Reply to How do you prevent your weak-minded child from majoring in something easy?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My degrees are in English. I make $110K a year, work from home often, have a gorgeous office, and leave every day at 4:30. I love my work.

Pity me for my useless degree! [/quote]

Hear, hear! I was an English major who had a job in the editorial at a good salary a week before graduating with my BA. It's served me very well too.[/quote]

[b]Not the reality today.
- Humanities major who makes good money and who has steered her children in high-paying STEM fields[/b].[/quote]

PP (in bold), the reality today is that universities are now cranking out graduates with STEM degrees, and in IT at least, many are not ready for the real world of the workplace.

My husband is a senior manager for an IT firm. He says that new hires out of college, as well as hires with some work experience under their belts, apply for jobs and he sees that though they can be whizzes at programming, they are not good at communicating with the clients and users. They don't write well (whether it's a report or their own performance evaluation contribution or just a clear, simple e-mail) and they often are poor at verbal communications in meetings with clients. He has to hold their hands a lot when it comes to communicating. He says he wishes that STEM programs (particularly IT programs) would emphasize writing and communications skills much, much more.

I hope your children's college STEM programs put an emphasis on teaching students how to write and speak to convey what they're doing, both for other science/tech employees  and for their  non-tech, non-science clients. I think many young adults in college and a few years out of college are being told that that if they can do the technical side of things, they're golden. Then they're upset or resistant when they don't get terrific performance reviews right away--mostly because they failed at pretty basic communication skills needed in an office or lab setting where other people need to know what they're doing.[/quote]

I am the PP in bold and I agree with your assessment.  Both my kids are doing double majors.  Majoring in STEM and minoring in humanities. Went to IB HS and earned their diplomas too, so I know how essential it is for them to be strong in all subjects and continue to get a balanced education. The STEM lets them get their foot in the door, but Humanities will be what propels their career forward. [/quote]

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