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Social mobility among Wake alums compared to other institutions

I am a really good writer, for an accountant. Most of my colleagues are idiots at communicating. Thanks Calloway.
 
I think this thread is overrating your undergraduate major. I think that the second most popular career path, after law school, among philosophy majors at Wake was investment banking. There are only a handful of majors that really determine your career options out of undergrad. More important are internships, your network (main reason so many rich kids stay rich and poor kids stay poor), hard work, and luck. Graduate degrees are where the vocational options open and close with more permanence.

There's also more to an education than a career.
 
wakephan09 said:
The good news is that English majors and Tribble types overtake engineering salaries on average after fifteen or so years out of school. Takes 'em longer to find a field and advance, but then they own the world.
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CantStandYa said:
I parlayed a double major in English and Politics into a first job as a no-name outside sales cog in a corporate machine, so I had to learn on the fly that blue book college writing was not a valuable skill.

That said, as my career progressed, reaching back to the ability to make clear, concise, and persuasive written arguments definitely came in handy.
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It's like magic!
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
More important are internships, your network (main reason so many rich kids stay rich and poor kids stay poor), hard work, and luck.
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I got my current job because my wake buddy works at a firm who did the taxes of my current employer, and the previous job because it was one of our clients for my first job, and the one before that because Wake just handed me the internship (my GPA too low to go big 4 which I applied).

I've never once applied or had to do anything to get a job.
 
palmab03 said:
I got my current job because my wake buddy works at a firm who worked with the opening, and the previous job because it was one of our clients, and the one before that because my old partner liked me, and my first job because Wake just handed me the internship (my GPA too low to go big 4 which I applied).

I've never once applied or had to do anything to get a job.
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English degrees also teach us about things like solipsism and the availability heuristic, which is nice, I guess.
 
palmab03 said:
I got my current job because my wake buddy works at a firm who did the taxes of my current employer, and the previous job because it was one of our clients for my first job, and the one before that because Wake just handed me the internship (my GPA too low to go big 4 which I applied).

I've never once applied or had to do anything to get a job.
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Yep, it's why a guy who played poker for several years of his life can still get a legit accounting job with a huge ass hole in his resume.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
Yep, it's why a guy who played poker for several years of his life can still get a legit accounting job with a huge ass hole in his resume.
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I worked for the same firm before and after the 3 year gap (just different offices), but leaving on good terms helped. My old partner just called the new one and said to hire that guy, so I had my offer letter already drafted before my "interview"
 
palmab03 said:
I take great pride in having no fucking clue what the availability heuristic is.
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It's the idea that the thoughts that come to mind when making a decision must be more important because you thought them first.
 
TownieDeac said:
English degrees also teach us about things like solipsism and the availability heuristic, which is nice, I guess.
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You also get to make dope references to obscure novels that rubes would never read.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
I think this thread is overrating your undergraduate major. I think that the second most popular career path, after law school, among philosophy majors at Wake was investment banking. There are only a handful of majors that really determine your career options out of undergrad. More important are internships, your network (main reason so many rich kids stay rich and poor kids stay poor), hard work, and luck. Graduate degrees are where the vocational options open and close with more permanence.

There's also more to an education than a career.
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I dunno.... There aren't that many wake grads that actually go into investment banking
 
Humblebrag: I think I make in the top 5% of all WFU English majors.
 
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buckets said:
I dunno.... There aren't that many wake grads that actually go into investment banking
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I mean, the philosophy program pumped out like 15-20 grads a year. If half go to law school and three go into investment banking then its still true.

The point is that undergraduate degree isn't that important in determining your career unless you do engineering, education, or a select handful of majors.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
The point is that undergraduate degree isn't that important in determining your career unless you do engineering, education, or a select handful of majors.
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Which is a pretty important argument in favor of the liberal arts education.
 
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