[spacemanaki]

I don't know for sure what real world use a Philosophy degree provides, but I'm pretty sure there are a couple of people working where I am now who majored in Philosophy, and there are definitely a few english majors. They are working as product managers, programmers, and operations/sys admin roles.

My point was that, if you're going to indulge yourself by spending 4 years studying something like Philosophy or english, be realistic and realize that there are few places out there ready to hand you a cushy job "in your field" just because you have the degree.

We've (relatively privileged Americans) gotten ourselves into a bit of trouble by telling kids that they can grow up to be whatever they want and that they should follow their dreams, along with sending most of the off to universities without a clue as to what they will study there or do when they finish.

FWIW I have almost no idea what I'm talking about. I haven't seen studies about who among my cohort of "millenials" has been affected most by long term unemployment, etc, is it really the newly minted philosophy majors? Or are these stories just gobbled up by the press and the sense that there are hordes of humanities grads working as waiters and waitresses somewhat of a myth? Likely the real story is something in the middle and more complicated.

[danking00]

I chose to major in CS partly because of great job prospects. Had that not been the case I might have been a Physics and Philosophy major. My friends probably are an unusual sample of CS and Physics majors. However, they made choices which put them into this position. There might be some systemic privilege on their part, but they also helped themselves.

Your last paragraph resonates with me. I cannot truly believe that there's a huge glut of people with not very practical majors. How could we let this happen? Where were those folks parents, teachers, and friends? Why didn't they point out that success is slim? If they did, why did this glut of individuals stubbornly pursue their desires?

What I'm trying to not say is that this individual sounds a bit silver-spooned. If I couldn't get a job in my chosen field, I'd move on. Pop "Fortunate Son" in the tape player and head to wherever the jobs are. There's apparently an oil boom in North Dakota. There's always need for English teachers around the world. That sounds like an adventure.

I don't want to come across as incompassionate. Society ought to direct people towards success and help them when they're down, but I can't help but feel this guy is hurting himself. We don't have all the data, I hope he's an outlier.

[gaius]

How could we let this happen?

When I was at school, all the teachers told us, it doesn't matter what degree you do because you are "learning to learn" and employers don't care anyway, just that you have one.

Even 17-year-old me could see that this was obviously complete nonsense, but not everyone's such a cynic by that age...

[graeme]

I'm a 26 year old liberal arts grad. Only about half of my friends have started a career. Many went for secon degrees.

It really is a common phenomenon.

[base698]

I'm not surprised there's a glut considering I've still run across people who've asked me what a computer programmer even does.

[randomdata]

Most people I come across believe it means that I fix computers.

[gaius]

I do fix computers (broken 8-bit machines from eBay) but that's for fun, not profit ;-)

[zeefo08]

I think this guys hits it on the mark a bit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991574

Still, I pursued my degree with a future career in mind. I don't get the English majors. "I like books" doesn't ring of career prospects.