In far too many cases the kids have no idea what they want and are pursuing liberal arts and gen ed degrees...and to some extent business degrees...simply because they can't handle technology program demands. They end up unemployed with no skills that meet the market needs and with huge school bills.
At 18 they think they know what they want to do; design video games, for instance, because they love playing them. Then they see how much effort they’d really need to put forth to work for those mega companies and decide against it.
Or, maybe they do and after 4 years taking the classes needed, they see the job market is so stagnant that they can’t get a job. “Game designers wanted: Must have 4 to 7 years job experience” How are they gonna get the experience needed for those jobs when no one will hire them? Thus, they take whatever job they can find to pay off their student loans. Sure they may come across more job ads, but they find the same problems as before; needing job experience before they can get hired. They essentially wasted 4 years of their life.
Did anyone really do, at age 21, what they said they wanted to do when they were 18? Are any of us doing what we said we’d like to be doing 5~10 years ago? So forcing(yes, some parents practically force the kids out at 18 to go to college) an 18 year old to go to college, especially when they thought schooling would be over when they graduated high school, and to find a major in something they want to do can lead to major problems down the road
I agree…
This is just a guess, but my feeling is that kids aren’t getting the best advice. Technology, skill sets and requirements seem to change faster then those olderfarders including their parents who are in a position to help, aren’t keeping up either. It’s one thing to just look on line at available jobs then do recommendations, it’s another to live through actual experiences from one gen to another on their actual placement. Jobs are doing complete turn arounds, not only by generation but by decades and even single years. Schools and advisors are fishing and need more coordination with hiring sectors.
Did anyone really do, at age 21, what they said they wanted to do when they were 18? Are any of us doing what we said we’d like to be doing 5~10 years ago?
A few are doing what they dreamed. But I will say they are rare and rarer still if they are doing what they like in their 30’s.
thankyou, teachers professors, and taxpayers. :<]]
@longprime–When I was working on my doctorate back in 1970, one of my fellow graduate students in the same program took a job with a state department of education at a salary of $19,000. By the next year, the job market was drying up and I returned to the university where I had been teaching. My doctoral advisor said that this was a wonderful opportunity for me. I said that I would be going back to teaching the same courses that I had been teaching before I left to work on the doctorate and that I would love to have had a job that my fellow graduate student was able to get the year before. My advisor just looked at me and said, “You would be bored with his job. You have the opportunity to turn over a few rocks and really make your job”.
Well, my advisor was right. I found opportunities. When there weren’t faculty available to teach computer science courses, I accepted the challenge to do additional coursework and reading to teach the classes. I think that if I had had a steady diet of teaching calculus, linear algebra, etc. I would probably have died of boredom. I would not have done well in the “dream job” I thought about at age 21.
" if I had a steady diet of teaching calculus, linear Algebra, etc, I would probably died of boredom."
Maybe. But a lot depends upon the circumstances. The difference between then and now is the volatility of the job market and technology. Over a twenty year period, there were many changes in the way we taught these courses. First, with the advent of the graphing calculator then the computer, each made math much more exciting to teach. You couldn’t use your same lesson plan for twenty years like you could 40 years ago. Buy the end of my teaching carreer, some of my teaching notebooks had accumulated a half a dozen differnt approaches to the same topic.
And often, it’s what you make of it…and, if you see a purpose in it, it will be enjoyable.
@triedaq
The key to what you are saying I think, is the more education in general you have, the more options you have. Getting a doctorate does not eliminate you from teaching those classes, but not getting one eliminates what you did for the next # years
I have to bow to you @dagosa, for being a HS math teacher. Not only did you teach but you probably had a bureacracy. Son had to be taught Calculus but self-taught programming
Son had to be taught Calculus but self-taught programming
Programming can be self taught…But to be good at you better get some training. Learning how to program is one thing…learning how to be a GOOD programmer is completely different. When I did consulting I would cringe when I was told that I’m taking over a project that the owners son had started but hadn’t finished yet. The owner being a self taught programmer who then went on to be a manager at McDonalds. In almost all cases I had to throw out what was done and start from scratch.
Tom and Ray taught him how to think linearly.
He’s not a programmer but knows enough languages for his projects. He’s a "user’ designer.
Sorry Mike, no classes in programming.
