anyone have a degree but "not use it"

[Daisy]

I have a B.A. in Theology and while I don't earn a paycheck in my field, I do feel like I use it everyday. It is a bit of a different type of degree though. I feel like I spent four years defining who God is and, wow, if that doesn't change your life, nothing will.

[Crimson Wife]

I have a B.A. in Psychology, and even when I was employed full-time for 7 years I didn't use it. The last paid job I held was a managerial one and supposedly required a college degree, but that was just a "gatekeeping" thing.

[Desert Rat]

BA in English. Never have used it.

[prim*rose]

BA in English. Never have used it.

 

My dh has a BA in English. He's a software engineer and doesn't work at all in his degree, but he does use it as an excuse to make up his own grammatical rules and spelling - he says his degree allows him to do that :lol:

[FairProspects]

I have a B.A. in history and a B.A. in drama, a M.A. in education and a valid teaching certificate. I may use them outside the home at some point in the future, but I even if I don't feel they have prepared me exceptionally well to teach my own children.

[myfunnybunch]

I have a Master's in Early Intervention/Special Education.

 

I expect I will use it for volunteer work when my children are a few years older.

 

Cat

[TravelingChris]

I think most of us do. I have a BA in economics which I will be using for the first time since graduating this coming semester- teaching a homeschool class. I also have a MS and all coursework and tests for a PhD in Criminal Justice and haven't used that since 1991.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I have a Bachelor's in Biochemistry which I have never used. My oldest was born one month after I graduated. :)

[teamturner]

I have a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising which I used for about 10 years working in the retail industry before having children. I don't know if/when I will use it again since it is not a family friendly field and is very stressful and demanding. When my kids are older I am considering getting a degree in Music Education since I've been doing children's choir stuff in church and co-op and I enjoy it.

[Jenny in Atl]

B.S. in Psychology... need I say more? :lol:

[Jen500]

B.S. in Psychology... need I say more? :lol:

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

(Sorry, I couldn't help myself).

At least it's a B.S., not a B.A. :lol:

[MamaSheep]

I operated like Tap until my brain blew up - only in social services, rather than pharmacy.

 

Most days it doesn't bother me, but periodically it really bugs me that I don't have enough "quarters" to fulfill my social security requirement due to having moved all over the world/stayed at home with DS/gotten deathly ill, etc. etc.

 

For the most part, though, yes, I *have* used my degree. I have worked in social services pretty much non-stop since college. Sometimes it was full time, some part time, a small amount paid, mostly unpaid, and currently completely voluntarily and through a website I help with.

 

I think it is hard (for women especially) to be treated as if our life's work is incidental or "doesn't count" because it doesn't qualify on a social security statement (that is the government's accounting document for retirement benefits in the US). There is so much more to "contributing to society" and to "using one's education" then simply garnering a paycheck.

 

(can you tell my field was social and behavioral economics? heh)

 

 

a

 

I hear ya. The government has all sorts of little ways it tries to tell us we're useless and irrelevant if we don't earn a paycheck for our work. As another example, if we're both working (and therefore have the extra money that comes with two incomes) and send our kids to daycare, we get a child care credit on taxes; if we stay home and raise them ourselves (and therefore have less income), no tax break. There definitely are societal and monetary rewards for handing your kids over to someone else as much as possible so you can go do something "legitimate". But you're right, there are things that have much greater impact on the course of human history (not to mention individual lives) than what the government recognizes as worth doing.

[babysparkler]

I'm not using my degree in the employment sense, but I use it everyday homeschooling... I have a dual BS in Early Childhood & Elementary Education :lol:

[lgm]

I'm not using my degrees - B.S., M.S. in engineering - for paid employment currently , but I certainly use it for life.

 

I agree that it's a ripoff to have paid in to SS for the decade I worked and not be eligible for disability b/c I took time off to raise my children.

 

I had always planned to go get my teaching credentials and teach high school math and physics or chemistry- both high need in my area and state. Guess what? When I talked to the ed. dept. math chair at the state U, I was informed that my degree was only good for 5 years since graduation, but sadly it had been six years since I'd earned my M.S. and I would therefore have to start at the beginning and re-take all the math courses I had taken since obviously the knowledge would have expired. Obvious money grab there. I would have to take 2 years of courses to go into teaching at this point. For the same two years I could get a research ass't job and earn a degree in Environmental Engineering or put in a few more years and earn my PhD. Or if I was lucky politically I could get an adjunct job at a CC, teach for a few years with no bennies, then get lucky and land a teaching job in public school should some tier one teacher die or retire.

Edited December 29, 2009 by lgm

[asta]

I was informed that my degree was only good for 5 years since graduation, but sadly it had been six years since I'd earned my M.S. and I would therefore have to start at the beginning and re-take all the math courses I had taken since obviously the knowledge would have expired. Obvious money grab there.

