I, for one, am shocked that rasta is blaming everyone but himself for his mediocre position in life.

Dentist have the highest suicide rate of any profession, though--5.45 times more likely to kill themselves than average.

I think that there is a degree of irrationality involved (pun intended), but also that it's a very inefficient market at many stages of the process.

Back when I was going to school, companies were favoring liberal arts degrees over business degrees at the undergrad level because they valued people who knew how to think critically over those who had learned basic business administration skills. I don't think your undergrad degree matters that much for most jobs.

Anyway, forget about being a dentist. OOT already figured out pharmacist is the easiest money gig there is.

edit: Apparently this is again the case in some tech companies

Lol, no. This is not what happened unless your parents were hippies, your school careers department was staffed entirely by morons and 'every single resource out there' consisted of asking your alcoholic uncle what to do after twelve pints of heavy.

I can only repeat myself when I re-assert that my parents had absolutely no interest in what subject I was studying at University (we collectively decided my subject and 5 university choices on UCAS deadline day) and that my teachers at school told me that if I wanted to be a journalist I shouldn't do a journalism degree.

Now if you want to continue disbelieving me, that's absolutely fine, but I can't see how we're going to develop this bone of contention any further.

I think the reason people struggle to believe what I've told them is because there really is a disconnect between my family background being nouveau-riche upper middle-class and my parents actually, not being those goody-gumdrops arm-around-the-shoulder watching me study stereotypes with a keen interest in their son. My father has never told me he loved me or hugged me and never wanted to play outside with me as a kid, whilst my mother (well, I've told the story about her in the past)

There have been times where I'd come home for dinner at the age of 17 having been out all day without telling them, and they wouldn't even ask me where I went. They've just never been that arsed.

Of course, I'm also to blame for a great deal of this. I've never had want of food or shelter, and have lived a privileged lifestyle of total security, just with no love or affection. I could have used these things to my advantage to a greater degree but hey, I am where I am now.

RASTAMOUSE!!!!!

Rasta,

THIS IS NOT YOUR BLOG.

Sure looks like it.

can we get a containment thread for people who need to be contained from the containment thread?

Alobar,

Here you go

fwiw, it's pretty well established that, on the undergrad level, the average business student is on par with students studying education. They both tend to attract the least motivated and least curious students. Not exactly the people that have future success written all over them. Their GPAs are on average far lower than students in the liberal arts, and they score far lower on standardized tests for grad school. In fact, philosophy majors have the greatest success at the MCAT and admissions into medical school. Also, liberal arts majors do tend to start out at lower salaries, but then achieve parity at mid career and then exceed business majors as their careers advance. It's a common misconception that business majors have a practical edge of some type over liberal arts majors. You can find all kinds of data on this if you Google it.

I'd add that getting a 2.1 at a "top 20" school in the UK is not an achievement. You are at the absolute bottom rung in terms of being able to apply for real graduate jobs. That sucks, but you can't complain that the jobs are going to people who went to better unis or studied harder than you.

In pragmatic terms, I completely agree. I'm nothing remotely special, especially as I'll readily admit my degree was a waste of time (although I do stand by the claim that it wasn't entirely my responsibility given the woeful advice I was given in formative years (the fact that Gin 'n' Tonic could only flat out deny my upbringing as unrealistic pretty much vindicating this)).

So yeah, I don't for one second have any complaint about being out-kicked for a job by someone with a better degree.

I can however, express my confusion and disappointment at the fact that you need a top-class degree to get a job that'll do so much as pay you a living wage.

(btw, to the people who say this isn't my blog, I'm trying to segway into a discussion about the economics of labour in general here)

This isn't the economics and labor forum

Rasta,

You're a fan of segways?

Lbr,

I think it's a fine place to discuss segways.

I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of low educated people that earn a living wage in the UK

Yeah, but how many of them own a segway? It seems like only fat old rich white guys buy them.

yeah, if rasta really wants a segway he's gonna have to go back to school

Someone should make a bet with rasta that he can't go ten posts without talking about himself. Free money.

Lol_olds. Segways are done for, airwheels are the way to go!

Airwheels are for rebels. Rasta is more of a safety first kind of guy.

Segway pretty much useless in the UK, can't use them on the roads, can't use them on the pavement (sidewalk).