who had a degree in some branch of fine arts theory. His own practical work was so poor he never would have been accepted into the program as a student. We still had actual animators and storyboard arts teaching us as well, but these were no longer the people in charge of programming or making funding decisions. Class sizes ballooned under this change, and students now had to take "electives" in completely unrelated subjects (*seriously* unrelated. Stuff like anthropology) that took focus from their major, and a shift in thinking from "quality animators" to "more students paying tuition" means that this school has lost a lot of what could once be considered prestige. | |
| The teachers who were laid off got jobs working at animation schools offering diplomas. | |
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| It's useless because even if you get a job you don't make enough to live comfortably. The whole purpose of a degree is to get a job that pays more. So if it doesn't provide that then it's useless. | |
| For lots of art degrees you'd be better off saving the tuition and instead just creating for 4 years to build a reputation/portfolio. | |
| For example imagine you're a hiring manager for an animation position. Do you go with the guy with a degree or the guy with 4 years of awesome animation videos on YouTube using the same tools and software your company uses and has possibly even done some gig work or part time positions? The degree guy probably spent much of that 4 years doing Gen Ed classes and things unrelated to this job. | |
| Degrees aren't as valued in industries where experience matters more and is so easy to get. Like in the medical field and engineering you want degrees because there is so much liability and also it's difficult to get experience outside of medical or engineering school. It's pretty hard to get surgery experience in your garage. | |
| It's much better to get experience in some skill that isn't common and is highly valued. For example data analytics. You can get a certificate in 10 weeks online and you can work your way up to a 6 figure salary within a handful of years. | |
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| a lot of people pursue animation or game design because its a hobby they enjoy, but then come to the realization that now that it's their job, it fucking sucks to do. so now they hate doing the thing that they used to love. | |
| the industry is also really fucking rough, work is contract based, you're more likely to find jobs if you live in HCOL cities and there's a crazy amount of competition. | |
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| Toxic work environments, unrealistic deadlines, and extremely low pay made for a bad mental health soup. | |
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| Feel like you missed a chance to say “Death is a journey.” | |
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| I got a BA in sociology as well. I work in as a QA analyst for a preneed insurance company. We work with funeral homes for most of our business. Also after I graduated, a lawyer friend told me "I'd always knew you'd end up in the insurance industry after going to school for sociology". Still not sure what he meant and I'm not sure if I should be angry at his comment or applaud his accurate insight. | |
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| I have an MBA and am a university Registrar, which I do enjoy, but I wanted to be a funeral director or mortician (still do). | |
| One of my favorite things is browsing my options if I were to change careers and go for it... it's just not feasible for me right now though :( | |
| I wish you luck on your journey though and hope it goes well! | |
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| I wonder if you've read Sociology of Death and Dying? My friend who studied anthropology recommended it and the title matches your path pretty nicely. | |
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| Maybe small business consultant? That sounds about right | |
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| Weird! I got my BA in sociology (and also French lol) and I am now a business analyst for an insurance company too. Never saw this path for myself but here we are! | |
| Life. Journey. Yes. | |
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| You mean a Moscow Mull? | |
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| a therapy session while at the bar? sounds nice to me | |
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| I'll have an Adderall spritzer | |
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| Bartending is a very unstable job with terrible hours, next to no benefits and very toxic work environments. I've been doing it for 17 yrs on and off... 98% of people ive worked with have hated it and worked hard to move on to something else. I am currently trying to get out of this nightmare as well. | |
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| > phycology | |
| Liking Algae definitely helps anyone understand how people think and function on a deeper level! | |
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| You probably knew you were going to med school anyway I’m guessing…I hope you went yo med school…you’re not doing surgery out of a shack are you?… | |
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| TBF, you got a very useful degree afterwards | |
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| So you're one of the bastards who screwed up the curve in my advanced neuro psych course! (Jk. Well, not about screwing up the curve!) | |
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| As someone who majored in psychology even though her parents encouraged her not to, I am enjoying see all the former psych majors on this thread! Also I am a Psychologist lol. | |
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| bartenders are the peoples therapists | |
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| That is a job in his field. | |
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| Imo psychology is the same as like a general studies degree. It applies to nothing and everything at the same time. It’s one of those degrees you get when you have soft skills and just need any degree to get an entry level job | |
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| You usually need a masters or PHD to actually do anything with a psych degree and I don't think a lot of people realize this when they take the path. | |
