Why do some educated people settle for jobs for which they are really over-qualified, specifically people who hold degrees? For instance, I work as an administrative assistant because I don't have a college degree, but there is a guy in the next cubicle who has a master's degree in something or other, and he does the same job as me. I'm not talking about a lawyer who might give up his practice to become a musician or movie star - those are fun dreams to chase. I understand THAT. What I mean is a guy who took his time to earn a B.S. in computer science who goes out and gets a job as, say, a truck driver, hauling goods cross-country in an 18-wheeler. Yes, you have to be hard-working, trained and skillful to drive a big rig for hours, but you don't need a degree.
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Name : Natasha20099, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Afro-Caribbean, Religion : Christian, Age : 29, City : Capitol Heights, State : MD Country : United States, Occupation : administrative assistant, Education level : Technical School, There are a few people who manage exactly to match up their education and the way they make their living, but for most of us, it doesn't work out that way. I am an example of what you are talking about. I have a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, yet my job could be done by someone with no college education at all. But I can say something that not many people can say: I'm happy with my job, I do it well, and it is easy for me, virtually stress-free. I have excellent computer and math skills (neither of which, by the way, I picked up in college) as well as a talent for organizing massive amounts of data, researching things methodically when called upon to do so, and expressing myself well on paper --- all things I use in my job, and which I did pick up in college! Oh, yes, I also do free-lance writing, part-time ministry, ham radio, speak six languages, and just generally enjoy life and learning new things every day. I recognized at a certain point that there was going to be a certain dichotomy between my education and my livelihood, and I am at peace with that.
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Name : Augustine23384, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 40, City : Columbia, State : SC Country : United States, Occupation : Accountant/free-lance writer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, There are other reasons to go to college than to just find a career. A college education can make a person more well-rounded and provide the person with the tools to think about issues and pursue personal interests. Many people find that by the time they are finishing their degree, they are already sick of their field of study, so they just get their degree and don't follow up on a career in that field. Others get a degree to fulfill family expectations, but, being motivated by things other than career, have no interest or motivation to pursue degree-requiring work.
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Name : Rick29941, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, City : Springfield, State : OH Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I can definitely answer this one. I earned my bachelors degree in journalism in May 2000 and up until a couple of months ago, I was working as an admin assistant for a company that repossessed industrial equipment. Why? I had to pay my bills. I moved with my husband, who is an officer in the Armed Forces, to Florida and tried to get on with the city paper or any paper here, for that matter. Even with a semester internship under my belt, I didn't have actual experience in a newsroom and I couldn't find a job in my field. I freelance for five different papers and am very good at what I do (I've gotten compliments from all levels of the newsrooms). I hope that soon, one of them will have an opening that I can fit into. However, in the meantime, I will try to find a job that fits my skills. I'm very fast on the computer and know most programs. People who don't work in their degree field sometimes just can't get in the door to that field.
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Name : Beth, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 34, City : Jacksonville, State : FL Country : United States, Occupation : Freelance writer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, A lot of people get degrees and then find they can't get work in their field. It took me three years to find something. Also, there are so many people with degrees in some fields, i.e. technology or journalism, that employers can pick and choose, if you don't have the experience it may not matter that you have a degree. Many others work in their field for a while and decide they don't like it, but maybe they enjoy trucking or pushing papers in some office.
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Name : Heather J., Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 26, City : Provo, State : UT Country : United States, Occupation : publishing, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, I have a Master's degree and I do low level clerical work at a telemarketing company for 9 dollars an hour. I, like many others have found out that what is important to me is not money or prestige, but the time to pursue my outside hobbies and interests without a lot of job-induced stress in my life. Also, I love the area where I live and there are not a lot of high paying jobs available here. I taught school for five years and managed a small store for another 10. I feel that at my age there are not a lot of exciting and fulfulling jobs out there unless I would wish to go back to school for re-training. After spending seven years in college, I don't care to do this.
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Name : k a markon, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 50, City : superior, State : WI Country : United States, Occupation : clerical, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, When I finished college a couple of months ago. I found myself caught in a catch-22. Everybody wanted experience and my summer time jobs just didnt do the trick. No employer cared what class I took, they wanted experience. Yes, I have a degree, I have participated in many activities and held interships that gave me real-world experience but I could not compete with the person with a HS Diploma and 5 years experience. I must admit, graduating from a top school with a B.S. in Economics I was a bit arrogrant but I quickly got a reality check when I found myself circling want ads for a bank teller. Also, in college you have to choose your major at the end of your sophomore year. Many seniors find themselves wanting to do anything other than their major. So, there are many factors as to why someone with a degree is not at their ideal job. I hope this helps!
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Name : Tammy, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 22, City : DC, State : DC Country : United States, Occupation : financial analyst, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, Some educated people cant find jobs. Even an engineering degree does not guarantee work. I know cuz I've been there.
