Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I think it's also worth pointing out that there are some professional jobs that don't have much if anything to do with academic programs that are available at various levels (be it community college, undergrad, or graduate / professional programs). I suspect that will be increasingly true since the job market evolves much faster than academic programs do.

To be sure, some of those are simply jobs that didn't used to require college degrees and now generally do (secretarial type roles, some HR roles, some sales roles, etc.).

Of course, people with degrees that are the least relevant to any career are probably more likely to go graduate school, anyway. Also, plenty of people change careers so their college degree has nothing to do with their graduate degree.

I don't know if you have any stats or not, but I wonder what types of degrees correlate to success in switching careers.  I think it's likely that "generalist" degrees do, but then maybe that because such degrees don't prepare one very well for any particular career path.

Engineers generally don't go to grad school. For example, my program required 147 credits, compared to 120 for most. That's grad school right there. Then you have to wait 4 years as an engineer-in-training before you are permitted to take the PE exam. Not many have the time nor patience for grad school.

Yet in the last several years, ASCE has been pushing Masters degrees for their membership. Unless you're going into academia, it's not worth the money. At least it wasn't when I looked into it 12 years ago, and I doubt the cost-benefit balance has improved since then. 

I don't know if you have any stats or not, but I wonder what types of degrees correlate to success in switching careers.  I think it's likely that "generalist" degrees do, but then maybe that because such degrees don't prepare one very well for any particular career path.

At the basic sense, the key thing that you should be learning in high school, then expanding in college, is the same thing regardless of your major:

• Identify a problem in front of me.
• Learn what I need to learn in order to effectively make decisions about that problem. 
• Make the best decisions based on the known information.

That's it. There are certain disciplines--engineering being one of them--that it's nearly impossible to do certain portions of it without the right background. While it's *possible* to learn the necessary skills without college, it's exceedingly difficult. But that doesn't mean that background makes you unsuitable for other careers.

But the truth is that most of the information you need to do a job is learned on the job. Because even in a very specific field like electrical engineering, the curriculum is still "generalist" until applied to the specific products and industry that you're in. 

I think the best way to predict ability to switch careers midstream would be two things: raw IQ, and the right emotional/social balance for the target career. Because if you have both of those, you can learn anything you need to learn on the fly. 

At the basic sense, the key thing that you should be learning in high school, then expanding in college, is the same thing regardless of your major:

• Identify a problem in front of me.
• Learn what I need to learn in order to effectively make decisions about that problem.
• Make the best decisions based on the known information.

That's it. There are certain disciplines--engineering being one of them--that it's nearly impossible to do certain portions of it without the right background. While it's *possible* to learn the necessary skills without college, it's exceedingly difficult. But that doesn't mean that background makes you unsuitable for other careers.

But the truth is that most of the information you need to do a job is learned on the job. Because even in a very specific field like electrical engineering, the curriculum is still "generalist" until applied to the specific products and industry that you're in.

I think the best way to predict ability to switch careers midstream would be two things: raw IQ, and the right emotional/social balance for the target career. Because if you have both of those, you can learn anything you need to learn on the fly.

Good points there.  The "key thing" isn't the same thing, but sort of tracks alongside "be able to think critically."

well, that statement should play well on this thread

academia types