Graduating with a bachelors next year but don’t think I learned too much

[Barry McKockner]

OP im the same way. i got a engineering degree and i legit feel like i learn far less than i feel i should have in four years. maybe i was just a lousy student, maybe it was a lousy school (kind of was), maybe both, or maybe this is just true of all bachelors.

I frequently work with recent engineering or construction management degree holders. They know JACK SHIT about implementing what they have learned. They know nothing of the very field they studied for 4 years. It's honestly embarrassing that universities are OK with what they put out. The reason graduates get paid so low in the beginning is simply due to them needing so much training before they are even minimally useful.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

I frequently work with recent engineering or construction management degree holders. They know JACK SHIT about implementing what they have learned. They know nothing of the very field they studied for 4 years. It's honestly embarrassing that universities are OK with what they put out. The reason graduates get paid so low in the beginning is simply due to them needing so much training before they are even minimally useful.

honestly makes me feel a bit better knowing it isnt just me and my class mates who are like this. but i do agree, after witnessing first hand what passes for an engineering bachelors, it is 100% embarrassing what modern universities are okay with putting out.

 

[Barry McKockner]

honestly makes me feel a bit better knowing it isnt just me and my class mates who are like this. but i do agree, after witnessing first hand what passes for an engineering bachelors, it is 100% embarrassing what modern universities are okay with putting out.

It's not. It's 100% not an individual issue. Construction project managers come in fresh knowing how to make a simple schedule or use a budget, but have no working knowledge on how to do the single most important thing: identify, manage, eliminate, and transfer risk. They don't know how to read and understand a contract, but they sure can take good meeting notes.

Fresh civies aren't much better.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

No joke, but e-learning diplomas and certifications might just be the new degree. It may not replace it, but if you can find some accredited ones online, you practically will seek to gain more knowledge than you ever receive with a college degree.

Then again, that’s just me saying it.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Now I’m a behavior therapist, but the degree taught me to have a better work ethic and increased my reasoning and writing skills. Don’t limit yourself with what you got a degree in.

This is practically the point of History majors. A rather large number of them intend to be pre-Law and people will intentionally do it as preparation for Law. It's constant reading (including primary sources, sometimes), analysis, and writing with some room for rhetoric (as opposed to purely technical writing, which is a very different skill set, or creative writing, also a different skill set).

 

[Friend of Dorothy Parker]

But I just don’t know what to do with this fucking degree information wise.

You sound pretty mild about all of it. Why'd you pick the major you did if you don't really care about it as a discipline or as a potential career avenue?

I don't really understand why you'd spend 4 years twiddling your thumbs rather than taking advantage of every possible opportunity to learn and grow.

If you have one year left, I'd urge you to make the most of it by engaging your mind in your courses/subject matter/something rather than passively learning facts and coasting along. Find some fire, whether that's in courses for your major, doing research with a faculty member, exploring something else completely, or investigating jobs or opportunities to do something cool. Why not? Challenge is good for you. As is personal ambition. Working to create and pursuing concrete goals can also help general anxiety (of course that can vary, but a lot of people feel more solid and confident, and have less of a tendency to spin on general or specific worries, when they are busy and engaged).
The point of all that is to say school years are full of stimulation and opportunities to enrich yourself and/or find direction. If you aren't learning much, that's a travesty, and you're not living the life you could be - a life that is stimulating and interesting and more than passing time.

It's not. It's 100% not an individual issue. Construction project managers come in fresh knowing how to make a simple schedule or use a budget, but have no working knowledge on how to do the single most important thing: identify, manage, eliminate, and transfer risk. They don't know how to read and understand a contract, but they sure can take good meeting notes.

Fresh civies aren't much better.

School is about foundational learning. Application can be learned a bit in internships, projects, summer or part-time jobs, fieldwork requirements, etc., but every new/junior employee is going to be raw. Which is one reason to knock your schoolwork/grades out of the park - so you can get to the best first job you can and be trained well.

 

[Mysterious Milkk]

“You sound pretty mild about all of it. Why'd you pick the major you did if you don't really care about it as a discipline or as a potential career avenue?

I don't really understand why you'd spend 4 years twiddling your thumbs rather than taking advantage of every possible opportunity to learn and grow.

If you have one year left, I'd urge you to make the most of it by engaging your mind in your courses/subject matter/something rather than passively learning facts and coasting along. “


Ok I took dual enrollment in high school so I came to my university with half of my credits. I got word that I’m only missing four classes for my bachelor’s meaning I’ll have finished technically my bachelor’s just barely being 20 years old, if you expect someone who’s just barely 20 to have had life experience then you’re asking for too much.
I am however planning on doing a minor in General Marketing just so I can up my game and I have a LinkedIn account where I’ll be trying to connect with consulate workers to see if I can try to get a paid internship.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

I frequently work with recent engineering or construction management degree holders. They know JACK SHIT about implementing what they have learned. They know nothing of the very field they studied for 4 years. It's honestly embarrassing that universities are OK with what they put out. The reason graduates get paid so low in the beginning is simply due to them needing so much training before they are even minimally useful.

True in accounting and finance as well, but I think it was always that way. They should have the basic knowledge and conceptual skillset to succeed once someone shows them how to apply it.

The bigger issue right seems to be inability or unwillingness to figure things out, combined with a fear of asking people above them for help that is worse than anything I've seen before. Is this more COVID shit?