TL;DR - Go to college for whatever you want but be very informed about the outcome you want, versus the outcome you'll realistically get. Consider the price, time and potential debt you'll take on to do it. Ask yourself if you can learn these things outside of college. Ask yourself if you can learn these things while also doing a different degree? Ask yourself what skills you'll take away from this degree you can use to add value to a company, individual to make a living.
Josh, you should collaborate with The Stradman. He's a car youtuber who lives in Utah and he also has an interest in planes. He's currently working on getting his pilots license. Would be sick to see you two in a video together!
"Consider the price, time and potential debt... if you can learn these things outside of college" (EXACTLY )^10 I'm all for universal free education -- in places like Western Europe it seems to work very well, increasing quality of life and happiness. But it makes sense to limit this to reasonably high benefit/cost majors. This typically leads to endless protest from non STEM majors. There is some risk of not making a good benefit/cost analysis in determining 'approved' majors. But the risk is of not making an accurate analysis. Not the reality that some majors have low benefit/cost. Fine if you like art, drama, 'basket weaving' and/or the 'soft' sciences. But the benefit /cost of these degrees to society, is much lower than STEM. Still, It's thunderously infuriating to watch innumerates with communications/international relations/ psychology / political science/ sociology degrees, falsely claiming they needed college for these skills, and that they're magically more creative and human than the STEM degreed.
exactly. Kids going into college need to be well informed of the major(s) they are entering into and the jobs that are *actually* available to them at the end.
@@joefraser855Which is your country? BTW That's true. Connections in Multinationals can get you high paying job even if your degree is not related to it... I have seen that so many times
If your parents are rich you don't need to learn skills to find a job, either you will never have to work or you can start in your parents company. Just study anything to satisfy your parents 👍💸
I studied at history faculty in Lyceum, and one day our teacher asked her alumni who just graduated from International Relations to promote us the course. When I asked him what he will do after his degree he said: “Basically I am a guy who knows everything, but unable to do anything”. I felt that.
"Basically I am a guy who knows a little about everything"* there, I fixed it for him. Being able to draw from a tiny bit of knowledge of any given topic is not nearly as useful as actually learning a couple of topics really well.
Lol if you want to work in international relations work you generally need a degree in international relations... The oversimplification in this video is insane. The argument seems to boil down to college is stupid because you can learn things on your own time. Could you have a more "no duh" take? The degree is just a way to prove to other people you're qualified. I'm not going to hire you to work at my NGO because you swear to me you've studied lots of international relations topics. You need a degree. The world is unfair. Plenty of people get college degrees they will never use. This isn't a reflection on college or the chosen field of study. It's a reflection of that person's choice and access to opportunities. International relations is a very specific field of study and there are only really jobs available in DC and NYC. You would need to know that going in or else you probably won't find work related to your degree. Also, are you really using college degree promotion intro videos to make an actual argument? Everyone knows they are surface level and aren't going to go into any of the complexities. I guess it makes sense this guy would have such stupid takes since he's obviously a "take my course" grifter taking advantage of idiots on the internet who want a shortcut to get rich quick. You want to know a universal factor among international relations majors? They wan't to make the world a better place. That is the entire point of the field of study you vapid losers. Who cares about "working at Google" when the world is on fire and there are active wars and genocides. The field of international relations teaches you how to participate in the international institutions that are working to do literally everything good humans do in the world.
That s not really true...i mean, I am studying political science and international relations and some exams seems to be useless, and If I could I wouldn’t do, but I can’t go back,or change subjects, however, I can say that others are not. Probably this concept could be applied to every degree out there
This actually happened to my friend who got a minor i IS-- she goes, I was relying on getting a job in tourism. She has an undergrad degree now and is working at a worse grocery store than I did when I was in high school.
The college I went to had an Equestrian Studies program where you can learn to ride horses competitively. $50,000 per year...to ride horses...and they don’t even provide the horses.
i got my bachelor's in IR... i remember how my teacher told us once "IR is the college dregree that will teach you how to hunt dinosaurs, you'll spend 4 years of your life learning how to hunt them, how they work, how they think... until you leave college and you realize THERE ARE NO FUC**** DINOSAURS! So what do you do ? 1- You get another degree; 2- you are so good at arguing that you convince people they need you to hunt dinosaurs for them. or 3- You teach others how to hunt dinosaurs"
I mean if you're not from the US then ya I could see this being the case. Most other countries have no major "foreign relations industry". If you are from the US then you're teacher isn't very smart and I would probably disregard what he has told you. My friends and I here in DC go on big dino hunts everyday and we come back with T-Rex steaks lol. Just last year my company and our IR degrees helped reduce trade costs at the Columbian border by nearly 100 million USD a year. Used to take truckers up to 3 weeks to move through border controls. Thanks to some people with IR degrees, the process has been simplified and now trucks can move through the border much more quickly thanks to the one stop shop measures we suggested and funded.
@@HelloThere-xx1ct hi, I lived in US for my first 5 years, and I probably have double citizenship because of that, now I am living in Turkey. I will probably comeback to US after university, is US really good for IR? I will study IR in English, it is necessary in there, so I will fix my bad grammer and other parts I'm not good in English. What is the other languages useful generally? Is Turkish or Azerbaijani useful? Or it is better to know Spanish or German( I have learned German a little bit in high school but I think German is harder than Spanish mostly) ?
Over here in Peru this is the go-to "career" for the ones who want to go to uni but don't know what to study. It's one of the most popular and also the one with the highest rate of unemployment among their graduates along with Business Admin
The other career is Social Communications and Journalism. They dream to work on a newspaper, news agency or a TV network when they have a severe crisis in the fake news era, the internet and lack of trust.
Getting an actual internship at the UN is a joke. I would love to see you make a video on it. The UN internships are unpaid, you also have to pay for travel, accommodation and food. I live in the UK and when I looked to apply, the only open positions were in Austria and South Korea and yet the UN expected you to take care of the plane tickets, visa issues and look for an accommodation yourself. Meanwhile they expected you to work unpaid, full-time for a series of months. It is a complete joke!
What's the joke? Nearly all internships in the US worth having are unpaid or severely underpaid. It's the nature of the game and has nothing to do with the value of the internship. Additionally, there is a ton of free money out there to support you in internships if you look. Like everything in life it is what you make of it. Somehow I don't think the UN missed you.
I don't think it's a waste of time for everything, my dad did a master's in international relations and s bachelor's in political science. He was a diplomat, though embassy security RSO, so it relied more on work experience. These types of government jobs often require a degree, so if you have a solid career plan it's not a waste. Im studying in Europe where it's a few thousand euros s year. Listen bro, what you're missing is many jobs require college degrees, so yes they can learn these skills on their own but without a degree nobody is going to hire them
@@stuart4341 oh its in Poland. When i was researching abt Poland i came across few videos that said if you're a non EU student it will take a much longer time to get student visa converted to work visa and you cannot do any work at that time. That's why I'm apprehensive about Poland
The problem is diplomat job are very limited. But there are thousand people that graduate with international relationship degree each year alone. So if you don't have an experience nor a connection it's almost impossible to get a job with this degree.
@@Fauzanarief-n7i Idk about your country, but in the US it's not limited. US embassies can have upwards of 500 American employees. There's probably around 450 American embassies and consulates around the world with probably about 250 employees on average. That's 112,000 people. Remember the embassy needs security, nurses, event organisers, managers, IT specialists, and many others. They work in around 3 year cycles, so after the rotation is over they go back to DC for other work so in total it's likely over 250k people. If you're from Andorra, which has only 5 embassies abroad perhaps your employment opportunities are limited.
Alright I need to step in here. (I'm an MA-IR graduate from a top tier school for context) 1. This video looks bizarre. Most legit IR programs don't advertise this way. 2. I agree that a BA in IR doesn't make much sense and I totally agree that the MA-IR is the much better way to go. 3. IR is for VERY specific career paths. If you want to be a foreign service officer, work at a DC think tank, work at an inter-governmental or INGO, work at DoS or USAID this degree coupled with a WELL KNOWN school will easily get you a REALLY good job after grad school. I would say easily 95% of my cohort all found jobs directly after grad school with the majority of those jobs being in the federal government or an inter-governmental org. And btw, my cohort was not a bunch of lazy rich kids. We all worked our asses off, slept in the office countless nights, worked on consulting projects with real world consequences. A decent IR program will have like 2 theory classes and then ALL the rest of the classes are advanced stats, advanced economics, coursework with real world practitioners who literally teach you the internal frameworks of how for example the World Food Program works (WFP recruits alot of folks from good IR programs btw). 4. The UN internship is NOT a joke. It's competitive for a reason. And the job offers alone afterwards easily make up for the unpaid internship. It's like Harvard, just having it on your resume zooms you past other people. BUT, even if it gets you job interviews afterwards you still have to actually KNOW how to do the job. You can do policy analysis at the UN but then have an advanced stats exam (literally an EXAM not a silly test) when you apply for a job somewhere after. (FYI, you need to take advanced stats and other related courses in most legit IR programs). So you need to actually know what you're doing. 5. Also, many people misunderstand the UN recruiting process because they don't take the time to actually understand it. It's far easier to get UN internships abroad and have ALOT more serious projects and tasks. Many many folks I know have done UN internship (in Uganda for example) > directly going into a project management or program officer position for a big INGO like Save the Children > Director track for same org in DC or directly in the Department of State. Also, if you excel in your IR program you can sit for the PMF exam DURING grad school and doing well on that exam essentially gets you right into the state department. But it's NOT an easy exam and like anything else you have to work and study hard and earn that fellowship. 6. In sum, an MA-IR is what you make of it. But I can assure you that any program worth a grain of salt will throw you out of the program quite quickly if you don't pull your weight. IR is ALOT more than just learning about other countries and geography. It's literally about learning the tangible day to day work of state craft and the advanced skills required to know what the hell you're doing when you go to work at a global institution. It's designed for folks who want to be practitioners, not dream about theory all day. 7. I'm actually not upset at all with Josh and completely understand where he's coming from. There ARE alot of idiots out there and there are alot of programs that are deceiving. I just want people to know that there's more to the REAL IR than what is commonly thought of it. Thanks for listening this far, folks!
@@gerardmonteiro483 Hi there, so the masters is better because it's intensive and straight to the point. You learn to be a practitioner and learn tangible real world skills. I would say so long as you've already worked in business, finance, public affairs, business analyst, any kind of math/data or M.B.A. type background but need to learn the very specifics of how to run global humanitarian logistics or work in any kind of high level intergovernmental organization, then the MA-IR is good for you. Folks with experience in the private sector already have a head start before the MA-IR. It's also really good for Veterans with similar experience who want to work at the policy level or get more info the executive leadership skills, etc. An example of what you'll learn is how to run the unique global logistics during a famine or how to get medical teams into Syria safely 1 day after bombs went off. Or you might learn how to deal with high level negotiations (think G-8 summit or a similar large scale multilateral governance events). These jobs use sophisticated and complex frameworks you won't learn working a regular office job. That's why you to sit with, for example, the former head of the World Food Programme and they walk you through the details of how to run these large scale programs efficiently and safely. Again, only people wanting to get into these very specific types of jobs should go for the MA-IR.
Thank you very much for explaining it this way. You really reassured me! I am currently in a French high school and specialised in history geography, geopolitics and political science as well as English and regional literature with of course all the other course that we normally take. And I recently applied for a bachelor in politics and international relations so I was wondering if u could tell me if I did the right choice, in terms of workload social life and other things that we could stress about haha Thank you for your time!
@@professorudd1363 Would you recommend a BA-IR for someone trying to work for an intelligence agency like DIA? I'm a Veteran who already has intelligence experience.
I love these videos, even as someone with a BA in Marketing and an MBA. Everything you're saying is true. Majority of these degrees are totally useless.
@@hecatrice2064 it’s a very likely scenario if you train on the internet and generate your own experience beforehand through a personal project. I’ve done it
The whole thing is a vague mess of fancy pansy words for normies to interpret a deeper meaning that doesn't exists... *But don't worry once you get the degree you can think of the deeper meaning of how you're gonna get rid of that debt.*
I majored in psychology to then go be a psychologist. I elected against social services due to the low pay and value, and now I have a $30k piece of paper and I work in the legal dept. Don’t be me .
I considered psychology in the past but after doing research about the pay & difficulty of finding a job I went the computer technology route. I hope you find your path if you’re looking to do something else one day
M8 it's called a student loan. They are very very easy to get and they charge no interest for a billion years. But keep telling yourself that this loser on youtube is going to help you become more successful. Couldn't you just learn everything in this video and his courses on your own? What a waste of time and money just like stooopid college
@@HelloThere-xx1ct Go in debt to go to a school to *maybe* find a job to pay off your debt. Nah. Go to the military for a few years, make money, get experience, and free tuition after. Yeah.
