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Re:The STEM Crisis Is a Myth (2013) by th3rooki3 on Friday February 03, 2017 @03:36PM (#13563077)
I think it's likely that both sides of the argument are correct. There are a large amount of STEM jobs that are not being filled, while at the same time there is a surplus of STEM graduates.

The takeaway is that businesses don't just need people that have STEM degrees, they need people that will add value to their company. Just because you have a STEM degree does not mean that you'll be a net positive for the company.

It seems to me that incentives for colleges right now are way out of wack. They're not doing a good enough job at preparing students for actual industry roles (elite institutions being the exception), yet their enrollment rates and the cost of their tuition keeps going up.

Re:The STEM Crisis Is a Myth (2013) by matwood on Friday February 03, 2017 @03:45PM (#13563147)
> The takeaway is that businesses don't just need people that have STEM degrees, they need people that will add value to their company. Just because you have a STEM degree does not mean that you'll be a net positive for the company.

I agree. I graduated a long time ago with a CS degree and almost a minor in business. The CS foundation helped with all the learning I have done since then, but if I think about the most valuable classes I had in college they were economics, accounting, finance and management. Of course some jobs need PhD level CS without any other skill, but the majority of positions need someone who knows how to program plus <insert skill here>.

Re:The STEM Crisis Is a Myth (2013) by spyspy on Friday February 03, 2017 @04:23PM (#13563451)
> elite institutions being the exception

Having worked with a lot of people with "elite" degrees, I disagree with this a lot. I walked out of school with much more relevant experience than I feel they have (through both school and co-ops). Don't get me wrong, they're all smart people, but knowing how to write merge sort in haskell is different than knowing how to comfortably use git.