| And unfortunately, most openings for psychology professionals are low paying school or social work counseling jobs. So you're going into a solid amount of debt for not a lot of pay. | |
| Or you go to med school for psychiatry | |
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| bad degree unless u get a masters or higher | |
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| Sometimes the best lesson you can learn from doing any sort of degree is that you don't want to do that for the rest of your life | |
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| I mean, as an industrial electrician I make six figures. So it’s not a bad switch if you like what you’re doing. | |
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| You could do both and try fixing people problems with shock therapy | |
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| That was the reason I started so it checks out lol | |
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| I used to work at a county jail. One day this hot blonde comes in drunk off her ass. She goes off about how smart she is because she is almost finished with her psych degree. Eventually she spouts off about how she trying to figure out what’s wrong with her as she’s crying and sobbing. If you have a heart working in a jail is hard sometimes. | |
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| I know at least 3 people who went to school for psych. All had issues and none went on to get their masters or work in the field. | |
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| Yeah I mean that's the joke we have in mental health - that everyone who goes into it has something wrong with them. Initially we were all trying to figure out what's wrong with us ;) | |
| I think you'd have a harder time finding a therapist that DIDNT have at least some sort of tragic back story. | |
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| Well yes and no. I learned how to manipulate people and argue effectively, how echo chambers work etc etc and yeah some of it applies but most of it wasn't helpful. Thats another reason I didnt continue after the degree, it was half full of pointless history about freud etc. Yes its fine to learn about where it all started, but no its not fine as its not helpful for the actual job. Why am i paying a fucking ton of money to learn something anyone could look up themselves? AND apparently academia just gets more convoluted and ridiculous the further along you go. | |
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| I have an english degree and own an IT support services business. Who knew that being able to communicate with the written word coherently has applications beyond the classroom? | |
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| Yep same here. Graduated with my BA in English and realized my options were become a teacher or keep working retail. Hated both so I found an office job doing admin and light bookkeeping. | |
| A few years, a few jobs, another degree and I’m an accountant. | |
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| Haha same. BS in English and now work in finance. Not my intention to work in this area, but the money is too good to leave now. | |
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| That’s amazing how the fuck did you do that? | |
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| People forget that no job is guaranteed—you’ve gotta hustle. I knew business majors from good schools that couldn’t find a job for *years* after the ‘09 recession, and ended up taking that barista job/retail/etc. | |
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| My older sister has a similarish story. English major -> zigzagged up the startup and publishing worlds before landing in her current position as a bigwig at Condé Nast. | |
| Little sister majored in Philosophy. She has been a farmer, a city waste management intern, an MCL Harvard Law student, and a clerk for two federal judges (the second is her current position). | |
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| Yay for content design. I hardly ever see other tech CDs here, haha. | |
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| HRIS is the hot shit right now, lots of opportunity for anyone with a random BA degree needing direction. | |
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| Yay, I love seeing technical writers out in the wild. I'm currently at university for a technical writing degree after spending over a decade in IT. Turns out I'm weird and actually love the policy/procedure writing parts of my job more than the DBA and IT Cybersecurity parts. | |
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| Tech writing is a great opportunity for English majors! | |
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| Absolutely true in my case. BA in English helped me learn to be the bridge between the common user and developers through critical thinking and communication, which slotted well into project management type work. Then got my MBA, and now I'm an Executive Director of a real estate tech company. | |
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| > you can teach an English major how to do business easier than you can teach a business major critical thinking and communication skills. | |
| I work in a fintech software company and you have no idea how true this is. Poor communication from MBA and accountant types is literally our biggest problem. | |
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| Can’t believe I had to come down this far for a reply. I /heard/ that comment. | |
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| That's what I did, sigh | |
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| Me too, but I have STEM degrees rather than English. | |
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| Why do you need a masters to work in the field tho? What have you been doing for 20 years | |
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| How? | |
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| Also English Manager. VP Product Management, B2B SaaS. $100M+ product. My path went from Technical Writing to Consulting to Product Mktg to Product Mgt. | |
| Product Management is a role that people often transition into from other roles. They get into a company, learn the products, learn the market, show leadership, get noticed, and make the move. Customer support, account management, marketing, engineering, and implementation/services are all examples of other functions from which I’ve hired internal candidates. | |
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| Oh, thank you, that’s kind of you to say u/I_Luv_A_Charade. I wish you success in your life as well ✨ | |
