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Can a Four-Year Degree in Any Hard Science Realistically Get You a Good Job? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've long toyed with a mid-life pivot into a different field. Mostly, I lean towards IT as the most practical for me, but I love the idea of finally studying a hard science, which I grew to love, but never really got a good formal education in.

I've heard/read, for example, that there aren't necessarily tons of astrophysics jobs out there, so if you only have a bachelor's degree, you might have a tough time. I don't even know that this is true, but I use it as an example.

What are the hard science fields that would be the opposite of this? I could imagine there might be a lot of Chemistry-related jobs, for example, maybe? But I have a hard time imagining what you could do with a pure Physics degree (without also focusing on Engineering or something supplementary)? Would Biology get you anywhere by itself?

Or is it just the hard truth of all hard sciences that you're pretty much worthless with just a four-year degree, from a job perspective?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yeah, then you can figure something out I'm sure. What is your background? If you can bring past experience "with you" to some extent, you'll have a much easier time, even with just 2 years of education behind you. Everybody shits on hires fresh out of college.

This is the part where I make a disclaimer that I'm not exactly a career rolemodel, I just hear a lot of talk and know people from all kinds of backgrounds. And read the statistics on things.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My background isn't really related to science. I got a degree in Broadcast Media, then worked mostly in Politics and Marketing/Communications. So I'm not sure a ton of credits will transfer, but I'm hoping to get an idea across a spectrum of possibilities.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Hmm. Well, if you do go IT, you could look for a UI/UX (user interfaces/experience) role where they might see that as an asset. Or maybe do marketing analytics - anything math heavy could potentially get you into that. I don't even mean college credits, I mean job experience on your resume (since you were worried about finding a job afterwards) - it's just as important in non-academic hard science as in other disciplines.

The academic credits are another thing, though. Hard science education can be pretty demanding, and the drop-out rates in some of them - like engineering - are sky-high. Then again, professors say older students almost always do well.