College Degree Realities

Discussion in 'Higher Ed' started by Motion, Jul 16, 2015.

  1. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    Not the TI 84...

    [​IMG]
    Chip ad...​
    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Asmodean

    Asmodean Slo motion rider

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    I agree that the advertisement and marketing industry thrives on misleading consumers, but I can't say this has led me to the conclusion that there are more immoral/unethical people working in advertisement/marketing than for example as a lawyer. Dunno though. But I get your line of thinking: I am the same where it comes to for example the stock market.
     
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  3. AceK

    AceK Scientia Potentia Est

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    They should wait until they figure out their passion. I'll tell ya something though. The tech industry is only going to keep booming.
     
  4. soulcompromise

    soulcompromise Member HipForums Supporter

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    Before I was at my current job (which is volunteering for a non-profit) I noticed some of the things that have already been discussed in this thread. Mainly that even with a degree you need experience to get hired. My suggestion to anyone trying to gain experience in a field is to check around to see if anyone needs a volunteer. This will generally get the right foot in the door to at least get the ball rolling.
     
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  5. Karen_J

    Karen_J Visitor

    Well OF COURSE. We don't need everybody in America doing a vital, high profile job. Most business tasks are for ordinary people, of which we have many millions. Even at the bottom of the job ladder, we have lots of trash to be carried out and lots of toilets to be scrubbed. Somebody has to do it.

    As is the case with almost any problem in the business world, the bad stuff is seen mostly in connection with the larger companies. At least half the advertising and marketing work done in the US is for small to mid-sized companies, and is not often considered to be controversial.

    I literally can't think of a single example where this has ever been true.

    It's especially untrue with smaller companies, especially if they are new. If they don't spend a good bit on advertising, failure is almost guaranteed. People are busy, and bombarded by information from a thousand directions. They don't have time to snoop around much for new options. Meanwhile, if a company's workers are working hard, doing a good job creating a quality product or service, they deserve to be able to keep their jobs. It won't happen if the owner doesn't advertise enough to make their target customer base aware of their existence.

    I remember when printed tech magazines used to be popular. I remember flipping through a few of them, seeing lots of full page ads for tech products. The ads were always heavy on facts, because that's how you people make decisions. Where's the problem?

    You can't have free speech for individuals and not for business owners.
     
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  6. AceK

    AceK Scientia Potentia Est

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    KarenJ. I actually agree with most of what you say here regarding smaller companies, especially startups. Of course they need to get their name out there.

    I just have a distaste for for these big corporations and their anti-competitive strategy. They want to ensure that it's either almost impossible to enter the market, or that these startups never gain any ground and eventually fail, because they don't want "perfect competition", they want domination.

    I might have some ideas that are probably worth some money, but I'm if I ever tried to make money from them I'm sure some corporate scumbags would probably just steal my ideas and make themselves rich and tell me to go fuck myself and then sue me for the patent rights (yes, a little hyperbole here); this is basically what happened to Nikola Tesla though. Tesla wasn't a "business man" he was a genius, an engineer and wasn't a capitalist so they took advantage of him and made themselves rich on his ideas, which our world pretty much fundamentally depends on. You can blame J.P. Morgan for that.
     
  7. Karen_J

    Karen_J Visitor

    In other words, you don't like Bill Gates and his imitators. ;) I don't either.

    That kind of corporate behavior comes from the CEO and his board, not from Madison Avenue. Top advertising and marketing firms have put together some cynically manipulative and harmful schemes and campaigns over the years, but they represent a tiny fraction of all such work that has been done nationwide. Even so, I have to admit that some of the horror stories have been spectacular.

    There are things about modern A&M that you would find interesting, because it's all data-driven. We look extensively at detailed demographic databases, trying to make advertising as efficient as possible. Usually, follow-up studies are done to fine-tune our approach for each client. Lots of number crunching with ordinary database programs. Advertising is expensive, and investors are often ordinary people with 401k accounts, so there is a moral obligation in my opinion to avoid squandering money on pointless activities. We try to pin down a yield curve (diminishing returns) for each client, so that the optimum advertising investment level can be calculated.

    You have your favorite companies, just like everyone else does, and you want to know about their latest products, and if a competitor has come up with something that would better suit your needs. The way you get that kind of information has changed over the years, but that's just technology.

    The most common use for advertising is to gain brand preference with customers who are already interested in making a purchase. Even then, it can only do so much. Ads can persuade someone to give you a chance, but then they form their own opinions. If they have a bad experience with the product or service, all the advertising in the world is unlikely to get them to give your company a second chance anytime soon. So, the company still has to deliver.