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| Talented with a sweet cat. What more could you want in life? | |
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| It's an x box controller. | |
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| _it's a "vase"_ | |
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| Thanks. I am happy for people who find a way to earn a paycheck - and in your case you are helping people on the daily. There are many good ways to get there. | |
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| Close! I do work in Denver pretty often, but I live in Salida, CO, and have my working studio here beside my house. | |
| I will have a booth at the Garden and Home show at the convention center in downtown Denver at the end of Feb though. If you would like to go I can leave free entrance tickets for you at will call, just let me know. They give us exhibitors 8 passes to hand out and I never use them all. | |
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| Yeah my BA was in classics with a Latin focus. I do securities litigation now. My wife convinced me not to be a Latin teacher, so I went to law school instead | |
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| I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I graduated, so I was open to a wide variety of jobs. My first job out of college was in sales analysis which meanderingly led to financial analysis several years later. | |
| edited for grammar | |
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| Not OP, but there was a big medical software company who would recruit anyone with a scientific background to work for them. They would train you for up to a year on the actual software, so they just wanted people with any science experience. | |
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| you can learn things without a college | |
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| Lots of googling, reading blogs/books, YouTube videos and free online courses. | |
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| There’s a lot of online learning for software development and a lot of companies will hire someone as long as they can prove that they can do the job. They really aren’t that strict about requiring someone to have a degree in computer science. I’ve worked with a lot of people who have degrees completely unrelated to software development. | |
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| I started out doing manual testing and then moved to testing automation. I was still curious about how things worked so I dove into the frontend which ultimately led to backend and devops. | |
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| "and his cousin?" | |
| "He's a dick too. Gunner's mate second class Philip dick." | |
| r/spaceballs | |
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| As a Major, he's more than likely a Battalion supply officer. | |
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| I only have three bare-minimum rules for my Airmen (for those who just want to do four and leave): | |
| 1. Show up and do the job | |
| 2. Get everything out of your service (experience, bennies, etc) | |
| 3. NO CRIMES! Like specifically, don’t do them. | |
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| This joke is so stem-coded, it feels like 2014 era Reddit all over again | |
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| My engineer buddy whose in a senior level at a plant works part-time at Starbucks. | |
| Don't let student loans get overwhelming in the pursuit of a "non-useless degree" y'all. | |
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| Same. Spent 3 years studying ethics and then ignored it all | |
| (I joke of course…. For the most part) | |
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| My favorite lawyer was a Phil. major. Long ago | |
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| Wow. | |
| Never heard of your country, but Prime Minister!?! Good work! | |
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| A bullshit artist! | |
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| Wife got the same degree and is an Executive Assistant to a corporate VP | |
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| BA in Anthro as well. I did product Tech Support for gas station equipment and now I work with special needs children. It’s a strange journey this life. | |
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| Same! And about to graduate with my MPH | |
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| Not OC but I am a therapist. | |
| Generally, a lot of jobs are rife with burnout right now. A lot of people are realizing that this whole game of life is bullshit and designed to keep you just satisfied enough to keep hustling as hard as you can so billionaires and corporations eke out more and more earnings. This is true for mental healthcare too because of insurance. | |
| But for therapists specifically, I’ll say a lot of it has to do with getting started. Wherever you are in life, you decide you want to be a therapist which, depending on your degree, is most likely 2 years and around $50k of full-time school, so hopefully you have a means of living without making much/any money. Then you graduate and you have to be supervised, which means you take a job with an awful caseload and no supports, or you work in private/group practice and pay for supervision (mine costs $65 weekly). This goes on for at least two years, until you’re licensed (varies by state and degree), and you’re not making much money along the way. THEN you get more flexibility about how you earn your money, and can start making decent money. | |
| Lastly I’ll mention the emotional toll of the work. It’s not easy being “on” all the time. You know how some days you’re at work and you just kinda send it? You’re there, but not there? That’s harder to pull off with a full slate of clients scheduled. | |
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| The job market for librarians is dire and likely to get worse | |
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| Librarian here. Where I live, full time librarian jobs are really scarce, and well paying ones even more so. Most I know, unless they a good pensioned or tenured position somewhere, end up doing a different career in a few years due to burn out (either by patrons, grant writing, or low wages). Remember, it’s just as expensive as other graduate programs, but even in a HCOL area, you’re lucky to make 50-55k full time out of the gate. | |