Well... I'm actually studying International affairs at the university of St. Gallen... Most of the people i know (who studied IR) work for the government, for consulting agencies, marketing, HR, bank, npo, ngo and so on... But i also know some people who got an additional degree in economics alongside their degree in IR to have better chances in the job market. In addition to that, the fees for our unis in switzerland are not high in comparison to the US or UK (would never pay this amount of money just for a degree) so students here don't get into depth (never heard of a person who got into depth just for their degree and no, i'm not a rich kid but middle class) but i agree that MUN's are a complete joke. So with all what i explained above; me personally, I'm glad i chose this major as my aim is to work for an NGO, NPO or the government later. So i guess it's the right choice for me. But i'm also learning to code rn and adding more languages to my resumee bc can't hurt right? 😉
Agree. This whole existential crisis about the importance of degrees is more relevant in countries where going to university is very expensive (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, etc). That and the potential danger of automation.
people don't realize the importance of a university environment (or campus), being around smart, motivated people., Higher educations are not just about getting the "right skills" for the market...Europe has done education right :) I guess entering the job market as 18-19 years school graduate is even worse. Who the hell know at the age, what you want from life. So for smart kids, I would say is always better to go to uni at least for bachelor :)
@@victor-536 going to University in Canada is not expensive overall im doing a master in international relations for about 6k and it a reknown program but for the US and other countries you may be right
My brother graduated from Boston University with a bachelors in international relations and minor in Eastern European studies and speaks 8 languages. He works and make a great salary. The point is there is a lot of layers in a degree but depends on how you use it.
@@Ufu4847 Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities). PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
Don't ask your professors what you can do with your humanities or social science degree. The only career most of them have ever known is academia; they have no idea what the work world looks like outside of the university.
As an IR person, this is true. My professors were pushing me to get into academia like crazy, I didn't want to do that kind of structured research and teaching that they were doing
Same can be said for most business degrees except Accounting/Finance. I studied marketing and I do not use ANYTHING they taught me in college. Everything that I use - Adobe Suite, Google/Facebook Ads, SEO, Excel, Printing, Photography, Filming; I learned everything on my own.
I have a degree in Finance with a specialty in “risk management” and I learned more from learning in my reading. AFTER I graduated. Back when I graduated high school, going to college was just what you did because we were told that “employers wanted to see you could finish a degree” or something along those lines. So a lot of my friends just got degrees in anything, like sociology and are doing nothing with them.
@@jellyfishi_ True because they know those jobs that are in demand. There are a lot of people graduating with useless degrees thinking they'll end up in this amazing job that pays extremely well, that's not how the world works. The jobs that are in demand are sure to get you somewhere but getting your degree without making research on what jobs there are in demand in your town/city then it's worthless and you'll end up having a hard time.
@@jellyfishi_ Yeah but how is that working out for countries like India. Everybody there is forced by their parents to become an engineer, and its caused the industry over there to be over competitive and to pay extremely low. Being a software engineer (or any kind of engineer) over in India is becoming less and less worth it because everybody is becoming one. Thats what happened to degrees in the first place. Back in the day communications degrees were worth it because nobody had them. Its supply and demand. Soon trades will be all the boom and then it will switch back to degrees again and back and forth.
Got my degree in Finance too. I’ve learned so much more on my own and from trading than my professors ever taught. College is pretty useless in my opinion.
@@jellyfishi_ yes true, but the thing is asian parents expect you to do those careers and not nurture your love in them, because they tend to work all the time. So you end up a blank sheet of paper who gets good grades by the end of high school.
Well, the course content/program is important for the type of job you can land as an IR major. For exemple, if your program has a good dose of history, geography and writing, you can get a job as a journalist. But besides that, below are the types of jobs that I have seen IR majors hold. 1.They can work as project managers for peacebuilding orgs or human rights orgs. 2. They can work as researchers or assistant researchers in universities and other types of academic or political institutions. 3. They can work for foreign ministries (as people in charge of trade commissions, cooperation departments, advisor to ministers, etc). 4. A lot of International relations degree holders aim to work in embassies (as embassadors, visa officers, cultural affairs leaders, etc.) 5. They can be in charge of travel and mission protocols for members of the government. But a masters' degree is definitely needed for those that aim to work for the UN.
They really tell you in college prep that you should get a degree in something you're passionate about. Nah. That's Big College manipulating you. When I learned this at age 20ish, it changed my life. Get a degree in something useful that you're good at and don't hate. I say this as someone who almost majored in English or history because I LOVE both of those topics. I ended up getting a degree in something that advanced my career, and while I work, I listen to history podcasts and I spend my lunch break writing novels. I can guarantee I've retained more knowledge from self-study than I ever did in college.
I studied international relations. I was promised to work in government, diplomacy, embassies, consulates, EU parliament, NATO, UN, etc. My first job marketing lead specialist in tech company, my second job administrative assistant, my third job insurance verification specialist in the clinic, my fourth job account manager in airlines catering company, my fifth job events coordinator, my sixth job administrative assistant/project coordinator. This didn't happened because I'm stupid or lazy. This happen because the 4 years of my international relations degree didn't teach me any skills. I knew nothing about finances, economy, business, management etc. All I knew was international law, international affairs, sociology, psychology, statistics, history, geography, English and broken French. Stay away from that faculty if you don't want to struggle like I do.
I think the problem is you didn’t quite have a direction for what you wanted to do with the degree. It’s pretty good for government, NGOs and for those going onto further study.
If your original plan was to prioritize finances, economics, business, and management, you should've opted for an international business degree. The subjects you learned are for the career paths they promised you. You weren't lazy or stupid, you just chose the wrong major.
I agree with everything Joshua said here. 100% Some ppl dont even get that, some degrees dont make sense at all. Education become the business, they are just selling you dream about the career. Personal traits more valuable today.
I still don’t understand financially ruining yourself to “figure out what your interests are” 😂 Like take that money, buy a plane ticket and live somewhere other than home for 3 months and you’ll probably get way more value out of doing something like that
Yeah but then you won't be able to read things apparently. Plus you won't have a really expensive piece of paper that says you can read things. Plus you won't have a ton of debt to pay back so you won't have anything to complain about to your fellow coffee artists so you'll feel left out of the conversation, and that would make you feel sad 🙁. Plus you'll never get to feel that illusion of grandeur that you are smarter than you really are, and that won't make you feel happy 😁 for no apparent reason, and that is sad 🙁.
@@lennysmileyface well, I'd say there's an exception. If your degree comes with a license, it may be worth it. For example, I'm a nurse. But I can't practice nursing without a license. I can't get a license without taking the NCLEX. I can't take that test until i get the degree. But this is not how the system is explained to students. It's usually marketed as a package deal. If you get a medical degree but fail your MLE, your degree is likely worthless. It's criminal how these education advisors fail to disclose how one makes money with an education. Each path is different and rarely guaranteed. A license is as close to a guarantee as you can get. But even then, the actual school you choose is largely irrelevant. Is it accredited? That's all that matters. Yeah, keep kids unaware, that sallie mae money keeps flowing in. It's criminal.
@@Shannon_Vlogs I mean, that goes for every career you're gonna take, networking is crucial. I'm assuming you're referring to nepotism and knowing people that are involved in politics.
In most countries you won’t be getting that job unless you pops works high up in a government position. One of the reasons why AOC was mixing drinks after she graduated
Young men and women, I graduated with a double major in political science and international relations back in 2012. Right in the middle of the Great Recession! It led me to teach abroad in Asia where I met my wife. I don't regret teaching and traveling through my twenties, but my bank account does. Get a job based on the type of lifestyle you want and save that money! Or, be a frugal nomad and make that cash in your thirties.
This is the realest shit. After high school I had no idea what I wanted to major in, so when I got to university I just chose what seemed like a "doable" route and started taking the required classes for international relations. My grades got lower with every term because I just didn't care about the material and gave minimal effort just to pass. Looking back now it's clear that my lack of self-knowledge made me major in something that I wasn't deeply interested in and that I could've studied on my own, so I ended up being apathetic and wasting away four previous years. So now after bouncing around jobs for a few years, I'm finally sitting down to study to make up for all the studying that I DIDN'T do during university. I'm one month into The Odin Project so far and hoping to work in web development. Funny that since I've been out of work and surfing the web a lot I've delved deeper into science and engineering topics (and the scientific way of looking at things) and find myself fascinated. I really regret not applying myself harder in math and sciences in grade school, but hindsight's 20/20. All that matters is what we do today. Skillset is everything, and learning an applicable stack of skills (especially in STEM) should be the only reason why we dish out ten of thousands $$$ universities. Otherwise, the internet provides equal or even better education for a lot less. Also, IMO if the degree has "studies" in its name, it's not likely to give you a set of applicable skills. TL;DR: Asian parents have a fair point. We hated the pressure they put on us but they just wanted us to apply ourselves to something that made us employable and contributing people of the world.
No, there really is not. It is a specialized field within political science. There are relatively few jobs within international organizations or in diplomacy that require a degree in IR. And these jobs are highly competitive.
That is some of the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard. Becoming a diplomat, and progressing in the role, is pretty dam easy with the degree - you do not need family connections. IR degrees are also pretty dam useful.
I dunno about your country but unless you are trilingual and had exemplary grades and 5+ years work experience in a related field there is no "easy" way into diplo service. IR is a journo degree for the most part - it can help with diplomatic service tho it's still highly competitive.
@@aniinnrchoque1861 Just apply to the FCO fast stream, you are know a diplomat. You don’t need fancy grades or being trilingual, you just need to pass some tests. The same applies for most countries.
@@hugosantos9081 Sure anyone can apply to be diplomat independently of their degree, but they wont be accepted...International Relations and Law are probably the best two fields to be a diplomat.
to be fair, I studied law at the university of St. Gallen (where the last dude studied) and everybody that studied international relations there that I know where employed right after graduation and making 100k+... BUT it‘s in Switzerland and the university is one of the most prestigious in the country, btw studying there costs 1.5k a semester, gotta love subsidized education
I guess it depends. I graduated with an IR degree. I also did the degree as a full time student in Tokyo, Japan, and later moved to South Korea for work, and got to visit a dozen other Asian countries, and got into banking in Honolulu, Hawaii with my Japanese language skills primarily catering to Japanese clients visiting Hawaii and ultimately made my way into government where I currently work for a Senator. I've been able to pivot multiple times with my degree (civilian contractor, banker, legislative analyst) but I can see how someone who wants to just "learn about another culture" is wasting their time.
@@I_Lemaire I put into it as much as I got out of it. People need to be able to master the subject they’re studying, not just earning a degree. If my goal was to work internationally with non-English speakers, it would make sense to grind at learning another language. It’s not much different from most US high school students taking 2-4 years of Spanish in high school and graduating barely being able to hold a conversation in Spanish. Because they’re doing it just to get a class out of the way, not to actually learn. Don’t get me wrong there are definitely some bogus degrees out there, but not every degree is worthless just because it isn’t IT. Just like anything else, to be one of the successful people you have to master what you’re doing.
I am a millennial who was sold a dream. Graduated into the Great Recession. Lost the house I grew up in. Im the only person in my whole family to earn a bachelor's so my mom who pounded college in my head since I was in diapers didn't know what to do after that. I had to figure out everything on my own with no guidance. So many questions I didn't even have enough information to think to ask. Today I'm starting over at the age of almost 34 because I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck when all my college friends are in the upper 5 figure to 6 figure range. It's so hard. If I ever have kids they literally aren't allowed to go to a university. Pick a trade unless you want to be a doctor.
I always complained going through school to my parents about how tough majoring in Software Engineering was for me, but man some majors really aren't worth it. Glad my parents encouraged me to push through and not switch out to one of these lackluster majors ...
3 роки тому+2
Yeah, that one's a bitch. I dropped out part way into the major, but still got the bachelor's. Honestly I still think I could get by without most of what I learned there, pulling from my hobby experience.
@ I'm in my first year of software eng bachelor's rn and it's tough man, I thought first year would be easy but I guess that only applies to arts. I'm not switching to something useless tho if I can't handle it, I'm gonna become a tradesman or some shit, but that's really my last last resort.
