Re: Senior year of undergrad- what to do?

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (mystery man) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (PCPhD) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > Hey kid,  .........forget what professors advise, they do not exist it
> > the real working world.   If you go the grad student path you may find
> > yourself in a world of hurt.. and low income.   Best to try to get
> > summer jobs, internships with industry and see how it is done in the
> > working world.   Academics dont know shit about the job market and
> > tend to be self serving in advise.  The graduate school path will be
> > one where compared to peers of your own age, you will suffer
> > financially, socially, status wise.  You really need to approach
> > people out of the university one on one and get the real dope on how a
> > career path in your area is developed and it sounds like your major is
> > an academic pipe dream already based on what you have said about the
> > placement rates of graduating students.
> 
> I agree broadly with PCPhD's comments. Looking in college catalogs is
> not the answer. You have to find out what jobs are available, where
> they are available, how difficult they are to get (There are almost
> always many more applicants per job than jobs), how easy it is to get
> laid off from those jobs, how much time you spend between getting laid
> off and getting a new job offer. Today, there are computer
> programmers, computer ex-employees, and other Information Technology
> employees that in the last 1-2 years got laid off and they are still
> looking for a job.
> 
> To the idiots who read about two million jobs moving overseas and
> saying "you just need to adjust" to that, what it means is that two
> million people are now competing for the remaining jobs and, like
> musical chairs, when the music stops, there's going to be people with
> no chair to sit down on.
> 
> Then, there is my website:   http://scijobs.freeshell.org
> 
> Art Sowers, PhD

   I would agree that professors don't usually know that much about
the outside world (disclaimer...I am one.....).  And...looking at
catalogues won't tell you much.

   However, I would be careful about choosing what you want to do
based on "real world" experience.   When you look at careers you are
always swayed by what is good today.  But these days, in this country,
unfortunately, entire fields and sectors go bad in just a few years. 
These days, no one can predict what will be a good job and what will
not.  Usually the things that look good today, may not do well at all
tommorow.  So.....keep your eye on reality, but do what you really
think you would like to do!!!

   As for stats, it depends on what you plan to do with it.  If you
end up in op research or something similar you may want to pursue a
business degree.  If you end up in biostats, you won't need much more
of a stats backgroud besides a few courses.  In fact, many
biostatisticians have degrees in public health with a biostat major as
opposed to a PhD in math or in biostatistics.  This is a promising
area, and with a CIS background, you may do better at handling and
programming in some of the packages out there.  However, you will need
to learn research design (which is really the most important part of
the job) and again, there is no predicting what will happen to careers
5 years from now.

Good luck

Marc