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The STEM Crisis Is a Myth
theodp writes "Forget the dire predictions of a looming shortfall of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians, advises IEEE Spectrum contributing editor Robert Charette — the STEM crisis is a myth. In investigating the simultaneous claims of both a shortage and a surplus of STEM workers, Charette was surprised by 'the apparent mismatch between earning a STEM degree and having a STEM job. Of the 7.6 million STEM workers counted by the Commerce Department, only 3.3 million possess STEM degrees. Viewed another way, about 15 million U.S. residents hold at least a bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline, but three-fourths of them — 11.4 million — work outside of STEM.' So, why would universities, government, and tech companies like Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft cry STEM-worker-shortage-wolf? 'Clearly, powerful forces must be at work to perpetuate the cycle,' Charette writes. 'One is obvious: the bottom line. Companies would rather not pay STEM professionals high salaries with lavish benefits, offer them training on the job, or guarantee them decades of stable employment. So having an oversupply of workers, whether domestically educated or imported, is to their benefit...Governments also push the STEM myth because an abundance of scientists and engineers is widely viewed as an important engine for innovation and also for national defense. And the perception of a STEM crisis benefits higher education, says Ron Hira, because as 'taxpayers subsidize more STEM education, that works in the interest of the universities' by allowing them to expand their enrollments. An oversupply of STEM workers may also have a beneficial effect on the economy, says Georgetown's Nicole Smith, one of the coauthors of the 2011 STEM study. If STEM graduates can't find traditional STEM jobs, she says, 'they will end up in other sectors of the economy and be productive.'"
When companies stop blowing me off because they think "Well he's an expert in C++ really well but has only done C# for a year or two so obviously he's useless in that." (From what I'm seeing most of what they do isn't that hard and what I do know about C++ does transfer over rapidly to C#. Hey, have I ever mentioned the grammar of C# (and Java for that matter) was done that way so us C++ guys could rapidly switch over to it?) You know, at time the vibe I get from companies is that they want what I call a desert island developer. That's a developer that's so good you could literally put him on a desert island. You'd air drop coding specs, food, beer, and women to him every day. Then he'd code it up by writing it up in the sand on the beach(Which the next airdrop plane would photograph) and that code in the sand would work perfectly once it was scanned in.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
No they just face reality which is for the past 40 years we've been faced with a concerted effort to turn America into a third world country that speaks English.
Look at the student loan bubble which will soon burst, kids having to enslave themselves for life with debt they can't even discharge through bankruptcy (but the corps sure don't have any trouble discharging THEIR debts) just in the (in most cases) vain hope to rise above grinding poverty only to find that instead of that degree giving them a ticket out of poverty it instead ties a millstone around their neck because they can get an Indian or Chinese for less than the interest he is paying on his loans. Think if you tried the reverse and organized a mass immigration to India or China they would accept you taking THEIR jobs? Not a chance in hell because both countries are "nationalist" which is a code word for "Not fucking retarded and whored out to the megacorps".
For the past several decades you have seen the top 5% go from controlling 45% of this country's wealth to over 82% (and its been a couple years since i checked, probably higher than that now) and the reason for that is shit like this and "How NOT to hire an American" which for those who haven't seen it you should really look up the video, its a confidential law firm lecture on how easy it is for them to help these corps make sure they ONLY hire foreign workers. Time and time again you see the revolving door between DC and the corps and you see the future of America being sold to the new robber barons, refusing to accept that while the far east will have an abundance of skilled workers coming up with the next revolutions in tech we are increasingly becoming like the third world, huge ghettos of grinding poverty with the elite in their gated communities down the street living as Gods.
But massive change is coming folks, if you want to see the future look to the east, look at what has happened all over the middle east with the so called "Arab Springs" which should rightly be called class warfare as the poor refuse to be stomped on and rise up against the elite that have ruled them for so long. The reason you will see a similar event here, and why there hasn't been one so far here is because there is a MASSIVE stock market bubble and part of that bubble has been used by the government to provide "bread and circuses" to the poor so they do not revolt. Oh and before the right wing chime in on how its all the fault of the current figurehead? Might want to look at the graph at around the 3.30 mark and see when the bubble started really blowing up, the date is in the mid 80s, specifically when Ronnie Raygun signed the 401K and 403B programs into law. What that did was pour billions upon billions into the stock market, inflating the "value" of stocks to true insanity levels and causing an entire industry to be born just around leeching some of that "wealth" and manipulating it.
