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posted by martyb on Friday November 03 2017, @07:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the cost-benefit-analysis dept.

How's that STEM education working out?

Much of the public enthusiasm for STEM education rests on the assumption that these fields are rich in job opportunity. Some are, some aren’t. STEM is an expansive category, spanning many disciplines and occupations, from software engineers and data scientists to geologists, astronomers and physicists.

What recent studies have made increasingly apparent is that the greatest number of high-paying STEM jobs are in the “T” (specifically, computing).

Earlier this year, Glassdoor, a jobs listing website, ranked the median base salary of workers in their first five years of employment by undergraduate major. Computer science topped the list ($70,000), followed by electrical engineering ($68,438). Biochemistry ($46,406) and biotechnology ($48,442) were among the lowest paying majors in the study, which also confirmed that women are generally underrepresented in STEM majors.

So study cybersecurity, not slime molds.


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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday November 04 2017, @05:49PM (3 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Saturday November 04 2017, @05:49PM (#592227)

    Out of curiosity, how obvious is it from casual inspection that you're an American Indian? There are lots of people that are part Native who don't look like it and thus don't receive any kind of discrimination because of it.

    One of my employers rejected a potential candidate for a developer job solely because he was a dot-not-feather Indian - he announced that fact to his entire team (I left shortly thereafter). A friend of mine who worked in HR described another candidate who had all the right experience, aced the interview, and in the post-interview meeting learned that nobody wanted to hire her solely because she was black. So don't tell me that this kind of stuff is in my imagination, because I've seen it happening right before my very eyes. And we're talking about events happening in 2015, not 1965.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 04 2017, @06:24PM (2 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday November 04 2017, @06:24PM (#592250) Homepage Journal

    Depends on the time of year. In the winter it's strictly bone structure and hair. Once the sun starts warming up though I go from zero to getting mistaken for mexican PDQ.

    Now that I've answered that though, why are you interested? Were you planning on telling me my heritage doesn't count because of skin color? You know, I take it back. It's damned easy today to find bigots. Just look for anyone who subscribes to identity politics.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday November 04 2017, @07:28PM (1 child)

      by Thexalon (636) on Saturday November 04 2017, @07:28PM (#592268)

      Do I think the racial discrimination I directly observed is real? Yes.
      Do I think it's wrong? Yes. Not just morally wrong, but leads to sub-optimal institutions, because the capable people that don't fit the desired stereotypes aren't hired, promoted, or otherwise rewarded.
      I think, as the vast majority people who study it think, that the variations within any particular identity group are far greater than the differences between the averages in the groups.
      Lastly, I think that some of the discrimination out there is the manifestation of internal biases, where most people naturally react to others based on visual cues that are not in fact accurate. For example, face symmetry can have a huge effect on your life.

      I don't subscribe to the (silly) idea that whoever is the most victimized by that discrimination is the best person to pick for a job. But I do subscribe to the idea that if I'm interviewing 2 equally experienced candidates, and they both do equally well, I should err on the side of countering my own bias by hiring the person I'm naturally biased against, because I've likely downgraded their performance in my head prior to making the decision. And that's what affirmative action is all about.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 04 2017, @09:23PM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday November 04 2017, @09:23PM (#592286) Homepage Journal

        Okay, let's come at this from another direction then.

        Discriminating against people based on skin color is foolish and creates hatred in those discriminated against.

        When you discriminate in favor of someone based on skin color, you necessarily discriminate against everyone else based on the same.

        Thus every time you do this you are fanning the flames of racially based hatred for the demographic you extended preference towards and for yourself.

        The above also applies to gender through the exact same logic chain.

        You are not making the world a better place; you are filling it with a double scoop of hate.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.