djimbe wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 8:24 am

hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Sun Sep 28, 2025 6:30 pm Who here actually does what they went to school for?

Me. And I started in my engineering discipline before I graduated, but I graduated in 1989 and those were very different times. Next August is my 40th anniversary working for my employer

Also me. Have been gainfully employed as an Electrical Engineer for 25 years.

zorg wrote: what you need is to get into that entry level position in your field. Once you get there your chances for internal and external promotion definitely get easier as you start to make connections in your field.

On point, as usual.

Keep trying.

hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Sun Sep 28, 2025 6:30 pm
Who here actually does what they went to school for?

- signed, non recent grad

I do.

---Class of '96

I work in the field I went to school for the second time I went to school.

As far as the recommendations, I think now the play is to take something entry level, do that for 1-2 years, and if there isn't growth, you gotta switch jobs to get promotions/pay increases, etc. At least that's the way it seems to me now.

hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Sun Sep 28, 2025 6:30 pm
Who here actually does what they went to school for?

Me, as well. Journalism. Since the late '90s.

Gets harder and less lucrative w/each passing year. But I'm still making it work for now.

The industry's woes have little to do w/Trump (on one hand, he loves to sue media organizations and has a love-hate relationship w/the press; on the other, unfortunately, people dig reading about all his bullshit) and more to do w/consolidated corporate ownership, people's changing information-consumption habits, and tech dumbing down what and how you read. The internet in general fucked up news, but things started getting particularly rough during the Obama years, and it's only snowballed since.

I just turned 40 and went back to college. You can make it into the corporate world without a degree - I had to claw my way up from the warehouse (thanks FM Major) - but its a monkey on your back, and after so many conversations from a hiring manager about being perfect for a given position - they came to me - and then having the kibosh put on it by HR, I decided to go back.

It might be a different story if I were one of the boys who liked to hang, or were naturally attuned to the white collar thing, but alas, I Have The Stink. So I have to just kind of hang on and continue to develop my specific expertise, finish my education, and hopefully eventually be able to retire with bennies.

To everyone else’s point - you may have to start at entry level, but with the right degree you will fly upwards if you take to the job at all.

djimbe wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 8:24 am

hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Sun Sep 28, 2025 6:30 pm Who here actually does what they went to school for?

Me. And I started in my engineering discipline before I graduated, but I graduated in 1989 and those were very different times. Next August is my 40th anniversary working for my employer

Me too, at least tangentially. I went to college not knowing what I wanted to do, quit after 2 years of undergrad and went to a "Recording and Mastering" school in 1998. Did some small studio work, a lot of Live Sound, which lead to a lot of freelance Corporate sound and video work to make a living. Now I work for giant corporation doing Audio and Video production/broadcast work and Live production support. I keep a hole filled with music gear in my basement and still record all the time, but it is more of passion project rather than my source of income. All of the work I do is an evolution of what I went to school for. Just added skills on top of it as needed.

jfv wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 11:48 pm

djimbe wrote: Mon Sep 29, 2025 8:24 am

hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Sun Sep 28, 2025 6:30 pm Who here actually does what they went to school for?

Me. And I started in my engineering discipline before I graduated, but I graduated in 1989 and those were very different times. Next August is my 40th anniversary working for my employer

Also me. Have been gainfully employed as an Electrical Engineer for 25 years.

I got an EE after bailing on college for 7 or 8yrs. Well, I kinda bailed on college when I was going initially, honestly. when i went back, i took it seriously.

Anyway, I worked as a circuit design engineer for 4yrs. Since then, electronic trading, then co-founded a digital marketing agency.

So I wasn't an electrical engineer for very long.

But college is about learning how to think, and your undergrad degree reflects some rigor in a given type of thinking. It's less important exactly what you studied.

As for grad school, I would advise you to cross a border and not look back until perhaps after you graduate. if then.

eephus wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:08 pm But college is about learning how to think, and your undergrad degree reflects some rigor in a given type of thinking.

It does kind of annoy me that I can feel myself become more coherent as I progress through school.

Plus, being made to write about something other than the same six microphones or amps or whatever has helped me at work, even with 90% of what I already do on the clock being writing and interpreting data.

On the other hand, I am in school for finance and a lot of this stuff is just straight up ideological training. There are a lot of reasons why they’re all like that, but school is definitely one of them.