How many have turned a useless degree into a career?

Well, technically I had the career before the useless degree, but yeah, BS in Mathematics. Not exactly a job specific degree.

I majored in zoology and botany (We call it B. Sc. here). Everybody scoffed at my decision to do a non professional degree, but I used my knowledge to write science and health articles for magazines. And that was while I was studying. Now when I get fat paychecks in American dollars, everyone is like..."F*** man. That's awesome!"

I didn't go into the degree with that purpose in mind, but I had been active in writing throughout school and was interested in science also. So that turned out to be a valuable combination. My parents wanted me to pursue medicine (dad's a doctor) , but I did not. For some reason journalism didn't seem like the best thing to do at that point, so I thought a science degree was a reasonable middle ground. I could explore the sciences and still pursue writing (I was also studying creating writing through correspondence).

Now I'm doing my masters in journalism, and when I look back at my decision to get a science degree, I beam with pride.

I've paid attention to your posts over this time, Spider. I think your decision making has been smart, intellectually. I've no idea if it has been or will be smart as to monetary considerations - just saying that it seems to fit you nicely.

Thanks, Osso, for your post.

Yes, I, too, sometimes develop feelings of insecurity with regards to the monetary aspect of this career. No doubt it is very, very satisfying intellectually for those who go into it willingly, very few will become rich out of it.

Something tells me I'm going to make it work for me. I really have to.

11 yrs ago I got a Bach of Sci degree in Dietetics in the USA. I had to pay and apply to Internships to "finish" the certification to become a Dietitian, there were only 9 offered in the state I lived in and 12 graduates at my university alone. I tried for 3 years straight and the school loans started wanting money. If you are going to get a Dietetics degree, then you better be the top graduate for your university. That degree is useless, all that money and I'm just an administrator.

Twacka, when I was in school, something much less than 1 percent of the admitted med students in the United States were women. (See the 1962 med cat book, or some similar name). I never became an md but had an interesting life.
Degrees are rarely useless, viewed later, even if sardonically.

I'm old fashioned in that I think college/university are preps for learning how to question, how to look up information, how to deal with information bits at some kind of conflict with each other.

I get your complaining about this, from your point of view, Twaka, especially re the money. I also figure the degree could help if you keep looking, but I don't know that - I'd keep looking over time.

When I'd nabbed a job in a recession in my late 'new career', it was from talks on phoning, I'll make this number up, something like 40 times. One guy was quite glad to hear from me, I went to work and I remain a fan some years later.

I suppose it is harder now to greet the owner of a firm by phoning, which I could (landscape architects often have very small firms).