this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
338 points (94.0% liked)

Cool Guides

5648 readers
2 users here now

Rules for Posting Guides on Our Community

1. Defining a Guide Guides are comprehensive reference materials, how-tos, or comparison tables. A guide must be well-organized both in content and layout. Information should be easily accessible without unnecessary navigation. Guides can include flowcharts, step-by-step instructions, or visual references that compare different elements side by side.

2. Infographic Guidelines Infographics are permitted if they are educational and informative. They should aim to convey complex information visually and clearly. However, infographics that primarily serve as visual essays without structured guidance will be subject to removal.

3. Grey Area Moderators may use discretion when deciding to remove posts. If in doubt, message us or use downvotes for content you find inappropriate.

4. Source Attribution If you know the original source of a guide, share it in the comments to credit the creators.

5. Diverse Content To keep our community engaging, avoid saturating the feed with similar topics. Excessive posts on a single topic may be moderated to maintain diversity.

6. Verify in Comments Always check the comments for additional insights or corrections. Moderators rely on community expertise for accuracy.

Community Guidelines

By following these rules, we can maintain a diverse and informative community. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the moderators. Thank you for contributing responsibly!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] protist@lemmy.world 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'd be really interested to see the specifics of how that data is collected, but also fucking duh recent college grads are underemployed. Also, having that degree sets people up for career advancement as they gain experience and that educational background becomes even more of a prerequisite for the jobs they're moving into

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

If you are employed in a junior job within the field you have been trained in, you are not underemployed.

What this graph shows however, is that there are a ton of degrees that seem to teach hardly any transferable skills. A sociologist without proper statistical training has almost zero value in the business world. And that's a problem.

[–] protist@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

What this graph shows however, is that there are a ton of degrees that seem to teach hardly any transferable skills

This graph absolutely does not show this lol...how could you possibly derive that from this graph

And sociologists are absolutely trained in statistics

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

That's why I explicitly qualified my statement, because not all sociologists are in fact trained in statistics. Many just had the statistics 101 class and went into the more philosophical part of the trade.

The real question is: what else does this graph show in your interpretation?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ech@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

Any decent sociology program will teach a hefty amount of statistics. That's the basis of research.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 31 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Graphic Design being low demand has always confused me.

Graphic design is really hard to do well, and there's a ton of legitimate need for it. After all, every business needs a logo and a few print ads.

But maybe there's just not much demand for doing it well?

I could believe that. I've seen plenty of small business logos and print ads that were obviously done by someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

Or is there just a massive oversupply because that's where all the extra art history students retrain?

I'm going to guess it's not oversupply, because, again, those mom and pop businesses would have decent logos, right?

I dunno.. I'm genuinely curious how a trade that's that hard to get really good at has such high unemployment.

I guess the aerospace degree has the same thing going, according to this chart.

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Because nobody wants to pay for it. “That’s easy, I’ll just do it myself”. Surprisedpikachu when it doesn’t go over as desired, but they saved a couple bucks.

[–] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if every business got a professional logo , they only need to do it once. And for small places, the budget for getting a logo is maybe a few grand tops. New businesses are created all the time, but is it enough to keep all of the graphic designers busy?

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Web stuff needs graphic design also, and movie industry

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LostWon@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wouldn't be surprised if there is an oversupply due to it being a popular field people want to get into, due older people loving the work too much to retire, and due to nepotism/favouring of inexperienced friends/kids of friends in the hiring processes.

[–] jorp@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While everyone needs graphic design work I can't imagine everyone needs a steady supply of it. There's no maintenance aspect to keep the job going either. A few designers can serve very many customers full time

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

There are a few industries that require a full-time graphic designer. It's usually underpaid and overworked but they exist.

The companies are usually flip-flopping from doing it in-house to contracting it out. Usually every 4-5 years when a new executive parasite comes along. So lots of career uncertainty for most graphic designers.

It also doesn't help the industry that for decades, predatory schools have been pushing out "graphical designers" as an easy fast degree. This has saturated the job market with lots of poorly trained people producing crap work.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

These numbers seem wrong. we struggle to get aerospace enginners, physics etc. and the graphic art people are needed for web and movie industry. Maybe this is just graduatee degree vs somebody doing a second major and finding another career?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] EdanGrey@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Why is physics on this list? Seems a bit of of place

[–] half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot seems out of place.

Is it useful to know that liberal arts majors are 7.9 unemployed without the larger context of how many liberal arts majors there are?

I might not be explaining myself well, but it feels like there is an error with the chart. Not exactly the same type of write you get from every map of x thing just being another population density map, but the same type of error for not adjusting for that type of thing.

I'm other words, I thought liberal arts was the most common major so I would've expected it to be closer to the national average.

[–] bhmnscmm@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The total number of LA holders is irrelevant since everything is presented on a percentage basis. The fact that it isn't close to the national average is evidence of being different from the overall population.

Although, I suppose an overabundance of LA degree holders could lead to higher unemployment. But that doesn't change the conclusions that can be drawn from the chart.

[–] Habahnow@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Edit: rereading the thread, I agree with your point that the graph is only showing which majors have high unemployment rates. Where that cause stems from (too many people with those majors for instance) isn't the intention of the graph. Not certain I agree fully with your statement

But that doesn't change the conclusions that can be drawn from the chart.

Is a liberal arts degree hard to get a job with because of too many people with the degree, or because there isn't sufficient transferrable skills included in the degree? All we know is that these jobs aren't best for securing a job after graduation.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

How many physicists do you know? There are only so many research labs out there. The physics majors probably do better than w art history majors because they can often pivot to something like software development.

