The Student Room Group

Do a STEM degree if you want a job

In today's world, graduate jobs are highly competitive and there are loads and loads of people with generic degrees like history or politics. Meanwhile, the engineering tech sectors are hiring and are future proof careers as well.

In the near future, more and more jobs will become automated. The ones that won't be are STEM jobs like engineering or tech or life sciences related stuff. So it is a very stupid idea to do a non-STEM degree now since you will be out of a job in the future and will also a truffle to even get a job in the first place, as shown by the large number of humanities students working in McDonald's.

STEM degrees give you proper skills that will get you a good job, as long as you're not an idiot in social situations. And those careers are less likely to be automated, unlike finance, banking, business, retail which are already replacing humans with AI.

So don't just do what you enjoy. Do something that will get you a job that's future proof.

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Reply 1
Or, you know, mind your own damn business?

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Reply 2
Original post by *Stefan*
Or, you know, mind your own damn business?

Posted from TSR Mobile


I'm just making sure people know the reality before they make a decision. By all means do a non-STEm degree if you want but be prepared for losing your job to an algorithm. The future is in STEM careers.
Surely, a lot od STEM jobs will become automated?
Reply 4
Original post by Tiger Rag
Surely, a lot od STEM jobs will become automated?


Not really, no. It's the finance, business, retail jobs that will go first. For example, jobs in financial markets trading have already been automated to a large extent. Accounting will also be automated heavily in the future. STEM jobs require more skills and therefore are harder to automate.
Original post by akbar0123
Not really, no. It's the finance, business, retail jobs that will go first. For example, jobs in financial markets trading have already been automated to a large extent. Accounting will also be automated heavily in the future. STEM jobs require more skills and therefore are harder to automate.


A lot of tech jobs will become automated first, no?

Why does it matter what other people do?
There are too many people on this forum doing an English degree at London Metropolitan for your words of wisdom to resonate with the consensus. Of course, you're absolutely right. The graduate market is flooded with blue-haired hipsters and their nonsense degree disciplines, but it's even more bewildering their surprise when they can't find a decent-paid job. STEM graduates persistently earn the most money postgraduate; if people on this forum care about their earning potential, as oppose to the "doing what you love", then they'd pursue the sciences.
Reply 7
Original post by Tiger Rag
A lot of tech jobs will become automated first, no?

Why does it matter what other people do?


No, tech jobs won't be the first to be automated. Unless you Evans tuff like IT support. Programming jobs won't be automated as quickly.

It does matter because I want people to know what they're getting themselves into before they choose their degree.
Original post by akbar0123
No, tech jobs won't be the first to be automated. Unless you Evans tuff like IT support. Programming jobs won't be automated as quickly.

It does matter because I want people to know what they're getting themselves into before they choose their degree.


Right, so you've researched every single thing you can do with every single non-STEM degree?

My sister did a non-STEM degree. She walked right out of uni into a job.
Reply 9
Just to show you how wrong you are on job safety, here's an example. Life before CAD, probably 50 years ago.


Original post by mik1a
Just to show you how wrong you are on job safety, here's an example. Life before CAD, probably 50 years ago.



Nothing dangerous about that.
Damn never knew that me doing History/Geography/Politics in a top 10 uni would result in me being unemployed :wink:
well that's funny because people who studied modern foreign languages degrees are some of the most employable graduates out there...
Original post by jake4198
There are too many people on this forum doing an English degree at London Metropolitan for your words of wisdom to resonate with the consensus. Of course, you're absolutely right. The graduate market is flooded with blue-haired hipsters and their nonsense degree disciplines, but it's even more bewildering their surprise when they can't find a decent-paid job. STEM graduates persistently earn the most money postgraduate; if people on this forum care about their earning potential, as oppose to the "doing what you love", then they'd pursue the sciences.


I've never seen anyone on here who admits going to London Met. :smile:
Reply 14
Original post by JamesN88
I've never seen anyone on here who admits going to London Met. :smile:


Nope because most of them get banned for admitting it :mmm:
Ah, this old thread again.

Well done akbar0123 for being so original.
STEM is a huge oversimplification, as there are many very employable degrees that do not fit in S/T/E/M

But your point is 100% spot on. far to many people are studying degrees without a clear route towards their future. They are being pushed down roads that are not actually good for them by schools/teachers who need to meet targets, by parents and councilors who give awful advice (just do what you love...), and by the general peer pressure and state of being where university 'life/culture' is a thing that we are expected to want.

To many people my age that I know (a few years after graduation) now massivly regret their university education.

(Its worth noting that most of my friends have actually done very well since graduation, but feel that their degree did not contribute to that success, and often actually made it harder for them to reach their current level.)

I can count on a single hand the amount of people in my year at school who studied 'passion' courses (arts/music/soft humantiies/sport etc) who are still working in that field.


Spoiler

(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by jake4198
There are too many people on this forum doing an English degree at London Metropolitan for your words of wisdom to resonate with the consensus. Of course, you're absolutely right. The graduate market is flooded with blue-haired hipsters and their nonsense degree disciplines, but it's even more bewildering their surprise when they can't find a decent-paid job. STEM graduates persistently earn the most money postgraduate; if people on this forum care about their earning potential, as oppose to the "doing what you love", then they'd pursue the sciences.


What a load of *******s. Any degree in History, English, Philosophy, Geography, Theology, Languages etc. from a top 20 uni is more than enough to qualify you for a huge range of very well paid, respected professions. From accountancy to law, from management consultancy to MI5. Seriously, do some research. Many businesses don't want to hire an entire workforce of interchangeabe, socially inept, uncommunicative, unimaginative STEM drones. Business, you forget, is primarily something done between people, for people. Hence why most of the senior management positions in business and the civil service are dominated by non-STEM students.
(edited 7 years ago)
so very depressing.
Original post by *Stefan*
Or, you know, mind your own damn business?

Posted from TSR Mobile


tbf, no one forced you to read/agree with OP :holmes:

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