Maybe this is true for many (most?) employees, but there are plenty of people for whom their job does “define who they are”. A lot of this thread has been about pursuing your “passion” and hoping you can make money doing it. If you are going to spend 2000 hours a year at something for 40 years (ie the majority of your adult waking hours) then at least to me it would be pretty depressing if you only thought of that as a “way to get money”.
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No we never suggested or made our kids choose a certain major based on future earnings. We did talk about how much we could pay for college and we wanted them to avoid debt, which they did. That said, we did talk about future earnings and how about some jobs pay more then others and how it’s important to avoid debt if you’re going into certain fields that don’t pay a lot. That said, we think it’s best to avoid student loan debt no matter what you’re majoring in or planning to do as a career. We are lucky we could pay for college for them and lucky they didn’t have any student loan debt. I do know that for a lot of people student loan debt is unavoidable, which is sad. But, I do think if you are able to avoid going into debt for college, you should. We also expected them to do everything they could to maximize their chances of getting a job in college such as: internships, volunteer work, part time jobs, networking, etc.
Neither one of my kids was interested in the arts, so there was no chance of them majoring in or pursuing a career in that field. If they had, we would’ve been fine with that. We just would’ve made it clear that it can be difficult to make a living in the arts and you don’t make a lot of money. D hated math and science, so there was no way she would’ve wanted to be an engineer or doctor (she hates blood). S isn’t sure what he likes, but is more science oriented so we’ll see.
We also made it clear that in a lot of fields you make more and more money as you get further along in your career. H and I didn’t start out making a ton of money, but we both make good salaries now. We moved up and proved we were hard workers. We can afford a nice, but not huge house, two pretty good cars, a nice, but not exotic vacation every year, and a splurge vacation every few years and we can pay for state colleges for both our kids. We also live below our means, we can afford fancier cars (or buying new cars more often) and a bigger house, but we choose to save that money. Plus, with the jobs we chose, we get good work life balance. I also think it’s about priorities. We’d rather take trips, then buy a new car every year or buy a Mercedes.
That said, what I really want is for my kids to be happy, caring, kind people. I know people who work flashy jobs who make a ton of money, but are very self-centered and not that nice…what really matters? I have lived and worked in an affluent area for a while, there is a lot more to life then making a ton of money. Money and a high earning career don’t make up for certain problems…
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However, some people have fewer choices due to circumstances of their birth or upbringing, or their talent and passion happens to be in areas with insufficient demand for workers (so they need to do something that is only a “way to get money”).
I think the premise in some of the arguments I am hearing is that the folks turning to financially more lucrative careers are relatively unhappy in their jobs. This is generally not true. A lot of the people who go into STEM find great beauty in the stuff. Others also find engg type of professions very interesting and creative. You may be making stuff that is used by millions or billions of people. Similarly people that work in the markets find them complex and fascinating. People are not all drones going to a factory and coming back.
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Can confirm.
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Well hopefully you can enjoy what you do for work to get the money you need to survive or have what you want. But at the end of the day there is no job that doesn’t come with stressers. Or worse that makes someone comprise in their life.
Hey I get it some people really like what they do and don’t mind spending extra time doing the job, but at the end of day if you gave most people a pile of money they wouldn’t come back to the job.
I will say I am a husband, father, son, brother and friend well before whatever I do for a living. Sadly there have been times where I have had to put those behind work. Not often, but at times. I have seen plenty of folks boost about the number of hours they work. (most of time they are padding that number) I don’t hold it against you if you want to do that it is your choice, but don’t expect everyone around you to be the same way. I have seen plenty of Owners wonder why employees don’t act like owners and instead act like employees. The main reason is in fact they are employees and don’t have the same stake the owner does.
In the end I will my children do what they want, but guide them to understand the give and take with whatever they choose.
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Agree!