    He was one of the early pioneers of the modern business strategy of having a financial guy on top and an operations guy directly under him. That was the reverse of what everyone had been used to seeing. He was a ruthless businessman, but he got a lot done. One of his biggest accomplishments was to acquire a collection of small railroads and hire an excellent operator (Samuel Spencer) to figure out how to put them together as a single system that operated smoothly and efficiently. The end result was the Southern Railway, which revolutionized the economies of inland NC and SC, and gave a significant boost to the growth of Atlanta as a transportation hub. We're still reaping the benefits today.

    It's always been hard to shift from inventor to business leader, and I don't expect it to get any easier. You're talking about very different skill sets.
     
  8. Logan 5

    Logan 5 Confessed gynephile Lifetime Supporter

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    College is not THE answer. College is an option. If you choose it, it only gives you a better chance than a non-college student of the same age. Back years ago when my body wasn't so broken up, I was getting work that even people older than me couldn't get. College grads would get the same work, but I was paid better because I had experience. But today, that has changed. Now I'm going back to college, and once I have a degree my experience will work well with it, and it might help me find work, and it might not. I'm getting older, 46, and just don't have the energy I once had. But with a degree, I think that puts me in a better spot.

    But as shown in the video, it's not always the best choice. You have to decide that for yourself.
     
  9. Noserider

    Noserider Goofy-Footed Member

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    Same here. If I didn't go into grad school and study a different discipline, I'd be working at Starbucks
     
  10. candys

    candys Visitor

    Better than nothing. Personally I think that higher education is the key to a successful career and a brighter future.I'm planning to get postgraduate degree in Economics. Currently I work on my dissertation, I need to finish it in the best possible way as soon as possible so I guess I'll use a little help of EssayShark service additionally for grammar, spelling and plagiarism check. I hope postgrad degree will help me to get a better job.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2018
  11. NotMyRealName

    NotMyRealName Members

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    Yep. Since America has shifted away from vocations and more towards the "liberal" education (I'm so glad you used that label), we have managed to see it's great decline in the world.

    This shift towards a higher education have made universities profitable, their graduates with degrees in liberal arts, philosophy, and the like, unemployed and in debt that will last for years.

    With no better concept of how to manage finances than what a vocational school teaches.

    It's been a national lesson.
     
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  12. McFuddy

    McFuddy Visitor

    Post hoc ergo propter hoc
     
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  13. Noserider

    Noserider Goofy-Footed Member

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    Marone...
     
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  14. Motion

    Motion Senior Member

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    Has anyone heard from any STEM majors about what their job hunts have been like?
     
  15. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

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    fuck the money and the status, learn how the universe actually works, and you won't have to depend on people bullshitting each other.
    at least that's the whole point of it. of science and art, engineering and technology. (social psychology too if that's what interest you)
    what i'm getting at is gratification doesn't come from impressing anyone, however much ego might tempt you to tell yourself that it does.
    creating and exploring are where they do. creating does include creating the beauty of mutual and universal generosity too.

    of course nature is not procustian, or mostly not anyway, but it is, almost homoginously impartial.

    knowledge about real things is useful for its own sake. symbols are symbols, not guarantees.
    a degree can buy you an interview. that can make a difference. but there's no guarantee that any one thing can or will.

    learn what it interests you to learn, because ultimately, whether you gain on red cent more by doing so or not, that is what will be the most useful to yourself personally to know.
     
  16. NatureDude

    NatureDude Member

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    Yep, I've been there and done that. Yes it is so darn hard to get a job and the experience thing makes no sense, I've been contemplating being an entrepreneur instead of trying to get a job. I just need to figure out a way.
     
  17. wooleeheron

    wooleeheron Brain Damaged Lifetime Supporter

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    Forty years of extensive studies have concluded the only reliable measure of anyone's career potential is the amount of working memory they have. A friend of mine made more money with a high school degree by fixing up cars and re-selling them than his wife with a Phd. The issue is memory, and what you are good at, while college these days is best for banking, medicine, and computer programming if money is what you want, which is why they are the most popular majors. However, AI is about to invade even the medical industry and take over most computer programming, and what it does to banking should blow everybody's mind.
     
  18. Rotten Willie

    Rotten Willie Members

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    In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig says that the quality of any aspect of your life--your relationships, car, health, job, etc--is a function of how much you care. College is there to expose you to all the things you may care about so that in whatever field of work you choose to pursue you will be a productive member of society.
     
  19. wooleeheron

    wooleeheron Brain Damaged Lifetime Supporter

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    College merely confirms that you have enough working memory, with a few individuals earning advanced degrees and, eventually, retiring from long successful careers, only for it to be revealed that they were functionally illiterate. Forty years of extensive studies concluded both the republican party and the neurons in our brains organize along the lines of a flock of chickens, and the only reliable measure of anyone career potential is the amount of working memory they have.

    College is only for people who have good working memories, and who like chickens.
     
  20. Varmint

    Varmint Member

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    Of course it seems stupid. Because it IS stupid.
     

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