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Name : S. Bowyer, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 59, City : Vancouver, State : WA Country : United States, Occupation : engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, People go through higher educations for more than just to work in the field; it provides them the choice of what they can do at all. I volunteer with Junior Achievement, which teaches kids about business and economics, and I had a 5th grade class. I told them that because I have my J.D. I have any number of choices of what I want to do. I'm not pigeonholed into just one thing because I'm not educated. The other reason may be this guy just doesn't have any ambition to do anything else, or perhaps his master's degree is in something completely worthless, like Philosophy or another social science. Unless you're going to be an academic or a teacher, master's degrees in the social sciences are totally worthless. They also hand out master's if you fail to get your Ph.D., as a kind of consolation prize. Besides, he might be making more money doing the job he's in now - teachers really don't make that much money!
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Name : Rachel, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 27, City : Boston, State : MA Country : United States, Occupation : Attorney, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, What do people really want in this world? Is it the best education possible, followed by a top job, career pressure, burn-outs, endless competition for status-symbols, what? Children in finland go through 9 years of elementary school, after which if one decides to go to high school, 3-4 years of that, followed by circa 4-6 years of university studies. School,reading, homework, pressure of competition, large schools, etc etc. are a burden from early childhood to adult age. Not everybody is made for this! Most people give up at some point, realising that this is not what I want from life. By the way, how many adults have you heard answering to a child's question about a mathematical problem:'Yes, I know this one...I just can't seem to remember right now.' What do people generally remember from school? The methods of teaching are questionable. How many books do we read in school, probably hundreds, and what do we remember of them? This fact has frustrated some people into giving up their academic careers. 'Settling for less' is a universal phenomenon. To observe this we would have to dig very deep into school& teaching structures, childhood, psychology, anthropology, culture structures and culture-related behaviour. Maybe people are meant to live a peaceful family-life, the way nature intended it...maybe there are people who dont care about status-symbols or having a lot of money. To some, people, family, friends etc. are more important than cars or careers.
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Name : Sonya, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Humanist, Age : 20, City : oulu, State : IN Country : Finland, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, There can be many reasons for this: people change their minds about what they want to do for a living, the job market might be bad for their particular field, the money might not be what they expected, lack of experience, etc.
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Name : Mike20438, City : Greendale, State : WI Country : United States, I know a lot of people who are just getting out of college with a BA in everything from Computer Science to Psychology and very few of them are getting jobs in their field. It's very discouraging for someone like myself who is attending college and putting myself into major debt and being deprived of sleep and a social life just to put myself through school. Personally, I think the post Sept 11th job market may have a lot to do with it as well as the fall of the whole 'dot com' fad that was making people lots of money and creating lots of jobs. It used to be you could get a good job with just a HS diploma... then it was a college degree... now BA's are seemingly as common as diploma's were 5-8 years ago and they don't have as much value when you're searching for a job on your own. I think anyone's best bet is with their college's placement department. And if anyone is thinking about school it's good to find out what your school's job placement rate is (in their field of study). Anyway, maybe you should ask that guy why he's doing that job with a Master's degree! Then come back here and tell us what he says!
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Name : Stacey, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : American Indian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Chicago, State : IL Country : United States, Occupation : student/CNA, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, This whole degree thing is very common yet so absurd. A degree does not make you smart. A degree does not give you drive to excel, does not mean you have common sense, or so many other characteristics that determine what kinda job you have. I do not have a degree. My boss does not have a degree. Yet all the people who work for us have degrees. Some of them have multiple and Phd's. Not only do I not have a degree I'm young, 25. This drives some people nuts. They have a sense of intitlement that sinse they have the degree or are such years old they should run things, however often people with degrees have book knowledge and are very good at ONE thing, but when it comes to execution and runing a company or making a deal, leave it up to someone with common sense, regardless of degree.
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Name : PAH, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : Ft. Worth, State : TX Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, It's not so easy to just 'get a job.' Some very smart people are pulled to certain subjects in college that they feel are best for them, and to which they feel they can contribute. Unless these subjects are business or engineering, then they are going to have a very tough time finding a career in their field. Sometimes they (we) know this, but are hopeful that they can find something. Unfortunately, for a lot of academic subjects, (liberal arts-type stuff, philosophy, history, linguistics, that stuff) the job market is TINY and the only option is to get a Ph.D. and become a professor. So what to do with your BA or BS if you don't want to go through 4 more years of school? The answer: whatever you can. And sadly, that sometimes ends up not being so lucrative. I mean, am I overqualified for a mall job? Yes. But I am not overqualified for dinner, and that's why I am job hunting. Also, the response about college not just being about job placement is dead-on. Traditionally, college has been about improving the mind, and learning of the world, even more than it's been about job training.
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Name : JC31134, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 23, City : Norman, State : OK Country : United States, Occupation : none ATM, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower class, This is written as if I had a choice in the matter. I'm an administrative assistant. Way overqualified. I can't stand when people ask me this question. Yes I'm here until something better comes through. It's better than sitting at home watching the bills pile up. It's probably just a matter of time before the guy in the next cubicle gets something better. Or maybe he's working on a novel. You never know what a person may be doing in their off hours.
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Name : Mira S., Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 31, City : Toronto, State : NA Country : Canada, Occupation : artist/yoga tecaher, Education level : 4 Years of College, 
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