I think one thing missing as a salient point is relevance. Sure I was on the cutting edge way back when programming in FORTRAN and cobol with punch cards, moved my way up to basic, then basica. And yes I am now involved in sql server 2012, and postgres, for relational databases, but need to learn more python and json, along with a bit of html5 and IPV6. If you worked on cars in the 70’s and knew points, timing advance, fuel pump diaphragms, choke pulloffs, vacuum advance you were good to go, but everything you knew then does not apply now. Same in computers and cars, if you do not live with it and keep up with it you are destined to watch from the sidelines.
Well I just believe outside of cronyism and nepotism,the Job market may be stagnent for a long time,we may have to do a “Procrustean " act to be employed-sad but true,On the other hand if we can get a new push(maybe settling near space or another dimension,things would perhaps pick up a great deal,heck maybe even a push to live beneath the waves or"InterTerra”,I just cant see many Folks wanting to make the adjustment to a lower standard of living.
Is the Prez doing a good job? can somebody please give me an overview of “Obamacare” and why the conservatives seem to hate it so much-Kevin
@kmccune
The simple fact remains. Anyone who likes their present healthcare plan can keep it. The only change you will and have seen, is a slowing of the increase in rates and an increase in services…as health insurance companies are now limited in the profit they can have and are mandated to offer more preventative care services. People who service their cars regularly, pay less in overall operating costs on their cars and their cars last longer. People who service their bodies with preventative care, pay less in overall healthcare costs and they live longer more productive lives. These are the only ways it affects the average person with his own healthcare.
Is the president doing a good job? Wait 20 years and look back. But, generally, many who are against it think the only role of the federal govt. is to kill people outside our borders and do nothing for those within. Many ( perhaps most) Conservatives by their very nature, don’t like anyone who tries to change anything whatsoever.
Read this informative article from Time…unfortunately, it is not available in it’s entirety on line. It tells you why Obamacare was fashioned as it is as a response to the present healthcare companies.
@Dagosa,I read some of these articles and it does show some of the disconnect.But I have heard this lament"my education was so expensive,dont know how I’ll get it paid off" well maybe its that way in someparts,but around here the Doctors are about the only people that can afford hunting camps,private planes,horse farms and the like,so I guess some folks idea of being well off,is different from other folks-but that aside,these Physicians do things I couldnt or wouldnt do and are for the most part very good at what they do and deserve to be well compensated for what they do.
But one thing most people need to realize is that the body does most of its own healing,only augmented by the skilled physician,we are a sick people and probaly as the “errors” propagate and there are more of us,the level of un healthiness will only increase as our standard of living goes down.We are what we eat and it was driven home to me the other day as I ate a couple of cheeseburgers ,(I neglected to pack a lunch that day) these afore mentioned grease bombs about to make me sick{I pity the children} so lets watch what we eat and eat a lot less of our beloved animals(am waiting for “Chicken Little”)-Kevin
Doctors and the healthcare professionals in general do well for one big reason. Their services costs are non negotiable. You don’t go to an emergency room with a broken leg to get an estimate and say, “I’ll be back when I check your costs against those in the hospital in the next town.” That’s why everyone in the healthcare profession and their insurers are at the top in the service chain and prices ONLY get moderated when you have a single payer healthcare system when we all say in unison, "Doc and hospital, we want you to get what you deserve, but only that !"
That’s why it’s a tad different then car repair and mechanics and That’s why the readings I referenced are important.
Without single payer, we are all just beating our head against the wall wondering how and why hospital CEOs, not the doctors, are the wealthiest guys in town…and they do nothing for your broken leg. It’s not the doctor that charges you $25 for one aspirin.
My local hospital has pulled political strings to lock down their monopoly position in 5 adjacent counties and they privately brag that they are profitable with medicaid business.
Our semi local,major hospital wouldnt let a competitive imaging company come in the area and made no bones about the reason either(would have helped us out considerably-Kevin
In defense of Doctors, holy cow, they make that much because they have to. Spend ten years in undergraduate and medical school, and anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000, plus ten years of lost income at lets say 30 to 40K minimum, and you simply can’t work for less than $150K minimum. You’re 30 years old and have about a million bucks to make to just get to the BEP (break even point). So that gives you maybe 25 good years to work hard, live well, and save for retirement.
My son is an MD and I don’t fault him a bit for his income and purchases this late in life. And guess again if you think broken bones, hernias, spinal injuries, and so on just heal themselves.
The GP’s at my HMO earn about $175/yr. Private practice…may earn more…but there’s more risk.
And for school…could even be a lot longer if you become a surgeon. For a Heart surgeon…expect another 10 years added on to the 10 years you already did.