The university that I just graduated from, University of Missouri - St. Louis, has an IR Grad program which is very closely related Public Policy Administration. It’s like International Policy and business. It costs 24,000 per year. You have to choose a concentration in Geo-politics, International Business, and Applied Research. I did the Public Policy Administration Grad program with a concentration in Applied Research Analytics. I did that because it was skills based and you can learn to code and conduct research. So now I’m a public sector Data Scientist who can also conduct Geospatial analysis. Now, ask me if I have a job almost a year after graduation.
@@stellagyan6593 I have the luxurious opportunity as an independent contractor for DoorDash. 😂 who knew I could get two lucrative degrees in a DS field and be lucky enough to “run my own business.”
The topics are very important, but doesn't need 15,000 + people graduating from that topic every year. Students think they are special but I reality they are a drop of piss in an ocean with the same skills and knowledge as the 15,000+ who also graduated in the same degree. Before university, always weigh up the skills it can give you, and make sure you take opportunity of the professional qualifications, accreditation taught by the uni (I did 7 accreditations which have had a more impact to my career than my degree) and most importantly grow your network either internally or with organisations that visit.
This is hard to comment on. I got this degree at 22, fully intending to be a diplomat. I had a political awakening and realized morally I could NEVER work for any government. I bounced around from random business jobs for year to year, then finally became a self taught coder at 29. The people that want this degree have a great career if they can stomach it. I couldn't. That's my 2 cents.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
Diplomats are typically political appointments so it doesn't matter what degree you have, you'll never be a diplomat if you're not involved in a political party that can win government.
Pro tip: whenever a degree program claims to be "interdisciplinary" that program is a scam. To be interdisciplinary means you have to have an expert in multiple fields working on the same problem. You cannot be an expert in multiple fields with one degree and lacking years of work in both fields.
@Joshua Landry: Having a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Government myself, I can say that this degree is not designed to make you an expert in all the fields. It just gives you a higher level of expertise and education added to what your Bachelor’s degree was in. In my case, my Master’s degree, to be honest, is a joke. However, it gives me $3,000 dollars more a year at my job just for having it. That means that I’ve made over $60,000 dollars extra for doing jack shit while almost no co-worker of mine ever gets this bonus.
I have the same degree and I can truly testify that it is useless... anything they taught me about how politics work is not even remotely true...politics today are total theatre and things are not decided by politicians at all, they are nothing more than public relations between us and the people who run the show.
Yeah, that second part about the world has been driving me crazy and mad for the last couple of years... I feel like I need to do something about it, but I have no idea *what* 😩 And at the same time I'm wasting my life...
Exactly which is covered in a lot of theories and perspectives relevant to a contemporary education in IR or political science. Although it's common that far from enough time at all is spent on these, or that students levy them as some variation of 'postmodernist scum' when in reality they give you exactly the tools and analyses to navigate the theatre.
I almost got into international business degree, but them I asked myself “Why would a boss hire someone to travel and enjoy life, when he can do it himself”. Also, I did Model Unite Nation (aka wanna be UN). It’s nonsense and self pampering contest .
We had one in my high school, and as a Russian it sucks ass. Everyone has the same opinion on subjects, literary nothing unique, all the same arguments and everyone is a SWJ with a communist approach. They get to travel which is cool, but besides that you’ll be surrounded by robots and it will be extremely boring
I graduated in international relations and I always say it's useless and I wasted my life (some of my colleagues will swear by it for some reason). You learn a little bit about of bunch of stuff but you don't learn a lot about anything. Everytime I think about my 4 wasted years I just wish I could go back on time hahahaha so sad!!!!
When I was 16 ,I was so adamant about getting a political science degree and work in the UN but thank god when I turned 18 I changed my mind and got a Finance degree
I feel these stories of yours are more anecdotal then facts though and Maybe in your countries this is like that but lots of people who end up being diplomats have to study in this field Maybe only at the master level
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
This sucks. My oldest childhood friend just graduated with her bachelor's in international relations and told me now that she is trying to get into a master's program... In international relations 😟
@@jellyfishi_ she did get a scholarship in undergrad. I'm in the US though. Not 100% sure if that affects of getting a scholarship for a master's. Idk, I hope it works out for her.
We dont respect the autodidact and the polymath enough, who might be divorced from an institution. Read some philosophy, lift some weights, clean your room, maybe take someone special out for some ice cream.
Modern people have no respect for real knowledge, because it tells them that the modern world is regressive in basically every way except technologically. Just like in Brave New World, people care more about happiness and a sense of security than truth and beauty.
@@renegade1807 thanks. Words are like clothes - only wear the right ones for the right situation. Figure out a style, and you can wear the right ones without looking like a dork.
My god this reminds me of the time when I studied at university (I work in IT which the complete opposite of what I studied for - English philology). The funniest thing is only around 5% of the graduates work as teachers or translators and the rest do God knows what. Fun fact, many of the bachelors continued their studies and got a job as a university teacher, I guess the same thing goes for the international relations due to the nature of this placebo degree.
I had a date with a girl studying that. She told me she orders Uber eats multiple times a week, and that she hates looking at her bank account when rent is due cuz she usually barely has enough. So obviously she is financially smart and whatever business ends up starting will do well🙄
Don't listen to this man. You gain an amazing skillset from International Studies or IR and you can work for think tanks, work in the state department, continue onto law school etc. Its about networking and finding your niche. I am an IS and PS double major and I have a lot lined up for me already.
Love it! People think "international relations" will help them to work in the US embassy, lol! Wanna work in the embassy? You better have that nice connection.
lol. Love this 🤣😂 I have my bachelors in international relations. Minored in business. Just needed something to pass the time with as I figured out what I wanted to really do after the military. My business minor has been the most helpful, but I don’t regret studying international relations. It taught me to not trust anything the education system, government or msm says. Question everything.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
In this video, I will only agree to the point you made on how much it costs. Costs make it a worthless degree. Other than that, its actually a very necessary major and as someone coming from a country where we have a truck load of jobless engineers and computer scientists, I can attest that we need a lot of Political Scientists and International relations experts and lawyers to get rid of all those sanctions and hybrid lawfare my country continues to face. Trust me, we would have for our engineering skills to be of any use to the world. If only there was a conducive economy to support our skills with Entrepreneural opportunities and jobs.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities). PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
The #1 career mistake one makes is to go with what is popular or makes money. Many students not finishing up the major because do not suit them; many complete the program but hate their jobs and later quit or stuck not moving up the ladder; many drag to on the job for years while hated it then dropped out. My husband who LOVES computer, during most his waking hours he will read about computer related topics and has earned a lot of certificates also does well in his career. A good friend of ours went to an Ivy League, got hired to a top company and made great money in the beginning of his career, due to his lack of interest (going into this field because it was easy to get a job and makes good money), fairly soon he lost interest, dragging himself to work daily. He missed all the promotions, and finally he quit his dead-end job. Struggled many years of his life in a field he hates and unhappy daily. My advice is do what you like, but must function your career with a business sense,
I've seen enough BS firsthand, and I don't even think my experience was bad. My GD degree was basically a full CS degree with only about 1 class that actually taught anything about design and 2 hands-off classes for programming a game (basically an excuse for the college to charge us money to produce work we had no rights to that they will never use. Why? They charge us high tuition for a million wasteful things including putting a full adobe suit on every laptop. It would be far to sensible to allow us to save money by lowering tuition so we have the money to buy only what we needed for the artists, thus letting them maintain rights to their work.). At least I was able to double major into Applied Math & CS with a few extra math courses. I can only imagine how BS some of those programs can be elsewhere.
@@Keeki95 I heard somewhere that if you want to get into game design you should not get a game design degree. Study art, or study graphic design. Those will get you into that field. I saw while I was studying at Miami Dade College that they were building a whole part of of a new building specifically for game design. When I graduated a few years later I asked a friend of mine that studied something art related. He said that was a huge waste of money and time for anyone who picked that degree. Schools are literal businesses now. Rather than help students and prepare them for their futures. They convince them to take useless degrees just to collect FAFSA and money from them. Smh
Valid message! College is expensive and due diligence is needed before strapping yourself to debt for a degree that may not help you get where you want!
Clearly want to be a diplomat or politician of some kind but has no connections and doesn't want to start as assistant to a local bureaucrat. Plenty people not willing to put in the hard graft are also gullible enough to fall for degree presentations that make it seem like a shortcut but in reality they'll end up in the same positions as the people that have been working for a few years, just with hundreds of thousands of debt.
Serious kudos to Josh for covering this. Sadly, quite a few students/parents think that if a degree is offered, it must be worthwhile. In the last decade there are an increasing number of degree's and classes that appear to be offered solely to "fill seats". The college could care less about the future of a students once they've got their money.
I applied and got through with IR at university but I find no interest in it.....Now I'm changing to BA in Business Administration.. Do a degree in a field that's in demand and rare... also ensure you enjoy it.
@@NikisaSheen Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities). PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
These vids are so strange, you can literally teach yourself anything (i.e. you can easily learn code on your own time). The point of a degree is getting credentials, majors are meaningless 90% of the time
7:44 I used to study at Deakin, but not in international relation. It’s moronic Deakin calls it self ‘Worldy’ when they’re actually just a normal low ranking university.
Given that S. Jaishankar, an alumnus of JNU and widely considered one of India's most effective foreign ministers, pursued a major in International Relations, would this path be a good fit for people going this route?
My dreams are ruined after I did my degree. I thought I'd work for the UN or other NGOs and Embassies but didn't get hired at all. I'm lucky to be employed at McDonalds.
I am 30 years removed from college. Had successful career and just retired before 50years old. In all the classes I took in 4 years of college, only about a semester worth of classes had any real value to me. The schools use the term “rounded, diverse” to justify keeping you in school and spending insane amounts of money to get something that will have little or no value in you having a successful career. I did take course and other learning session after college but they were short or focuses and only on what I need to get better at what I need. Current system of higher education is broken and doing more harm than good now.
I ended up getting a B.S. in Political Science (with a focus on international relations" by accident while trying to game the tuition aid (getting an associates in criminal justice since it was the only thing that was interesting). It was pointless. I wanted a career in the State Department but they froze hiring right after I graduated. By the time they opened up I was already disillusioned. Also. This university advertisement is so awful and doesn't represent IR well at all. International Relations and politics is power. It's as amoral as corporate hell.
My recommendation if you want to study international relations is to add it on to your major as either a minor or a double major. On its own Intl Relations isn't very useful but it's a good supplement for other majors
@@leif_____8579 Econ, Finance, or business fields in general could be a good compliment to intl relations in my opinion. Along with that I'd recommend learning a critical language to really make the intl affairs classes worth it
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities). PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
I've studied IR for free and I somewhat agree with you, bc like half of the curriculum was pretty much useless, but the other half was languages and it gave me opportunity to learn Arabic and English and those skills are feeding me and my family. But your point still stands - we must focus on valuable skills. Big up
Went to school in Washington DC for BA in International Relations. Specialized in national security issues and east asia. The idea was to work in national security related agencies as an analyst. As it turns out, it's much easier to simply enlist in the military straight out of high school, become an Intelligence Specialist, get a degree while in the service, or immediately after as you transition into a defense contractor position immediately after your enlistment term. DC was a rat race of people going after master's degrees in international relations just so that employers would even give them a chance.
Nah I would say sorority girls go for communications. All the IR majors I knew were very career oriented and got internships on the hill but this is because I live in the DC area.
Lol I dated a girl who went to Pitzer which is like a sister school of Pomona. Trust me, a massive amount of what goes on at the colleges around there is a waste of time.
I finished half my BSc. in Computer Science, thought fuck that shit. Landed a job as an IT-consultant making 70k USD/year. Based in Scandinavia though, but still - you can do it. Formal education is for suckers, unless you need a license to practice.
My CS degree gives me PTSD to this day. I spent countless nights doing math proofs, programming compilers and dabbling into operating systems with no clear aim apart from finishing weird assignments. You know how much of that I used in the real world? Nothing. Zero. Nada. I did not learn a drop of real world web or app development and had to spend up to year after graduation to teach myself the stuff that employers actually want. I graduated with what people typically say is a practical degree and I still feel SCAMMED. If you can dive right into your job then do yourself a favor and skip the BS.
@@jameswolf2464 I felt the exact same way. I viewed my degree as more of a nuisance than anything else. When I landed my first student job, it only verified my thoughts: I am not using anything they are teaching me, and I must learn concepts as I need them, to solve problems. I would much rather solve real problems in the world, than wasting my time on a stupid institution, that does nothing more than stress me out, filling my head with "useless" crap. The topics themselves can be useful, but when needed.
