With all the talk of H-1B visas taking American jobs in Tech, I'd thought this would make a great discussion.

Say if you were a Senior in High School heading to Texas A&M next year, what degree/career would you head into in today's market?

Doctor? Software Engineer? Sales? Investment Banking?

No stuff like onlyfans or professional athlete.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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Cyber security is a booming profession. I think you can make 6 figures coming right out of school.

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In cyber and do hiring on occasion. It's a really tough field right now for folks to crack into without decent experience. Now if you have proven skills in the right specialty, you're golden

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Welding/plumbing/hvac/electrical trade schools. Stay well away from cyber security, the field is extremely hard to break into and 1 ****up means firing usually. Cheaper and instant job pretty much after. STEM degree if they are dead set on college, 2 year junior college and transfer into 4 year after year 2 and pull 60 credits or so with you (make 100% sure when booking classes that they will transfer, the schools can easily tell you this). Saves you a ton of money. Its what i did with cyfair/lone star junior college to A&M cstat. Super easy to pull a 4.0 or close to it too with less studying.

Investment banking first 5 years or so post college is absolute hell, like constant 80-100hr weeks but you are golden after if you survive it.

Send them to the land surveying program at Tyler Junior College

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62strat said:

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QBCade said:

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Electrical Engineering.

Im in tech in Silicon Valley. Hw design isn't getting anymore outsourced and is highly needed as most folks in the chip biz are old guys like me. There are going to be a ton of retirements in this industry in the next 5-15yrs and there are not enough young Hw engineers to fill.

Edit - also, EE is regarded as the hardest engineering degree to complete. If you can do that with a good GPA, you should be able to write your ticket. Engineering, Marketing, Product Mgmt, Field Apps, Sales, etc. All will be very available in tech.

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or skip the engineering and go construction management.

This is coming from an engineer, who works for a general contractor.

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Obviously depends on what you'd like to do. OP asked for advice, I'm speaking from my experience. Can't speak to working in construction, but I can speak to working in tech and the possibilities there.

Farming something. Anything. It's pretty easy to get loan for land as well for almost anyone.

QBCade said:

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62strat said:

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QBCade said:

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Electrical Engineering.

Im in tech in Silicon Valley. Hw design isn't getting anymore outsourced and is highly needed as most folks in the chip biz are old guys like me. There are going to be a ton of retirements in this industry in the next 5-15yrs and there are not enough young Hw engineers to fill.

Edit - also, EE is regarded as the hardest engineering degree to complete. If you can do that with a good GPA, you should be able to write your ticket. Engineering, Marketing, Product Mgmt, Field Apps, Sales, etc. All will be very available in tech.

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or skip the engineering and go construction management.

This is coming from an engineer, who works for a general contractor.

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Obviously depends on what you'd like to do. OP asked for advice, I'm speaking from my experience. Can't speak to working in construction, but I can speak to working in tech and the possibilities there.

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I know nothing about tech, I just know construction has always and will always be around.

FIDO*98* said:

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Skip A&M and become a Plumber, Electrician, Welder, HVAC. Take the $100,000 for college and use it to start a business after a few years of experience

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Beat me to it. $$$$$$$$$

jh0400 said:

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Anyone recommending HVAC has never done it. It can be miserable work during the summer and slow in the winter.

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not everywhere is just like Texas.

It's nothing like this in Denver.

As many others have posted, I would skip A&M and head to a trade school. In that same realm there's the aviation field (air traffic control, jet maintenance, etc.).

What I told my son and his friends (they were all freshmen in college during Covid) was to look around and see what were considered "essential jobs" and make sure you're in one of those positions.

I like the opportunities offered in the Construction Industry.

62strat said:

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jh0400 said:

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Anyone recommending HVAC has never done it. It can be miserable work during the summer and slow in the winter.

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not everywhere is just like Texas.

It's nothing like this in Denver.

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I'm assuming the OP is asking for a teenager in Texas. If so, relocate to Colorado to start an HVAC company has to be pretty far down the list of alternatives.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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Cyber security is a booming profession. I think you can make 6 figures coming right out of school.

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This. My son is a 35 year old cybersecurity analyst and is well up in the 200's.

62strat said:

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QBCade said:

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62strat said:

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QBCade said:

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Electrical Engineering.

Im in tech in Silicon Valley. Hw design isn't getting anymore outsourced and is highly needed as most folks in the chip biz are old guys like me. There are going to be a ton of retirements in this industry in the next 5-15yrs and there are not enough young Hw engineers to fill.

Edit - also, EE is regarded as the hardest engineering degree to complete. If you can do that with a good GPA, you should be able to write your ticket. Engineering, Marketing, Product Mgmt, Field Apps, Sales, etc. All will be very available in tech.

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or skip the engineering and go construction management.

This is coming from an engineer, who works for a general contractor.

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Obviously depends on what you'd like to do. OP asked for advice, I'm speaking from my experience. Can't speak to working in construction, but I can speak to working in tech and the possibilities there.

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I know nothing about tech, I just know construction has always and will always be around.

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Just from my experience, I think the EE degree opens a few more doors than a construction management degree might. I started my career on the engineering side of construction and got my PE, and then moved into more construction-focused roles. Circumstances changed and I've done a few different things since. Now manage an R&D organization that is more chemistry/physics.

But I enjoyed the construction world and the opportunities are there.

Kool said:

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Wouldn't recommend becoming an M.D. unless it was your absolute passion since you were a kid or something like that AND your Mommy and Daddy are going to foot sever hundred thousands of dollars in tuition bills. I feel blessed and fortunate that Kool Jr. has no such aspirations.

Depending on the regulations of the state you want to live in, however, being an Anaesthesia Assistant, Anaesthesia PA, or Certified Registered Nurse Anaesthetist would be a great job to aim towards.

Hang out in the O.R. scrolling through your phone, occasionally looking up at some monitors and adjusting knobs while the M.D. takes on all of the risk. What's not to love for an 18-year-old?

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This is true to some extent. Medicine is a long hard Road and unfortunately your path is left up to a lot of other people to get you from step to the step who may have personal reasons or DEI quotas to pick other people. You have to get admitted to medical school and then get admitted to residency which is difficult depending on your choice this day and age. I won't say we discouraged our kids from going into medicine but we sure didn't encourage them and they chose other paths. A certified nurse anesthetist does a lot more than stated above. My brother-in-law is one. They basically run the show while the anesthesiologist MD is either in another room or hanging out in the breakroom. Only comes in for issues or emergencies but that's the running joke with ER and anesthesia. 95% boredom, 5% panic.

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Southlake said:

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Join Navy as an Air Traffic Controller. Get out in 3 years and start at 120k for the FAA.

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Gotta be careful with that one. Money is there but you better be ok having to go live in the Bay Area and working Oakland Center or some other facility nobody wants to go to and getting stuck for years not being able to transfer out. Also lots of forced 6 day weeks. Government benefits though