What are your thoughts on a sociology major? Is it worth it, will I be able to find a job? Do employeers consider it worthless? I know I won’t be rich off the degree but will I at least be well of instead of barely making it by?
Most jobs don’t request a specific major. You could work in consulting or banking or management or something with a sociology degree and make a good middle-class to upper-middle-class salary. There are some jobs out there that would prefer a sociology or related major other than human services - like marketing and advertising, market research, user experience research, social sciences research at nonprofits/think tanks/NGOs, etc. (I work in UX research and a lot of positions asked for someone with a BA or advanced degree in “marketing, psychology, sociology or a related field”.)
So no, employers don’t consider it worthless - no more or less worthless than any other social science or humanities major, anyway - and in some jobs it can be an asset. Whether you become well-off or barely making it depends on the job you do. I majored in psychology and I am pretty well-off (although I did earn a graduate degree in my field, but many of the positions I looked at either required only an MA or a BA). I have no regrets majoring in psychology, and if I had to do it all over I still would’ve majored in psychology, although I would’ve added a statistics or CS minor to that.
And that’s where my advice comes in: add a minor or a concentration or a set of classes (formal or informal) that teach you skills that are useful in the workforce. I mention statistics and CS because they are interests of mine and I currently work in the technology field with data, and those tend to be highly paid fields. Even if you work in a sociology-heavy job like a research associate at RAND or a market researcher, knowing statistics and a bit of programming will be highly useful. But it doesn’t have to be that - it could be writing and communication, or web design, or graphic art, or anything like that.
Thanks for the advice. I might minor in applied psychology once I transfer but it’s not set in stone yet
I don’t really think any major is worthless. YOu just have to find the right angle to it that could make you beneficial/ an asset to any company you work or apply in. I mean c’mon these majors are not there for nothing. They’re made for something somehow
It’s not a worthless major. However, it all depends on how you sell yourself to employers and what experiences you bring to the table. I majored in sociology and quickly realized I wanted to pursue a career in higher education/working with youth. I got involved in Greek life, res life, worked at an international language school, studied abroad, came back and worked in the study abroad office, worked as a summer counselor, was a research assistant on a project about affirmative action policies…you see where I am going with this? After I graduated I quickly got a job working in an admissions office. I worked there for 1 year. Now I work for the state overseeing a program in a school for at-risk youth. When I applied the preferred majors were human services & social work or experience of 4 yrs. Not only did I have my BA in a related field, I also had additional years of experience which got me a higher salary.
Pursue your soc degree but make sure you are getting experience in the field you want to work in. If I could go back I would have finished the computer science minor I started or taken classes in econ or political science as I’m thinking of pursuing an MPA in the future. So I suggest you compliment your sociology major with classes outside of the social sciences.
I would change it to Philosophy. You will still get Sociology classes, but Philosophy is more valuable especially in high technology. Some of the best test engineers in Silicon Valley have philosophy training. You would have an excellent ability to read functional and design specifications and be a test architect. Your ability to test full basis path versus function entry is definitely enhanced if you can read specifications and use decision tree analysis to map the code to test cases. We don’t do this 100% at my company, but think Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Tesla where you have to cover 100% of the code. Now, you need to like high tech, and if you do, great combination of skills.