@@jameswolf2464 and yet those of your classmates who develop compilers and write C++ and could mess with Linux Kernel code instead of CRUD apps in React or similar now command more respect and earn more. And that's not to mention system design or if any of your studies made it easier for you to learn other stuff. My professors were upfront. We had two programming languages thought officially C and C++ but were told to learn others as we went along but that our previous experience would make it easier to learn more. Eg. JavaScript callback functions are easier if you know C++ function pointers.
@@jhonshephard921 low-level C++ and kernel code pays more than Javascript? Where?! In your Stack Overflow wet dreams maybe😂😂. Them fullstack boys at big name companies outearn everybody by several digits lol. As for respect...spare me. Those goofs who do UI design at Google and Facebook get more respect than any compiler developer because you know...FAANG dude. The business world is a tough place. You could be the next Alan Turing but if you can't produce for the company nobody cares. Only colleges brainwash you into believing otherwise.
I have a problem with the argument that you can just learn this stuff on your own time. Sure, you can. Most people are not great and developing good ways of structuring their time and sticking to it. The formula gets even more complicated if you have to work a job. I myself am currently studying to get a master's degree in applied math. I could learn all of that math on my own time. I'm mathematically literate enough to pick up a math textbook and understand it if I want to. I can sit there and work out and think through what mathematical theorems are trying to say on my own but I'm not going to though because I'm terrible at structuring my free time. Its much more beneficial for me to be in an environment where I am externally accountable to something if I am going to learn something efficiently and a lot of other people are like that. Its like this: I'm also a musician and play guitar and have picked up a bit of keyboard too. I can learn musical skills on my own and I have learned many on my own through intuition and just what sounds good to me. Most people (including myself) are going to develop their skills a lot lot faster and more efficiently though if they have a teacher who is able to teach them guitar, piano, and music theory. Anyone can learn anything on their own technically. A teacher speeds up the process though because a teacher knows how to structure learning so that you learn what is important quickly and by learning fundamentals you can teach yourself more efficiently. A teacher can also give you feedback and is often aware of the pitfalls and mistakes that can be made (especially if you are new to the topic) in an area and can help you to avoid them. Most of the time, it takes not only good discipline but also a large amount of knowledge about a topic already in order to ACTUALLY learn a new thing. If you have never touched a musical instrument in your life, you are going to have a hard time learning music on your own. If you only know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you will have a hard time teaching yourself new math. This is because one of the things that comes with maturity in a topic is knowledge of things you do not know but the maturity in the topic gives you the tools you need not only to identify areas in the field where you are not knowledgable but also the tools you need to learn about these things if you need to. Like I said, you can give me probably any math textbook on any topic within math and if I really wanted to I could go very easily from knowing nothing about that math to being very proficient in it. That ability however, rests of literal decades of math education
I see your point but I think the difference here is that the skills you've mentioned are hard/defined skills where structure is practically required vs opened ended courses that the topics could be learned by inference from another degree or just interacting with people.
I disagree to a degree. You get out of college what you put into it. There are a lot of variables such as a persons interests, passions, desires, goals, finances, etc. For example - I have friends with International Relations degrees, some work in very prominent and high-paying roles. Others not so much. Two friends in particular have been wildly successful, more successful financially than most of my engineering friends. They also have a degree of power/influence that many in the STEM fields don't have. This is very useful. Similar to your video decrying Business Admin degrees. One of my best friends has that degree and is wildly successful running his own company and appearing on national TV several times and has made many powerful connections with influential folks. College in general is about learning a lot of things, more than just learning to work. It's about making connections, learning about yourself, and many other things. I would agree that college in America is quickly becoming a fleeting thought with most folks and rightfully so. Its become bloated, expensive, and faces a myriad of other issues so I'm not justifying the cost of it. To put this in perspective - I love to learn and spent eight years in college obtaining four degrees. While in college I started a software company that has now grown beyond my wildest dreams. I did this on my own dime starting off at a community college and eventually earning degrees from different state schools in civil engineering, social science, accounting, and economics. None of those degrees deal directly with my current career. I write code and manage people which, none of those degrees taught me. I learned on the side out of pure interest and curiosity. However, there have been countless things I've learned while in college that are very much applicable to my daily job and my life in general. How to multitask, communicate with people, write and speak effectively, etc. Most importantly I'd argue, I learned how to think critically about things. Not everyone has the same story as mine but that's not the point. The point is that if you apply yourself, stay humble, and work hard, you will learn about much more than just your desired profession and that knowledge will carry you into a better future. Even if, after you graduate, you realize you don't want to work in that field - you've learned something about yourself. At the bare minimum, you learned what you don't want to do! It would be unfortunate if you spent a lot of money and time and effort to get to that point but that's how it goes for many of us. Again, not defending the cost of college per-se, but I am very much defending many aspects of the entire university experience and if an international relations aspiration gets you there then so be it!
I agree with majority of the video, however unfortunately, at least in Australia, a degree in International relations or in a similar discipline is a pre-requisite for all non technical intelligence related jobs. Would only be worth if you can accepted under a pathway before Uni to have a guaranteed career at the end of your studies which happens quite a bit here.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I live in Morocco where there is only one university based on the american system that offers degrees in IS/IR. I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will choose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities). PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
I feel like most people get this degree without realizing the critical layer of extra work you have to do. I say this after having spent a lot of that time doing that extra work and it’s paying off. Getting my MA as we speak and getting ready to do some overseas volunteer work.
Your analysis leaves a lot to be desired. My mother graduated with an AB in International Relations from Stanford which she went on to use as the groundwork for a law degree from Georgetown. She became an international corporate attorney in the 90s soon after. It's a bit shortsighted to call IR degrees useless. As with any degree, employability depends on the competence of the student in his/her field.
@@HelplessGazellle Other possible career paths: - United Nations and affiliated orgs - Intelligence analysis (e.g. the NSA) - State department - Capitol Hill (committees) - Business-government relations - Consulting - Research institutes - Nonprofits - Banking etc. Truly, there are a lot of possible paths! If one is seeking to stay in the corporate world, it's great to pair an IR degree with a some economics, however.
In my country, the best diplomates are all Engineering graduates, especially from my institute. The IR graduates are all super frustrated that it takes the engineers around 4-6 months to cram through their entire 4-year syllabus before they sit for the Diplomat's entrance exam (which they all pass with flying colors BTW). Now these IR guys are asking for a full ban on all engineering graduates from the entrance exam. My point is not to flex, but to remind everyone that you do not need IR, social science degrees to flourish in these fields later. In any case, if you become part of the diplomatic core of any country, then Governments usually send you to complete your post-grad to top-tier institutes like Harvard Kennedy School or Fletcher School at Tufts before sending you on missions. Now if you can handle a Masters in IR/Public Policy without having gone through the undergraduate first, then those undergrad programs become useless by default.
so a lot of things can be self-taught but wouldnt u say its harder to get a job as a self-taught vs College bc HR really wants to see that degree paper?
Depends on the industry and position. You will not be able to get a scientist job without a degree because you can't prove you taught yourself cell culture, invitro assays, gene editing, etc. At home, plus lab equipment is so expensive that most people can't afford it anyway.
@@Ruffles2012 Well, it depends on the project, lab equipment is imo not that expensive for many projects, including gene editing ( a guy managed it on under 5k). Its definitely expensive for a dabbler but the idea is to develop skills which would benefit you. Assuming you arent reckless, it means you have a specific project, a plan and a list of things you need to do and learn to accomplish it.
![USELESS DEGREE - ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP [College Cringe ] #uselessdegrees](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KSb3lfO3Nbo/mqdefault.jpg)
![USELESS DEGREE - ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP [College Cringe ] #uselessdegrees](/img/tr.png)
TL;DR -
Go to college for whatever you want but be very informed about the outcome you want, versus the outcome you'll realistically get.
Consider the price, time and potential debt you'll take on to do it.
Ask yourself if you can learn these things outside of college.
Ask yourself if you can learn these things while also doing a different degree?
Ask yourself what skills you'll take away from this degree you can use to add value to a company, individual to make a living.
Are you on tinder or onlyfans?
Josh, you should collaborate with The Stradman. He's a car youtuber who lives in Utah and he also has an interest in planes. He's currently working on getting his pilots license. Would be sick to see you two in a video together!
Stupid course. The world doesnt work how they tell people it does anyway. Its all who is related to who. Secret Societies.
"Consider the price, time and potential debt... if you can learn these things outside of college"
(EXACTLY )^10
I'm all for universal free education -- in places like Western Europe it seems to work very well, increasing quality of life and happiness. But it makes sense to limit this to reasonably high benefit/cost majors. This typically leads to endless protest from non STEM majors. There is some risk of not making a good benefit/cost analysis in determining 'approved' majors. But the risk is of not making an accurate analysis. Not the reality that some majors have low benefit/cost. Fine if you like art, drama, 'basket weaving' and/or the 'soft' sciences. But the benefit /cost of these degrees to society, is much lower than STEM.
Still, It's thunderously infuriating to watch innumerates with communications/international relations/ psychology / political science/ sociology degrees, falsely claiming they needed college for these skills, and that they're magically more creative and human than the STEM degreed.
exactly. Kids going into college need to be well informed of the major(s) they are entering into and the jobs that are *actually* available to them at the end.
I think it's for rich hot people with connections to meet other rich hot people with connections
😂😂😂😂😂👌👌👌👌
@@joefraser855Which is your country? BTW That's true. Connections in Multinationals can get you high paying job even if your degree is not related to it... I have seen that so many times
That's exactly what it is
you just described ivy league concept.
If your parents are rich you don't need to learn skills to find a job, either you will never have to work or you can start in your parents company. Just study anything to satisfy your parents 👍💸
I studied at history faculty in Lyceum, and one day our teacher asked her alumni who just graduated from International Relations to promote us the course. When I asked him what he will do after his degree he said: “Basically I am a guy who knows everything, but unable to do anything”.
I felt that.
That’s how I felt after my liberal arts degree, but then I went on to computational linguistics
"Basically I am a guy who knows a little about everything"* there, I fixed it for him. Being able to draw from a tiny bit of knowledge of any given topic is not nearly as useful as actually learning a couple of topics really well.
Ah yes, a video about the biggest mistake of my life
F
F
F
F
F
I interact with people from different nations and cultures by playing CS:GO.
rush b
@@wunder1385 Don't stop.
That and War Thunder
Clyka byat
You mean with different slavs?
"This whole degree looks like a f*cking vacation."
Done.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂😂
On top of that it's pretty expensive 😅💸💸💸 with that amount of money I could go on vacation and buy a car 🚗
Lol if you want to work in international relations work you generally need a degree in international relations... The oversimplification in this video is insane. The argument seems to boil down to college is stupid because you can learn things on your own time. Could you have a more "no duh" take? The degree is just a way to prove to other people you're qualified. I'm not going to hire you to work at my NGO because you swear to me you've studied lots of international relations topics. You need a degree. The world is unfair. Plenty of people get college degrees they will never use. This isn't a reflection on college or the chosen field of study. It's a reflection of that person's choice and access to opportunities. International relations is a very specific field of study and there are only really jobs available in DC and NYC. You would need to know that going in or else you probably won't find work related to your degree. Also, are you really using college degree promotion intro videos to make an actual argument? Everyone knows they are surface level and aren't going to go into any of the complexities. I guess it makes sense this guy would have such stupid takes since he's obviously a "take my course" grifter taking advantage of idiots on the internet who want a shortcut to get rich quick. You want to know a universal factor among international relations majors? They wan't to make the world a better place. That is the entire point of the field of study you vapid losers. Who cares about "working at Google" when the world is on fire and there are active wars and genocides. The field of international relations teaches you how to participate in the international institutions that are working to do literally everything good humans do in the world.
That s not really true...i mean, I am studying political science and international relations and some exams seems to be useless, and If I could I wouldn’t do, but I can’t go back,or change subjects, however, I can say that others are not. Probably this concept could be applied to every degree out there
Alright let's do this! **Graduates with useless International Relations Degree and the world closes down so you just explore your own neighborhood**
Winning!! 😎
This actually happened to my friend who got a minor i IS-- she goes, I was relying on getting a job in tourism. She has an undergrad degree now and is working at a worse grocery store than I did when I was in high school.
Lol do you live in DC or NYC? If not, you really can't complain m8
How do you bold your typing?
@@ismeisme6441 You scream at the monitor while doing it.
This is a rich dudes degree, I can see that this dude travelled over 20 countries while studying.
The college I went to had an Equestrian Studies program where you can learn to ride horses competitively. $50,000 per year...to ride horses...and they don’t even provide the horses.
