How legitimate is this report on the "worst" degrees? (1 Viewer)

Joined
Oct 25, 2020
Messages
26
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Link to the article: https://7news.com.au/sunrise/on-the...o-avoid-if-you-want-to-get-get-a-job-c-524282

Article mentions that the best performing degrees in Australia are medicine, teaching, engineering, nursing. I'm not surprised at these inclusions however it's what they reported to be the worst performing degrees which include: creative arts, communications, science and maths, social services. I was extremely surprised at the latter two, so I was wondering is this really the case in Australia?
 

Drdusk

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
2,025
Location
a VM
Gender
Male
HSC
2018
Uni Grad
2023
Link to the article: https://7news.com.au/sunrise/on-the...o-avoid-if-you-want-to-get-get-a-job-c-524282

Article mentions that the best performing degrees in Australia are medicine, teaching, engineering, nursing. I'm not surprised at these inclusions however it's what they reported to be the worst performing degrees which include: creative arts, communications, science and maths, social services. I was extremely surprised at the latter two, so I was wondering is this really the case in Australia?
Yes it’s the case.
Science and Maths largely due to a sheer lack of funding and staffing. You’d be surprised how much more funding you get in the United States...
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2020
Messages
26
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Yes it’s the case.
Science and Maths largely due to a sheer lack of funding and staffing. You’d be surprised how much more funding you get in the United States...
I myself am even more surprised at the social sciences
 

tito981

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2020
Messages
326
Location
Orange
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
would the emerging field of 'big data' be placed under the latter 2 mentioned in the least employable degrees. I've heard it is one of the biggest and most employable fields.
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2020
Messages
26
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
commerce is a social science and that's employable lol.
Yes but this report has research across every degree, and before I saw the list I believe commerce would be a "best performing degree". However, it's nice to know it's still going strong though, unlike science which was a big surprise to me.
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,454
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
Yes but this report has research across every degree, and before I saw the list I believe commerce would be a "best performing degree". However, it's nice to know it's still going strong though, unlike science which was a big surprise to me.
they're looking at the fields. it should be worth noting that degrees such as maths and science have people going into different fields then what they're trained in. maths is quite employable, it's just that being a "mathematician" is very rare.
 

brent012

Webmaster
Webmaster
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
5,284
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
would the emerging field of 'big data' be placed under the latter 2 mentioned in the least employable degrees. I've heard it is one of the biggest and most employable fields.
"Big Data" is a bit of a buzzword rather than a degree or profession, courses or roles in that area would be more along the lines of "data scientist", "business intelligence", "machine learning engineer" and possibly even "statistician". I would bundle some of those more in with engineering and IT.

These kinds of lists are a bit misleading though as each "degree" they are including is extremely broad. The different engineering majors for example aren't comparable, and the employability of a pure maths graduate different to a statistician etc.
 

BLIT2014

The pessimistic optimist.
Moderator
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
11,592
Location
l'appel du vide
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2014
Uni Grad
2018
"Big Data" is a bit of a buzzword rather than a degree or profession, courses or roles in that area would be more along the lines of "data scientist", "business intelligence", "machine learning engineer" and possibly even "statistician". I would bundle some of those more in with engineering and IT.

These kinds of lists are a bit misleading though as each "degree" they are including is extremely broad. The different engineering majors for example aren't comparable, and the employability of a pure maths graduate different to a statistician etc.
Yeah the difference between Applied and Pure for mathematics graduates would probably show a significant difference.
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,454
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
Yeah the difference between Applied and Pure for mathematics graduates would probably show a significant difference.
pure maths with a decent wam should be very employable considering that it is literally the "sign of intelligence".
 

blyatman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
539
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
pure maths with a decent wam should be very employable considering that it is literally the "sign of intelligence".
As long as you don't have a potato for a brain, employers won't really care how smart you are. What's actually important is how they think you'll fit in with the culture, whether they think you're someone they can work with, and what your work experience is. A fields medalist would be pretty useless in a lot of companies, and would probably lose out to other candidates with relevant experience. Only a handful of jobs actually require someone who is smart, and most of them would be in the academic sector.
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,454
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
As long as you don't have a potato for a brain, employers won't really care how smart you are. What's actually important is how they think you'll fit in with the culture, whether they think you're someone they can work with, and what your work experience is. A fields medalist would be pretty useless in a lot of companies, and would probably lose out to other candidates with relevant experience. Only a handful of jobs actually require someone who is smart, and most of them would be in the academic sector.
would bet renaissance technologies would hire a fields medalist tho.
 

blyatman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
539
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
would bet renaissance technologies would hire a fields medalist tho.
As I said, only a handful of jobs, not no jobs. A fields medallist will get the top pick of those very limited specialist jobs. Now, look at all the pure mathematics graduates who aren't fields medallists competing for the already tiny pool of specialist roles. Also, for financial trading, anyone with a quantitative degree qualifies for the job.
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,454
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
As I said, only a handful of jobs, not no jobs. A fields medallist will get the top pick of those very limited specialist jobs. Now, look at all the pure mathematics graduates who aren't fields medallists competing for the already tiny pool of specialist roles. Also, for financial trading, anyone with a quantitative degree qualifies for the job.
were u pure maths or applied lol
 

pikachu975

Premium Member
Joined
May 31, 2015
Messages
2,739
Location
NSW
Gender
Male
HSC
2017
I'd also consider the fact that AI will be taking over jobs, probably with accounting first and other easily automated jobs
 

blyatman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
539
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
were u pure maths or applied lol
Applied. I just did the math degree as a hobby, with the engineering degree being the focus. I actually enjoyed the math degree the most, but yeah, doesn't pay the bills lol.
 

quickoats

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Messages
969
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2019
I'd also consider the fact that AI will be taking over jobs, probably with accounting first and other easily automated jobs
Would you think actuarial jobs will become automated in the near future? From what ive learned (only done acst152 so not much experience) lots of stuff seems very computerisable.
 

Drdusk

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
2,025
Location
a VM
Gender
Male
HSC
2018
Uni Grad
2023
would bet renaissance technologies would hire a fields medalist tho.
Fields medalist being the Math equivalent of a Nobel prize is essentially people on the level of someone like Einstein. Anyone would want them and most pure math grads are not at that level. Out of all the Pure math graduates in Australian history, the best of the best from schools like James Ruse, even Math olympians only two have ever gotten a fields medal, Terrance Tao and Akshay Venkatesh who were both prodigies.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top