| I worked 6-7 PT jobs for about 2 years before landing a full time gig. I’m still here a decade later even though I don’t love it, but it’s somewhat stable with decent pay. I’ve been getting closer to deciding if I can keep doing this for another 30 years and I’ve only worked as a professional librarian for 12 years. Not to mention even in this field, males regularly get paid more for the same position (ALA did an article a few years ago) and move more quickly to leadership positions. | |
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| it's deathly competitive. | |
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| My daughter did that. The job market is tough. They overwork you. The pay sucks. It's a lot of customer interaction and coworkers gossip. | |
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| It's a rough lifestyle. High stress/high pressure work 13-18 hour days. Getting into a union, especially on films requires a circus trick and a bit of luck (unless starting as a PA in the AD dept.), you're constantly looking for a new gig, and the hours are always changing. | |
| It's fun in your 20s & 30s, but ages people quickly. And being a movie producer can be a 24/7 hour job, and if you're working indies, you're constantly taking ridiculous financial risks, hustling for financing to pay for financing, putting out every sort of fire imaginable...it requires high intelligence, creativity, problem solving skills, an iron stomach, and helps if you're independently wealthy and can survive bankruptcy. | |
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| Dont worry, we will fix your life in post | |
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| Part of the deal when accepting my math position was that I had to teach a STEM class and part of the curriculum was coding robots with JavaScript which I knew nothing about; over the next four years I get familiar-ish with it. Then my wife got pregnant and we realized that money was gonna be tight with 2 teacher salaries and so one of my friends suggested doing a coding boot camp that he just completed and was earning 6 figures. So I did the 7 month bootcamp and leveraged my math background and masters in curriculum design to get a job working for an EdTech company building a supplemental math game. | |
| TL;DR when teaching math and STEM I taught myself enough code which helped me be successful in a rigorous 7 month coding bootcamp so I could earn enough money to raise a family. | |
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| Hang in there! | |
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| You best get to translating those cows | |
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| Yeah, it’s related. Before that I actually did work in mental health and it was relevant. I guess just compared to that it’s a little bit different. But I enjoy it :-) | |
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| The PhD process is long and expensive, and you may, just maybe, discover that counseling people can be really depressing! | |
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| Not OP but, licensure generally requires a Ph.D in Psychology in the US. You usually can't become one with just a bachelor's. It can also be difficult financially, because you're saddled with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans from the doctoral degree, and finding patients is difficult as most insurers won't cover the care you give people. | |
| A bachelor's in psychology by itself is basically useless. It's only useful if you're going for the master's or doctoral, or if you need any bachelor's degree for something else. | |
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| As someone finishing my psych BA in 7 weeks…scary but useful info. | |
| I’ll be honest: I work in behavioral health, but it’s a job. I do my 8 and go home. | |
| I’m mainly getting a degree because most jobs that pay half a living need one. | |
| Maybe I’ll do grad school, but odds are I doubt it. I wanted a degree that I was good in and could get me into jobs that need a BA. | |
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| I feel like so many go into getting a psych BA without realizing that so many of the jobs they're interested in require a masters or something else. Without that extra-whatever-step... yeah kinda useless. | |
| Source: married a therapist. Best friend is a therapist. Surrounded by fucking therapists and such that tear my brain apart on the daily. | |
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| Good luck with your career in the fine arts! | |
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| It was an accident. I was going to be an engineer. Someone offered to teach me to fly, and i figured i would try it. It took a while to kick in, but i decided i would pursue a career. When i did i switched my degree to english. It was less work and writing had always been a hobby. It let me do my 4 year degree in 3 years and head to the airlines. | |
| I always thought id use the sitting around time to write a novel or two. Turns out flying is exhausting, and i usually dont have the energy to write anything. Ive also discovered my degree makes me hypercritical of my own writing, so the number of times ive started a story and torn it up is too damn high. | |
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| I got my degree in accounting and it’s probably one of the best decision I’ve ever made. The field is damn near recession proof (I say damn near because anything can happen) and all of my friends and co-workers, including myself, broke through a six figure salary after five years. | |
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| You’re not alone. We all know what happened to poor number 9. | |
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| I also have a geography degree! But I’m a program director for an environmental nonprofit, so it kind of lines up. | |
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| the Haka. - for those that have never seen one before, here is a wedding haka. | |
| [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUbx-AcDgXo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUbx-AcDgXo) | |
| ​ | |
| and at the end of the video is a Hongi, sharing the breath of life, forehead to forehead, breath in through the nose, some Iwi do it twice, (like European cheek kiss), the first time is to honour the ancestors, and those that have come before us, and the second time, to honour each other. | |
