Are you thinking of going back to get another degree?

[raccoon]

If you are, be aware that college staff/faculty will lie all over the place and tell you there are jobs to be had, whether it’s true or not. You’re asking the barber if you need a haircut. They need a job. They need you to sign up for classes, pay tuition, help them keep their job.

Sometimes, they’ll be a little more honest, and say, “well, jobs in (whatever line of work) aren’t as plentiful as they were in the ‘90’s (or whenever). If you are able to relocate, you shouldn’t have a problem finding a job.”

If there’s a job in another area, and they couldn’t find anybody local, there may very well be something wrong with the job or the workplace….and that’s why they couldn’t get a local to take the job.

[Forkboy]

1. I haven't even gotten a first one yet.

And unless the offer Godzilla-ology I doubt I ever will.

[Uben]

2. I have 12 already!

Sixty bucks goes a long way at on-line universities!


/sarcasm

[supernova]

3. Would love to work on my Masters

I just love learning and absorbing information. I've always felt the "go to school to get a job" motif was not correct anyway. I just enjoy learning for its own sake and that it can help me think about things in more interesting ways, not that it will always result in a higher paying job.

But the price tag sure is daunting though. :-(

[glowing]

5. me too.

[BlooInBloo]

4. I have enough.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Me Too

A B.S. and three advanced degrees has served me ok. I've had enough of going to classes.
The Professor

[demnan]

6. I have for years

wanted to get a second degree in IT. I work in IT and thought it would be make me more marketable to have an actual degree in IT. I went to get an AA but they required too many stupid classes that I thought was a waste of time so I didn't get it.

I still think of getting a master's degree in something like history or politics just for my own benefit but my initial degree was in English though I had a lot of history and political science credits.

[NeedleCast]

20. I can't speak for all regions of the country

but here in DC where the IT field is pretty strong and diverse, degress, especially AAs, aren't worth the paper they're printed on. While basic level certifications aren't much better, I think that would serve you better than an AA in an IT field. As a former federal contractor who sat in on a lot of interviews, I can tell you that the only people who will really care about an IT degree are upper level people at contracting companies, because degrees mean they can charge the government a higher rate for your services. When it comes to the people who will actually hire you, I'd say the #1 thing they're going to look for is if you are a good fit for the team and/or project, followed by your actual experience.

[GTurck]

8. Agree, agree...

That is what happens when you monetize and politicize everything. No one selling a product can really be trusted anymore for objective opinions. That includes doctors,dentists,preachers/priests,etc. We have lost all of that in the past 28 years.

[lunatica]

9. I work in Administration at UC Berkeley

And frankly, you don't know what you're talking about. We don't lie. We are, in fact, the hope of this nation. The universities in this country are one of the most prestigious and forward thinking research centers and think tanks in the world. We create the world's pre-eminent scientists, lawyers, doctors, professors, authors, thinkers and engineers. If you think you can do better by not pursuing any kind of higher education that's your choice, but blaming the staff for the lack of jobs just so they can same their own is delusional. For the simple reason that jobs at Universities are being cut to the bare bones like they are anywhere else.

Without higher education you get Idiocracy, which is already visible in Sarah Palin's base.

[raccoon]

11. Yes, Ms. Big, I do know what I'm talking about. BTDT. I've had the experience.

"And frankly, you don't know what you're talking about. We don't lie."

I've had that direct experience with college faculty.

" If you think you can do better by not pursuing any kind of higher education that's your choice, "

For your information, I have several degrees.

"but blaming the staff for the lack of jobs just so they can same their own is delusional."

I never said I blamed them for lack of jobs.

I don't blame them for lack of jobs, but for lying about job prospects.

[lunatica]

21. Well Mr. raccoon, you are dead wrong. n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

14. That's funny -- in my Ph.D cohort,

only 5 of 25 got tenure-track positions (the principal reason to get a Doctorate in the Humanities).

Personally, I blame grad school admissions for admitting way more students than there are positions.