So why is it doomed, and guaranteed to make the 29 crash look like a flash crash? Simple in their infinite greed and lust for ever higher profits the corps didn't bother to think what would happen when they fired all the American workers and replaced them with cheap labor, what happened was the birth of the "temp nation" and money from 401Ks and 403Bs dropped like a stone. After all that temp worker barely keeping a roof over his/her head certainly isn't sticking money in a 401K. Because "privatize profits, socialize costs" is practically the mantra of Wall Street they ran to mommy government who likewise wasn't bringing in the dough, again because the middle class was gutted and because those at the top pushed the "job creators" myth and lowered taxes while increasing spending, but have no fear, The Federal Reserve is here!
But you can't print your way out of a dead end, and you can't expect Americans paying over $100K for their education to be able to compete with somebody who paid less for a master's than we do for a new Mustang so the money? Not
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The original quote included the word "productive".
The qualifications begin with a degree or alternative route program. Then you must pass an education theory exam (PRAXIS PLT), and a subject area or specialist exam (physics, math, elementary ed, etc.). You also spend a semester to a year as an apprentice, two to four years of on the job observation during which you can be fired or non-renewed for anything, and then you are evaluated every one to three years to help you grow or to identify and remove you if you are not performing to expectations.
That's actually the sentiment amongst many young students. Why work hard at a STEM major when a business or law degree is likely to result in higher pay and higher social standing?
Scratch law degree. Unless you are able to grind, network, and kiss ass much harder than you would in almost any STEM masters degree program (as well as harder than 95% of your fellow tier I or tier II law school students) you won't be getting one of those fabled six figure associate positions. What? you didn't attend a top tier or top regional tier law school or you didn't rank near the top of your class ? 50% chance you won't get a job in the legal profession at all, at least not for a year or more after graduation. Law schools are now being regularly sued by their graduates for lying about employment prospects
If you're strictly looking for high pay/high social standing: finance/math
If there is no problem, there is no shortage. Don't call it a shortage. Don't argue for anti-worker actions that would address a non-existent shortage.
I want chocolate ice cream in a cone. I'm not under the delusion I don't have to pay for it though. And when I walk into the store and don't see them priced at 20 cents a piece I don't complain there is a shortage of them. I don't try to get government to give me a subsidy on chocolate ice cream. I shut the fuck up and pay the market price. Shut the fuck up and pay the market price.
Count me among the STEM degress not working in a STEM field. I actually dropped out of a STEM Ph.D. program after I realized that no one around me was able to get a decent job after they graduated. No one could get an academic position because for every 2-3 year postdoc contract that opened up, there were over 400 applicants competing for it. No one could get a non-academic job because every time an HR drone saw "Ph.D." on the resume, that person would get passed over for being "overqualified". Yet when people took the Ph.D. off their resume, they had to find some way to explain a 5-6 year employment gap, and no one I knew managed to do so well enough to get past a first interview.
So I took a Masters, dropped out, and spent a few months living frugally off of what I'd been able to save from my Ph.D. stipend while studying a business field like a madman. Then I lucked into finding employment with a corporation that was impressed by my skills and willing to train me the rest of the way on the business side. Now I'm making plenty of money to support myself.
I am the only person of my incoming graduate class that didn't earn a Ph.D. I'm also nearly the only person of my graduate class that currently isn't either on food stamps, stuck living with their parents at 30+ years of age, or working one or more low-paying retail or fast food jobs just to make ends meet. The only exceptions are a few foreign students who went back to their home country immediately after graduating. (It's kinda sad to think that someone I know who worked on a Large Hadron Collider project is now making french fries for a living)
Don't go into STEM, people. Go get a business/finance/accounting degree if you want to get paid. If you really have the drive and skills and desire for a STEM degree, then double major in something like Math or Computer Science. It might make a good supplement to your primary business degree to help you stand out a little more.