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| It was going well, but I will be candid that it can get super political in advocacy, and my org’s had some leadership changes recently that’s made the environment toxic. It’s certainly been an experience and I don’t regret jumping in, but it’s stressful. | |
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| I was happy, recent leadership changes have made the workplace super toxic | |
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| I live in Prague, one of the most touristy cities in the world and I do speak Czech, English, German and some Spanish. I even have over 2 years of experience as an operations manager. I honestly have no idea why I’m being rejected all the time while job hunting even though I’m trying to apply for entry level positions in tourism as well. | |
| Sadly moving abroad is not a possibility as I currently don’t have any savings or means to move to whole another country. The job market is a brutal place. | |
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| Username checks out. | |
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| Because I'm good at it and interview well. Having a technical degree would have helped too. | |
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| CS doesn't really cover computer programming a lot. It's more the engineers. | |
| But self taught can make a lot if they work hard and become good enough to make a good portfolio. It's not that hard tbh. | |
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| It is several years of supplementing income before you gain the necessary skills and build a consistent clientele. | |
| I am in my 8th year in the industry and am usually mostly booked for a couple months at a time because I have a unique art style in a city of traditional tattooers. I could book out further but I don’t like blocking out my life that far ahead. | |
| It is definitely a career where you have to love it and make it your entire life if you want to be successful. | |
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| BACK IN MY DAY THE INTERNET WAS BRAND NEW | |
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| Yes it is! | |
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| Video/film is a grind. I feel very fortunate to have ended up where I did. Sometimes the salary feels a bit low compared to some of my peers who are making six figures, but I have ample downtime in between projects and my bills are paid. My biggest issue is I’m not sure where to go from here. Logically, it’s management… but I didn’t get into video and excel to manage people. I did it to create. | |
| It’s tough. | |
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| Something about a doctor being childish enough to have a name like that makes me giggle. Lmao easy to forget that are normal people with the same stupid humor we all have. | |
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| Lulz | |
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| You should live in Pepper! | |
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| They didn't say they didn't have a related degree, they only minored in women's studies. Their major was probably more relevant | |
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| I know a guy who majored in Asian Languages and Lit, so essentially Mandarin Chinese/Chinese history, and is now an MD. He made sure to take all the pre-med pre-recs along with his major courses. | |
| I think he works at Mayo Clinic now (or at least, he did for a time), so being fluent in Mandarin is very helpful. I mean, it would be helpful at any major medical center, but especially at an internationally renowned one like that. | |
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| I have an MD that that I achieved after undergraduate | |
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| you might be paying 40k a year for school and be worried that you wont get a job but hey, 40k a year for a hope is a fucking bargain | |
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| It ended up useless to me | |
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| Thankfully, I'm only paying £7-10 of my £31,000+ debt per month. I did Criminology, had a vague idea of going into forensics but mostly did it to 'prove I could get a degree', now I work in archaeology and plan to stay there. | |
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| IKR I was just happy to get through college | |
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| Thanks, and I only commented here really because my state dropped the requirements for teacher licensure so that basically anyone could do it…rendering the degree pointless. | |
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| Yikes. Don’t judge my life choices at 18 lol got me to an impressive resume and where i am now | |
| Edit: I’d also love to know where your degree got you | |
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| Look at our art history degrees, paying OFF! | |
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| [removed] | |
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| The delivery wasn’t there | |
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| No. The worst they can say is maybe. And let you hang for a year. | |
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| True, it's not easy, if it was, everyone would be doing it. | |
| To get the degree in animation, there would be a portfolio, that can lead to self created content, which can lead to a newer portfolio of stuff to show to prospective employers. | |
| there is so much open source products, trial products, learning tools available, so what if the finished product has a watermark or whatever. make it, show it. do it. earn it. but best of all try it. | |
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| Are you talking about Sheridan??? | |
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| You hire the person with both. It’s not either or. I hire all the time. As an exercise, go IMDB animators on Pixar films, they’ve all gone through awesome programs. I’ve never hired a self-taught person because they’ve always had glaring knowledge gaps, are inconsistent, can’t even tell if something is bad in their portfolio (not having a developed professional sensibility). | |
| Also, there’s the conundrum of how do you teach yourself something you don’t know? You might think you understand what you need to learn but those are all low hanging fruit topics and is simply like the tip of an iceberg. There is so much below your awareness that makes up what the skill sets are really about and there really aren’t YouTube videos that teach that stuff. | |
