What do you wish you'd studied?

[Valmy]

Wages are higher, working conditions are better, your employer won't disappear or be bought by another company, and working for the government is PSLF eligible.

My private sector equivalents make far more than I do.  I work in a building from the 30s that was remodled in the 70s.  They work in brand new offices.

[Valmy]

LOL.

Oh, you mean for engineers.

No I mean for me.  $15.00 an hour for office staff with 10+ years experience may be a fortune in SC but it sorta sucks over here.

[Ideologue]

Yikes.  It's not a fortune in SC.  This is for the stategov, though, yes?  Stategov is different.

[Valmy]

Yikes.  It's not a fortune in SC.  This is for the stategov, though, yes?  Stategov is different.

Yep.  I mean you get free health insurance and matching retirement and some other nice things...but I think most of us could do better in the private sector.

[Iormlund]

Here salaries in the private sector are only more attractive for qualified personnel. But even then work conditions will be worse. To make good money in the private sector as an engineer, for example, you need to be available 24/7, probably travel a lot, manage projects/people and so on.

What many skilled public workers do is use their ample spare time to work in the private sector.

[Zanza]

The alternative for me was medicine. Instead I studied information systems and now work as IT project manager.
Not sure if medicine would have been better. Definitely worse work hours, but maybe more interesting? No international travel, but more meaning to my work? Less money now, but bigger chance to become self-employed later? Hmm.

[Valmy]

What many skilled public workers do is use their ample spare time to work in the private sector.

Well I am not particularly skilled.  But I bet if I had gotten that EE degree I might have been.

[The Brain]

I thought Spain had a kind of economic crisis or something. Do they really think that grossly inefficient government is desirable?

[mongers]

Another vote for geology, I was good at it, it would have gotten me into the outdoors more plus it might have help in a career of mine.

[The Brain]

Another vote for geology, I was good at it, it would have gotten me into the outdoors more plus it might have help in a career of mine.

Steve Coogan met alt-you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79FVxNhrMuc

[Savonarola]

I wouldn't have changed my major (even if it's turned me into a villain in Celedhring imagination.  )

In my career it would have been helpful to have taken some earth and life science courses; especially geology and meteorology.  Both the ground and the atmosphere have properties that impact radio frequency.  Of course I had no way of knowing that I would end up in radio frequency at the time; I assumed I'd end up at an automotive company like almost all the rest of my classmates.

My university also offered a course in "Literature of the Upper Peninsula" that I wish I would have taken.  Michigan's upper peninsula (where my alma mater is located) is the setting for Hiawatha and the Nick Adams stories and Anatomy of a Murder.  I think that would have been a neat thing to have taken while there.  Strangely enough all my gen-ed classes were British Literature.

Overall, though, I think my college education was sufficient.  I think of formal schooling as mostly a base, something to be built upon once you leave (and real education begins.)  I had the tools to understand the dynamo and the virgin; so I was up on Henry Adams at least.

[Savonarola]

What many skilled public workers do is use their ample spare time to work in the private sector.

Well I am not particularly skilled.  But I bet if I had gotten that EE degree I might have been.

I think the only skill I've ever used in my career that I picked up in undergrad was how to count in binary on my fingers.

[Iormlund]

I thought Spain had a kind of economic crisis or something. Do they really think that grossly inefficient government is desirable?

I'm guessing the system is rooted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Liberal and Conservative parties took turns governing the country (much like the Socialists and Populares do now). Back then they sacked everyone in public employment after one party took office, to appoint someone closer to the new government. This probably included judges, prosecutors, taxmen, diplomats and so on. Which led to all sorts of problems.
To solve this, a Confucian-style civil service system was created, where anyone can take the exams and fight for a job with no accountability whatsoever.

[The Brain]

I thought Spain had a kind of economic crisis or something. Do they really think that grossly inefficient government is desirable?

I'm guessing the system is rooted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Liberal and Conservative parties took turns governing the country (much like the Socialists and Populares do now). Back then they sacked everyone in public employment after one party took office, to appoint someone closer to the new government. This probably included judges, prosecutors, taxmen, diplomats and so on. Which led to all sorts of problems.
To solve this, a Confucian-style civil service system was created, where anyone can take the exams and fight for a job with no accountability whatsoever.

No accountability.

[alfred russel]

No accountability.

I would think that nuclear engineering is the exception to the no accountability standard. Or at least I would hope.