<p>This examined young people up to the age of 26. Snooze. Tell them to come back when they have real data.</p>
<p>Given that many young people are in their first job at age 26 and have yet to be promoted or to be given managerial responsibility, I question the validity of these findings.</p>
<p>Who among the adults here (in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s) had anything close to a professional job at age 26??? Most of my college friends were still giving ski lessons in Aspen and traveling with a “band” at 26.</p>
<p>I had two by 26 myself. And an MBA There also is data that says if you dont start early these days you never catchup.</p>
<p>I had a professional job at 18 - I was a co-op student for GM from freshman year through college, then was hired by GM when I graduated. I went to a very small “non-prestige” school that is coincidentally the school the just-named first female CEO of a U.S. automaker attended. Let’s see … not a prestige school, but engineering major (electrical, no less). Double the age of the study, same result in this case.</p>
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<p>I suspect a large percentage of the engineering and CS majors would answer yes, with many of exceptions being those who graduated in industry downturns (e.g. CS in 2001-2003, civil engineering in 2009, aerospace engineering in 1990, etc.).</p>
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<p>It is true that your school was very closely tied to the industry and your first employer, though.</p>
<p>When we were in our mid thirties, a woman friend doing engineering post-docs said she had encountered no sexism. After two years in industry, she had major problems. No big researcher protecting her anymore. . .</p>
<p>It’s not just graduating during an industry downturn… it’s about getting downsized during a downturn (last hired, first fired) which describes dozens of CS and engineering folks I know over the last 25 years. And now many CS functions getting outsourced/off-shored.</p>
<p>It’s always nice to find a sample which supports a thesis (that everyone should major in STEM and go to a non-elite college to do so). I’d like to see the longitudinal study that follows these 26 year old’s when they hit the managerial ceiling at about age 35 in their respective disciplines and end up getting COL raises for the next 30 years.</p>
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<p>It is not necessarily true that everyone has to be a manager (or can be, since there are fewer managers than individual contributors), or wants to be one, or that just getting COL raises for 30 years is necessarily a bad thing (if the pay level you start with is sufficient).</p>
<p>Sure, this is unlikely to make you as wealthy as going to HYP to get on the fast track to investment banking. But not everyone aims for that career, or wants an expensive-enough lifestyle to make investment banking levels of income necessary to sustain it.</p>
<p>UCB I agree 100%. But every time someone posts one of these studies, the answer is always “major in STEM for the financial pay-off and job security” which ignores the reality- Biology, while a STEM major has iffy financial prospects without an advanced degree; engineering is subject to big booms and busts (great during the boom, awful if you’re a 45 year old unemployed person who can’t relocate and there are no jobs in your region), etc.</p>
<p>Not everyone needs to be wealthy. But kids who go into STEM for the job security shouldn’t rely on bogus studies (age 26?) telling them that this is where the money is.</p>
<p>As if non STEM/business majors are any less likely to face future layoffs, not make mgt, etc etc.</p>
<p>I was a comparative literature major, and at 26 I had the most significant job of my career. It’s been downhill (albeit upscale) from there.</p>
<p>Barrons, of course. But you and I both know that there aren’t legions of parents pushing their kids to become anthropology majors or European History majors, assuming that these are recession proof/can’t miss disciplines. </p>
<p>I knew a bunch of kids who majored in “E-commerce” only to graduate and discover that not only had the tech boom exploded and companies were retrenching significantly, but that they were ill equipped to compete with kids with less specialized technical degrees. And these programs were established as “Can’t lose” propositions by some very well regarded universities.</p>
<p>Everyone (kids and parents) should have a Plan B. Everyone (especially kids) should realize that getting established professionally will involve some trade-offs- great job but not desirable location; dream job but less pay than the OK job; great company but initial job is not of interest; interesting work but boring co-workers, etc. And picking a college and a college major as an 18 year old woman without regard to what you are good at and what you are interested in, because some study tells you that if you major in X you will make as much money as a man… well, that sounds like pretty shaky thinking.</p>
<p>UCB, you are correct. In some circles, it was considered prestigious. ;)</p>
<p>*But for women who study in the lucrative majors, the pay gap disappears – regardless of the prestige of the institution the women attend.</p>
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<p>This isn’t just a gender issue. This holds true for men as well. If you’re a man holding an El-ed degree, then you’re not going to earn as much as a male or female with an Eng’g degree. Around where I live, a newly minted teacher will make less than $35k per year…while a new eng’g grad may walk into a job making $60k-90k (depending on discipline). </p>
<p>and by the time both the teacher and the engineer are 26 years old, the salary gaps will continue to exist and expand.</p>
<p>Seems like the wage gap is in the other direction among young people, with men at a disadvantage:</p>
<p>[Young</a>, Single Women Earn More Than Male Peers - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704421104575463790770831192]Young”>Young, Single Women Earn More Than Male Peers - WSJ)</p>
<p>Lifetime earnings gaps seem to be more affected by childrearing than by choice of degree/career. Young women drop behind young men when they have kids in their 30s, not because they are majoring in English while men are majoring in Engineering.</p>
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<p>Well, if people are looking to major in whatever will give them the best job security in their careers, should they use incomplete data to make the decision that says to major in Engineering/CS/Math/Business, or should they ignore all data and just pick a major randomly? People should recognize that it’s not as simple as STEM means I’ll get and keep a good job, non-STEM means I’ll never get a good job, but I don’t think it makes sense to ignore all data just because it’s not complete.</p>
<p>I majored in English and was running a successful tech services startup at 26 from which I cashed out and went to HBS at 30. So glad I was unaware of how useless my undergraduate degree was. 
I do get tired of all these studies that list the best-paid occupations and highest ROI degrees/universities which end up pushing kids to use colleges as trade schools and teaching them to consider fields they may not be passionate about solely over concerns for earning potential, as though earnings somehow correlate to success.</p>
<p>I’ve told my kid from the time he was little to strive to be the best at what he loves and let the chips fall where they may. If I had a daughter, I’d tell her the same—don’t succumb to prestige, don’t waste your college years pursuing a trade over a great education in an area that lights you up, then throw yourself into your passion with all you’ve got. Obviously, if you follow this advice, you will live however/wherever the “chips fall,” and that could be a box under the freeway, but I believe you will have the greatest chance of being happy in your soul. And that’s all that counts in my book.</p>
<p>(No, we are not rich, and no, ChoatieKid will not be able to live with us while he pursues his low-earning passion, thus my warning about the box under the freeway – but I will help him make it waterproof.)</p>
<p>OTOH
[Goldman</a> Sachs Tweeter Says More American Kids Should Skip ‘Useless College Degrees’ - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/ruchikatulshyan/2013/12/09/goldman-sachs-tweeter/]Goldman”>Goldman Sachs Tweeter Says More American Kids Should Skip 'Useless College Degrees')</p>
<p>barrons: LOVE the message in that article, especially the Edison quote:</p>
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<p>I went to beauty school before I haphazardly ended up in college. I always thought I’d own a salon. I won’t tell you what I do today, but there are some days I wish I had scissors in my hands. Maybe that’s why it’s so important to me that my kiddo understands that satisfaction in work comes before earnings and prestige (not that they are mutually exclusive, of course).</p>