We spent a lot of time last week talking about the value of a college education (see our post: Is College Worth It?). So we were excited to see a post from FlowingData, “Careers after the College Degree,” to add to that discussion. Here’s an interesting visualization that plots out the relationship between careers and college majors, using data from one of our favorite sources, the American Community Survey.
You can explore this relationship by clicking on either a college degree on the left or a particular career choice on the right to zoom in for a closer look. With so many different combinations of careers and degrees, we think you’ll enjoy exploring this creative data visualization. We certainly did!
This data adds an interesting element to our college discussion. Do students’ majors lead them to the field they were expecting? Are college degrees adequately preparing students to join the workforce, even if they end up in a different field than they had anticipated?
In today’s fluid and quickly shifting economy, where the average tenure with an employer is only 4.6 years, students may need to be prepared for a variety of roles and career fields over the course of their lifetime. One report suggests that workers may have an average of 8 to 14 different jobs throughout their lives.
We have two questions we’d love to hear your response to:
1. Did you end up in a career related to your college degree?
2. What skills do college students need to develop in order to be successful in the workforce?
