The real world is a harsh place. We don't learn that soon enough. When we're younger we believe everything is possible and whatever it is that we want to do for a living is going to be a success. So we head off to school to procure that dream and in school we learn all we can and the dream grows bigger.
Then a little while after graduation, many people realize, the dream is a fantasy and the major they chose maybe more problematic than bountiful. Not many companies are looking for experts in socioeconomic post Russian literature. So maybe a few plans.
Redditor u/Mahimah wanted the post college peeps out there to share with us, tell us which degrees may not be the most fruitful in the world. They asked.... College grads who discovered too late that your major is useless in the real world, what do you do now?Hospitality Days
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Working in a job I could've done with my high school degree and that I hate. 💔
I feel that. I was doing restaurant work for a long time, then went to college, and then went back to restaurant work. I'm now back in college for another roll of the dice.
And given the state of the economy right now, I will probably go back to waiting tables once again.
Head Games
Not exactly realized it was useless, just realized I couldn't do it. I was in Psychology. I went back to work for a while then ended up taking Computer Engineering and I'm now a software developer. I went back to school. The went back to work thing means in between I wasn't in school and was just working
I should add that job is what made me realize I should take Comp Eng.
I did a site visit to a custom fabrication shop and they had a team of devs to program the machines for custom orders. I was fascinated, did some research, and here I am. I do make software for manufacturing even, just not doing that specific thing that got me interested.
The Writer
I write emails for the functionally illiterate. I'm actually a personal assistant which is all you need to know. The only reason they'd pay me is the college degree and its name. I literally do get paid minimum wage but it's in a place where I can make that work with roommates. I don't know what else to say except I'm in the same place as so many! So don't be impressed. :)
The Spotlight People....
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Studied performing arts (film, tv and theatre) at a decent university.
Was working in theatre until Covid hit.
Now I make youtube videos about MMO games and twitch stream Runescape.
I actually manage to survive doing this.
P & P
Degree in psychology with a minor in philosophy. Realized I hated research 4th year in but grinded through and finished it. Currently in management in manufacturing. Wouldn't say the degree was useless as it helps me in my interactions with my workers and building a good culture. Don't ever think a degree is useless just because you don't get a job in your field. You build learning habits and study methods which can be applied to anything in the future so just keep that in mind and be positive!
LIT....
English Lit Major.
I'm a gate attendant. Graveyard shift.
Have you considered writing content for websites? You know, the web pages that are really ads disguised as actual content that made the Internet a worse place. I hear the pay is OK, I would guess probably better than a gate attendants pay.
No Regrets....
I have a sociology degree! I don't think it's useless but many people do. I don't regret it. There's a decent amount of socially relevant marketable knowledge and skills.
I'm a healthcare worker and I love it.
I am also very good at it, and would not be if I didn't have my degree to inform my practice.
I plan on getting my masters or going to law school at some point because I'd like more prospects for upward mobility and I genuinely love school but I also do really love my job now.
Crap Start....
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Psychology major, got jobs in my field right out of school, but pay was pretty crap and no real room to move up without more school.
Went back and got my RN, made six figures straight out the door.
3rd shift in....
Got an English/Film Studies degree, now I work 3rd shift as a deli stocker at a local supermarket chain.
I have the same degree. I'm a buyer and customer assistant for an independent hardware store.
When I was at school I wrote about film quite frequently. My English teacher told me I should pursue it as a career.
I had zero interest in going to university but I was told it was the easiest way to make connections in the industry.
Throughout Uni I attended every networking event I could, took unpaid writing gigs, and showed my portfolio to as many people as possible. As I approached graduation I still had no job lined up despite submitting countless applications.
After graduating I took a full time job unrelated to my degree while working part time as an unpaid writer. I eventually burnt out.
There was no point in doing the work if I wasn't being paid, and none of the paid opportunities I had dangled in front of my face ever materialised. I didn't see the point in trying anymore if the only thing I got out of it was disappointment.
I stopped writing. I stopped poring over media job sites. I took down my online portfolio. I bristle whenever someone asks me what I have a degree in because it's not hard to tell they're thinking "oh, you got one of those useless degrees." Yeah, mate. I know that now.
Teachers deserve more....
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I was originally majoring in earth and space science with a minor in education.
The goal was to teach secondary school earth science. That degree only lets you teach those subjects from an education stand point as for other jobs it qualified me for a tour guide or a museum worker. Changed majors to education which set me back about 3 semesters of course work. Now i manage at the local big box retailer for almost 15k more than the starting wage of a teacher.
