Tertiary and Continuing Which degrees are useless/useful?

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IT degrees are fairly limiting these days. You look at entry level IT jobs and there is a mix of TAFE graduates, bachelor graduates and masters graduates. In reality once in the entry level team, its attitude, work ethic and industry certifications that will progress you further in your career.

So in my eye, a degree might get you an interview. From then on its up to you to progress your career.
 

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That's because it's currently the worst market in a long time for the engineering field. For example an engineering degree in a relatively highly employable field with a weighted average of 50 could see you walk into a graduate job in 2006 and 2007. In 2009 the weighted average needed to be over 70 to have a chance of getting into a graduate program.

Now it's very hard full stop for any graduate to get work due to the global economic crisis.
 
Tayl0r said:
The engineers I know don't engineer anything but timetables and work charts. Their degree was useful for getting an interview but it's really only (so far) been proof of not being mostly ******ed.
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I have now worked for a Civil Engineering consultant for almost 10 years since finishing uni. I do not use much of the stuff I learnt at uni (heavily structural at Melb Uni), but all my mates from Civil Engineering have turned into genuinely good Engineers in their particular companies and streams. As a consultant, we engineer all day every day. I often work with contractors, whose junior engineers are basically just admin......mundane tasks constantly!
 
ron436 said:
useless: theology
useful: computer science
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Yeah and no - if you wanna be a priest you do it to get a job. Not that much more useless than a humanities degree in any other respects.
Most useful would be Dr or real scientist IMO.
 
Law is becoming increasingly useless I've found. It doesn't take much to get a law degree and universities are so keen to churn them out for the balance sheet its ridiculous how many there are. I also don't think employers look at law degrees any differently to other degrees in the same area (with the exception that it gets you admitted).
 

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NTRabbit said:
I've been told that, as the support act in a double degree, employers in the corporate world are increasingly shunning Law in favour of candidates who have done a double with Arts because - in theory at least - it makes them a more rounded individual.
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Uh......no. Arts is still the shitbrick of the tertiary world and forever will be.

Only in an Arts graduate's wildest wet dreams would an Arts degree ever been considered anywhere near a law degree.
 
Also:

Dagless said:
400 law graduates for 40ish law job openings in SA yearly or something like that?

Sorry brah, your law degree ain't worth nearly as much as you might hope.
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This completely made up figure of 40ish job openings a year is bullshit because of that generalist nature of the degree.

Not all lawyers practice in court or work for law firms or public prosecutors - they also work for government, work for private industry, work for unions et al. Not to mention the fact that most politicians also have law degrees.

40 a year? When you consider the doors that law degrees open, it'd be closer to 40 a week. (And no, I don't have a law degree)
 
Actually talking in context practicing law (which I'm guessing is the probable reasoning for many people picking it as an area of study to begin with), the profession isn't booming by any count.

Law degrees have become homogenised in that sense. Having one doesn't put you over the top in most of those other jobs, it's the standard because it's what people have to go for.

The argument put forth by the arts degree value as a double degree over say international is that it's more about selling those other qualities rather than your law GPA.

People don't care that you studied law any more. It doesn't make you particularly special.
 
Dagless said:
Actually talking in context practicing law (which I'm guessing is the probable reasoning for many people picking it as an area of study to begin with), the profession isn't booming by any count.

Law degrees have become homogenised in that sense. Having one doesn't put you over the top in most of those other jobs, it's the standard because it's what people have to go for.

The argument put forth by the arts degree value as a double degree over say international is that it's more about selling those other qualities rather than your law GPA.

People don't care that you studied law any more. It doesn't make you particularly special.
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Yes and Arts make you less than special. It makes you a cook at McDonalds.
 
MenzelBreakdown said:
Yes and Arts make you less than special. It makes you a cook at McDonalds.
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Did somebody's feelings get hurt? You mad brah?

And you'll notice that the original post referenced arts degrees as a supporting act in a DOUBLE degree. Ergo that value of a law degree with an arts secondary is more than just finding an excuse to extend the degree and extra 15 months.

Chill out man, you've got a job haha.

Nice to know the pointless superiority complex of law students rings true to this day though.
 
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My Law units are flooded with people that are all Business/Commerce majors that really don't give a shit what their marks are like at the end of the day, they just want the piece of paper saying they have a Law degree so it looks nice on their CV.

"P's get degrees" as the saying goes.
 
Shoei said:
My Law units are flooded with people that are all Business/Commerce majors that really don't give a shit what their marks are like at the end of the day, they just want the piece of paper saying they have a Law degree so it looks nice on their CV.

"P's get degrees" as the saying goes.
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Shit yeah, based my whole third and final year on this, I don't think I got anything above a P.
 
Shoei said:
My Law units are flooded with people that are all Business/Commerce majors that really don't give a shit what their marks are like at the end of the day, they just want the piece of paper saying they have a Law degree so it looks nice on their CV.

"P's get degrees" as the saying goes.
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The funny thing is they think potential employers aren't wise to this and won't bother looking at academic transcripts.
 

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Tertiary and Continuing Which degrees are useless/useful?

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