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| No, no... everyone's missing the implication. If life is a journey, what the *destination*? | |
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| 👌🏻 | |
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| A friend did it off and on for a long time, and really grew to despise the "amateur drunks" that come out on holidays like St. Patrick's day. After EMTing for a number of years, I kind of feel the same way about sloppy drunks. Just a bother. Drunks are a pain in the ass when you're sober. | |
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| The squirrel population in his neighborhood is dwindling | |
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| Getting a degree takes the fun out of it. It's hobby surgery for me! | |
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| Even having a masters can be a joke depending on what state you live in. | |
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| My wife did that with an elementary education degree. She realized during her practice teaching in her final year that she wanted nothing to do with classrooms. | |
| She has been a nurse for 32 years. | |
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| I learned that but also learned that anything that pays nearly what I get paid will require many more years of school and effort. I already put 8 years of college and hundreds of thousands of debt into this career, so I might as well reap the benefits while it’s not driving me insane. | |
| It was still a good thing though because I realized I didn’t need to pour my life into work. I work for money, and go home to live life. I can afford to travel and have some semblance of stability which is something I never had growing up, or in my entire adult life prior to graduation. | |
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| On a smaller scale, I tried a welding class and learned that: | |
| 1) Welding is fun, and flux core MIG is amazing | |
| 2) I am 100% never doing anything that involves being outside, curled into a ball, and welding upside down while under something, I don't give a fuck how much they make. Benchtop or bust. | |
| So, yeah, stuck with Machining. | |
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| Yeah. | |
| I went to university with no plan because everybody I knew went to university and everybody said you have to go to university. | |
| Dropped out halfway through a basket weaving degree... few of my friends were aghast, "but what will you do?" | |
| I'm here now with an industrial electrical journeyman ticket and a half dozen other electrical tickets making low end doctor money (like a GP, not a specialist, but still) | |
| Not saying it's a good plan for everyone, I really stumbled into what I do now, and it wasn't a direct route (spent a few years in the army in the middle), but also, the whole everyone *has* to go to university thing is pure nonsense. | |
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| If it's a bad switch, you should call an electrician to fix it | |
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| I suspect the majority of people who go into the field are there because they know what it's like and want to make sure that others going through similar things get the help that they themselves could have used. | |
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| I have a degree in Management Information Systems and I use literally none of the technical knowledge, having graduated in 2008 it is all pretty out of date now | |
| Most of what I find useful from my college education is how to communicate, and some of the business stuff that I also was exposed to with my major being in the business school | |
| If you want to be an engineer, sure, you're gonna need a real CS degree and take some math and algorithms classes but for the most part the formal part you really need is just to be how to be an adult in a business setting | |
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| And it’s surprising how many people from “good” majors have trouble stringing together a coherent thought. (This is why ChatGPT is so miraculous to those who can’t write.) | |
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| You can do a lot more with an English BA than teaching. I'm always puzzled at why people think this. Just off the top of my head, there's content design, technical writing, copywriting, UX writing, content strategy, and marketing. | |
| I always get downvoted when I say this, and I imagine I will again here, but English programs are both fun and open up lots of cool career options. | |
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| How does one get into finance with good money with an irrelevant degree? Asking for a friend. | |
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| I did a lot of "bridge" work, too. But mine was between "the public" and medical researchers. | |
| It's an excellent function for an English major. | |
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| That’s how I got into it - worked in industry for a long time, got hired as customer support at my current company, moved to QA, and now PM. Tons of imposter syndrome since my moves have been internal, but slowly getting up the nerve to apply for roles with bigger orgs. | |
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| I'm drooling over that "necklace" installation. It's absolutely gorgeous! | |
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| Holy shit dude that is a generous offer!! Thank you! Honestly, I'd love that. Dates n deets and I'll be there. I'll dm you here in a sec. | |
| I drive through Salida - or just by - on my way to Creede and back a few times during the summer. Not about to do that drive in winter, but might have to make a short detour into Salida this April. | |
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| So, degree not useless | |
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| I’m guessing you went to an Ivy League or something because that’s crazy | |
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| EPIC does this. | |
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| Truly curiosity and research can take you anywhere in software engineering world | |
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| I knew it, I’m surrounded by dicks! | |
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| Gotta love a good Spaceballs reference. | |
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| You sound like my last CO lol | |