Trade
Get into a trade. Only high school education required and you can get in as someone who's only job is to sit on a bucket and make sure the welders don't catch crap of fire starting out at 18/hr. After that the next position can be anywhere from 18-20/hr as a helper and perdiem comes in. An extra 70-100 a day tax free for your hotel and stuff. I've been in construction for 4 years and I average 28/hr and 100 a day perdiem. Average weekly check of 1500+ and only a high school education baby.
PhD
Serious answer: I have a bachelor of science in psychology. It is truly useless as a lot of bachelor of science degrees are if you're not going for a Masters or PhD. I interned in a medical lab and got a technical degree, MLT, which I think nowadays technical degrees are 150% more valuable than a non-technical 4 year degree. I'm working on turning my MLS at the moment.
Next Year it is....
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So not me, but my husband. His first bachelor's is in entertainment engineering and design and he worked for a minute in his industry.
He was getting to the highest position he could with that degree before COVID and got furloughed and then laid off. He's going back to school now for electrical engineering and will graduate next year hopefully.
Find Friends
I have a BA in political science. I run a data science and analytics team. Didn't figure out what I liked until I was 28 and 6 years out of college. The library and community colleges are your friend.
It's all a mess...
I work in my dad's business and live with my parents. In my culture is not that unusual to live with your parents in your 20's but it still sucks. The money they pay me is not nearly enough to be independent either, but at least I'm not homeless and try to take care of them. The future is uncertain. I couldn't get a job in my former career before the pandemic, and now the job market and the economy are totally messed in my country.
educators...
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Not me, but my brother has a history degree and couldn't get a job in his field. So he went back to school to become a teacher and now he's teaching history at the university he got his history degree at. He hates teaching.
Best of Luck...
I did my major in mathematics, and without much of a plan going forward, other than one very specific idea that ended up falling through. I did temp work for a little while and ended up doing some self-taught programming to improve the efficiency of my work there. That led to me getting noticed and promoted by the IT team leader, and now (years later) I'm in a leading software developer position. So it all worked out in the end, mostly through sheer luck.
Choices
Work in a grocery store and languish in my poor choices.
But for real though, I wouldn't trade the experience I got in college for anything. I got a Bachelor of Arts in Interactive Media Design. I've been working on small projects off and on since graduation but the actual industry, if you don't want to try cutting your teeth as an indie dev, is a meat grinder. There's a lot of uncertainty in employment, exploitation, false expectations of advancement.
You're either a dynamo and get hired into a good position/get noticed or you slog through QA with a minuscule chance of getting promoted. Turns out the industry has a crappy life/work balance and I refuse to deal with that.
Research the Plan
If you're in a country with strong unions, do consider vocational roles like a plumber or electrician. Some of them do pay well.
If you're ok with it, joining the army is ok as well.
Alternatively, upskill through online courses.
Anthro...
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Anthropology degree. I do IT Helpdesk at a University. Anthro helped give me a good understanding of different people and cultures. Made my customer service skills waaaaay better knowing that people can see things so differently.
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It’s weird how much stuff we let slide when we’re kids. Even if you look at the TV shows we watched back then, we had such a high threshold for the bizarre (early 2000’s Nickelodeon, anyone?). So it’s no surprise that some of us straight-up didn’t react when we saw weird crap in person.
Here are a few wild examples of seemingly harmless things we saw as kids that would be horrifying to see now. Brace yourself, this one gets crazy.
Kids and water aren’t a great mix sometimes. It can get real gross, real quick.
Not worth the tranquility.
I've always loved the tranquil feeling of being under water. When I was a kid I would just hold my breath and float around. Sometimes adults would think I was drowning and run up and scoop me out. I don't remember this (it was when I was pretty young) but my parents have told me about it
I used to think it was a funny story... people thinking I was drowning when I was just trying to relax
....until I watched a video explaining child drownings and yeah, the way I acted in water looked exactly like a drowned kid.
I don't think it's funny anymore.
Uhhhhhh.....ew?
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Flood water. It was fun and games for the kids, and we even splashed around in it, much to the horror of our parents (who immediately scrubbed us down). We didn't understand then, but now, oh wow...sewer, insects, rats, parasites, etc.
That’s actually hilarious.
My friend and I were walking along the road in about thigh high flood waters. A small boat with two men comes up to us. We were about 9 years old and I think they were National Guard. Anyway, one of the men asks if we remembered exactly where the manholes in the road were. We answered no. He told us that all of the covers had most likely been washed away in the flood but not to worry because it would probably only take them a few days to find our bodies if we were sucked down one of the holes by currents they produced. He spoke in a matter of fact tone and then left.
