Due to low birth rate, Japan abolishes social sciences, STEM for all.

[Admiral Yi]

Psychology is mostly studied by students who either don't know why they are at university, or failed out of other subjects.

In my experience psych majors pick the field because they want to diagnose themselves.

[Ideologue]

Isn't psychology both a social science and STEM?

Psychology is mostly studied by students who either don't know why they are at university, or failed out of other subjects.

Rude!

How does that make you feel?

See, this is kind of what I was talking about.  I think garb's doing fine.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Really? Are salaries for STEM graduates rising rapidly due to shortages and fights over talent?

I have gone round and round on Reddit and Hacker News about this, and it seems to me there is a shortage of unicorns willing to work for pack mule wages.  That is, standards are extremely high but salaries are not.  At least, not as high as they should be if the situation was as dire as hiring managers claim.  It is both entertaining and frustrating to see a company that whines about the shortage of talented engineers rejecting the author of a well-known and widely-used software package because he couldn't pass their hazinginterview.

There seems to be major cognitive dissonance in the companies, governments, and universities pushing STEM education.

[Malthus]

Really? Are salaries for STEM graduates rising rapidly due to shortages and fights over talent?

I have gone round and round on Reddit and Hacker News about this, and it seems to me there is a shortage of unicorns willing to work for pack mule wages.  That is, standards are extremely high but salaries are not.  At least, not as high as they should be if the situation was as dire as hiring managers claim.  It is both entertaining and frustrating to see a company that whines about the shortage of talented engineers rejecting the author of a well-known and widely-used software package because he couldn't pass their hazinginterview.

There seems to be major cognitive dissonance in the companies, governments, and universities pushing STEM education.

Instead of anthropology and law, I could have become an engineer. Then I too could have known the glory that is a STEM career. 

[Hamilcar]

I'm glad you're back, though, Hami!

Ha! 

[Ideologue]

But to be clear the solution isn't closing down liberal arts departments entirely, but some sort of centralized effort by the responsible governmental authorities to tailor the actual number of liberal arts graduates to the number of liberal arts jobs that are available.  And this shouldn't be limited to liberal arts, but STEM as well.  Specific training in the absence of actual employment opportunity is a waste of human capital, and winds up fucking up job markets (this is what's happened in the US) along with creating a huge education-industrial complex that is for-profit in all but name (ditto).

Though at least with STEM majors there's the possibility of them innovating something and creating their own markets.  I'm relatively certain that a new critical theory of Romantic literature, for example, has ever increased GDP.

[Hamilcar]

Really? Are salaries for STEM graduates rising rapidly due to shortages and fights over talent?

I have gone round and round on Reddit and Hacker News about this, and it seems to me there is a shortage of unicorns willing to work for pack mule wages.  That is, standards are extremely high but salaries are not.  At least, not as high as they should be if the situation was as dire as hiring managers claim.  It is both entertaining and frustrating to see a company that whines about the shortage of talented engineers rejecting the author of a well-known and widely-used software package because he couldn't pass their hazinginterview.

There seems to be major cognitive dissonance in the companies, governments, and universities pushing STEM education.

Yup.

More generally: it's a good thing if more students have more STEM aspects to their education (statistics, programming, engineering) even if they study humanities. But the idea that we have a "STEM shortage" is patently ridiculous.

[Ideologue]

Really? Are salaries for STEM graduates rising rapidly due to shortages and fights over talent?

I have gone round and round on Reddit and Hacker News about this, and it seems to me there is a shortage of unicorns willing to work for pack mule wages.  That is, standards are extremely high but salaries are not.  At least, not as high as they should be if the situation was as dire as hiring managers claim.  It is both entertaining and frustrating to see a company that whines about the shortage of talented engineers rejecting the author of a well-known and widely-used software package because he couldn't pass their hazinginterview.

There seems to be major cognitive dissonance in the companies, governments, and universities pushing STEM education.

