>

I‘m not from the US… that‘s the entire point. In the US people pay for their degrees. In other countries tax payers need to fund these degrees. So if people in the US want to get a degree in dog sitting I don‘t care. If they want to waste tens of thousands of dollars that‘s their issue (at least at first). But I don‘t live in the US so I have to pay for people to study something that won‘t have any significant return on investment. And you do study at a university to get a job. Things you‘re interested in that you don‘t want to do for work are called hobbies. And you don‘t study a hobby at a university. I played an instrument when I was younger. That‘s a hobby. I didn‘t study music. Why? Because I won‘t work as a musician. If you want to learn things about a hobby there are countless guides, manuals, websites, clubs etc. that can help you. You won‘t study 3-4+ years for something you definitely won‘t do for a living (in most cases… some people actually study to be allowed to have that title, get student benefits etc. but that‘s not the norm)
People don't understand how the world works when it comes to such things. A career in tech is not suitable for everyone just like becoming a doctor or teacher is not suitable for everyone. You need certain inclinations/talents. >

No, you don’t need talent. You do need desire >

Clearly not. Only the lowly English major needs to know the definition of words. >

The real success is to be good in a domain you like. >

People post what they know, comp sci has more access to Reddit throughout the day so you get more Comp Sci people posting their experiences. It's nothing more than that. >

I'm in tech and I'd love to leave it for something else. I've grown to hate it. I was thinking the other day what else I could possibly do to make ends meet. I think I'd have to drastically cut back on everything, or start my own business, or go back to school for some sort of medical degree. >

same. A cage with golden bars. >

A 100%, What I hate the most is if your tech job sucks.. these days the only change you make is for 1 money or 2 new team. the job it self remains mostly the same.. Which makes finding a new job super hard as you know you will not be happy in the long run and change job again.. repeat untill retirement... :( >

that's exactly the situation I am in. I know I hate my job and want to quit, but then I think: to do what? all other job prospects would be more of the same >

Welcome to the club man.. 🎉 At Least recruiters leave you alone in this field right?  RIGHT? >

As a software engineer, I actually advice people/new high school grad the opposite way lol. if you’re not really passionate about big chunks of math and hours of automating/programming things + another hours of searching for solutions to errors, this isn’t really your stuff and you will not be successful lol.
Programming is truly very boring. I just don’t understand how I’m able to keep doing this for years now. I like to advice people to a much more “ social “ subject if they’re not willing to pit up with this. Most people just didn’t listen to me, thought it’s cool and easy to code, 90% ended up switching majors lol. >

I don't know, I find programming pretty entertaining compared to other tasks. But not everyone will feel the same way obviously, and that's fine. But I think you're selling programming quite short here, it can be pretty damn satisfying, haha. >

Oh it is if it runs first time without any segmentation fault errors 😀 >

Statistically speaking, if you want to make money, go to tech. 
Not everything is measured in financial success and you can have an amazingly fulfilling life doing important things to society like being a teacher or a social worker. But it is really hard to make a decent living doing those types of things. >

But you don’t need a stem degree to work for a tech company. My wife makes more than me as a product marketing manager and she has an English major. I am a product manager and used to be a programmer. There’s plenty of pathways into the tech world without a stem degree. Sales, and marketing are necessary for businesses to thrive and those do best with humanities degrees. >

I was a Business Development Manager at a tech company before med school. 
Of course you don’t need it, but statistically you will get better higher paying jobs. >

Eh. Marketing is run by people in humanities and they make as much as engineering. My pmm wife makes 165k. >

No, you don't need to a stem degree to work in a tech company, but it's an easier way, and the most meritocratic way, in for people that rely more heavily on their technical skills than soft skills.
Sure you can succeed with almost any majors, but poor people don't have the luxury of trying their odds with marketing themselves.
With a tech job, you can more heavily rely on showing your skills instead of marketing yourself.
Of course there are overlaps, but at the entry level you can fully get in by skill alone and almost no marketing.
Someone in the humanities that want a marketing or product job need to present themselves well immediately. Tech you can cruise by for a short bit with just skills alone.
Just see how I ramble on above. This isn't going to pass as someone in product or marketing, but I'm in tech so people put up with it because I know my shits and they need me to do the work. >

Except tech people/programmers aren’t writers and aren’t the best marketers. Marketing needs interpersonal and communication skills at a different level than what engineers can provide. It’s why roles like product managers exist. When I say marketing I don’t mean self marketing. I’m talking about the Marketing division, which is one of the major avenues of business for tech companies. 
If you’re talking about entry level programming Va entry level marketing, that’s a maybe. Most people I know in marketing started straight out of college and moved up really quickly. It’s just a different pathway to success and in my opinion has the same velocity of success as programming. >

Yes, exactly. I'm not disagreeing with you. We do need these other fields as well, but those soft skills are hard to market because you don't show hard results in an interview as easily.
People do succeed in these fields, don't get me wrong, and we do have great pay for marketing, product, design, writers, etc... but these fields is different from tech in that your entry process is a lot about marketing yourself and finding a way in.
You can't show your skills as easily for a product role. I have seem interview for product roles and it is very much a test of communication and organiziation skills, which is presented purely by talking and marketing yourself in the interview.
For tech, it is closer to a trade in that you literally show your hard skills and either you get it or you don't. There isn't as much, not that there is none, of a subjective measurement.
And again, we are talking about statistics. We simply just have to go with the number of people that got into their field after college.
Of course there are people that go straight into their field from marketing or w.e, but what majors have the best statistics for that?
Some people want the best odds, for those people we should show them the odds and let them decide.
If someone feel strongly about marketing, business, english, or theater, they should go for those after knowing the odds.
You are simply considering what you observed instead considering what's the entire population observe. >

