The Problem with Most College Majors
Great Books Can Make Empty Pockets
Unless you go to professional school, your major is business. Unless your degree almost always terminates with a job (engineering, teacher), then your degree is business. Arts, humanities, pure sciences? Your degree is actually business. On one hand, this is a major downer. On the other hand, so is not having a job that makes up for all the college debt.
Art schools might be the worst, because they are amongst the most expensive schools in the nation and yet no one says, “Oh you went to the Art Institute in Chicago? You know what, we know the value of that kind of education…go ahead and submit your application. I know a guy in HR. We’ll find a place somewhere in the company for you.” If you substitute Princeton or Harvard in for the Art Institute in Chicago it works. But these schools have strong alumni networks and that’s something that matters for jobs.
You’d think that it would be better for PhDs, and for STEM PhDs it is, but only because there are businesses that value economics, physics, and computer science PhDs. If you are a business, what about a history PhD is compelling for you to say, “I need that person to fill a role?” This question underlies the key question when figuring out an education and a career:
What skills do I have now, what skills do I hope to get, and for my ideal career what skills are necessary?
For a commodity artist/designer, that means fulfilling a skill and aesthetic mix that lots of people would want to display in their homes and on their bodies, some mix of “Bless this Home” signs, Thin Blue Line tee shirts and “Get Your Hands off my Guns” car decals. Less crassly, it can be an artist developing an audience on Instagram and then commoditizing the style portrayed. For a high artist, that means enough skill pared with a supernatural-level staying power until the right top-tier patron (Michelle Obama, British Royalty, maybe two or three New York galleries) opens the gates for you. Unfortunately, the rarest of the three for the high artist is the right top-tier patron to bless your work.
Unfortunately for STEM PhDs, so is it also that the rarest thing to have is the right mentor to take you on to train you and then recognize your output so that others in the field agree that you deserve tenure…assuming the tenure spots aren’t taken up by old codgers. In the meanwhile, not much differentiates the starving artist from the PhD grad student.
“But,” you may say, “I don’t want a typical job!” And yet you still have to eat. Living requires taking care of yourself and others first.
Arts and sciences jobs are winner-take-all-economies dependent upon network effects.
The probability is that you won’t be a winner. So if you want to pursue a calling in the arts or sciences long-term, your best bet is likely to:
get or make a non-demanding job that pays all right but that doesn’t sap too much of your time or energy—bonus points if your job boosts the technical skills of your art or science passion.
keep your living costs low, likely moving to a suburb or exurb to allow you to have kids or form a life.
find a local scene in-person and in online communities where you can propel your endeavor.
In the case of research, there is a chance to fold some of it into your work. Your workplace may have access to company data that you couldn’t otherwise access. Big data is a big thing in research, especially social sciences research. But I’m doubtful that there is much taste for the arts in business so perhaps the better choice is to separate the art from the money-job with the money-job only fulfilling that role.
In case this sounds too cynical, imagine the games Minecraft or Stardew Valley: in both instances, you’re plopped into the world and have to survive to the next day. Then, as you gain materials, you can extend to more days and gain more resources. Eventually, you’ll gain enough resources that you can explore caves, interact with town villagers, experiment with dyes and builds, thrive like a boss, etc. Bringing it back to reality, if you want to carve out time and attention towards your artistic or scientific endeavors then you have to have a minimum sustenance accounted for. If that still sounds too cynical, then let me make one more Stardew reference: the creator, Eric Barone, worked as a part-time theater usher while developing the game.
If you want to be an artist, make art. If you want to make films, make a film. If you want to act in front of others, go act in front of others. If you want to make music, then play or sing something. If you want to “do biology,” then go outdoors for some ecological explorations or into your basement with some CRISPR equipment and go do biology. If what you want is fame then get locally famous which is the best kind. In the meanwhile, if you need some cash, go do business, enough to make some cash, then go back to your art. Until then, whatever your college major is, your college major is business.1
Just so the punch on your chin doesn’t hurt as bad, let me pick you up, dust you off, and put my arm around your shoulder. Let’s sit down for a moment. While you’re in college, you need to peer out into the job market and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and look for jobs. All kinds of jobs. Any that look interesting, write them down or save their links. Take note of their job requirements. You don’t have to change your major, but you should spend some time to develop the skills that fulfill the basic requirements. You should also tap your alumni network now to help you understand the opportunity landscape ahead, including the career ladder for some of the jobs that you find interesting. If they have any contacts in that field or workplace, ask for introductions or tips to get that job of interest. Starting with an end in mind will help you to land a job and lower the stakes for your chosen major. It may even free you up to dive deeper into your passion field so that when you get out of college and quickly on your feet in your new job, you can simultaneously get to work on your masterpiece. You’ll be fine. *pat* *pat*