| Good on ya | |
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| Safety Briefing: do not add to the population, do not subtract from the population. If you are put in prison, call 1SG. | |
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| Speaks volumes when the third and final requirement of doing the job is "Don't Do Crimes" | |
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| Reminds me of [this xkcd comic](https://xkcd.com/1520/), which I thought should have ended with the chemisr saying "we helped with both". | |
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| You done with those lattes yet? | |
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| Probably does it for fun | |
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| I feel so much better now, thank you. | |
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| Another Anthro > MPH here! I work in substance abuse prevention now. It’s a shocking amount of overlap in the two fields. | |
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| It’s got to be hard to spend so much time “actively listening” to so many problems. I can see it being a good part time job-but can’t imagine FT | |
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| I'm no therapist but I'll add on to that: | |
| My therapist is currently in, in their words, "paperwork jail." As in, they're so behind on paperwork that they've scheduled themself a week off client work to catch up. | |
| I can't imagine. | |
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| As a middle school teacher, I understand the "can't phone it in" thing. It's EXHAUSTING to be on in front of hundreds of teenagers all day. | |
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| Decade into my film career as a 1st AC and this is about as succinct a description I’ve ever read. Well put. I’m in my 30s and still enjoy… but with each passing year the thought of “what career do I want to transition to and when” comes to mind more frequently. | |
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| You migrated from mental health to adult daycare. | |
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| I remember an AITA post about a child psychologist that was working in management that was using child psychology on their childish colleague. It was pretty funny. | |
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| Ask most organisational psychologists they will tell you it's nothing like HR. But it clearly is. Very frustrating for me as I teach Psychology in a high school and students want to know about the pipeline to employment, but when I get professionals psychs to speak to the students they are often cryptic about what they to do in org psych. I think they (understandably) want to preserve respect for their job and see it is undermining to relate it to HR. | |
| The real issue is that HR generally has become demonised in recent years and is treated as entry level fodder. | |
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| More profit based than healing based I suppose | |
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| Small bit of advice from another Psych B.A. holder: more people value it than you expect, specifically IF you take it seriously while you're studying. I ended up not going into my Psy-D nor PhD programs due to personal constraints and being burnt out. That led me down a winding path from insurance, to real estate, to lead sales of a marketing company, to VP in an ad agency, and now a business owner not working even close to the same space. | |
| All you need to know is how to spin it, and since you will have at least a vaguely easier time being able to see through shades of bullshit, you'll have an easier time finding something you truly enjoy, around people that you enjoy as well. Don't fret to hardly over it. | |
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| Did you up getting your CPA or other certifications to help you move up faster? | |
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| That sounds amazing. I still haven't found any GIS jobs, been job hoping random places but I can't even get anything entry level. Graduated in 2017 :( | |
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| A tale as old as time | |
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| Ah. | |
| Well, sorry to hear, fellow euro brother. | |
| I moved to Germany for work. Sometimes it’s the only choice we have. | |
| Cheer up and go shitpost with me on r/2westerneurope4u. | |
| That always cheers me up. | |
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| Might not have to be. I don't know about med school, but I did know a guy who was doing his degree in cello performance. He knew he wasn't likely to be able to support himself with that degree, so he also did all the prereqs to get into dental school. | |
| I thought it was a pretty smart way to handle it. He got to study what he loved for four years but also prepared for the future at the same time. | |
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| You don't need to major in something relevant to go into medicine. | |
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| Learning a major world language is never a bad move. It always has a way of coming in handy. | |
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| Yeah. I got lazy. Started as a math major and was doing fine. Then made friends that were into politics my sophomore year, and switched majors so that we could hang out and have classes together. Probably the dumbest thing I’ve done to date. Fortunately law school worked out well, and I lucked into a good career. Hoping that things turned out alright for you as well! | |
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| Cool thanks | |
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| We really need to stamp out these bad puns. | |
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| There are so many best practices in animation that you cannot and will not learn through YouTube tutorials. Honestly being able to use the software doesn’t usually matter to an animation house because they’re going to have proprietary tools built for their workflows that you’ll need to be trained on anyway… what they care more about is if you have enough of a technical/critical eye to recognize and correct problems in your work on your own, and whether or not your professionalism or personality will cause speed bumps in the pipeline. It’s why you see Pixar and Disney in general typically hire folks from Cal Arts… they know that school’s program will train animators ready to fit into their structure. | |