Just off the cuff, this appears to be a lot more based on the general dysfunction accruing to companies lately as they attempt to respond to shareholder demands for profits as aggregate demand continues to sag.  It's related to the apocalyptic problems with college, and to some degree is driven by that (we can hold out for a perfect candidate!), but I'd say the real takeaway is that the jobs that they can't fill evidently are simply not direly needed, because the organization can continue to run without it--in fact, at a lower cost, as long as it isn't filled.

[Ideologue]

Really? Are salaries for STEM graduates rising rapidly due to shortages and fights over talent?

I have gone round and round on Reddit and Hacker News about this, and it seems to me there is a shortage of unicorns willing to work for pack mule wages.  That is, standards are extremely high but salaries are not.  At least, not as high as they should be if the situation was as dire as hiring managers claim.  It is both entertaining and frustrating to see a company that whines about the shortage of talented engineers rejecting the author of a well-known and widely-used software package because he couldn't pass their hazinginterview.

There seems to be major cognitive dissonance in the companies, governments, and universities pushing STEM education.

Yup.

More generally: it's a good thing if more students have more STEM aspects to their education (statistics, programming, engineering) even if they study humanities. But the idea that we have a "STEM shortage" is patently ridiculous.

Yes, it's not that we need more STEM grads, necessarily, but rather fewer humanities grads, and anyone who does go to college--all things being equal--should be going STEM.  Because otherwise they're probably wasting money, at least for students outside of the elite universities.

[Hamilcar]

Really? Are salaries for STEM graduates rising rapidly due to shortages and fights over talent?

I have gone round and round on Reddit and Hacker News about this, and it seems to me there is a shortage of unicorns willing to work for pack mule wages.  That is, standards are extremely high but salaries are not.  At least, not as high as they should be if the situation was as dire as hiring managers claim.  It is both entertaining and frustrating to see a company that whines about the shortage of talented engineers rejecting the author of a well-known and widely-used software package because he couldn't pass their hazinginterview.

There seems to be major cognitive dissonance in the companies, governments, and universities pushing STEM education.

Just off the cuff, this appears to be a lot more based on the general dysfunction accruing to companies lately as they attempt to respond to shareholder demands for profits as aggregate demand continues to sag.  It's related to the apocalyptic problems with college, and to some degree is driven by that (we can hold out for a perfect candidate!), but I'd say the real takeaway is that the jobs that they can't fill evidently are simply not direly needed, because the organization can continue to run without it--in fact, at a lower cost, as long as it isn't filled.

The problem in part has been created by large HR departments who are ignorant of technical skills and so reject any candidate who does not match 100% of input keywords. There's no shortage of highly skilled STEM/IT people out there, but there's a shortage of people who have 7 years of experience in a programming language that's only 2 years old and are willing to work for the salary of someone working at Arby's.

[Hamilcar]

Yes, it's not that we need more STEM grads, necessarily, but rather fewer humanities grads, and anyone who does go to college--all things being equal--should be going STEM.  Because otherwise they're probably wasting money, at least for students outside of the elite universities.

Most people are soon going to be replaced by robots, so I'm not sure it matters too much what we do. And I say this as someone whose primary output is highly skilled STEM graduates.

p.s. hire my students!

[Ideologue]

That's true.  There's a component to hiring irrationality that is based on HR culture and has little to do with anything at all in the outside world.

Meanwhile, to be in an HR department you need an actual HR degree.  It's something a lot of JD-holders have noticed, that a lot of quasi-legal jobs actually have their own specific programs that fill them.

[Hamilcar]

I thought you're a lawyer. 

[Ideologue]

Yes, it's not that we need more STEM grads, necessarily, but rather fewer humanities grads, and anyone who does go to college--all things being equal--should be going STEM.  Because otherwise they're probably wasting money, at least for students outside of the elite universities.

Most people are soon going to be replaced by robots, so I'm not sure it matters too much what we do. And I say this as someone whose primary output is highly skilled STEM graduates.

p.s. hire my students!

If people avoid college, they can buy stock in the robot-building companies.

That's all I've got that doesn't involve a universal guaranteed income.

[Hamilcar]

If people avoid college, they can buy stock in the robot-building companies.

That's all I've got that doesn't involve a universal guaranteed income.

Buy on margin!