[interested_observer]

Worst College Majors for Your Career - #3. Film and Photography

• Worst College Majors for Your Career - Kiplinger

[VoiceOfReason]

That really isn't a surprise.

I was surprised to not see a history major on there. I keep telling people I know that fine, study what you like or what your dream is, but dual major (or at least minor) in something that is a marketable skill. Most do not take that advice, and then whine about how they can't get a job or are working retail or fast food with a degree.

[Vicboy]

I hear this debate all the time. I'm not surprised. I'm more surprised you're surprised. Jesus, are you really surprised?

[Na Horuk]

Meh. Over here people keep whining about "we have too many people on social sciences" and these people are unemployable. But then if you look at actual statistics of unemployed people by education, you notice that law and economics are just as bad as social sciences, have very similar unemployment rates (and similarly poor average wages). I think more than getting the right education you need to push yourself and know the right people (unfortunately).

[VoiceOfReason]

It's hard to go wrong with engineering or computer science!

[magkelly]

Not everybody is wired for that though. Jobs in the sciences are lucrative for a reason. They require much more studying, a certain amount of smarts and some scientific aptitude. Not to mention a lot more money in terms of schooling. Not everyone is cut out to be a computer programmer or an engineer, or a doctor or whatever. Personally in terms of brain power I could do it and was encourage to. In fact I have studied a little medicine and programming for fun but I'd be bored out of my mind doing it for real. I like learning about computers, chemistry, medicine, and building things as a hobby, but never as a profession.

When it comes to studying science topics I tend to like things like Earth Science and archeology better. I'd much rather read about dinosaurs and rocks. All that number crunching and detail work would drive me nuts. I can't even work on a spreadsheet crunching sales figures for two hours sans major yawning. I had to for years for work, but I always hated it. I gave up on programming because I just couldn't see doing it for long. I was just too bored. I like the end result but I'm just not wired for the tedium it takes to get there. Ditto being a vet or a doctor. I love animals and kids but I don't want to look at nasty wounds or have to give animals or kids shots.

I am artistically inclined to a major degree. Always have been. If I was not singing I was acting, if I was not doing that I was dancing. If I wasn't performing I was creating something art-wise. I'm still doing that only it's with photography now. For years I didn't what I loved because it just wasn't supposed to be practical. I was miserable and I did not make that much more $$$ than I did now so what was the point of wasting all that time anyway? Do what you love. Life is too short to do anything else. A lower paycheck is far better than being unhappy doing something that you do just because it brings in a better paycheck. Make your own job if you have to. Be happy even if your bank balance isn't 6 figures all the time.

[ElJamoquio]

Not to mention a lot more money in terms of schooling.

I agree with your other points, but pretty much every land-grant college has a good engineering program.

[Sagitta]

One issue with a photography degree is you don't need a degree to be a successful photographer. I can't imagine many engaged couples asking the photographer they were recommended/found on the internet/saw an ad for is going to ask the shooter what school they graduated from and what their degree is.

I imagine it would help a huge deal, but unless you have a sizable chunk of cash to sink into gear and a studio set-up, odds are a professional is going to have a job on the side as well unless they really, really have the time to dedicate to making money at their craft.

[VoiceOfReason]

I agree with your other points, but pretty much every land-grant college has a good engineering program.

Purdue University here!

[monochrome]

History majors often end up selling things. Art and photography majors often end up selling things. Anyone can sell things. If you can get a job interview and get out of the interview with a job offer you can sell whatever it is they were interviewing you to sell.

My observation is - many persons unemployed directly out of college haven't tried to get a job selling something. We're pleading for bright, hard-working, liberal arts majors with good grades to come apply for a job - but no one wants to work hard selling things.

[Blue]

Not everybody is wired for that though. Jobs in the sciences are lucrative for a reason. They require much more studying, a certain amount of smarts and some scientific aptitude. Not to mention a lot more money in terms of schooling. Not everyone is cut out to be a computer programmer or an engineer, or a doctor or whatever. Personally in terms of brain power I could do it and was encourage to. In fact I have studied a little medicine and programming for fun but I'd be bored out of my mind doing it for real. I like learning about computers, chemistry, medicine, and building things as a hobby, but never as a profession.

