First of all, let me say I have nothing–I repeat–NOTHING against marketing, or any other intended major or specialization.
I googled “why marketing is a useless major” to confirm the theory, which I keep hearing all around me, that having a marketing degree is USELESS. Here are some responses (each paragraph is a separate response):
You get a job in fields with “soft” job requirements like marketing by either attending a name-brand university or thru having had internships (paid or unpaid). It would be nice if we lived in a world where everyone was looked at fairly, but we don’t. Kids from Stanford, Ivies, etc. are going to have a leg up for jobs in areas like Marketing because employers feel like they’re taking less of a chance when they hire someone already certified as being at the top by virtue of getting accepted to schools like that (and heck, they might have even learned something while there!). For the rest, resumes with Marketing majors are a dime-a-dozen. To stand out you need to have practical experience so that they think that you know what the job really entails, and so they can call your internship supervisor and have them rave about what a wonderful job you did.
Agree. I have been a marketing communications professional for 25 years, for technology companies. When there is a corporate takeover, merger, or downsizing, the FIRST fired are the marketing people. Choose a “hard” major.
clearly the only useful major is engineering and everything else is trash
I agree that every college major is completely useless. Engineering, business, science…none have a single bit of relevance to anything in the real world. The average engineer these days is only going to use their degree to fix their kids bike. Chemistry? Might be helpful when you’re making another mix drink to feed your raging alcoholism that developed as a result of the lack of employability. Physics? Med school? All of them are dead fields. College is pointless…everyone should drop out.
And my favourite:
If you insist on staying in school, I recommend majoring in basket weaving and quilting. At least it gives you a product to sell. I think that’s going to be my new major.
Basically, lots of sites and posts I’ve come across have recommended getting a “hard”, or a quantitative, degree since it gives you a specific skill set and shows how you would be an actual asset to the company. Marketing and entrepreneurship, to name a couple, are very “airy-fairy”, broad specializations with no real, hard skills (however it could be argued) to show your skillset, so companies are more reluctant to invest and take a gamble on someone with “real world common sense”.
It all depends on what you’re into, basically. Whether you want a guaranteed job, like most people who intend to specialize in accounting, or because, somehow, you absolutely love adding up numbers and balancing equations. Personally, I f*cking hate accounting (I hate pretty much all business courses–the intro ones mostly); however, given the job situation it would not be a bad idea for me to at least start out in accounting or finance or the like.
THAT IS if i get the 72% or whatever average I need. Damnit.
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