Live data from Hacker News

Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

tampabay.com

61–70 of 155 posts

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#61
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CS grads are the most likely to work in their field post-graduation. It's the other majors bringing STEM down, like biology.

Big surprise, the jobs that pay more attract more people than the jobs that pay less. My partner has a bio undergrad degree, she works in a field having nothing to do with it because she didn’t want to pursue masters/phd.

Programming and related careers have to have the lowest entry as well. I know a lot more people who made the switch from other tertiary educated disciplines to IT than the other way around.

And there's no way the state will employ me to model and plan their dikes with my Cs degree.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>STEM reality: we got you to confuse an ad for a search result 0.5% more often. That couldn't be more false. The vast majority of STEM jobs do not pushing ads to people., only FAANGS and such which are a minority of the total STEM jobs.

> vast majority of STEM jobs do not pushing ads to people., only FAANGS and such which are a minority of the total STEM jobs A majority of STEM jobs fall under a category with "computer" or "software" in it [1]. Unless a majority of those are in adtech, you are correct. [1] https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-23... Table 7

>t would appear a majority of STEM jobs fall under a category with "computer" or "software" in it

But not all STEM jobs. And not all software or IT jobs involve ad targeting for +400k/year.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#63
post #41

There is a huge difference between software and non-software STEM jobs. The required education/qualifications are different. The job market is different. I graduated with a degree in Engineering Physics (non-sofware). I loved writing software as a hobby, but I wanted to "change the world" working at NASA or CERN or something. In my 3rd year a FAANG offered an internship that paid better than what I would hope to make…

You don't even have to finish school to out earn non-tech STEM workers.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CS grads are the most likely to work in their field post-graduation. It's the other majors bringing STEM down, like biology.

> CS grads are the most likely to work in their field post-graduation. It's the other majors bringing STEM down, like biology. Source? (Not challenging you. Curious to see how wide the range is across majors.)

My biology teachers in high school had all studied their subject to much higher levels than those of other subjects including doing research, they became teachers because there were no other jobs available.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#65

STEM students can't apply for internships because they are on site and will not pay for relocation, will not pay for housing, and rent leases rarely will do short durations. Most grads get those because their family+friends had the resources to help them be successfull. Living in a large city with stem jobs and having an extra room. As housing capital is squeezed so is the nation. The trend is not improving, many oth…

Is Microsoft not considered STEM? They have always had a lot of interns, and the interships are paid lavishly.

The num of interns hired is very small, same as how tech has almost no scholarships.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#66
I can't speak to the international community at large, but at least in Canada, post-secondary education is not a stream for prospective employees to undergo training. It is a product which is marketed and sold for profit.

They will enroll as many people as they can convince to apply(rate limited by how quickly they can expand infrastructure and enrollment).

I remember 10 or so years ago when I was in school, if I wanted to get a real challenge when preparing for a test, I could just go back to look at exams from 10 years prior and things would be noticeably more difficult. I can't imagine things have improved significantly since then, and more likely they've gotten worse.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#67
post #22

I say this with 90% sincerity: I thought this was STEAM now? But with all seriousness... I went to university out of high school in 2005 to get a mech engineering degree but never finished because I liked to party too hard and web dev was easy and paid better than most people I knew with entry-level engineering jobs. Flash forward to now as a non-trad student and I'm in my 400-level coursework. It's all easier than i…

> thought this was STEAM now? What's the A? EDIT: It's the arts [1]. It looks like a classical education. [1] https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-the-difference-b...

> It looks like a classical education. "[...]humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media."

I think of a classical education as debate/rhetoric, philosophy, and Greek/Latin but I went to public school so I'm just going off of hearsay.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#68
post #7

> The Census Bureau reported in 2021 that a paltry 28% of STEM grads are working in these supposedly in-demand, highly paid and important STEM jobs. These include diverse sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and energy, but about half of STEM jobs are in computers, and tech firms typically complain the loudest of STEM shortages. I’ve long suspected that the whole “STEM” education movement is a way for big tech…

>STEM reality: we got you to confuse an ad for a search result 0.5% more often. That couldn't be more false. The vast majority of STEM jobs do not pushing ads to people., only FAANGS and such which are a minority of the total STEM jobs.

And how bad would the "STEM shortage" (... but mostly just computer folks) be if, say, we outlawed dragnet-spying in the name of advertising, and the air went out of that market?

We might have more than enough "STEM" folks (but we actually mean programmers) to do everything except the stuff that we'd be better off not doing.

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#69
post #22

I say this with 90% sincerity: I thought this was STEAM now? But with all seriousness... I went to university out of high school in 2005 to get a mech engineering degree but never finished because I liked to party too hard and web dev was easy and paid better than most people I knew with entry-level engineering jobs. Flash forward to now as a non-trad student and I'm in my 400-level coursework. It's all easier than i…

> thought this was STEAM now? What's the A? EDIT: It's the arts [1]. It looks like a classical education. [1] https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-the-difference-b...

I thought it was something useful like accounting.

Should be more like FTEAM.

Finance Tech Engineering Accounting Medicine

Re: Most STEM grads don't work in STEM jobs

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them are driving and sustaining user engagement in online services of some kind. It's mostly a zero-sum game between many services competing for user time and attention.

Which mechanical engineers are doing that?

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, probably. Not predominantly in the US.
Post reply on HN