Comments on: “The Unemployment Line: It’s Not Just for Philosophy Majors Anymore”

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:11:23 +0000

jtpogi, it is unclear why you majored in philosophy. It does not appear that you were trying to learn how to make a life, which is more important than making a living; and why you would waste money and years you can’t re-claim.

Economically, it is idiotic to go into $100,000 debt (assuming $20 grand a year for four years, PLUS interest of course!) and spend four precious years that you will never get back unless you clearly know what you want from your life. Thus, it is eminently sensible to go into engineering, and also maths and science; because more money simply translates into more opportunities to live the life you want to. Half-hidden from our conscious, let’s never forget that the value of money is subordinate to the value of time–that it is only a means to use our time better.

Not only are these fields more employable, but they are the (albeit often dry) toolbox for modern wizards. When you think of electricity, you may think of your battery going out. Don’t. Think of how incredible it is that phenomena so removed from our common experience form the basis for life-transforming technologies. Um, that’s all.

By: jtpogi

jtpogi — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:26:52 +0000

i am a philosophy grad. from the moment i graduated, i realized i should have taken a field that has practical applications to science. that was in 1996. although i found a job at a bank where i was able to stay for 7 years and excelled, banking was just not my field.

i took up MBA classes… went into nursing… 13 years later, i find myself unemployed and looking for entry admin jobs in a hospital or other healthcare clinics.

what lies ahead for me? i will surely take the first available offer (possibly $10-16/hour) and be thankful for it. I will probably be afraid to leave that job and remain at that rate range for some time. maybe i will retire as a supervisor… BA in Philosophy – what a joke.

By: IndieBookGirl

IndieBookGirl — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:21:14 +0000

I’m taking a history class (because I’m the kind of person who is nerdy enough to take college classes in my spare time) and the professor is constantly in awe of the fact that so many of the students don’t know any of the references that he makes to classical texts. The truth of the matter is that you have to want to learn those things now, and I’m seeing more and more students who are more concerned with passing a class than expanding their knowledge. The point of “gen ed” classes is supposed to be exposing you to various experiences, but not everyone sees the benefit of speaking another language or understanding why the French Revolution happened, they simply view them as something to get out of the way. It’s sad to see so much of that information fall by the wayside, but, as the NYT article pointed out, the humanities are having trouble defining why they are important, so now the oboe player sitting in class behind me doesn’t care who Louis XVI is because he see how it effects him in any way. There will always be a few of us who care, but there are only so many jobs working at independent bookstores, and they are interests that society continues to devalue.

P.S. Patrick, please start your job website.

By: Reading is Breathing

Reading is Breathing — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:56:34 +0000

[...] Patrick over at the Vromans blog relates, The New York Times recently reported on the problems with the economy making it an even tougher go [...]

By: Miss Havisham's Tea Party

Miss Havisham's Tea Party — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:36:49 +0000

I suggest: Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

Note: Gradgrind College of facts and figures looms large. Of Mr. Gradgrind:

“He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away.”

It’s all about tests and memorizing facts-not thinking. This is an old problem.

By: mademoiselle gramophone

mademoiselle gramophone — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:27:01 +0000

Oh Patrick, I hope to always get your jokes. When can I sit next to you at dinner?

No worries. All rumors of Miss Havisham’s cougaric nature are greatly exaggerated. Fear not my bookish slave. Fear not.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:22:08 +0000

Thanks for the comments, everyone. My friend Cory and I had an idea awhile ago to create a special job board for smart people. The basic concept was an employer would post a job saying “I need a smart person for this job, somebody who can write and analyze and has some interpersonal skills. No previous experience in the field necessary.” People could then apply, maybe with an alternative resume of some sort. I still think the idea could work. There are a lot of smart people out there who don’t apply for jobs because the job description says “Minimum two years of marketing experience necessary.” Well, other than certain tasks which aren’t very hard to learn, that really doesn’t mean much. Better to have a really smart person in the job learning it than a dumb-dumb who has “two years of marketing experience.” (That’s not to say that there aren’t smart people with two years of marketing experience.) Maybe that’s my personal prejudice. It’s sort of like the sports concept of drafting the best athlete available, regardless of what position he plays, with the idea that you can make the best available athlete into just about anything. (I think Jason Kottke did a post about this a while back.)

Of course, none of this applies to writing. In the end, writers will probably fall back into the familiar world of day jobs, as they have since art was pushed into the marketplace. I just worry that the day jobs might start to be difficult to find, too.

By: Trixie James

Trixie James — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:55:38 +0000

On the other hand, this economy may weed out writers who write simply because they can. Instead, we may find that writing naturally selects those who may have trained in fields other than letters who write now because the words will burn inside us even if we try to smother them.

By: K

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:48:43 +0000

What’s really depressing, though, is that no matter how bright you are, a bachelor’s degree in the humanities or an MFA in Poetry is going to severely limit your job options–and if you’re like me, you have a $35k student loan to boot. You can write and think deeply all you want, but it’s also smart to have a more well-rounded education/resume unless your path is professordom.

By: Pasadena Observer

Pasadena Observer — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:47:15 +0000

Well, the American economy is being downsized and with it our nation’s wealth is reduced. Therefore, some of what we’ve always taken for granted, may now be considered little luxuries, and be less affordable or valued, or simply stopped – the people who would sustain such will number less & be poorer.
We are a nation deeply in deep from we the people down to our govt. We don’t have the home equity and credit card lines as before which allowed us to live beyond our means when we didn’t have the cash. Now, our fed govt is burdening us with additional borrowed spending which will mean inflation and long-term higher taxation for the foreseeable future.