A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
So.... I've spent more time than I care to admit attending University/College. I started out Undecided became a Science major then A Technology major before leaving with nothing to show for it. I've told myself for months now that the only way i'd ever go back was if I could be a Philosophy major.
STEM is always good for the mind, even if it is bed for your career.
Philosophy is genuinely a fantastic subject to study and I have no idea why school curriculums don't reflect this
It's unlikely you will invent anything new in it, just watch a video on some philosophy, and move on.
This is very good trolling and I took a second
i actually took this as a course in college, everyone should it will open up to religions as well. i would loved to take more, but by the second course of with the same instructor, i couldnt not focus in a morning class. luckily his class was easy enough that you could do everything as a WFH assignment. both courses i took easily shouldve been more than 1 semester each, too much to cover in short semester.
Stupid people are easier to control.
I mean also I studied philosophy and have had no regrets. It's awesome and fascinating and rich and appeals to the fact that you just know that the world doesn't really make sense
I had a philosophy class on my 3rd year in HS. And I hated it, but only because it was imparted by a bitter and deeply religious old man whose lectures were basically "let me tell you why this philosopher was an idiot and a bad person" when anything challenged his views.
This was, of course, a private Catholic highschool. But, to be fair, he was the only teacher there that was like that. We even had decent sex-ed, taught by an actual doctor.
Well yeah I suspect that's part of the reason it's slipped out of the curriculum. Shit teachers co-opted it for religion
It gives you critical thinking skills, which are already in quite short supply...
Literally half of why I changed my degree lmao
Ahh yes, working in a factory… my life’s dream is crushed.
I talked to a guy who had a master's degree in philosophy. He told me he worked for an investment firm.
Me: What do you do there, convince investment bankers not to kill themselves?
Him: Yeah, pretty much.
Me: 😳
So there is a way to use your philosophy degree for evil.
In this case, chaotic neutral i think.
Lawful evil
convince investment bankers not to kill themselves?
Sometimes there is great value in a job done poorly.
If I can contribute anything: don't do a Ph.D. just because you're not sure exactly what you want to do.
It may work out in the long run (thankfully it did eventually for me), but a M.Sc. is much shorter, and you may be more employable with one vs. a Ph.D.
Although do what you feel, maybe just think of this comment if you're questioning.
(Also sorry, my experience is only in science)
I hired a gal with a phD in philosophy for a marketing position. She was so happy to have a job. She said she removed her phD from her LinkedIn but kept it in her resume because nobody would even give her the time of day.
A PhD is only worth it (both in time and money) if you have a real interest in what you are researching.
yup, and its actually detrimient to have it on your resume as part of your title, because employers dont want to hire someone that would be potentially asking for too high of a salary.
My family member got one in early childhood ed and can't find a job because he's over qualified and their afraid they'll just find a better job.
I went to college and got a diploma, not a degree. That was because I knew where I wanted to be in the world. I was going to be a sysadmin/network admin/IT support. That was where I was going.
At the time, the available courses for system administrators that resulted in a degree didn't fucking exist. A big fuck all for degree programs. So I got a diploma, and went on my merry way.
I looked at available degree programs last year and there's still pretty much sweet fuck all for degree programs for IT support workers, with a few exceptions. A handful of colleges in my country now have some degree programs, and a couple have created one for system/network administrators. They're massively rare, and the only course plans are for full time class loads. You want to take the degree course, but you have to work? Get fucked. You're not getting anything.
I actually (foolishly) emailed some of the colleges asking if they would offer enough of the credits in remote learning courses that I could feasibly, eventually, get a degree. If someone could laugh over email, I'm pretty sure that they would have. Needless to say, the answer is a big fuck you.
Yet... I have well over a decade of real world experience and a lot of places are putting up job postings for sysadmin jobs asking for degrees plus years of experience.
So, essentially, they want me to go get a degree, probably in computer Science, which, by the way, isn't really computer Science. There's really no Science to it and the only relation to a computer is that you're doing programming. CS majors cannot do my job. They would be so bad at it, that I would laugh, then cry, knowing I probably have to fix all the fuckups that were just made.
So, they want to hire someone who can't do the work because they want and need a degree for a job that doesn't have a degree that actually teaches you the correct skillset.
The entire fucking job market is completely fucked. Unless you do development, GFL wading through all the asinine postings to find one that is reasonable enough to recognize that CS majors are not the people you want working in system admin positions.
The worst part is that businesses can't see what they're doing wrong. C-levels, owners and managers, have no fucking clue what I do, nor how I do any of it. Unless it's a company large enough to have a CIO that's got a lick of fucking sense, the job posting is going to be utter horse shit for the crap that they'll expect from you.