When it comes to studying science topics I tend to like things like Earth Science and archeology better. I'd much rather read about dinosaurs and rocks. All that number crunching and detail work would drive me nuts. I can't even work on a spreadsheet crunching sales figures for two hours sans major yawning. I had to for years for work, but I always hated it. I gave up on programming because I just couldn't see doing it for long. I was just too bored. I like the end result but I'm just not wired for the tedium it takes to get there. Ditto being a vet or a doctor. I love animals and kids but I don't want to look at nasty wounds or have to give animals or kids shots.

I am artistically inclined to a major degree. Always have been. If I was not singing I was acting, if I was not doing that I was dancing. If I wasn't performing I was creating something art-wise. I'm still doing that only it's with photography now. For years I didn't what I loved because it just wasn't supposed to be practical. I was miserable and I did not make that much more $$$ than I did now so what was the point of wasting all that time anyway? Do what you love. Life is too short to do anything else. A lower paycheck is far better than being unhappy doing something that you do just because it brings in a better paycheck. Make your own job if you have to. Be happy even if your bank balance isn't 6 figures all the time.

Securing employment in the sciences is very competitive.

[DeadJohn]

know the right people (unfortunately)

Well said. I've had a stable career in computer science and government services for 20 years. All 4 of my employers have come around due to contacts rather than help wanted ads.

[magkelly]

Not everybody can sell. I'm pretty good at it but I kind of hate it actually. The only time I ever liked doing it was when I was doing it for myself. I used to do a lot of CSR work when I wasn't managing stores. I really enjoyed that until almost every temp CSR job I got started to be far more about upselling product than helping people out. I always felt it was incredibly tacky to try to sell people who were calling because they had a problem but that's what the job basically became. Ditto reception work. Over the years it went from typing up the odd letter and routing calls to upselling on the phone and doing spreadsheets. It sucked all the fun out of the job, IMHO. Crunching numbers is for accountants and managers not the person answering the darn phone and the job description of CSR or receptionist isn't supposed to be the same as the one that says "telemarketer" I don't think. I'm all for multitasking but not when it involved forced sales and quotas when you're supposedly signed up to do a simple office job.

I had one company I used to temp for a lot in CA that I used to love. I'd spend all day on the phone mostly helping people by getting them catalogs, sometimes making orders, occasionally handling returns and generally being helpful. No upsell pressure, no quotas, it was totally stress free and enjoyable for months on and off as they needed me until one day I walked in there, in a dress and heels, and was told that I had to get up on a ladder (I can't stand heights!) to start doing regular inventory checks and oh btw, I'd be upselling every person that called now, making call outs to potential customers who had asked for catalogs, and was now expected to sell a minimum of 25 products per day if I wanted to stay on for the whole 10 weeks.

I was freaking TEMP receptionist and they had me doing warehouse work IN HEELS and telemarketing. I needed that job at the time so I did it but the next time they asked for me I told the woman at the agency to forget it that I didn't want to go back there and that I'd rather work somewhere else. She was surprised because she knew I loved working there and hoped they'd pick me up for real one day soon, but no way, even if that had offered me that job I'd have turned it down under those conditions. The whole reason I went to office and CSR work is so that I could finally get away from selling people and doing grunge work like inventory and there I was basically back to square one.

But I've seen some people totally go green at the idea of selling. Not everybody can do that. I'm actually happiest when I'm working for myself and the selling is kept very casual. I'm not ever going to be a photographer who puts making 100K a year over the work. If I have to do seminars and sell books to make a living I don't want that job. I may write one but I don't want to have to be the one to market it and if I do I'm not going to leave my photography to run around and give seminars to promote it. I respect people who can do that, but that's not me. I'd rather be in my studio working, making photos, than hiring on other people to do my job so I can go do seminars and book tours. Photography is supposed to be the anti-stress, anti-rat race job for me and I intend to keep it that way if I never make 50K a year let alone double that.

