I just noticed this old piece via Marginal Revolution:
Aside from its wealth, the single defining feature of über-Washington is its youth. Most of the people who have moved to Washington since 2006 have been under 35; the region has the highest percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds in the U.S. “We’re a mecca for young people,” Fuller says. One recent arrival says word has gotten out to new graduates that Washington is where the work is. “It’s a place where a liberal-arts major can still get a job,” she says, “because you don’t need a particular skill.”
My emphasis added of course.
>> ““It’s a place where a liberal-arts major can still get a job,” she says, “because you don’t need a particular skill.””
Wow, that speaks VOLUMES! 😉
I am not so sure a bachelor’s degree imparts anyone with any skill, unless as an undergraduate you have learned enough about the world to go on learning what you need to learn. I played golf today with a friend, an MD, who maintains he learned enough to learn what he needed to learn enough to get through medical school to learn medicine in residency to become a doctor. His college science courses are remotely useful, except he taught himself how to learn about science. He also is a reader, of novels, history, and other subjects. He got his bachelor’s degree from a good college that valued liberal education.
It happens that my daughter graduated in 2005 from a good liberal education institution, which required courses in laboratory science, calculus, history, and languages. She was an English major. What the hell do you do with an English major? Teach Chaucer?
Well, you get a job that has nothing to do with Chaucer in a town forty five minutes north, in the greater D.C. area, which is Boomtown, a fifty-mile raidius from the Washington Monument swimming in money.
She had acquired enough skill in thinking and writing to land a job, but I do not think had she tried a similar route elsewhere she would be less successful. BTW, she did not get a job with a government paycheck, but I was not one to discourage anything.
She is in management now, and her first task was to hire someone to replace herself successfully, and she went through a whole bunch of people before she found someone for the job, someone with both skill and the right attitude.
Under the “I guess this fits here” department, and definitely the “Sign I’ve been reading this site too long” Department… My daughter announced she wishes to be a chemical engineer, my wife says “Great, you may even cure cancer.” The first thing popping into my mind is, “Wow, think of all the people you would put out of work…”
142182 269634I truly prize your piece of function, Excellent post. 345102