It entirely depends on the degree and career path you are after.
Definitely does in engineering. There’s a lot of stuff you learn on the job, but the stuff from school gives you an idea where to go for more information so you won’t be blind sided as easily.
I won’t say it doesn’t matter, but I will say that having the degree is a thousand times better than not having one at all, whatever major you chose
Yes. For many companies, a 4-yr degree is a non-negotiable requirement. Any 4 year degree just to be considered. If you manage to get a good job without a degree, you will still be categorized by HR as a degree holder or not. This doesn’t always factor into raises, promotions, layoffs, but it can.
Depends entirely on what you want to do. For some professional careers, the degree is everything (engineer, lawyer, etc.) For other career paths it may not matter at all.
Could you find something doing “community development” with the degree you have? Almost certainly, since that’s an extremely broad description, as you noted.
Without more information on what you actually want to be/do, it’s tough to give any useful advice.
I graduated with a degree in French.
I’m a software developer. I’ve literally never used it on the job.
C’est la vie, c’est non ?
Some fields require a degree. Some degrees add significant value (you’ll gain more relevant knowledge in 4 years than you would working 4 years).
For some jobs, it is important. However, there are some boring white collar jobs that generally want college graduates for their soft skills.
It sounds like you basically got a BA in business with some specialization, so I would go for jobs like that.
So, I got a ba in political science and like two minors. I ended up doing computer repair for a good decade then got into a job doing purchasing then eventually got into IT sourcing/procurement. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I didn’t have some good fundamentals in reading and writing, which the BA provided.
But in the long run, it doesn’t matter once you get work experience. The degree is a check box at some point.deleted by creator
The first thing anyone should do if they’re in business for themselves, as soon as the money becomes available, is hire an accountant and a lawyer.
Those are the only two industries who know how society really works
I actually think community based sustainability is going to be a huge in demand area as climate change worsens. Depending on how much you want to sell your soul to the capitalist machine, there will be plenty of work opportunities in helping companies implement sustainability initiatives.
Also, social work and community development are widely applicable across the human services industry. You could get a job in government or not for profit organisations. In order to qualify as a social worker you’d probably have to do a masters, but there’s plenty of community based roles that you can get into with a bachelors.
Yeah, it sounds like a great starting point if you want to work for a local government.
I was actually a Sustainability major but switched to Social Services then made my own, because I wanted to focus on stuff I was interested in. But yeah, thinking about it I feel it just depends on how I market it. And I was considering grad school and might get a MSW or MPA.
I have a MSW and wish I did an MPA instead lol.
I hear that alot! I feel like for people who are interested in more macro works a MSW has kinda been pigeon holed in micro work sadly. Like I care about social economic policy mostly. I think a MSW is valuable but a MPA might be more so for what I want to do.
I don’t know, but it kind of feels like they wouldn’t have taken me as a network engineer for a national ISP if I had studied business administration instead of computer science.
Maybe I’m missing the point of the question. Right now the answer just seems to be “obviously yes”
Not unless you go to a specific field that has hard legal requirements. Doctor, Teacher, Psychiatrist, Urban Planners, etc. Software engineers, producers, artists, project managers, account managers, I’ve seen go very far without a degree at all. Some even have a degree with a major from an entirely different field.
So it highly depends on the field. For your field, I’d say, yes your degree and major matters.
Outside of the hard sciences where youre there to learn necessary specific foundational knowledge and technical stuff - mech/elec/civil engineering, high level medical, etc - it really doesn’t. The degree is proof that you can put your head down and manage yourself well enough to survive in the white collar world.
And the debt that degree costs will keep you beholden and subservient to the corporate overlords.
They’ve outsourced their own training and shouldered the costs onto teenagers.
There’s a reason it’s called “fuck you” money.
Yeah student debt is no joke. I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I could commute and had enough student aid and scholarship to go debt free first 2 years and use savings from working part time to pay next 2 years off in (less than 6k each year). But I wish more companies would invest in proper training than push that on students and college to do (poorly imo).
This absolutely doesn’t come from informed experience, and is speculative drivel, but:
I think just mentioning that you “designed your own major” may help a lot in various types of job search. Regardless of what the actual process is like (I have no idea), it sounds impressive, and makes it sound like you’re a person with a lot of initiative and drive. That could help make up for any perceived competitive disadvantage.
Of course your mileage may vary, especially if you’re applying for a job that would heavily revolve around topics covered by a very specific major. But sometimes it helps to stand out, and “I designed my own major” could help you do that.
What you describe sounds like it would be interesting in urban planning for a new sustainable development. It might also be interesting in a city dealing with urban collapse.
As someone with what feels like three more or less made up degrees, I’ll say having a degree in general is often a prerequisite for many jobs so it is better than not having a degree for sure.
In terms of hard skills, I also wish I’d developed more in college, but it’s still possible to develop those outside of school either on the job, on your own time, etc.
Your first job or your next job might not be your dream job or even all that relevant to your studies. But its much better to build skills and experience while also bringing in income, and it will make your next job search all the better.
Good luck, I’m currently job searching too and it’s soul crushing but we’ll make it!