[lunatica]

24. Well that happens in the best of times.

And has always been the case. So what's your point? That someone else who's highly qualified got your dream tenure track position?

[coalition_unwilling]

27. More students are admitted into Ph.D. programs than will ever

find jobs with a Ph.D. One would think grad school admissions committees would limit admissions so as to match closely the projected needs of the job market.

So consider my point in support of the O.P.'s point.

[coalition_unwilling]

26. More students are admitted into Ph.D. programs than will ever

find jobs with a Ph.D. One would think grad school admissions committees would limit admissions so as to match closely the projected needs of the job market.

So consider my point support of the O.P.'s point.

[Burma Jones]

10. My Wife would kill me......

I have a PhD in Computer Science and have thought about going to law school........

[mike_c]

12. BS-- I can't speak for anyone else but what I tell students...

...is that (1) I haven't been in the job market for more than a decade so I'm the LAST person to know anything concrete about job opportunities in my field, (2) the last time I did prepare myself for a career change I was focused pretty narrow-mindedly on academic science jobs, so any minor expertise I have is entirely there, and (3) while jobs in academic science are REALLY satisfying-- at least mine is-- YMMV no matter what.

Sure, maybe the admissions people paint a rosier picture-- they are selling a product, by and large. But as someone who bought that product back in the 80s and 90s, I'm quite happy with the way things turned out, in most respects. The student loans suck, but I would do it all over again if I had the opportunity!

[deutsey]

16. You can get a degree in being an ordained Dudeist priest...it's free, easy, and...

aw, hell, lost my train of thought.

http://www.dudeism.com/ordination.html

I saw the Dude pix and thought you'd appreciate this. :-)

[HughBeaumont]

13. Can't.

There's simply no time or money. Even for a local university, 2000 dollars out of pocket counting books/semester isn't an option when your place of work cuts tuition reimbursement. And no, I'm not going into more debt. This country has enough debt, it doesn't need any more.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0202-26.htm

"You know your empire’s crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you’re making it harder and more expensive. "

[LWolf]

15. I can't afford the tuition. :( nt

[NeedleCast]

17. Nope, Zero has Proven to be a Solid Number of Degrees

I did fine without one.

However, I am not the norm. For younger DUers, I would defintely recommend going to college and getting a degree (or two) if possible.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Stupid double posts.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. If one relies on professors' say about the job market, one does not yet deserve a higher degree.

If a person can't even do basic research into something as trivially easy as the job market, that person is gonna have an awful time doing graduate level research. Possibly even college level.

[shrike]

22. I earned my graduate degree from the School of Hard Knocks n/t

[gollygee]

23. I had a nightmare last night that I was back in college

Nope, I'm done with that.

And I think with how much it costs these days, it's too risky of an investment.

[knitter4democracy]

25. I've never had a prof lie to me about that.

I'm in English, and I've taken a couple of grad-level classes to see if I still want to get my master's degree in literature. Every prof I've had has been honest about how hard it is to get a job at a good university and talked with me about how awful English jobs at Christian colleges are (I went to one, and it's a terrible place for English profs).

I don't know whom you've been talking to, but I know that my profs have all been bluntly honest about job prospects.

[Captiosus]

28. This has been happening forever, imo.

Two of the major public Universities in my local area (CNU and ODU) are pushing IT like it's still 1996. They still tell students who are undecided on their majors that they should look into BS Information Science and BS Computer Science and give them all this hype about how programmers and network engineers are "always in high demand" and how they "command a comfortable high five-figure or six-figure salary".

I'm not sure if William & Mary is pushing CS as much as they used to, but for the longest time one of their selling points was how they had a very strong CS department and large, multi-system (Windows, Apple, Linux, Unix) computer labs.

There is a whole class of students at CNU who have been boondoggled into taking IT or CS majors and are going to finish only to discover there's no future for them here. They'll move and find that their future in their degree field is highly limited to small sections of the country and they'll be in a market that is stressfully competitive.