While in school, did you tailor your degree for future employment?

[Tsal]

So, when you guys were in school, did you actively try to find out the skills and knowledge the future employers might appreciate, or did you possibly even tailor your courses after even specific company/job expectations, in hope to find a good position for yourself? The other option is to follow the generic program given to you.

I should be getting my BSc in biosciences relatively soon, and while I'm certain that I need to eventually get a PhD to succeed in the research field, most of the other students seem to do very little job-market surveying at this point of their studies. To be more specific, the two future employment options for me, are either to get a relatively certain but poorly paid position in the university environment, or to look for a similar, better paying research job in private sector.

I assume being able to say "Yes sir, I am very interested in this particular field that your company works on, which you can see from the courseload I took" would help when finding summer internship positions while doing post-grad studies, and through that help me land a private sector job in the future. Anyone got any experiences?

[mjolnir]

I went into college a music major and ended up an IT tech.

Go figure.

[FL Knifemaker]

Yes, my engineering degree eased me right into my position as a custom knifemaker

[mothmonsterman]

Absolutely that's why i'm here,
though after 4 years and not getting anything but a large monthly payment and not learning a thing that can't be done without a google search it's hardly seemed worth the investment.
I learn more about IT breaking **** at work than college ever has.

[mjolnir]

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

Absolutely that's why i'm here,
though after 4 years and not getting anything but a large monthly payment and not learning a thing that can't be done without a google search it's hardly seemed worth the investment.
I learn more about IT breaking **** at work than college ever has.

Amen to that, Brother...

[Thor]

My degree in psychology has made me an expert in
discussing the philosophical pros and cons of morality
and theft on musical internet forums.

Actually, I did not tailor it per se. The unemployment rates for people
with graduate degrees when I graduated in that field was at an all time high,
so pursuing that degree at that time was not particulary efficient or effective.

I would guess-timate that of the graduates from my alma mater, very few people
ended up in their fields of undergraduate study. The main exceptions were people
in pre-medical and the hard science and engineering fields.

[SteveC]

Obviously not as I am a teacher.

[Son of Sanford]

Nope.

[MakiSupaStar]

Actually it did, but by no design of my own, because that would require forethought and foresight, both of which I have none.

[EricF]

All through high school I wanted to be an Architect. Starting in '88, I worked as a draftsman for a swimming pool contractor while in college, but never finished school. I'm now the project manager and a part owner of that same swimming pool contractor.

[casualmadness]

Let's see...undergraduate degrees in both sound engineering and music business, certificate from BIT, 3 graduate certificates in Acquisitions related disciplines, a graduate degree in cybersecurity and I work in transportation.

I planned for the future job prospects and went to school accordingly. Then after working in the music industry at a record label and as a performer, I realized I wanted nothing to do with it profesionally. Thanks to an ex-wife who worked for a defense contractor, I was able to land a logistics job after leaving the military; which brought me to where I am now. The master's degree is because I like computers and am pretty handy with them. I thought it would help me to make a career change. But I've found that since I have no IT experience, no one will even consider me for an IT position.
In other words, school hasn't done anything for me except get me into a lot of debt.

[IanStephenson]

yes and no...

I did engineering because I wanted to do it. However it's pretty employable!

You're doing something relatively employable. I presume you enjoy it... Then get on enjoying it, and doing as well as you can. I'd rather see someone who's clearly enthusiastic, and knowledgable in their chosen field than some drone who's picked modules because they're more employable. You're already close enough that you'll be able to pick up any required skills once you start work, and I know you'll pick them up becuase you picked up similar (but not identical) skills in your degree.

Also the so called "employable" skills are the ones that look lame 18months later when you're looking for a job. Gee you did XYZ? That's nice we were looking for that last year, but things have moved on a bit, and we don't need those kind of skills any more. Funny thing though - you're the 10th kid I've seen this week who took that as his final year option...

Do what you think is cool. Go get a job interview, and explain how cool it was but now you're looking to something equally great for your new employer. You'll be fine.

Ian

[dancehallclasher]

Originally Posted by SteveC

Obviously not as I am a teacher.

Not so obvious! I'm a teacher too and started taking education classes in junior year of college, so I'm in the "yes" category.

[jady]

Well, I majored in Music and Philosophy.

I am a bassist and am full of **** most of the time.

So yes.

[wazzel]

Yes. I have a mechanical engineering dergree. I work as an engineer doing subsea consruction in oil and gas. I spend my summers working (actuall working, not as a summer engineering intern) offshore in the oil and gas industry in various forms of construction.

[Baryonyx]

I took a law degree and I'm currently in the middle of it, but I'm after a career in the police. A bit of a sidestep!