LMAO
Hahahahahahah
To be fair, they don't provide the airplane on pilot school
without the horses??? no no
@@dieg000n To be fair, being a pilot can make you a lot of money. Might as well feed the money to the horses for the horse degree
i got my bachelor's in IR... i remember how my teacher told us once "IR is the college dregree that will teach you how to hunt dinosaurs, you'll spend 4 years of your life learning how to hunt them, how they work, how they think... until you leave college and you realize THERE ARE NO FUC**** DINOSAURS! So what do you do ? 1- You get another degree; 2- you are so good at arguing that you convince people they need you to hunt dinosaurs for them. or 3- You teach others how to hunt dinosaurs"
You practically need to get the 2nd degree. If you are short on cash, this is a nightmare.
Phuck
I mean if you're not from the US then ya I could see this being the case. Most other countries have no major "foreign relations industry". If you are from the US then you're teacher isn't very smart and I would probably disregard what he has told you. My friends and I here in DC go on big dino hunts everyday and we come back with T-Rex steaks lol. Just last year my company and our IR degrees helped reduce trade costs at the Columbian border by nearly 100 million USD a year. Used to take truckers up to 3 weeks to move through border controls. Thanks to some people with IR degrees, the process has been simplified and now trucks can move through the border much more quickly thanks to the one stop shop measures we suggested and funded.
@@HelloThere-xx1ct do you have a BA or did you master in it
@@HelloThere-xx1ct hi, I lived in US for my first 5 years, and I probably have double citizenship because of that, now I am living in Turkey. I will probably comeback to US after university, is US really good for IR? I will study IR in English, it is necessary in there, so I will fix my bad grammer and other parts I'm not good in English. What is the other languages useful generally? Is Turkish or Azerbaijani useful? Or it is better to know Spanish or German( I have learned German a little bit in high school but I think German is harder than Spanish mostly) ?
Over here in Peru this is the go-to "career" for the ones who want to go to uni but don't know what to study. It's one of the most popular and also the one with the highest rate of unemployment among their graduates along with Business Admin
The other career is Social Communications and Journalism. They dream to work on a newspaper, news agency or a TV network when they have a severe crisis in the fake news era, the internet and lack of trust.
Eres de Peru? (pregunto xsia)
@@wilfredopk3080 Colombiano.
I am also from Perú and i have a sister studying this career. Where did you find that info?
😂😂
Getting an actual internship at the UN is a joke. I would love to see you make a video on it.
The UN internships are unpaid, you also have to pay for travel, accommodation and food. I live in the UK and when I looked to apply, the only open positions were in Austria and South Korea and yet the UN expected you to take care of the plane tickets, visa issues and look for an accommodation yourself.
Meanwhile they expected you to work unpaid, full-time for a series of months. It is a complete joke!
Its obviously only for rich people or their friendz to apply
So you pay to get real-world UN experience whereas at an uni you'd pay to go to the mock UN instead?
That's BS.
bUt I wOrKeD fOr ThE UN sO tHaT mEaNs I aM sUpErIoR
What's the joke? Nearly all internships in the US worth having are unpaid or severely underpaid. It's the nature of the game and has nothing to do with the value of the internship. Additionally, there is a ton of free money out there to support you in internships if you look. Like everything in life it is what you make of it. Somehow I don't think the UN missed you.
We bigfoots don't go to college out here in the woods
Respect for following social distancing for decades before Covid crisis, hehe
Bigfeet..? 🤔
I don't think it's a waste of time for everything, my dad did a master's in international relations and s bachelor's in political science. He was a diplomat, though embassy security RSO, so it relied more on work experience. These types of government jobs often require a degree, so if you have a solid career plan it's not a waste.
Im studying in Europe where it's a few thousand euros s year. Listen bro, what you're missing is many jobs require college degrees, so yes they can learn these skills on their own but without a degree nobody is going to hire them
I want to do Masters in IR. Could you please tell which college are you doing it in? I need some advice
@@thegamebaar8994 Uniwersytet Jagielloński, (jagiellonian university). You can email me stuartmcclanahan1@gmail.com
@@stuart4341 oh its in Poland. When i was researching abt Poland i came across few videos that said if you're a non EU student it will take a much longer time to get student visa converted to work visa and you cannot do any work at that time. That's why I'm apprehensive about Poland
The problem is diplomat job are very limited. But there are thousand people that graduate with international relationship degree each year alone. So if you don't have an experience nor a connection it's almost impossible to get a job with this degree.
@@Fauzanarief-n7i Idk about your country, but in the US it's not limited. US embassies can have upwards of 500 American employees. There's probably around 450 American embassies and consulates around the world with probably about 250 employees on average. That's 112,000 people. Remember the embassy needs security, nurses, event organisers, managers, IT specialists, and many others. They work in around 3 year cycles, so after the rotation is over they go back to DC for other work so in total it's likely over 250k people.
If you're from Andorra, which has only 5 embassies abroad perhaps your employment opportunities are limited.
Alright I need to step in here. (I'm an MA-IR graduate from a top tier school for context) 1. This video looks bizarre. Most legit IR programs don't advertise this way. 2. I agree that a BA in IR doesn't make much sense and I totally agree that the MA-IR is the much better way to go. 3. IR is for VERY specific career paths. If you want to be a foreign service officer, work at a DC think tank, work at an inter-governmental or INGO, work at DoS or USAID this degree coupled with a WELL KNOWN school will easily get you a REALLY good job after grad school. I would say easily 95% of my cohort all found jobs directly after grad school with the majority of those jobs being in the federal government or an inter-governmental org. And btw, my cohort was not a bunch of lazy rich kids. We all worked our asses off, slept in the office countless nights, worked on consulting projects with real world consequences. A decent IR program will have like 2 theory classes and then ALL the rest of the classes are advanced stats, advanced economics, coursework with real world practitioners who literally teach you the internal frameworks of how for example the World Food Program works (WFP recruits alot of folks from good IR programs btw). 4. The UN internship is NOT a joke. It's competitive for a reason. And the job offers alone afterwards easily make up for the unpaid internship. It's like Harvard, just having it on your resume zooms you past other people. BUT, even if it gets you job interviews afterwards you still have to actually KNOW how to do the job. You can do policy analysis at the UN but then have an advanced stats exam (literally an EXAM not a silly test) when you apply for a job somewhere after. (FYI, you need to take advanced stats and other related courses in most legit IR programs). So you need to actually know what you're doing. 5. Also, many people misunderstand the UN recruiting process because they don't take the time to actually understand it. It's far easier to get UN internships abroad and have ALOT more serious projects and tasks. Many many folks I know have done UN internship (in Uganda for example) > directly going into a project management or program officer position for a big INGO like Save the Children > Director track for same org in DC or directly in the Department of State. Also, if you excel in your IR program you can sit for the PMF exam DURING grad school and doing well on that exam essentially gets you right into the state department. But it's NOT an easy exam and like anything else you have to work and study hard and earn that fellowship. 6. In sum, an MA-IR is what you make of it. But I can assure you that any program worth a grain of salt will throw you out of the program quite quickly if you don't pull your weight. IR is ALOT more than just learning about other countries and geography. It's literally about learning the tangible day to day work of state craft and the advanced skills required to know what the hell you're doing when you go to work at a global institution. It's designed for folks who want to be practitioners, not dream about theory all day. 7. I'm actually not upset at all with Josh and completely understand where he's coming from. There ARE alot of idiots out there and there are alot of programs that are deceiving. I just want people to know that there's more to the REAL IR than what is commonly thought of it. Thanks for listening this far, folks!
why do you think it’s a better idea to do ir as a masters instead of bachelors
@@gerardmonteiro483 Hi there, so the masters is better because it's intensive and straight to the point. You learn to be a practitioner and learn tangible real world skills. I would say so long as you've already worked in business, finance, public affairs, business analyst, any kind of math/data or M.B.A. type background but need to learn the very specifics of how to run global humanitarian logistics or work in any kind of high level intergovernmental organization, then the MA-IR is good for you. Folks with experience in the private sector already have a head start before the MA-IR. It's also really good for Veterans with similar experience who want to work at the policy level or get more info the executive leadership skills, etc. An example of what you'll learn is how to run the unique global logistics during a famine or how to get medical teams into Syria safely 1 day after bombs went off. Or you might learn how to deal with high level negotiations (think G-8 summit or a similar large scale multilateral governance events). These jobs use sophisticated and complex frameworks you won't learn working a regular office job. That's why you to sit with, for example, the former head of the World Food Programme and they walk you through the details of how to run these large scale programs efficiently and safely. Again, only people wanting to get into these very specific types of jobs should go for the MA-IR.
Thank you very much for explaining it this way. You really reassured me! I am currently in a French high school and specialised in history geography, geopolitics and political science as well as English and regional literature with of course all the other course that we normally take. And I recently applied for a bachelor in politics and international relations so I was wondering if u could tell me if I did the right choice, in terms of workload social life and other things that we could stress about haha
Thank you for your time!
@@professorudd1363 hey can we speak sometime i need advice
@@professorudd1363 Would you recommend a BA-IR for someone trying to work for an intelligence agency like DIA? I'm a Veteran who already has intelligence experience.
I love these videos, even as someone with a BA in Marketing and an MBA. Everything you're saying is true. Majority of these degrees are totally useless.
Yours are still somewhat practical, not as much as a STEM degree but usually you can find an entry level business job.
@Erik Maybe my logic is flawed, but in this capitalist society with extreme consumerism how could a marketing degree be useless?
@@hecatrice2064 because you can learn marketing for free on the internet or learn it while getting paid on the job
@@florianruhstaller1730 that's if you get hired without a degree in a job of ur field, which is an ideal scenario
@@hecatrice2064 it’s a very likely scenario if you train on the internet and generate your own experience beforehand through a personal project. I’ve done it
"I just like to learn about things I never knew about before."
-that's... Kind of a prerequisite to learning anything... no?
The whole thing is a vague mess of fancy pansy words for normies to interpret a deeper meaning that doesn't exists...
*But don't worry once you get the degree you can think of the deeper meaning of how you're gonna get rid of that debt.*
He looks like his parents can afford the fees.
I majored in psychology to then go be a psychologist. I elected against social services due to the low pay and value, and now I have a $30k piece of paper and I work in the legal dept. Don’t be me
.
I considered psychology in the past but after doing research about the pay & difficulty of finding a job I went the computer technology route. I hope you find your path if you’re looking to do something else one day
One tesla model 3 per year to play pretend lol
It is actually per semester.
I would take the degree then. No fucking way i'm gonna drive a plastic toy car.
@@ouwetroep6910 You can buy another car though.
M8 it's called a student loan. They are very very easy to get and they charge no interest for a billion years. But keep telling yourself that this loser on youtube is going to help you become more successful. Couldn't you just learn everything in this video and his courses on your own? What a waste of time and money just like stooopid college
@@HelloThere-xx1ct Go in debt to go to a school to *maybe* find a job to pay off your debt. Nah.
Go to the military for a few years, make money, get experience, and free tuition after. Yeah.
Well... I'm actually studying International affairs at the university of St. Gallen... Most of the people i know (who studied IR) work for the government, for consulting agencies, marketing, HR, bank, npo, ngo and so on... But i also know some people who got an additional degree in economics alongside their degree in IR to have better chances in the job market. In addition to that, the fees for our unis in switzerland are not high in comparison to the US or UK (would never pay this amount of money just for a degree) so students here don't get into depth (never heard of a person who got into depth just for their degree and no, i'm not a rich kid but middle class) but i agree that MUN's are a complete joke. So with all what i explained above; me personally, I'm glad i chose this major as my aim is to work for an NGO, NPO or the government later. So i guess it's the right choice for me. But i'm also learning to code rn and adding more languages to my resumee bc can't hurt right? 😉
Agree. This whole existential crisis about the importance of degrees is more relevant in countries where going to university is very expensive (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, etc). That and the potential danger of automation.
people don't realize the importance of a university environment (or campus), being around smart, motivated people., Higher educations are not just about getting the "right skills" for the market...Europe has done education right :) I guess entering the job market as 18-19 years school graduate is even worse. Who the hell know at the age, what you want from life. So for smart kids, I would say is always better to go to uni at least for bachelor :)
I agree thooo there are so many negativity in the comment section smhhh
@@victor-536 going to University in Canada is not expensive overall im doing a master in international relations for about 6k and it a reknown program but for the US and other countries you may be right
Omg omg I love St Gallen!!!!!!!!!
My brother graduated from Boston University with a bachelors in international relations and minor in Eastern European studies and speaks 8 languages. He works and make a great salary. The point is there is a lot of layers in a degree but depends on how you use it.