"Enjoys a fast paced environment" - you're going to be over worked.
"Works well independently" - because you're always going to be working alone, since they won't hire anyone else to work the job.
"Requires knowledge of: Windows server, VMware, networking, Wan/LAN, VPN, desktop, printers... " You're the only one working IT and you need to do it all.
"Enjoys a challenge" - nothing is under warranty, so every vendor will tell you to fuck off anytime you are in over your head and call in for support.
I've seen this shit so much over the past decade+ that's it's all shit. I don't even fucking read job postings half the time, if it has a salary to it that looks good to me, I check if it's "hybrid" (aka, in-office, but you can work from home, with managers approval that you'll never get), in-office, or remote. If it's anything other than remote, I'm probably moving on. If it passes those first two checks, I skim the requirements for "you should know" shit to determine if I'm working on a team, if they're actually looking for an IT person, or is this posting, just a poorly worded website design or coding job.... And if I don't see anything too stupid on the list I just throw them my resume.
Look, I've done this job long enough that I know my shit, I know I know my shit, and I couldn't give a fuck less if you call me or not. If you don't see my potential, your loss. I don't want to work for someone who is too blind to see that experience > everything, and that what I put on my resume isn't who I am. I couldn't possibly cram enough info into a CV to accurately convey the sheer amount of shit I've dealt with. Not even fucking close.... And if you need someone with at least 5 years experience with ERP-xyz-Max 2010, and won't even consider anyone who hasn't used that software, well, you're too dumb to be helped. Do you have any idea how much specialized software is out there? Give me a fucking break. My expertise isn't in one specific software, though I have a lot of knowledge of some of the more common ones... My expertise is decoding the shit pile that the publisher calls "documentation" to actually support the program well enough to keep it running. I RTFM so you don't have to.
There, I said it.
that’s because IT for the most part SHOULDNT have degrees… IT is a trade for the huge majority of people.
computer science is a thing: we need people to develop new algorithms, etc… but most people don’t need to know most of what’s in a compsci degree
but just like we don’t get structural engineers to do the plumbing and electrical in the buildings they design, we should have the plumbers of the IT world: developers who learned like a trade… 50% theory and 50% on the job training as an apprenticeship
we don’t need more compsci graduates… a degree isn’t some magic bullet - it’s a specific kind of learning that’s suited for a specific kind of profession
You won't get any argument from me.
The fact that IT support is basically the new digital version of a janitor or groundskeeper, doesn't stop moron hiring managers from demanding a degree from their IT applicants.
All I'm saying is that they should stop doing it. It's nonsense.
ironically philosophy majors perform better on graduate school entrance exams like the LSAT and GREs than most other majors, and philosophy graduates tend to be more successful and be better earners than other majors, notably than business major graduates
arugably, philosophy is one of the better majors in terms of outcomes
https://philosophy.unc.edu/undergraduate/the-major/why-major-in-philosophy/
This is PURE speculation, but I feel like this could be caused by the only people who feel comfortable getting a philosophy degree being wealthy connected people. I know a lot of people from my high school that have stereotypical "be poor forever" degrees and are doing great - but if you knew them in high school, you'd know that they had millionaire parents. All the poor kids went for safer degrees because they knew they'd need money.
To be clear: I love philosophy and think it is very valuable. But sadly it seems like something that only privileged people or the very passionate take a risk on.
I didn't want to say it, but I do think this is a possibility - people like Pete Buttigieg were philosophy majors. However, it's probably a bit of both - being wealthy and connected probably still makes up a minority of philosophy majors, and yet they still outperform on graduate entrance exams generally.
You might be interested in reading The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart for a non-wealthy philosophy major's perspective on business. :-)
I'm not kidding I studied philosophy and now genuinely work in a factory as a mechanic. I've made it big according to this.
A philosophy degree might actually stand out more in today's job market than a CS one.
it will if you are going to grad school, and getting a PHD. otherwise its just as bad.
I wasn't sure if you meant Computer Science or Cyber Security. Then I remembered it doesn't matter.
I was a dual major Electrical Engineering/Philosophy. The rigorous logic in some branches of philosophy was very helpful for programming principles. And the the philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of mind has overlaps with and supplements modern AI theory pretty well.
I'm out of the tech world now but if I were hiring entry level software developers, I'd consider a philosophy degree to be a plus, at least for people who have the threshold competency in actual programming.
Learned CS/Coding at school, ended up with a factory job in manufacturing.
The meme is right, it is a pretty balling existence all things considered