[fr3tl3ssjunki3]

I slept through class, so yeah. And that pretty much set the stage for a classic bar band

[Pilgrim]

To the OP: if you want to be a research scientist, then you ought to plan your degree work right through the Ph.D. - and do it NOW. In that regard, you can target your eventual research interest.

If you want to work in the private sector you'll probably need at least a Master's before tackling a research internship (depends on your field).

The word is that most people change careers at least five times during life, so my advice is to make sure you get some breadth at the undergraduate level. Take the humanities, take the arts, learn how to be a human being. Also take the courses that target your research interest.

I've been in higher ed 28 years with a Bachelor's in Broadcasting, Master's in Adult Education, and a Ph.D. earned at age 47.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

I did, to an extent.

I'm in a similar position, I find out my degree mark tomorrow !!!!!!! Bsc (Hons) in Biochemistry.

What I did was take the subject's which interested me. Through the coursework this tended to be immunologically related subjects, cancer/oncology related subjects and subjects covering protein structures.

There were also a few others, such as cell division which were more mandatory, however, they always play into the other subjects to a degree (i.e. having a knowledge of the molecular basis of the cell division cycle and that pathways involved is very useful for aiding understanding of cancer development).

For my honours project I did a dissertation on the applications of nanotechnology within the life sciences. I concentrated this mainly on the applications to immunotherapy and cancer treatments (great thing is to an extent cancer and the immune system can be related obviously).

Basic plan of action is:

BSc (hons) Biochemistry
MSc Nanotechnology and Microarrays
PhD which is based around Immunity or Cancers

Would love to get into researching practical applications of nanotechnology for immunology and/or cancer


I think people should study the courses that interest them, because that will tend to be the fields which interest them, and thus, if going into research, the fields most likely to be fufilling to work in.

[LiquidMidnight]

To answer the original poster's question: I sure did!

I just finished a BS in Psychology and will be starting graduate school in the fall for a MA in Labor Relations. I actually didn't go to college until four years after high school. I think being out in the real world really helped me focus on what I wanted to do and helped me plan accordingly.

I originally worked in the IT industry and really didn't care for it (liked computers, hated dealing with the primadonna arseholes who bawled when they screwed up their machines and thought it was your fault). Plus, I had gone to a nonaccredited tech school and when I got laid off, I had not gained enough job experience to overshadow my craptacular education. I really wanted to study psychology, so I knew that graduate school was an option; it was a requirement!

Everything I did since my freshman year was done in preperation for graduate school. I found a great band to play in to give me some financial means through school. I also worked for the university's IT department, starting my sophmore year. While the extra pay was cool, I mainly did it so there wouldn't be a huge gap in my resume. I knew this would be important since I was graduating at an age a little bit older than the traditional student. I got accepted into the graduate program and was offered an assistanceship. Last week, I graduated summa cum laude.

Psychology majors definitely have to plan out their careers while in school. The field is so vast, you need to realize what you kind of want to do before you go to grad school. There are some general psych Master's programs out there (I got accepted to one), but you really need to specialize for the doctorate. You can have a 4.0 and a GRE score of 1600, but if you're saying in your personal statement about how much you really want to study information-processing theory and you're applying to a Psy.d program in psycho-dynamic clinical psychology, you're not going to get into the program. Departments are looking for people who are going to be a "good fit" with the program and the faculty. I really didn't know what I wanted to do until my junior year. I knew I wanted to work in an applied setting, but I wasn't a clinical type of person.

I then really got into I/O psych. Truth be told, I did rather embarrasingly low on the quantitative section of the GRE. I've never had an algebra class in my life. My college didn't require the SAT if you were out of high school for more than three years. The bad score wasn't any big deal. There are more and more programs now that don't require entrance exams as long as you have a high GPA. With a 3.97, I didn't have much to worry about there. I had to pick a few different schools, but the labor relations program was actually my first choice before taking the test. The department that it's housed in only requires Miller's Analogies if you have a low undergrad GPA. It's a little bit different than I/O psychology, but I'm really excited about this field! This particular program seems to have an excellent reputation from everyone I've talked to.

In a way, I can look at my undergraduate degree as a stepping stone, but I honestly do feel that it's more than that. I gained a lot of important skills along the way. My writing is way better and I can think critically. The one important thing I got from the psych degree is that I now know how to do research. I understand why a between-subjects design may be better in certain circumstances than a within-subjects design, and I know why many political polls have poor external validity. The grad program I'm going into has both internship and thesis options. I'm planning on doing both: internship for real world experience and thesis if I decide to go for a doctorate. So yes, I'm even making plans as go into grad school. I've been entertaining the thought of law school afterwards, too. Now is when the CV is going to start filling up!

Wow, sorry! Didnt' mean to write a novel.