But your brother speaks 8 languages. That’s the big difference.
@@Ufu4847 Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
@C.Huseyin So even if I study IR as a major in my Bachelor, it's OK if I learn more languages ??
Don't ask your professors what you can do with your humanities or social science degree. The only career most of them have ever known is academia; they have no idea what the work world looks like outside of the university.
As an IR person, this is true. My professors were pushing me to get into academia like crazy, I didn't want to do that kind of structured research and teaching that they were doing
They are living in the ivory tower looking down to common people and offering useless/harmful/out of touch advice for the government.
_Watch also documentaries like these:_
* Unlikely (2019)
* Fail State (2017)
* The Ivory Tower (2014)
* Race To Nowhere (2010)
* The Cartel (2009)
Same can be said for most business degrees except Accounting/Finance. I studied marketing and I do not use ANYTHING they taught me in college. Everything that I use - Adobe Suite, Google/Facebook Ads, SEO, Excel, Printing, Photography, Filming; I learned everything on my own.
oh
I have a degree in Finance with a specialty in “risk management” and I learned more from learning in my reading. AFTER I graduated. Back when I graduated high school, going to college was just what you did because we were told that “employers wanted to see you could finish a degree” or something along those lines. So a lot of my friends just got degrees in anything, like sociology and are doing nothing with them.
@@jellyfishi_
True because they know those jobs that are in demand.
There are a lot of people graduating with useless degrees thinking they'll end up in this amazing job that pays extremely well, that's not how the world works.
The jobs that are in demand are sure to get you somewhere but getting your degree without making research on what jobs there are in demand in your town/city then it's worthless and you'll end up having a hard time.
@@jellyfishi_ Yeah but how is that working out for countries like India. Everybody there is forced by their parents to become an engineer, and its caused the industry over there to be over competitive and to pay extremely low. Being a software engineer (or any kind of engineer) over in India is becoming less and less worth it because everybody is becoming one. Thats what happened to degrees in the first place. Back in the day communications degrees were worth it because nobody had them. Its supply and demand. Soon trades will be all the boom and then it will switch back to degrees again and back and forth.
Got my degree in Finance too. I’ve learned so much more on my own and from trading than my professors ever taught. College is pretty useless in my opinion.
@@jellyfishi_ scientists are in the same unemployed category lol unless it's in physics
@@jellyfishi_ yes true, but the thing is asian parents expect you to do those careers and not nurture your love in them, because they tend to work all the time. So you end up a blank sheet of paper who gets good grades by the end of high school.
Well, the course content/program is important for the type of job you can land as an IR major. For exemple, if your program has a good dose of history, geography and writing, you can get a job as a journalist. But besides that, below are the types of jobs that I have seen IR majors hold.
1.They can work as project managers for peacebuilding orgs or human rights orgs.
2. They can work as researchers or assistant researchers in universities and other types of academic or political institutions.
3. They can work for foreign ministries (as people in charge of trade commissions, cooperation departments, advisor to ministers, etc).
4. A lot of International relations degree holders aim to work in embassies (as embassadors, visa officers, cultural affairs leaders, etc.)
5. They can be in charge of travel and mission protocols for members of the government.
But a masters' degree is definitely needed for those that aim to work for the UN.
They really tell you in college prep that you should get a degree in something you're passionate about. Nah. That's Big College manipulating you. When I learned this at age 20ish, it changed my life. Get a degree in something useful that you're good at and don't hate. I say this as someone who almost majored in English or history because I LOVE both of those topics. I ended up getting a degree in something that advanced my career, and while I work, I listen to history podcasts and I spend my lunch break writing novels. I can guarantee I've retained more knowledge from self-study than I ever did in college.
In the UK, we'd call this a "Mickey Mouse degree".
@patrickchinka in Mexico, "patito" (little duck degree)
In America, this is what your sports scholarship kids will major in...while vying for that limited slot in professional sports...
“welcome to the army of unemployed” in Turkey 😂
In italy: Degree got with supermarket fidelity card points7
In switzerland we just call them "gibberish science degrees"
We getting ripped off in uk but damn the U.S is such a fuckery for college regardless of what you major in
Unless it’s engineering, math science or tech.
I studied international relations. I was promised to work in government, diplomacy, embassies, consulates, EU parliament, NATO, UN, etc. My first job marketing lead specialist in tech company, my second job administrative assistant, my third job insurance verification specialist in the clinic, my fourth job account manager in airlines catering company, my fifth job events coordinator, my sixth job administrative assistant/project coordinator. This didn't happened because I'm stupid or lazy. This happen because the 4 years of my international relations degree didn't teach me any skills. I knew nothing about finances, economy, business, management etc. All I knew was international law, international affairs, sociology, psychology, statistics, history, geography, English and broken French. Stay away from that faculty if you don't want to struggle like I do.
Why don’t people do their research before studying such programs? Also wanting to work for the EU, NATO etc. how do you sleep at night?
still better than working for Hamas, ISIS, Hezbolla, MS13, dumbass.
I think the problem is you didn’t quite have a direction for what you wanted to do with the degree. It’s pretty good for government, NGOs and for those going onto further study.
If your original plan was to prioritize finances, economics, business, and management, you should've opted for an international business degree. The subjects you learned are for the career paths they promised you. You weren't lazy or stupid, you just chose the wrong major.
I agree with everything Joshua said here. 100% Some ppl dont even get that, some degrees dont make sense at all. Education become the business, they are just selling you dream about the career. Personal traits more valuable today.
I still don’t understand financially ruining yourself to “figure out what your interests are” 😂 Like take that money, buy a plane ticket and live somewhere other than home for 3 months and you’ll probably get way more value out of doing something like that
Yeah but then you won't be able to read things apparently. Plus you won't have a really expensive piece of paper that says you can read things. Plus you won't have a ton of debt to pay back so you won't have anything to complain about to your fellow coffee artists so you'll feel left out of the conversation, and that would make you feel sad 🙁. Plus you'll never get to feel that illusion of grandeur that you are smarter than you really are, and that won't make you feel happy 😁 for no apparent reason, and that is sad 🙁.
Or get a job in the real world and see what its like.
Mateo Franco - you don’t understand because you don’t have one of this fancy expensive degrees....
🤣🤣🤣🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Yeah fuck bankrupting yourself for a degree for something you can teach yourself. I was going to study programming but taught myself instead.
@@lennysmileyface well, I'd say there's an exception. If your degree comes with a license, it may be worth it. For example, I'm a nurse. But I can't practice nursing without a license. I can't get a license without taking the NCLEX. I can't take that test until i get the degree. But this is not how the system is explained to students. It's usually marketed as a package deal. If you get a medical degree but fail your MLE, your degree is likely worthless. It's criminal how these education advisors fail to disclose how one makes money with an education. Each path is different and rarely guaranteed. A license is as close to a guarantee as you can get. But even then, the actual school you choose is largely irrelevant. Is it accredited? That's all that matters. Yeah, keep kids unaware, that sallie mae money keeps flowing in. It's criminal.
I got an advert for Masters & PhD in International Relations before and after this video ..... bruh moment
The goal of IR students is working at UN and/or becoming a diplomat
every. single. one.
You really need to have the right friends for this
@@iTux82 Well yeah there's no other practical reason to have an IR degree.
@@Shannon_Vlogs I mean, that goes for every career you're gonna take, networking is crucial. I'm assuming you're referring to nepotism and knowing people that are involved in politics.
In most countries you won’t be getting that job unless you pops works high up in a government position. One of the reasons why AOC was mixing drinks after she graduated
Young men and women, I graduated with a double major in political science and international relations back in 2012. Right in the middle of the Great Recession! It led me to teach abroad in Asia where I met my wife. I don't regret teaching and traveling through my twenties, but my bank account does. Get a job based on the type of lifestyle you want and save that money! Or, be a frugal nomad and make that cash in your thirties.
and others. Don't mean to discriminate. Don't mind me, i'm just a boomer.
Pomona College is a private college out here in California! All their majors are high as fuck! Very expensive to attend that college!!
This is the realest shit. After high school I had no idea what I wanted to major in, so when I got to university I just chose what seemed like a "doable" route and started taking the required classes for international relations. My grades got lower with every term because I just didn't care about the material and gave minimal effort just to pass.
Looking back now it's clear that my lack of self-knowledge made me major in something that I wasn't deeply interested in and that I could've studied on my own, so I ended up being apathetic and wasting away four previous years.
So now after bouncing around jobs for a few years, I'm finally sitting down to study to make up for all the studying that I DIDN'T do during university. I'm one month into The Odin Project so far and hoping to work in web development. Funny that since I've been out of work and surfing the web a lot I've delved deeper into science and engineering topics (and the scientific way of looking at things) and find myself fascinated. I really regret not applying myself harder in math and sciences in grade school, but hindsight's 20/20. All that matters is what we do today.
Skillset is everything, and learning an applicable stack of skills (especially in STEM) should be the only reason why we dish out ten of thousands $$$ universities. Otherwise, the internet provides equal or even better education for a lot less. Also, IMO if the degree has "studies" in its name, it's not likely to give you a set of applicable skills.
TL;DR: Asian parents have a fair point. We hated the pressure they put on us but they just wanted us to apply ourselves to something that made us employable and contributing people of the world.
Any updates 2 years later? I was in the same position as you and now work in Data Analysis 😂
There many jobs in government agencies that this degree fits into.
No, there really is not. It is a specialized field within political science. There are relatively few jobs within international organizations or in diplomacy that require a degree in IR. And these jobs are highly competitive.
Unless, one of your close relatives is a diplomat, ambassador or in congress, do not study thinks like International Relations
@@vittoriobollo3408 bruhhh say it louderrrrrrr
That is some of the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard. Becoming a diplomat, and progressing in the role, is pretty dam easy with the degree - you do not need family connections. IR degrees are also pretty dam useful.
I dunno about your country but unless you are trilingual and had exemplary grades and 5+ years work experience in a related field there is no "easy" way into diplo service. IR is a journo degree for the most part - it can help with diplomatic service tho it's still highly competitive.
@@aniinnrchoque1861 Just apply to the FCO fast stream, you are know a diplomat. You don’t need fancy grades or being trilingual, you just need to pass some tests. The same applies for most countries.
@@MaisieDaisyUpsadaisy not mine ha ha
Lol I feel like the American International Relations degree might be bad. However the ones in Europe guarantee you jobs like being a diplomat etc.
No they don't, in Europe, anyone with any degree can be a diplomat
@@hugosantos9081 Sure anyone can apply to be diplomat independently of their degree, but they wont be accepted...International Relations and Law are probably the best two fields to be a diplomat.
to be fair, I studied law at the university of St. Gallen (where the last dude studied) and everybody that studied international relations there that I know where employed right after graduation and making 100k+... BUT it‘s in Switzerland and the university is one of the most prestigious in the country, btw studying there costs 1.5k a semester, gotta love subsidized education
I stop reading when you said switzerland. I also study law.
I guess it depends. I graduated with an IR degree. I also did the degree as a full time student in Tokyo, Japan, and later moved to South Korea for work, and got to visit a dozen other Asian countries, and got into banking in Honolulu, Hawaii with my Japanese language skills primarily catering to Japanese clients visiting Hawaii and ultimately made my way into government where I currently work for a Senator. I've been able to pivot multiple times with my degree (civilian contractor, banker, legislative analyst) but I can see how someone who wants to just "learn about another culture" is wasting their time.
The key is: you speak Japanese. Strong foreign language skills are essential for any IR grad and are undertaught in the majority of programs.
@@I_Lemaire I put into it as much as I got out of it. People need to be able to master the subject they’re studying, not just earning a degree. If my goal was to work internationally with non-English speakers, it would make sense to grind at learning another language. It’s not much different from most US high school students taking 2-4 years of Spanish in high school and graduating barely being able to hold a conversation in Spanish. Because they’re doing it just to get a class out of the way, not to actually learn. Don’t get me wrong there are definitely some bogus degrees out there, but not every degree is worthless just because it isn’t IT. Just like anything else, to be one of the successful people you have to master what you’re doing.
@@Dylandesuu My respect and admiration to you, Mr Keith.
I am a millennial who was sold a dream. Graduated into the Great Recession. Lost the house I grew up in. Im the only person in my whole family to earn a bachelor's so my mom who pounded college in my head since I was in diapers didn't know what to do after that. I had to figure out everything on my own with no guidance. So many questions I didn't even have enough information to think to ask.
Today I'm starting over at the age of almost 34 because I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck when all my college friends are in the upper 5 figure to 6 figure range. It's so hard. If I ever have kids they literally aren't allowed to go to a university. Pick a trade unless you want to be a doctor.