As an adult, I have zero doubt those two men had a good laugh as they looked back and watched us nope out of that water like two roadrunners in a cartoon.
Edit: It was Fish and Game Wardens. The NG didn't come until later.
Not to mention the crazy injuries that kids somehow are constantly surrounded by.
Had a jogger get hit by a car outside my house once when I was about eight or nine. My nephew came running inside yelling at my parents and my sister to call the ambulance because he was bleeding pretty badly.
I could even see him from our playrooms window and I wondered what he was doing lying on the grass. Turns out he was bleeding out pretty badly, deliriously yelling at my parents when they tried to help.
Eventually, an ambulance came and picked him up, but my parents always told me he made it out okay. The day after, in the spot he was found someone had put a lily in the grass in a vase.
It took me longer than I care to admit to figure out he died from the hit and run.
How sharp were they, though?
A kid f*cking sharpened his fingers with an automatic pencil sharpener at grade 2. Everyone didn't know what was going on until the teacher started freaking out.
I just remembered I tried to stick my finger into electric pencil sharpeners as a kid and disliked how my fingers were too big to fit in it. What the hell was I thinking?
Rock climbing can definitely be dangerous.
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We did climbing in PE (sixth to eight grade). Like rock climbing and we had to do our own harness and stuff. PE teacher (supposedly) checked it after we were done to make sure it was done right. One day my neighbor broke an arm and leg because she wasn't properly strapped and fell.
This was at an international American school in Egypt around year 2000, for all those wondering what type of school does rock climbing.
Kids are, in fact, made of elastic.
We used to jump of our roof. First time hurt a little, but after a few times you learnt how to land.
Did it regularly and would try various items as 'parachutes' to see if it slows you down any.
I look at that height now and wonder how the hell we never broke anything - kids bones are more elastic I guess.
It’s amazing what adults can get away with right under kids’ noses.
A casual hit-and-run.
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My babysitter was running late to take me to piano lessons and rear ended an old man at a stoplight. She told me that he must not have noticed because he didn't get out of his car. I thought nothing of it, and she drove away and took me to my piano lesson.
I forgot about it, and it didn't click until I remembered the incident years later that I had been unknowingly involved in a hit and run.
Big yikes.
Not so much something I saw - but when I was 5 or 6 I was at a family wedding, and there was this really friendly adult guy (who I didn't know) who told me he was really worried about his nice new car in the parking lot and how he wanted to check on the car but didn't want to leave the wedding.
He asked if I could go check on it and he would pay me $5 just to go see if his car was "okay" being that age $5 was a crazy amount of money so I couldn't believe my luck.
On the way to the parking lot, my mom intercepted me and was absolutely horrified, I remember not understanding why, like trying to tell her no she had it wrong he was nice and paying me! And as an adult now I'm like that's so messed up and I wonder how close a call that could have been.
Go grandma!
Until the age of 12 my grandma had custody of me. I used to sleep with her and she slept with a baseball bat next to her bed. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized she did it dads friends wouldn't be able to do anything to me.
Dad was a drug addict and drunk and when he was out of prison he had all kinds of people in and out of the house. You would never know what would be missing the next day - often my Nintendo :(
She did everything she could to protect me from God knows who/what and I had zero clue!
Edit: Damn this blew up while I was sleeping!! Thank you so much to everyone for the support :)
Im adding extra details to help understand the situation.
My grandmother was born in 1914, had a third grade education and was a housewife her entire life. She was already 71 when I was born! My grandpa died when I was 4 and it was just her and I. We lived in a tiny 2 bedroom house in a terrible neighborhood. It was paid off and that's all she could afford. She lived off of the social security death benefits from my grandpa and food banks. She couldn't just "leave" and go anywhere else.
Also, for those suggesting she should have called the cops - cops don't do anything if you say "I'm scared these guys will do something bad" cops have to wait till something bad happens.
She did her very best and raised my right! Now my father is back in prison (shocker) and is pissed at me for not letting the past be in the past and welcoming him with open arms. Meanwhile I'm a 2x college graduate with a great job, my own house and recently married! She definitely did something right. Unfortunately she died when I was 12. Id give anything to be able to tell her how grateful I am to her for doing everything right.
We see some scary stuff as kids. No wonder most of us are so messed up years later. Often these things don’t even register as something terrible- a lot of times, the things we witnessed were just a part of life.
The best we can do is to take our trauma, and learn from it, so we don’t pass it down to our own children. Because kids don’t deserve it- they deserve to have happy childhoods and not think about the horrors of the world.