If the marketing jobs require marketing yourself it seems the system is working correctly. I don't think tech roles are as quantifiable as you think or the management ones as nebulous, I recruit for both similarly >

Not everyone ends poor with humanitarian career path, but statistically significant part. It’s not to shame humanitarians, it’s an advice of much simpler life. You can be mediocre in tech and still be okay. But you need to be beyond excessive to feed your family on majority of humanitarian path >

That's blatantly not true. Economics is a part of the humanities. Psychology is a part of the humanities. Foreign language is a part of the humanities. All of these fields can make serious bank. 
People think of history, philosophy, and art history when they think of the humanities and its a gross misrepresentation. >

It's rare that people who major in those actually go into those fields though. Econ majors don't become economists. The closest they go is maybe logistics, but they pretty much go anywhere most of the time (that was my major and my career path now has 0 to do with econ). Most psych majors don't become psychologists. They also go into just any field (my wife is an example of that). And foreign language people also almost never become translators.
These are all over-saturated majors. I think the real root of this issue is not that no one wants needs jobs in those fields but instead that most jobs out there are not in any field at all. Most jobs are either very generalist or so specific to the details of the job that they don't need any major. >


It's rare that people who major in those actually go into those fields though.

That's neither here nor there. Your original argument is people who go into humanities are going to struggle to feed their families. 
What they choose to do with the degree is their personal choice. It doesn't mean the degree itself is the cause. I got my degree in psychology, and I work in finance. It's actually a huge part of the reason my company hired me. >

I didn't say humanities major people struggle to feed their families. >

Oh you're not the original person I replied to. My bad. >

Even if you're talking about the original poster, he basically said you need to be exceptional in humanities versus mediocre in another field. Not that nobody could feed their families in humanities. >

And I disagree. You don't need to be exceptional in the humanities to feed your family. That's the entire point I made. A humanities degree does not mean you have to be amazing to make enough money. >

But your whole point was that you didn't work in humanities. You went into finance. Which is possible, but far easier with a business degree. Your degree was mostly meaningless to your field. >

That's...my point. Humanity degrees are incredibly versatile and offer you a lot of different career paths. What you choose to do with said degree is on you, not the degree. 
Also no? My psych degree is invaluable when it comes to finance. I can assess my clients risk aversion far more accurately than my co-workers, which is the first thing you should be doing with any client. I am aware of cognitive biases that can have a huge impact on your return, something none of the business/finance majors I work with were aware of. I can understand my clients' needs and tailor their investments to match far more accurately, too. Like I said, my employer was happy I had a psych degree and saw the value in it. >

I'm so tired of tech people looking down on the rest of us. Like excuse me? No one would even buy your product if the English major wasn't marketing it. 
Apple, arguably one of, if not the most successful tech companies in the world, got to that position because of marketing, not because they were so much better than everyone else. 
Teslas cars are above average at best, and for about a five year period, they were the most desirable car in the world for tech bros because of their marketing. 
Get the fuck off your high horse people. >

Thank you. Literally every Reddit thread about careers is "go into tech/engineering!" >

The financial difference between tech and everything else is not so big when considering the purchasing power of the regions where the highest-paid tech positions are (it's still high, but not tha much). Other fields such as finance, management, law, medicine etc. also perform well in terms of money. I think you can become financially successful in almost any field, though. Being a plumber or a human rights activist is not seen as profitable, but if you rise enough and/or start your own business, you can do pretty well.
I believe tech is cool because it grows rapidly and is not as conservative as other high-paying fields. So, more people rise earlier in their career, which would be hard in mature fields such as law or medicine. But you do what you like. I chose marketing over tech because I simply like it more. >

You can make a lot of money as a plumber though >

You can. Trades are great. But as someone who did a trade and then later engineering, I can tell you the engineering pays (inc. bonus/equity) a lot more. You can’t compare the best plumber to a mediocre engineer. Compare like for like. 
And exclude business owners as that is a different type of job and comes with a lot of risk your typical engineer doesn’t have to take. Guess you could compete business owning plumbers with business owning engineers. >

Almost all medical fields that require a lot more education. In the US, doctor and dentist require 8 years of school minimum and that’s before residency. >

A lot of tech jobs do pay very well and if you have an aptitude it's kind of a great fit. >

As someone working in IT: if everyone would switch to IT that would be a nightmare. Not everyone is able to do it and obviously we (currently) need more jobs than just IT. That being said: there are some degrees that are kinda pointless (especially in the US where everything has to be a degree even if it‘s just slightly harder than flipping patties at McDonalds). But yeah, not everyone can code and not everyone should code. We‘ve got more than enough buggy and vulnerable software. Plus if people start anything they‘ll usually overestimate themselves which will lead to even more issues. There‘s nothing wrong with getting a degree in medicine etc. And while quite a few jobs will be automated they‘re currently still useful. But then again… some degrees aren‘t. And I don‘t really know why they‘re still offered at universities. And those degrees tend to be a part of liberal arts / hunanities. >


And I don‘t really know why they‘re still offered at universities

Maybe because you go to university to study something you're interested in, not for a job training. Sometimes it's connected, but it doesn't have to be. Though I get why Americans would think that, since apparently getting a degree is very expensive there.