Love this series, EXPOSE those colleges!!!
I always complained going through school to my parents about how tough majoring in Software Engineering was for me, but man some majors really aren't worth it. Glad my parents encouraged me to push through and not switch out to one of these lackluster majors ...
Yeah, that one's a bitch. I dropped out part way into the major, but still got the bachelor's. Honestly I still think I could get by without most of what I learned there, pulling from my hobby experience.
@ I'm in my first year of software eng bachelor's rn and it's tough man, I thought first year would be easy but I guess that only applies to arts. I'm not switching to something useless tho if I can't handle it, I'm gonna become a tradesman or some shit, but that's really my last last resort.
"Very flexible" - so not worth anything to anyone. All the best skills are in specific things and lead to the highest paying jobs.
The university that I just graduated from, University of Missouri - St. Louis, has an IR Grad program which is very closely related Public Policy Administration. It’s like International Policy and business. It costs 24,000 per year. You have to choose a concentration in Geo-politics, International Business, and Applied Research. I did the Public Policy Administration Grad program with a concentration in Applied Research Analytics. I did that because it was skills based and you can learn to code and conduct research. So now I’m a public sector Data Scientist who can also conduct Geospatial analysis. Now, ask me if I have a job almost a year after graduation.
Well, do you have a job?
@@stellagyan6593 I have the luxurious opportunity as an independent contractor for DoorDash. 😂 who knew I could get two lucrative degrees in a DS field and be lucky enough to “run my own business.”
@@jazzmann19842 years later. Do you have a job?
The topics are very important, but doesn't need 15,000 + people graduating from that topic every year.
Students think they are special but I reality they are a drop of piss in an ocean with the same skills and knowledge as the 15,000+ who also graduated in the same degree.
Before university, always weigh up the skills it can give you, and make sure you take opportunity of the professional qualifications, accreditation taught by the uni (I did 7 accreditations which have had a more impact to my career than my degree) and most importantly grow your network either internally or with organisations that visit.
This is hard to comment on. I got this degree at 22, fully intending to be a diplomat. I had a political awakening and realized morally I could NEVER work for any government. I bounced around from random business jobs for year to year, then finally became a self taught coder at 29. The people that want this degree have a great career if they can stomach it. I couldn't. That's my 2 cents.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
Thank you Caius
@@aboriginalalex np i charge 2 skooma rocks
Diplomats are typically political appointments so it doesn't matter what degree you have, you'll never be a diplomat if you're not involved in a political party that can win government.
Pro tip: whenever a degree program claims to be "interdisciplinary" that program is a scam. To be interdisciplinary means you have to have an expert in multiple fields working on the same problem. You cannot be an expert in multiple fields with one degree and lacking years of work in both fields.
@Joshua Landry: Having a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Government myself, I can say that this degree is not designed to make you an expert in all the fields. It just gives you a higher level of expertise and education added to what your Bachelor’s degree was in. In my case, my Master’s degree, to be honest, is a joke. However, it gives me $3,000 dollars more a year at my job just for having it. That means that I’ve made over $60,000 dollars extra for doing jack shit while almost no co-worker of mine ever gets this bonus.
One of my friends from high school has an IR degree. With some very minor tweaks it's basically a pre law program.
I have the same degree and I can truly testify that it is useless... anything they taught me about how politics work is not even remotely true...politics today are total theatre and things are not decided by politicians at all, they are nothing more than public relations between us and the people who run the show.
Yeah, that second part about the world has been driving me crazy and mad for the last couple of years... I feel like I need to do something about it, but I have no idea *what* 😩
And at the same time I'm wasting my life...
Exactly which is covered in a lot of theories and perspectives relevant to a contemporary education in IR or political science. Although it's common that far from enough time at all is spent on these, or that students levy them as some variation of 'postmodernist scum' when in reality they give you exactly the tools and analyses to navigate the theatre.
I almost got into international business degree, but them I asked myself “Why would a boss hire someone to travel and enjoy life, when he can do it himself”.
Also, I did Model Unite Nation (aka wanna be UN). It’s nonsense and self pampering contest .
We had one in my high school, and as a Russian it sucks ass. Everyone has the same opinion on subjects, literary nothing unique, all the same arguments and everyone is a SWJ with a communist approach. They get to travel which is cool, but besides that you’ll be surrounded by robots and it will be extremely boring
Damn. I still wish I studied International Relations. Instead I studied philosophy. My degree is even worse.
"What do you do to afford these studies?"
"My dad runs a business"
I graduated in international relations and I always say it's useless and I wasted my life (some of my colleagues will swear by it for some reason). You learn a little bit about of bunch of stuff but you don't learn a lot about anything. Everytime I think about my 4 wasted years I just wish I could go back on time hahahaha so sad!!!!
Same, I almost want to go back to get a different bachelors but I’m SOL.
I hear you :(``
When I was 16 ,I was so adamant about getting a political science degree and work in the UN but thank god when I turned 18 I changed my mind and got a Finance degree
@@notsomuchhere1387 I chose IR to work with the UN too, wish I were smart enough to switch to Finance or something :/
I feel these stories of yours are more anecdotal then facts though and Maybe in your countries this is like that but lots of people who end up being diplomats have to study in this field Maybe only at the master level
Ah! I got that degree! You are right though. I end up getting jobs where I don't even need a degree.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
This sucks. My oldest childhood friend just graduated with her bachelor's in international relations and told me now that she is trying to get into a master's program... In international relations 😟
@@jellyfishi_ she did get a scholarship in undergrad. I'm in the US though. Not 100% sure if that affects of getting a scholarship for a master's. Idk, I hope it works out for her.
Did she travel?
@ben s Edgy.
I'm probably going into public policy and trying to work for the afcs
If she does not have to pay for it, then it is the best education one can get. She can work in journalism or any-non profit.
All these ads are f'in vague.
It's a sign😂😭
We dont respect the autodidact and the polymath enough, who might be divorced from an institution.
Read some philosophy, lift some weights, clean your room, maybe take someone special out for some ice cream.
Modern people have no respect for real knowledge, because it tells them that the modern world is regressive in basically every way except technologically. Just like in Brave New World, people care more about happiness and a sense of security than truth and beauty.
Great comment, and nice vocabulary!
I love philosophy it’s so interesting
@@renegade1807 thanks. Words are like clothes - only wear the right ones for the right situation. Figure out a style, and you can wear the right ones without looking like a dork.
@@yunghp97 same, who are you reading rn
My god this reminds me of the time when I studied at university (I work in IT which the complete opposite of what I studied for - English philology). The funniest thing is only around 5% of the graduates work as teachers or translators and the rest do God knows what. Fun fact, many of the bachelors continued their studies and got a job as a university teacher, I guess the same thing goes for the international relations due to the nature of this placebo degree.
I mean..with english philology, what else can you do apart from translation and teaching/tutoring?
@@hecatrice2064 probably tourism sector
Those degrees are a college/university pyramid scheme at best tbh XD... Study to become the teacher, and the cycle continues...
Josh, stop busting people's excuses to travel the world and postpone working.
I feel like student debt is a bad trade-off for this. Just start working, earn money, quit your job and go on vacation. Later lie about the job gap
Entrepreneurship Degree: Am I joke to you?
yes
I had a date with a girl studying that. She told me she orders Uber eats multiple times a week, and that she hates looking at her bank account when rent is due cuz she usually barely has enough. So obviously she is financially smart and whatever business ends up starting will do well🙄
@@Jellyclaws221 Gotta spend money to make money 😂😂😂
Don't listen to this man. You gain an amazing skillset from International Studies or IR and you can work for think tanks, work in the state department, continue onto law school etc. Its about networking and finding your niche. I am an IS and PS double major and I have a lot lined up for me already.
You can do those same jobs with other degrees that offer more employability and a better skillset than IR, and honestly every job is about networking.
Love it! People think "international relations" will help them to work in the US embassy, lol! Wanna work in the embassy? You better have that nice connection.
third year on IR, I regret choosing this major lol
lol. Love this 🤣😂 I have my bachelors in international relations. Minored in business. Just needed something to pass the time with as I figured out what I wanted to really do after the military. My business minor has been the most helpful, but I don’t regret studying international relations. It taught me to not trust anything the education system, government or msm says. Question everything.
Same
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
In this video, I will only agree to the point you made on how much it costs. Costs make it a worthless degree. Other than that, its actually a very necessary major and as someone coming from a country where we have a truck load of jobless engineers and computer scientists, I can attest that we need a lot of Political Scientists and International relations experts and lawyers to get rid of all those sanctions and hybrid lawfare my country continues to face.
Trust me, we would have for our engineering skills to be of any use to the world. If only there was a conducive economy to support our skills with Entrepreneural opportunities and jobs.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
The #1 career mistake one makes is to go with what is popular or makes money. Many students not finishing up the major because do not suit them; many complete the program but hate their jobs and later quit or stuck not moving up the ladder; many drag to on the job for years while hated it then dropped out. My husband who LOVES computer, during most his waking hours he will read about computer related topics and has earned a lot of certificates also does well in his career. A good friend of ours went to an Ivy League, got hired to a top company and made great money in the beginning of his career, due to his lack of interest (going into this field because it was easy to get a job and makes good money), fairly soon he lost interest, dragging himself to work daily. He missed all the promotions, and finally he quit his dead-end job. Struggled many years of his life in a field he hates and unhappy daily. My advice is do what you like, but must function your career with a business sense,
I was advised to go study this bullshit degree. Thank God I chose Accounting and Finance, just graduated with honours !
I'm almost 100 percent certain that Game Design is going to be roasted next.
I've seen enough BS firsthand, and I don't even think my experience was bad. My GD degree was basically a full CS degree with only about 1 class that actually taught anything about design and 2 hands-off classes for programming a game (basically an excuse for the college to charge us money to produce work we had no rights to that they will never use. Why? They charge us high tuition for a million wasteful things including putting a full adobe suit on every laptop. It would be far to sensible to allow us to save money by lowering tuition so we have the money to buy only what we needed for the artists, thus letting them maintain rights to their work.). At least I was able to double major into Applied Math & CS with a few extra math courses. I can only imagine how BS some of those programs can be elsewhere.
Uhhh, it will be hot topic :)
@@Keeki95 I heard somewhere that if you want to get into game design you should not get a game design degree. Study art, or study graphic design. Those will get you into that field. I saw while I was studying at Miami Dade College that they were building a whole part of of a new building specifically for game design. When I graduated a few years later I asked a friend of mine that studied something art related. He said that was a huge waste of money and time for anyone who picked that degree. Schools are literal businesses now. Rather than help students and prepare them for their futures. They convince them to take useless degrees just to collect FAFSA and money from them. Smh
@@michi0921193 I'm just going to make games and learn as I go.
Valid message! College is expensive and due diligence is needed before strapping yourself to debt for a degree that may not help you get where you want!
I was so close to study Political Science but I switched to Finance and Banking last minute thank god
Clearly want to be a diplomat or politician of some kind but has no connections and doesn't want to start as assistant to a local bureaucrat. Plenty people not willing to put in the hard graft are also gullible enough to fall for degree presentations that make it seem like a shortcut but in reality they'll end up in the same positions as the people that have been working for a few years, just with hundreds of thousands of debt.
Serious kudos to Josh for covering this. Sadly, quite a few students/parents think that if a degree is offered, it must be worthwhile. In the last decade there are an increasing number of degree's and classes that appear to be offered solely to "fill seats". The college could care less about the future of a students once they've got their money.
That degree is way too much money. Here in the UK, the maximum annual fee for any university is £9,250
i'm about to apply International relations scholarship this month AND NOW I'M CONFUSE!!!!!
Me too :(
I applied and got through with IR at university but I find no interest in it.....Now I'm changing to BA in Business Administration.. Do a degree in a field that's in demand and rare... also ensure you enjoy it.
Me too
@@NikisaSheen Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
@@distheone9120 good morning my absolute pleasure. I'd say major in Business Administration and minor in IR.
These vids are so strange, you can literally teach yourself anything (i.e. you can easily learn code on your own time). The point of a degree is getting credentials, majors are meaningless 90% of the time
fax
7:44 I used to study at Deakin, but not in international relation. It’s moronic Deakin calls it self ‘Worldy’ when they’re actually just a normal low ranking university.
In germany we call it "Geschwätzwissenschaft" and the translator says it calls "gossip science" in english. I think it hits it
Given that S. Jaishankar, an alumnus of JNU and widely considered one of India's most effective foreign ministers, pursued a major in International Relations, would this path be a good fit for people going this route?