[–] zarcher@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I majored in physics, even living in a country with a ton of technology companies. There are only so many research labs, and only very few companies want dedicated physics people. Often they just want to run a mechanical simulation known as FEM, they hire mechanical engineers for it.

Also, physics is very broad. While companies are usually looking into a specific topic. If you didnt happen to stumble in the right area of physics you might not have valuable knowledge for a company. Often a Physics education is not even focused on deepening a specific topic, but more on how to solve complex problems. In my opinion that can be applied to many problems we face today, if given the chance.

Physics education is based on the idea of a renaissance man, one who knows how everything works. Companies simply don't care about that.

[–] Pandemanium@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Seems like "Business" and "Communications" degrees should be included.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was almost an art history major. Majored in philosophy instead. I'm a software engineer.

[–] NewAgeOldPerson@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

CS major. Do not code. Forgot all of it. Ironically ended up back in software tech somehow. Still no coding though.

[–] turmacar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

CS major. Do not code. Somehow project management. Send help.

Trying to work back to something more technical but the salary cut seems bleak for my realistic rusty skill level. Will probably have to go for a masters of some kind.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] meliaesc@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

BA in Cognitive Science and BS in Psychology here. Also software engineer.

[–] SketchySeaBeast@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

BA in History. Now Code Monkey.

Everyone I know who studied English in undergrad is a coder now. Everyone I know who studied it in grad school is a high school teacher now.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why aerospace engineering? Is it because people want more mechanical engineering instead and not something so niche?

[–] DogWater@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Boeing fired them all so there is an oversupply of them in the market

Joking, maybe...idk

But space engineering should be booming right now, I'm surprised to see that as well. My specific degree is in aviation fields and I'm surprised it's not on here. No one I know is using theirs.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Thrashy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's the equivalent of "become a Hollywood superstar" for engineering specialties. Lots of grads chasing relatively few positions in the industry -- many will ultimately take positions working in related engineering fields like mechanical or automotive engineering, but at the end of the day the aerospace sector just doesn't develop enough new products to employ all the grads coming out of school with a degree.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Most depressing colleague I ever had was a dude who'd done a masters by research discovering new planets with powerful instruments that detected tiny variations in the light levels in far off solar systems. You could discover new heavenly bodies based off the cadence and degree of occlusion that occurs for that solar system's star.

Basically this guy was no longer able to progress with astrophysics because the competition for positions/funding was so intense. He'd ended up as a software dev but all he talked about was new planets and he spent every lunch break looking at the raw data from these instruments which were published into the public domain that day.

He had a calling but the world had torn him away from it.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah im terrified that'll be me oneday. Im also probably gonna get my PhD in either physics or astrophysics

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He told me a story of being at an astrophysics conference where the students got instructed to "look to the left" then "look to the right" before being told that only 1 in 10 of them would be able to make a living in that niche.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I double majored in History of Art and Philosophy for my undergrad.

Surprisingly philosophy led on quite neatly to a career in software development. Especially analytic philosophy is all about breaking down complex problems into premises and a conclusion. Sometimes it's algorithmic in the sense that premise 4 might refer you back to premise 2.

[–] cheet@infosec.pub 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's super interesting to me, any references for a software person who wants to find some overlap with philosophy? I know very little about the subject.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suppose studying basic formal logic would be a good place to start because that is the place where there is the most overlap. In philosophy an argument can be 'valid' by conforming to certain conditions such as

P1: All men are mortal
P2: Socrates is a man
C: Socrates is mortal

This is an example of deductive reasoning where the form or structure of the argument guarantees the conclusion to be true. Process is called 'deductive' reasoning where a conclusion is drawn from the truth of the premises. The ancient Greeks called this a syllogism.

Computer programs are similar in the sense that they are using formal logic with tokens that represent variables to the compiler. Given these arguments exist; we can perform these operations and get a specific result.

As an aside the counterpart to deductive reasoning is inductive reasoning. That's where the premises may be true but the conclusion might not necessarily follow from them. People throw around the word 'fallacy' quite often online but essentially every fallacy is just an example of inductive reasoning where the premises do not guarantee the conclusion. Philosophers study different types of formal fallacies like 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' (because this happens, something else ought to happen) since there are different ways where combinations of premises can lead to an untrustworthy conclusion.

Intriguingly all science is speculative and uses inductive reasoning where we infer from what data we gain in experiments to a conclusion of what might be happening, however there is no logical guarantee that experiment results will be true. There's even a thesis called pessimistic meta induction which states that: Given all scientific theories we held in the past have been proven false (or refined to a slightly different conclusion), we can safely assume that every scientific theory we currently hold is 'false' in some sense.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 year ago

I see "aerospace engineering" and the Boeing quakity issues just fall into place.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This smells a lot like . . . not bullshit as much as . . . bullfart?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is Liberal Arts? There are many majors that could be considered part of the liberal arts, but never seen an actual liberal arts major.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Dumbass me saw "unemployment" and "underemployment", and went "huh? un-de-re-mployment? what's that?? that's a lot of prefixes". Turns out it's just under-employment

[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Un-redeployment. When you put boots on the ground, but it's not a war

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] joulethief@compuverse.uk 6 points 1 year ago

"Underemployment is when workers are working less than full-time" that's such a shitty reference, I'll take every opportunity to NOT work 40 hours a week even if it means getting by with less money. Let me experience life a little, goddamn

load more comments
view more: next ›