There's this idea out there that success means people are supposed to automatically want to be ultra competitive and that the only way to be happy is to make as much money as you possibly can. But honestly I think that's a rotten way to live your life and I think a lot of people realize that too late. Some young people I think they are starting to get that though and that's why they are not queuing up for the jobs people think they should want. I think they're looking for jobs where they don't have to live and work like that, where life can be more balanced and work less stressful and I think that's a good thing. Beats eating anti-acids by the time you're 40 anyway...

[Fontan]

In fact I have studied a little medicine .... for fun.

Eh, I was curious . . . What's a "little medicine?"

[magkelly]

I've been known to read and study books like "Principles of Anatomy and Physiology" by Gerard J. Tortora just for the heck of it. That's the newest one on my shelf actually and I'm still working my way through it. I have several computer programs that are also pretty much all about studying the anatomy of humans and various animals. I won't dissect anything that isn't a plant but I love disassembling models of things like the spine and reading about the medicinal use of plants and herbs and where various modern medicines came from. I'm very interested in the work of the CDC and I've spent a lot of time reading up on hot zones, emerging viruses, various plagues and such. I've worked a lot with HIV/AIDS charities and I think I know about as much as any layman can know about the history of the epidemic. Ditto Ebola and diseases like that because I'm rather fascinated with the subject.

Ditto autoimmune diseases because I did a lot of intense studying of those before I was first diagnosed. In fact I caught on to what was going on with me before the doctor I was seeing and insisted he do the ANA and more advanced thyroid tests to find out for sure. He clearly thought I was a pushy bitch when I insisted he go there but I knew my mom had RA and I saw things going on with me that he just initially dismissed. As it turned out my theory was spot on and he admitted that he was wrong not to go there. When the labs came back finally confirming what I was thinking he actually jokingly told me I should have gone to medical school. He's not the first one to say that actually.

I've been reading some very hard science stuff since I was a kid. I tend to like studying about like things like anatomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, anthropology and archeology but I much prefer to do it as a hobby rather than as an avocation. I particularly like digging up things and studying ancient civilizations. I've actually helped out on a few small digs here and there in the states and helped to catalog some stuff for a museum as a volunteer. I've always collected fossils, rocks and arrowheads. I've also spent a lot of time volunteering at nature sanctuaries, shelters, and zoos. How people are wired and why, how animals are made, how the planet works fascinates me.

When I was a kid I had teachers who encouraged that and who encouraged me to do vet school because I have such a strong love of animals but in the end the art side of me was just stronger than the part of me that's a science geek. Plus there's the math thing, I knew I'd never be able to do the math involved. I actually have a learning disability related to higher forms of math. I can balance a bank book or store ledger no problem but I'm simply not wired for algebra and such. I can't get much past simple formulas and polynomials. I've tried several times over the years both in college and just to try to learn that and other forms of higher math and it's just an exercise in utter frustration.

I've tried studying on my own, computer programs, tutors, worked with a woman who works with people who are like me at Berkeley, nothing helps, and no, it's not just math anxiety. It's an actual disability. In the end I couldn't do the math necessary to get to my science courses for my bachelor's degree let alone do the math required for a medical degree. The irony is I've aced science my whole life. I could have done those courses and probably gotten A's but I wasn't allowed to take them because of the stupid math requirements. They don't just let you get around it with doing other things anymore.

It used to be you could take a business math course or statistics and still get a bachelor's degree but I can't do that and it's basically kept me from finishing my 4 year. I think I'm like 6 classes off having one. It really kind of sucks. I got my 2 year degree but I have yet to finish college because of this and honestly I probably never will because they've upped the math requirements to the point where it's an impossible thing for me. The greatest irony with me and school is that I've always aced everything except higher math. I barely studied most subjects and got A's. The only class I've ever totally flunked out in was algebra and I did that so many times they literally refused to let me continue.