My dreams are ruined after I did my degree. I thought I'd work for the UN or other NGOs and Embassies but didn't get hired at all. I'm lucky to be employed at McDonalds.
Damn, should i rethink IR?
@@teexcvyou should. Better learn some real useful stuff or prepare to be fucked up.
I am 30 years removed from college. Had successful career and just retired before 50years old. In all the classes I took in 4 years of college, only about a semester worth of classes had any real value to me. The schools use the term “rounded, diverse” to justify keeping you in school and spending insane amounts of money to get something that will have little or no value in you having a successful career. I did take course and other learning session after college but they were short or focuses and only on what I need to get better at what I need. Current system of higher education is broken and doing more harm than good now.
You don't understand , these degrees are not for normal people, just rich kids that are bored and want the college travel/ party experience
I ended up getting a B.S. in Political Science (with a focus on international relations" by accident while trying to game the tuition aid (getting an associates in criminal justice since it was the only thing that was interesting). It was pointless. I wanted a career in the State Department but they froze hiring right after I graduated. By the time they opened up I was already disillusioned.
Also. This university advertisement is so awful and doesn't represent IR well at all. International Relations and politics is power. It's as amoral as corporate hell.
My recommendation if you want to study international relations is to add it on to your major as either a minor or a double major. On its own Intl Relations isn't very useful but it's a good supplement for other majors
And what would you do as a Bachelor's degree?
@@leif_____8579 Econ, Finance, or business fields in general could be a good compliment to intl relations in my opinion. Along with that I'd recommend learning a critical language to really make the intl affairs classes worth it
Thank you very much for your advice ! I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will chose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
Mate I participated in 30+ un models and won many, many awards let me tell you something. Nobody gives a single fuck about it
I've studied IR for free and I somewhat agree with you, bc like half of the curriculum was pretty much useless, but the other half was languages and it gave me opportunity to learn Arabic and English and those skills are feeding me and my family. But your point still stands - we must focus on valuable skills. Big up
I was about to major in this. Chose gender studies now. Thank you for saving me career !!
:/
If this is a joke, you are a genius.
You are still in the same boat
Well, it's worse.
Went to school in Washington DC for BA in International Relations. Specialized in national security issues and east asia. The idea was to work in national security related agencies as an analyst.
As it turns out, it's much easier to simply enlist in the military straight out of high school, become an Intelligence Specialist, get a degree while in the service, or immediately after as you transition into a defense contractor position immediately after your enlistment term.
DC was a rat race of people going after master's degrees in international relations just so that employers would even give them a chance.
This sounds like a degree for Sorority girls.
Nah I would say sorority girls go for communications. All the IR majors I knew were very career oriented and got internships on the hill but this is because I live in the DC area.
@@Gabster1990 Curious, how much do these people make?
Lol I dated a girl who went to Pitzer which is like a sister school of Pomona. Trust me, a massive amount of what goes on at the colleges around there is a waste of time.
I finished half my BSc. in Computer Science, thought fuck that shit. Landed a job as an IT-consultant making 70k USD/year. Based in Scandinavia though, but still - you can do it. Formal education is for suckers, unless you need a license to practice.
That's the main reason accounting degree is good.
My CS degree gives me PTSD to this day. I spent countless nights doing math proofs, programming compilers and dabbling into operating systems with no clear aim apart from finishing weird assignments. You know how much of that I used in the real world? Nothing. Zero. Nada. I did not learn a drop of real world web or app development and had to spend up to year after graduation to teach myself the stuff that employers actually want. I graduated with what people typically say is a practical degree and I still feel SCAMMED. If you can dive right into your job then do yourself a favor and skip the BS.
@@jameswolf2464 I felt the exact same way. I viewed my degree as more of a nuisance than anything else. When I landed my first student job, it only verified my thoughts:
I am not using anything they are teaching me, and I must learn concepts as I need them, to solve problems.
I would much rather solve real problems in the world, than wasting my time on a stupid institution, that does nothing more than stress me out, filling my head with "useless" crap. The topics themselves can be useful, but when needed.
@@jameswolf2464 and yet those of your classmates who develop compilers and write C++ and could mess with Linux Kernel code instead of CRUD apps in React or similar now command more respect and earn more. And that's not to mention system design or if any of your studies made it easier for you to learn other stuff. My professors were upfront. We had two programming languages thought officially C and C++ but were told to learn others as we went along but that our previous experience would make it easier to learn more. Eg. JavaScript callback functions are easier if you know C++ function pointers.
@@jhonshephard921 low-level C++ and kernel code pays more than Javascript? Where?! In your Stack Overflow wet dreams maybe😂😂. Them fullstack boys at big name companies outearn everybody by several digits lol. As for respect...spare me. Those goofs who do UI design at Google and Facebook get more respect than any compiler developer because you know...FAANG dude. The business world is a tough place. You could be the next Alan Turing but if you can't produce for the company nobody cares. Only colleges brainwash you into believing otherwise.
I have a problem with the argument that you can just learn this stuff on your own time. Sure, you can. Most people are not great and developing good ways of structuring their time and sticking to it. The formula gets even more complicated if you have to work a job. I myself am currently studying to get a master's degree in applied math. I could learn all of that math on my own time. I'm mathematically literate enough to pick up a math textbook and understand it if I want to. I can sit there and work out and think through what mathematical theorems are trying to say on my own but I'm not going to though because I'm terrible at structuring my free time. Its much more beneficial for me to be in an environment where I am externally accountable to something if I am going to learn something efficiently and a lot of other people are like that. Its like this: I'm also a musician and play guitar and have picked up a bit of keyboard too. I can learn musical skills on my own and I have learned many on my own through intuition and just what sounds good to me. Most people (including myself) are going to develop their skills a lot lot faster and more efficiently though if they have a teacher who is able to teach them guitar, piano, and music theory. Anyone can learn anything on their own technically. A teacher speeds up the process though because a teacher knows how to structure learning so that you learn what is important quickly and by learning fundamentals you can teach yourself more efficiently. A teacher can also give you feedback and is often aware of the pitfalls and mistakes that can be made (especially if you are new to the topic) in an area and can help you to avoid them. Most of the time, it takes not only good discipline but also a large amount of knowledge about a topic already in order to ACTUALLY learn a new thing. If you have never touched a musical instrument in your life, you are going to have a hard time learning music on your own. If you only know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you will have a hard time teaching yourself new math. This is because one of the things that comes with maturity in a topic is knowledge of things you do not know but the maturity in the topic gives you the tools you need not only to identify areas in the field where you are not knowledgable but also the tools you need to learn about these things if you need to. Like I said, you can give me probably any math textbook on any topic within math and if I really wanted to I could go very easily from knowing nothing about that math to being very proficient in it. That ability however, rests of literal decades of math education
Exactly what I was thinking 💯
So you basically choose to go into debt for the structure of your time. Got it😉
I see your point but I think the difference here is that the skills you've mentioned are hard/defined skills where structure is practically required vs opened ended courses that the topics could be learned by inference from another degree or just interacting with people.
I disagree to a degree. You get out of college what you put into it. There are a lot of variables such as a persons interests, passions, desires, goals, finances, etc. For example - I have friends with International Relations degrees, some work in very prominent and high-paying roles. Others not so much. Two friends in particular have been wildly successful, more successful financially than most of my engineering friends. They also have a degree of power/influence that many in the STEM fields don't have. This is very useful. Similar to your video decrying Business Admin degrees. One of my best friends has that degree and is wildly successful running his own company and appearing on national TV several times and has made many powerful connections with influential folks. College in general is about learning a lot of things, more than just learning to work. It's about making connections, learning about yourself, and many other things. I would agree that college in America is quickly becoming a fleeting thought with most folks and rightfully so. Its become bloated, expensive, and faces a myriad of other issues so I'm not justifying the cost of it.
To put this in perspective - I love to learn and spent eight years in college obtaining four degrees. While in college I started a software company that has now grown beyond my wildest dreams. I did this on my own dime starting off at a community college and eventually earning degrees from different state schools in civil engineering, social science, accounting, and economics. None of those degrees deal directly with my current career. I write code and manage people which, none of those degrees taught me. I learned on the side out of pure interest and curiosity. However, there have been countless things I've learned while in college that are very much applicable to my daily job and my life in general. How to multitask, communicate with people, write and speak effectively, etc. Most importantly I'd argue, I learned how to think critically about things.
Not everyone has the same story as mine but that's not the point. The point is that if you apply yourself, stay humble, and work hard, you will learn about much more than just your desired profession and that knowledge will carry you into a better future. Even if, after you graduate, you realize you don't want to work in that field - you've learned something about yourself. At the bare minimum, you learned what you don't want to do! It would be unfortunate if you spent a lot of money and time and effort to get to that point but that's how it goes for many of us.
Again, not defending the cost of college per-se, but I am very much defending many aspects of the entire university experience and if an international relations aspiration gets you there then so be it!
I agree with majority of the video, however unfortunately, at least in Australia, a degree in International relations or in a similar discipline is a pre-requisite for all non technical intelligence related jobs. Would only be worth if you can accepted under a pathway before Uni to have a guaranteed career at the end of your studies which happens quite a bit here.
@@lukewilson5846 Because its a pre-requsite degree to get into certain fields?
boy I sure would've liked to know this in 2011.
Thank you very much for your advice ! I live in Morocco where there is only one university based on the american system that offers degrees in IS/IR. I chose to study International Studies as a major in my Bachelor (my first semester is going to start this september) and I got a decent scholarship. But I am extremely worried about job opportunities in this field. I haven't even started studying yet and I already have anxiety. Initially, I chose to study International studies because it is broad and will give me the opportunity to know what subject interests me the most etc. But as you said, jobs are very limited in this field so I guess I will choose Business Administration as a minor. What do you think ? What do you advise me to chose as a minor and Master ? (My goal is to be able to work in International Trade or even do a Master in International Law for exemple. I'm open to all these possibilities).
PS: I already speak 3 languages fluently (French, English, Arabic) and plan on learning two more (Spanish and Hebrew)
I feel like most people get this degree without realizing the critical layer of extra work you have to do. I say this after having spent a lot of that time doing that extra work and it’s paying off. Getting my MA as we speak and getting ready to do some overseas volunteer work.
Your analysis leaves a lot to be desired. My mother graduated with an AB in International Relations from Stanford which she went on to use as the groundwork for a law degree from Georgetown. She became an international corporate attorney in the 90s soon after. It's a bit shortsighted to call IR degrees useless. As with any degree, employability depends on the competence of the student in his/her field.
The vast majority of these international relations students aren't going to be coming lawyers.
@@HelplessGazellle Sure, you're probably right about that. But that also doesn't imply that they cannot use their degree for another path!
@@heyyitsmoni I agree
@@HelplessGazellle Other possible career paths:
- United Nations and affiliated orgs
- Intelligence analysis (e.g. the NSA)
- State department
- Capitol Hill (committees)
- Business-government relations
- Consulting
- Research institutes
- Nonprofits
- Banking
etc.
Truly, there are a lot of possible paths! If one is seeking to stay in the corporate world, it's great to pair an IR degree with a some economics, however.
In my country, the best diplomates are all Engineering graduates, especially from my institute. The IR graduates are all super frustrated that it takes the engineers around 4-6 months to cram through their entire 4-year syllabus before they sit for the Diplomat's entrance exam (which they all pass with flying colors BTW). Now these IR guys are asking for a full ban on all engineering graduates from the entrance exam. My point is not to flex, but to remind everyone that you do not need IR, social science degrees to flourish in these fields later. In any case, if you become part of the diplomatic core of any country, then Governments usually send you to complete your post-grad to top-tier institutes like Harvard Kennedy School or Fletcher School at Tufts before sending you on missions. Now if you can handle a Masters in IR/Public Policy without having gone through the undergraduate first, then those undergrad programs become useless by default.
so a lot of things can be self-taught but wouldnt u say its harder to get a job as a self-taught vs College bc HR really wants to see that degree paper?
Depends on the HR. It's up to their personal bias.
Depends on the industry and position. You will not be able to get a scientist job without a degree because you can't prove you taught yourself cell culture, invitro assays, gene editing, etc. At home, plus lab equipment is so expensive that most people can't afford it anyway.
@@Ruffles2012 Well, it depends on the project, lab equipment is imo not that expensive for many projects, including gene editing ( a guy managed it on under 5k). Its definitely expensive for a dabbler but the idea is to develop skills which would benefit you. Assuming you arent reckless, it means you have a specific project, a plan and a list of things you need to do and learn to accomplish it.