This was never an issue for our first son, who has always been a STEM kid whose idea of fun was 3D printing air engines or gear sets. He is graduating high school this week, and will start at Case Western for MechE next fall. He is also interested in BioChem and BioMed, and one of the reasons he selected Case was that they are flexible about changing majors and double majors. We did not push him to apply as a MechE because of salaries, but we did make sure he understood the salary outcomes of different majors, and what fields required advanced degrees to be employable.
That said, we would not have been supportive if he was interested in a humanities degree that would result in a low salary job - think philosophy, sociology, anthropology, etc. - for several reasons. First, given how expensive a college education is, we cannot justify a degree that does not result in a well paying job. Second, there are some subjects - history and philosophy, for example - about which one could learn a great deal without attending university. Will Hunting had a point; why pay $200,000 for an education that you could have gotten for $1.50 in late fees at the public library? Third, liberal arts departments at all too many US universities have become indoctrination mills that do students more harm than good. (I know, I know, many on this forum probably take issue with this view. Let’s agree to disagree in advance.)
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If he chose to major in biology, would you have objected to that choice for the same reason, since biology graduate pay levels are among the lowest of liberal arts graduates?
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WIll Hunting was a construction laborer, after being fired as a janitor, who drank beer on the jobsite. 
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My daughter’s job offers in biology ranged from the mid 50’s to the upper 60’s, with full benefits. Certainly not a high salary compared to some other majors, but enough for a 22 year old to live on with roommates. I don’t see biology as being much lower than psychology, sociology, etc. I see it as a stepping stone degree, but some might not.
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I recently attended a graduation ceremony with what appeared to be a few hundred Biology majors, so there must be a lot of parents OK with those “low paying” Biology jobs.
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Ahh… by now, we should get used to UCB not losing any opportunity to poke a stick at bio and chem majors. 
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MechE seems to be a perfect match for your son. But if he were a history buff, would you still have pushed him to become a mechanical engineer or something similar?
Maybe I am naive but I really don’t know what is wrong with bio and chem majors (my kid minored in Chem and Spanish). She had a lot of opportunities while in school and once she graduated.
Many use it as a stepping stone.
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However, would those same parents object to humanities and social science majors because the pay levels after graduation in those majors are “too low”, even though they are higher than for biology majors?
https://career.berkeley.edu/survey/survey median pay of 2019-2021 graduates:
| Division or Major | Median Pay |
|---|---|
| L&S Biological Sciences | $47,840 |
| L&S Arts & Humanities | $52,000 |
| L&S Social Sciences | $65,000 |
| Integrative Biology | $50,000 |
| MCB Biochem & Mol Biol | $41,600 |
| MCB Cell & Dev Biology | $50,000 |
| MCB Genetics | $42,000 |
| MCB Immunology | $45,760 |
| MCB Neurobiology | $49,960 |
| MCB (general?) | $54,080 |
| English | $47,920 |
| French | $48,000 |
| History of Art | $41,600 |
| Music | $90,000 |
| Philosophy | $55,750 |
| Rhetoric | $52,000 |
| Spanish and Portuguese (general?) | $65,000 |
| Anthropology | $52,000 |
| Cognitive Science | $80,000 |
| Economics | $75,000 |
| Ethnic Studies | $48,000 |
| Gender & Womens Studies | $48,000 |
| History | $54,000 |
| Linguistics | $58,600 |
| Peace & Conflict Studies | $50,800 |
| Political Economy | $63,000 |
| Political Science | $52,000 |
| Psychology | $46,700 |
| Sociology | $49,920 |
Your chart shows music starting salary at $90,000 which is a great starting salary! So many here poo-poo their kid pursuing the arts!
On another note, an undergraduate degree today is not worth as much as in the past and many will pursue a graduate degree. All those majors above can lead to going to graduate school and not always in a related field. I don’t think the undergraduate major is as big of a deal as some think here.
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I was ok with whatever major my kids wanted. I knew they would make it work for them, and they did.
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