I took and aced advanced placement classes for almost everything in college except higher math. All through school my teachers they didn't have a clue as to what to do with me. I'd be sitting there with my homework done in class utterly bored most of the time. By the time I was like 7 I was doing college level reading. When the rest of the class was first reading The Hobbit I was reading The Silmarillion because I'd already worked my way through that and the LOTR in about 4 days at the beginning of the lit class because they were listed as recommended books on the course sheet. I had the whole list of about 25 books done the first week. Fortunately I had a cool lit teacher who have me other books to read and who let me write for credit or I'd have been bored silly through Lit I& Lit II. I took Advanced American Lit II and British Lit II in college for fun basically. I didn't have to take but the first level, but I really liked the teacher I had in the advanced classes because she actually challenged me. She opened me up to authors I hadn't read and got me reading things I never really thought of as interesting. Ditto World Religions, Bible as Lit and several other theological courses. I took that stuff because I wanted to, not because I needed to.

95% of the books on the high school and college course lists. I'd already read them. I'm a total reading geek. I read about 50-60 books a week normally, when I am not studying something specific and watching videos. According to my local librarian I have had more books checked out on my card since I first got one than anyone else in the history of the local library. Most of the librarians know me very well here but when there's a new one and he or she first meets me it's usually pretty funny because they look at my check out history and they just boggle. When I was a kid they had to wave the book limit for me and I wasn't actually allowed to join the summer reading contests because it wouldn't have been fair for me to compete. Reading that's my major genius thing. Always has been. The only person I've ever met in my life who could come close to out reading me was my Mom and she never read a book in her life that wasn't a romance novel. She wasn't dumb my Mom, but she had absolutely no interest in reading anything else. She crunched numbers for a living and reading was all about relaxing for her. She supported me reading whatever I wanted and in fact taught me to read way before I entered school. It was funny at times actually becuase more than once she had to come to school to demonstrate to some teacher or the librarian that I was not an "average" reader and that my initial reluctance to do "Dick and Jane" wasn't about not being able to read but about being able to read the encyclopedia by the time I hit first grade. One teacher she hit my hands with a ruler to the point where I had welts because I put the reader down and walked away one time? My mother nearly took that woman's head off after. Stupid woman was so very good at her job she couldn't tell that I was bored and I could already read rings around my age level.

Honestly I found school itself rather boring sometimes, particularly at first. I'd have skipped a couple of grades but Mom just wouldn't let me. I tend to study at a much faster pace than they like to do in formal non-advanced classes though and I like to go more in depth than a course syllabus will generally let you if I am really interested in something. High school and college courses most of them were like reading the Reader's Digest version of a novel for me. I never felt like I was actually learning much except maybe in my high school science classes. If I have one flaw as a student it's that I'm absolutely lousy at making myself learn something I have no interest in. I can devour anything related to what I do want to study and I and I can still make an A or B in a course I don't find interesting but it's kind of like I'm being forced into several months of mental torture and I really don't like doing it. American National Government for instance? The most boring course EVER. But it was required. I still don't like studying political systems to this day. It's just plain boring.

Bottom line I'm a bit of a brain but I'm just not wired for certain things. I like hard sciences but not enough to make a living at it even if I could do the math which I can't.There are a lot of subjects I'm totally brilliant at but algebra et all, I'm just not. I'm always learning though. I can't stop. I'm totally addicted to learning. Right now it's all about learning more foreign languages and doing an intense study of photography. But in general I study a lot of different things. I have trouble turning the brain off to sleep sometimes. (I've had terrible insomnia for years.) My whole life I've nearly always had my nose in a book. Probably that's a good thing because it keeps my aging brain active and an active brain is a properly working brain and with luck I won't be senile by the time I'm 70 if I live that long....

But anyway that's what I meant. I meant I self study topics related to medicine as a hobby. Mostly it's history thereof, epidemics, and some anatomy....