Reply to Why is psychology by far the most common social science/humanities major?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Shocking stats.  We hear so much here about humanities majors who thrived in the business world, but nothing about Psych majors that did.  I never heard a colleague in 30 years at a Fortune 10 company who admitted to being a Psych major.  Pray tell about some famous Psych major captains of industry.[/quote]

I work in marketing research and know a lot of psychology majors. And I routinely hire interns for my departments and they are probably psych majors about half the time. Higher job levels, yes, probably have an MBA or other advanced degrees related to the field (I do, with a marketing undergrad). But a psych major with good stats classes and research methods is a good start for marketing research jobs at research firms, ad agencies, and in-house. [/quote]
market research is one of the lowest paid professions in marketing.

-signed a former market research major who learned how to code instead[/quote]

I make the same salary as my software engineering DH so it's worked out fine[b] for me[/b].[/quote]
keyword.  Look at the statistics.  As a market researcher, you should be a numbers person.[/quote]

DP: The PP only made a claim about themselves.  If we all went by statistics, we would all end up in the same jobs and the statistics would change.  In my view, the more meaningful information is do you see a path forward with your particular set of strengths/connections/situation to the work and salary you want.  [/quote]
Sure, you can follow your own path, but statistically, it's not going to lead you to a high paying job. We all live somewhat by statistics to some degree.[/quote]

To some degree is the key point though.  There are just often too many confounding factors. For instance, market research could be seen as one of the easier business majors (I don't actually know anything about market research as a field, I'm speaking hypothetically) so the low salary might be confounded with the fact that it on average tends to attract those who less driven or capable and couldn't cut it in accounting or analytics or whatever.  But if you aren't similar to the average market research major, but really are drawn to market research, you're more likely to also be a higher earner.  A field with average low pay could have a wider standard deviation and a higher ceiling than a field with a higher average pay--and if most of the people who major in your area are schlubs and you're not, you'll have a higher chance of attaining those higher levels.  [/quote]
I'm the PP. I was a marketing major with a focus on research.  I am more of a math-y person.  I learned to code some years later, and that's when my pay really started to go up.

But for those who are not math-y, I think a BBA with a psych minor is better than a pure BBA with a market research focus.  Way more marketable.[/quote]

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