Thursday, October 27, 2016

We're #36! We're #36!

From the inbox, a list of the top 50 best paying college majors from Glassdoor. At least we beat out the biologists (coming in at #50 with a $41,250 median base salary.)

(In reality, I have my doubts about the accuracy of this list, but as one might expect, the engineers are the top earners.)

16 comments:

  1. Film Studies and "music" make as much as chemists.

    Boy did I choose the wrong career path...

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  2. That's pretty depressing, but on a positive note, I got a note from Glassdoor that Theranos is hiring! Apply here!

    https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/palo-alto-chemist-reagent-stability-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,9_IC1147434_KO10,35.htm?jl=1705254487&jas=Y&srs=PAID_JAN&utm_source=zipRecruiter-gdh-b&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=zipRecruiter-gdh-b-up

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  3. Wow, if I knew I could have made about as much on average with a music major...to think what might have been.

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  4. Based on the example jobs, it looks like they've limited themselves to "terminal" bachelors positions. That means no postdocs to bring the average down, but no senior investigator salaries to bring it up.

    Also, no PetE... maybe not enough respondents? They can't have dropped that far, that fast--a couple years ago, the going rate for a bachelors was around $100k.

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  5. The list of majors between Computer Science/Engineering and Chemistry is really depressing. It includes: Spanish, Social Science, History, and English.

    STEM shortage! But, it pays more to do a humanities degree than study chemistry or biology...

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    Replies
    1. I agree very disheartening to see some of the majors a head of chemistry majors.

      Did you note the misguided comments after the list: “If college students want to land a high-paying job after graduation, they should strongly consider majoring in science, technology, engineering, or math,” says Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor Chief Economist. “STEM majors are in demand by the technology and health industries, which offer higher paying jobs that are better protected from competition or automation.” for most part should be promoting sTEEM from this list

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    2. Phil, I would bet everything I own that the unemployment rate is much higher in spanish, social science, history, and english majors vs. STEM majors. This seems to only be accounting for base salaries for people employed in that field. As a chem grad, I could work at Fed Ex if I wanted and likely would not be able to submit a salary.

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    3. Anon @ 12:14PM

      Thank you for pointing out that potentially crucial detail about employment vs unemployment. If you're right about how the study was done, then it doesn't tell the whole story.

      To your point about FedEx, the brief description of the study indicates otherwise:

      "Through an analysis of hundreds of thousands of resumes and corresponding salary reports, Glassdoor has determined which majors pay the most during the first five years out of college."

      On top of that, they list the 3 most common job titles for graduates in those majors. So, I think they were agnostic to what job you ended up taking. Working at FedEx with a chemistry degree would be counted.

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  6. Every day I wish I would have studied computer science, but here I am with a PhD in organic chemistry competing with 300 other applicants for a job that ends up offering $80K when you finally land one.

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    Replies
    1. Amen brother (or sister).....it's just insane isn't it?

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    2. I'm curious of the job market for these computer science majors. I know plenty of "computer people" with no degrees who have been employed as such for decades.

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    3. I taught myself to program an jumped ship from chemistry to programming. You can too, it's never too late.

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  7. Sadly, we're tied with "Music" and "Film Studies." I wonder what the McManager makes in a year, but not so much as to actually look it up.

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    Replies
    1. Why sadly? Chemists sure do have a high opinion of themselves.

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    2. McManager make more than McChemist because the ability to not fart in public and to order lunch in an intelligible fashion has become a skill set of his own in our little world.

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  8. "Wait a day and a story turns up of a chemistry graduate who went into programming."

    Wall Street’s Frantic Push to Hire Coders

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-28/wall-street-coders-wanted-elite-college-degrees-not-necessary

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20