| There are very few solo animators I’ve seen get decent jobs in the industry… one of the first that comes to mind is Andrew Kramer who works frequently for JJ Abrams… and he’s basically the title sequence guy and post-processed lens flares guy… hardly what most animators are hoping for when they go to school. | |
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| My husband was going to be in nursing but he realized it wasn't for him. He likes numbers so he's an accountant. | |
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| I graduated with a degree in journalism. I learned to research issues and properly communicate my findings to others. Those skills make me really valuable in information technology. But I get paid way more to work in IT than I would if I had stuck with journalism. | |
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| Yep, proud journeyman here. I encourage others to join the apprenticeship programs and learn a trade. Doesn’t even have to be electrician. Hell mine was paid for and I was paid while in classes and learning on job training. | |
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| This to a T and I don't think its a bad thing at all. Its like former substance abusers going on to become substance abuse counselors. They were there, they got themselves out, and now they wanna help free others. Empathy and first hand experience go along way for someone struggling. | |
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| > how to be an adult in a business setting | |
| That’s the hard part | |
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| I'm an engineer with an Ancient Greek degree. | |
| Just started in tech support and moved up from there in a couple years. | |
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| And so easy to recognize, by those that can. For now. | |
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| In my case, I took an executive assistant role at a hedge fund for one of the partners and he guided me into marketing & investor relations over time. So thankful for that boss, he changed my life. I worked in hedge fund for over 15 years and now I work for a non-profit asset management firm. | |
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| In my case getting licenses and then signing with a company. It’s a shrinking business as a large majority of the industry is old. | |
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| I am guessing the same. I know one person that did a similar transition and they graduated from Harvard. | |
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| Your, umm, username...is certainly EPIC. | |
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| Maybe to work on software but not to become a software engineer, you still have to have a pretty good basis on algorithms to get a job as a SWE there | |
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| I remember wheb EPIC came into my workplace. There was a lot of crying, breakdowns and open positions. I still hate it. | |
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| Keep firing, Dicks! | |
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| I’ve known a few school psychologists and the constant churn of kids with the same issues wears you down. It’s hard to see improvement. I’m guessing that’s a little less of the case in private practice, but still has to be hard working on problems all the time. | |
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| Right there with you and I’m in post production. Not as physically taxing but the work life balance is non-existent. | |
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| Pretty much. Lol and let me tell you… The adults with mental illness I used to work with are far easier to work with and more likable than many people on my team 😂 it’s absolute daycare | |
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| HR has bad press in both a professional and school setting | |
| Go to any business school and the students will tell you HR is a joke major. It is literally what academic advisors tell you to major in if you don’t to put any effort. | |
| Go to any company and employees will tell you that HR is not there to help them, they’re there to help the companies bottom line | |
| The funny thing is, HR jobs pay very good money relative to the work load, but it’s hard to get your foot in the door and you have to be VERY social and people oriented | |
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| Ones about helping the client be mentally healthy | |
| The others about making sure the staff are just mentally ok enough to not make the company look bad | |
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| Hey I do GIS! I'm an urban planner who manages GIS projects for my department. Also graduated in 2017 with an environmental science BS. | |
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| I had a classmate who did something similar. Only her degree was in operatic music studies. She went on to med school. She has a private practice so sets her own hours and does some singing gigs on the side to keep the creative part of her happy. | |
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| That's part of why I decided to upgrade my French minor to a second Major--learning a major language is good, and having a Bachelor's degree in said language is a good way to demonstrate I'm actually fluent if I need to (assuming the person I need to demonstrate it to isn't *also* fluent in French, I guess; if they are there are easier ways). That, and because I took French in high school and tested out of some classes once I got to college, it turned out that a French Major for me was only 9 classes, and two semesters ago I was able to replace one of those 9 with a world film class by writing both of that class' papers in French. A second major for one class a semester was a no-brainer. | |
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| Smoked a ton of weed during college and was high pretty much 24/7 and just skated through my classes. Looking back on it, such a joke , jeezus Christ. | |
| I feel like you get the best experience in the work field so don’t think I’ll be returning to school. Wanted to be a lawyer but got lazy I guess | |
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| Eh I work a shitty alcohol sales job during the day and a decent high paying security guard job at night. | |
| Just going to stick in sales until I burn out |
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