[pembrook]

We’re in the minority. Most professions aren’t engineering. Or medicine.

Think of the average student graduating with a generic business degree. What actual skills does this person possess after 4 years of schooling?

This is why so many Fortune 500 companies have new grad trainee programs that they funnel people through. The fact is, most of these generic “business” jobs can be done by anyone with a few months of on the job learning.

How many project managers, marketing managers, account executives, sales people, HR professionals, tech support, etc. could’ve stepped into those same roles without spending 4 years at an extremely expensive party (as they would have 50 years ago)?

[alexandercrohde]

As somebody who doubled in business and psychology, you are on point. Undergrad degrees in those two are borderline useless, with the two most practical classes being statistics and accounting.

"Conjoined triangles of success" is a joke that is actually a very accurate representation of what it mocks.

[snowwrestler]

Surprisingly few. New grad training programs still depend on the "grad" part.

It's not like Fortune 500 businesses are stupid. If they could hire random high school grads for all their jobs and pay them less, don't you think they would? As you point out, college degree requirements have not always existed, they were added. Chesterton's Fence is a useful mental guide here. People don't generally make things harder on themselves for no reason.

[hopler]

Many many jobs today that require a college degree used to require a high school diploma. Yes those require intelligence and studiousness in varying degrees, but these skills can be assessed by interviews and hiring people in entry level positions for 4 years (or less!), not making them sit through irrelet college classes.

Half of a US college degree curriculum (the liberal arts distribution) isn't part of the curriculum at all in the UK for a science degree; are those UK degrees producing useless employees?