In the US how often is that people work in a different field than their degree?

28 comments

  2. I’ve got a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s in Bioengineering, and an MBA in Finance. I work in corporate finance today.

  3. Pretty common. I mean I have an English degree but I certainly don’t work with literature.

  4. I have a trade school degree that I use for my field of work.

    Every single one of my friends, who have a college degree, isn’t working in the field of their degree.

  6. very common.

    i’m a Mechanical Engineer by degree, i work as a Project Manager in high-rise construction.

    my degree helps a lot in my field, but i definitely didnt plan on getting into this industry.

  7. Quite common. Examples of people I know:

    English > Accounting

    Studio Arts > Grant writing

    Agriculture > Sci-fi/romance writing

    History > Accounting

    Math > Publishing

  8. Very common. Many “useless” degrees are actually just a demonstration that you are capable of critical thought, time management, and are a proficient communicator.

    One of my friends who got a bachelors degree in “Organizational Studies,” which is basically a macro gender studies major, went on to work for a hedge fund and makes $500K doing that now.

  10. I think you could consider my jobs in the same field depending how broad/narrow you go. My degree is in Japanese and Linguistics:

    Various Japanese companies (logistics, sales, airlines, etc) using Japanese every day.

    English teaching in Japan or to Japanese students in the US

    (Current) Japanese translator

    I’m planning to go to grad school for Linguistics next year so hopefully future jobs in research and/or teaching.

  11. Very very common. I work in a completely different field than my undergrad degree.

  12. It’s very common.

    A lot of degrees don’t really have a field, per se. A lot are pretty general like math or even applied math.

  13. Considering I was Biochem and Religious Studies and then went on to become a lawyer, my friend was Russian language and she’s a pediatric oncologist, and my other friend was math and chemistry and is now a professor of neurosurgery, it happens for sure.

  14. This is mostly a modern thing due to student loans increasing the number of people that go to college. Since the job market didn’t also increase, it forced a lot of college graduates into lower paying jobs that they are “over-qualified” for.

  15. Based on the very small sample size of resumes that I get for the jobs I’m hiring for, every single person in America.

  19. Degree in business admin, finance concentration with a minor in international relations. Im a tech consultant now but my degree is largely irrelevant to my career. I should have taken MIS or computer science.

  20. Very common. Not all degrees are directly related to a specific job or career path. For most liberal arts, fine arts, and humanities majors, the field they eventually went to has little to none relationship with their degree.

  21. Yeah, very common. Sometimes it’s related, my dad studied biological engineering and wound up working aerospace for his career, for example. A bunch of the people I’ve worked with in white collar positions around sales, account management, middle managers, hr, whatever had degrees in random liberal arts stuff. English, art, history, whatever.

  22. Very, very common. In some cultures you have to get a job in your field right after college and then God help you if you want to switch after age thirty or thirty-five. No one wants to hire “older” people.

    Here, when we go to hire someone we can’t say it, but we want someone older. Even if their work history isn’t exactly in the same line that often means they’re just bringing broader experience to us. Since it’s relatively easy to get hired older there’s less fear around switching. I have a good friend who switched careers at fifty. I switched at forty. Most of my family and friends are working in a field they ended up in but not what they studied in college.
    Only the lawyers and doctors stuck it out (but I also have friends who studied English and history that became lawyers abs doctors later)

  23. Basically everyone I went to school with used their degree but lots of my friends I didn’t go to school with don’t. My school is pretty niche so it makes sense.

  24. My husband is working in a totally different field than his college degree. And he uses his trigonometry!

  25. I don’t know how common it is, but I know my fiancée has an associate degree in business and works as a home health aide and my uncle has an engineering degree but works as a commercial pilot.

  26. My major/minor was accounting/CS. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but understood that it would likely align with those as they are pretty universal. After about 10 years of industry experience focusing on telecom and tech strategy/enablement, I work for a small consultancy that focuses on contact centers and other CX operations. I run the tech and data side of the house and also participate in operations.

    My SO’s degree is in psychology and she runs a technical support division for a coaching-as-a-service company.

    One of my colleagues has a degree in musical theory or some shit and is now the founder of a company building a very nice contact center platform.

    But, then there are people like my father who went to school for accounting and then tax and is a CPA, and my stepfather who went to school for geology and now works for a well drilling company (he got there in a very round-about way).

  27. How often do people work in their degree’s field might be a better question. I know 3 people who work in the field their degrees are in. An accountant, an actuary, and a chemical engineer.

  28. Majored in political science, work for an airline in operations. About as useless as it gets for me

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