There’s the problem, right there. Do you know why?
The Peter Principle is a much more important factor in poor management than education requirements, in my opinion.
What do you manage?
Hell, I recognize that it exists but don’t understand why for the same reasons as your friend. I really think that if you haven’t experienced depression in some way, it’s tough to empathize.
A team of scientists.
Cool. What are they working on?
I don’t disagree with this. But there are many who are passed over for lack of a piece of paper proving they can be taught while fully capable of performing at a high level for that position.
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mass spectrometry. It’s not a research job. It’s production, closer to manufacturing.
Part of the problem is pure economic stupidity from our young who have been going to college over the past 20 years. Instead of going to a local community college to get the gen-ed requirements out of the way so many choose out of state colleges for their four year degree. These kids often pay $25,000-$50,000 per year for those schools. Two people I work with both went out of state and paid over $25,000 per year for their 4-year degree. Outside of their full time jobs they both work as much as possible doing part time to pay off their degree.
part of the problem is the pure economic stupidity of asking an 18 year old to make a quarter million dollar decision with almost no context. I went to community college and knocked out almost all of my prereqs, then I went to a four year state school on a scholarship and the economy collapsed so I change majors to get a more marketable degree. You also have to live and eat while you’re in school, and rent is much more expensive today than it was back in the day. I had to borrow $5k over my tuition every year so that I could actually live.
I found this response to this issue that I found interesting. It provides some context of how things evolved from the 1950’s:
The problem started in the 60’s when draft deferments were offered to those persons enrolled in college. Liberal professors that opposed the war in Vietnam eased up on educational requirements so that even mediocre students could stay in school and avoid the draft. More students enrolled increased expenses for more instructors, more dorms, more construction, more of everything…
*After the threat of the Vietnam War passed, many students who were hiding in school to avoid service decided to leave school and do whatever…leaving unused facilities…empty dorms, instructors that didn’t really have a teaching load…*Enter the marketing experts that convinced everyone that everyone should have a college degree…even if it was only a useless bachelor’s degree in psychology. People who would have normally been encourage to learn a trade were talked into going to college…and to keep them in college, content was watered down in many instances. This produced many graduates that weren’t that much more educated than when they left high school.
Meanwhile, easy to get student loans were offered…this appealed to parents that didn’t have the money to send their kids to school…while trade school education was pooh-poohed by the main stream media as not being needed because we were all going to become involved somehow with computers and high-tech jobs. Well, how did that work out?
Many parents are just as much to blame for either not understanding or explaining the pure economic insanity of the situation. So many kids who went off to college and spent $100-$150,00 to a degree in things Gay and Lesbian Studies or Women and Gender Studies, etc., and never once thought about what type of job does that degree prepare you for.
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The thing that makes it tough for me to understand, re my friend, is that he has a Bachelors in Psychology.
To me, that’s sort of like having a degree in biology or something like nursing or Respiratory Therapy Certification & being part of the anti vaccination movement.
Scratches me head about that (yup, I actually know people in the examples of the second paragraph).
As do I. Antivaxers have their reasons, partially because they are over educated in the matter. Perhaps your friend is the same way and sees all the positive influences in people’s lives, then scratches his head as to why they’re depressed. Again, for a lot of people, empathy to that situation doesn’t exist because of a lack of personal understanding imo.
To a degree, but depression is a clinical condition, with actual neurochemical symptoms. A person with a psychology degree not understanding depression would be like a doctor not understanding diabetes because they go to the store and see the produce section. Sympathy requires personal understanding, but empathy is a more basic skill where you should be able to at least imagine a situation in someone else’s shoes.
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Did anyone answer you? Here is what I’ll say. I don’t know if I would consider this a “problem” per say for someone who is going into a management position. The problem is that a college degree is virtually becoming a “requirement” for any position. Not because it is needed (as I said in the OP most of us would be hard pressed to demonstrate that such and such course work made us more productive for our specific job), but because nowadays so many people have one, and given the choice employers will hire them but at essentially the same low pay. The real problem was this massive push to convince everyone to go to college.
In agreement about parents not explaining financial insanity of private colleges in particular.
However, who are all those majoring in such fields as gender studies? It seems to be an oft repeated example on this board.
If I run a search with the question “In what fields are most U S students earning their degrees?”, on www.ask.com US NEWS cites an increase in degrees in STEM fields & hard sciences, which it then goes onto define.
Degrees in various social sciences have either held steady or decreased. I’ve known my share of students with degrees in economics, political science, even sociology continue to Paralegal & J D programs.
Maybe it’s due to having attended a small college, but I’ve heard only isolated examples in degrees like “Women’s Studies”. They’re more of a fringe group of degree holders than mainstream.
I don’t disagree with but but recently I did look at the college I graduated from and those two I mentioned were actually legitimate degrees one could major in. I agree that there are likely very few people who actually chooses things like that for their major. Here is a link I found, Business is still the most popular major.
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Actually, sympathy is a more basic skill requiring you to feel sorry for someones plight, whereas empathy requires you to put yourself in their shoes and feel their pain.
At the University of Alabama in 1983, tuition was $500 per semester for 12-19 semester hours of classes. Fees were about $100 on top of that. Now, it’s about $5000 per semester.