 

Again - I HATE the ivory tower mentality. My mother, is 73, is still sharp as a tack, and can rattle off every bone, muscle, and nerve in the human body to you. She was pre-med, had a course conflict, and ended up going through Physical Therapy School instead. Then she practiced that for 20 years. After spending another 20 years in mental health, she retired and started taking classes here and there at the local college. Knowing that she was something like 6 courses away from a PhD, she asked about going ahead and "finishing up" - you know, just as one of those pride kind of things.

 

The answer? Your coursework has "aged out". You know, because the human skeletal system has CHANGED since 1959.

 

Jerks.

 

 

a

Edited December 29, 2009 by asta

[athena1277]

I have a degree in Secondary Education - Math. I am certified to teach 6-12 math. I am currently teaching my 1st grade dd! I am keeping my cert. current so that if I ever have to go back to work, it will be easier to find a job where I will be at home in the evenings and on weekends with my kids.

[AnitaMcC]

B.S. in Psychology... need I say more? :lol:

 

 

LOL, same here. I took one graduate course but just can't find time/$$ to continue. I substitute teach occassionally.

Edited December 29, 2009 by AnitaMcC

[jenL]

Yes. I have an M.Ed in Elem. Ed, but I haven't taught in the classroom for 4 years. I don't miss the classroom garbage or where public education is heading, but I do miss the great relationships I had with my students and other staff members.

[Debbie in OR]

MA in Counseling from a private seminary no less so I have a very expensive piece of paper. I wouldn't trade it as most of the education I got had less to do with graduate school and more about my experiences while going through graduate school. I grew up a lot. That was worth the three years.

[KrissiK]

I have a BS in Food Science/Nutrition, a teaching credential and an MA in Teaching and Curriculum. I got my masters because I really wanted to write curriculum, but the degree was in no way what I thought it was going to be. It had nothing to do with curriculum.:glare: Anyhow, right now I am in the process of writing year two of our church's Jr. Church curiculum, so in a sense I'm using my degree. Sort of. At least I'm using what my degree says it is.

[Mad Jenny Flint]

BA in Psychology, MS in Psychology while pregnant with 1st child, Ph.D. in Psychology (specializing in child/pediatrics) completed with a toddler in tow. Had 2nd child shortly after receiving degree, and put her in daycare and my son in pre-school so I could finish repaying a service grant for 9 mos. I cried almost every day being away from them, quit my job at the 9 mo. mark, and haven't looked back. Thing is, I LOVED doing all that clinical stuff (therapy, testing) and interacting with clients (mostly kids). But I always felt like my kids needed me more. I never took my licensing exam, so I cannot call myself a "Psychologist"- but I could hang out a shingle and practice psychotherapy or get a job in some related field. I don't want to have to do that anytime soon, but I really do love helping people.

[Jenny in Atl]

:lol::lol::lol:

 

(Sorry, I couldn't help myself).

At least it's a B.S., not a B.A. :lol:

 

The one thing that really kills me is that GSU had an amazing metalsmithing program while I was there. I stayed away from the arts dept. because my folks, both artists, wanted me to go into something that I could make a living at. Art, they said, was a very hard road to travel. Ugh!

 

Well, If I had only followed my heart, and not my (not so swift) head, how different things might have been. Sadly, the metalsmithing program closed down a few years ago, otherwise I would be actively starting an MFA there. I still may, but it will have to be out of state, and after my kids are out of the house.

 

Life teaches you patience, at least it tries... :tongue_smilie:

[Georgiana Daniels]

Like one of the pp's, I have a B.S. in Public Relations, and I used to have my Series 7 license. Since the market went willy nilly, I'm not sorry I let the license lapse :tongue_smilie:

 

IS there anything better than being a SAHM? Not for me :)

[cmarango]

Ph.D. in Radiation Oncology/Pharmacology. I love science and teaching, but I don't love the thought of a "real job."

 

Christina

[JeneralMom]

I have a BA, and MA and just have to write up my dissertation to get my PhD (have no idea when that will happen). They are all in anthropology (primatology, archaeology, and biological/demography) so technically I use them every day as I deal with people, but no I don't get paid for using them.

[Rosie_0801]

I have a BA that qualifies me to, uh, stay home and educate my kids. Not much else, really, since I went straight from uni to pregnancy without working again. I also have a diploma of Auslan, but that doesn't qualify me to do anything either.

 

Rosie

[JoyfulMama]

When I pursued my degrees it was never with the intention of working full-time. (I have a bachelor and a master.) My intention was to be educated, and be able to contribute to the household income, but intended any future dh to contribute the primary income when we had young children. I wanted to be able to earn a confident wage in less hours, so that I would be able to be home with my children. (And of course, I wanted to be able to support myself if need be at any point in time.) I expected that I would return to working per diem when my kids went to school. :tongue_smilie:

Do I use my degrees? Absolutely - I just don't get paid a wage for it right now. I do anticipate returning to the wage-earning world at some point. I wouldn't mind working per diem around my dh's hours if that were possible.

[silvermine]

I got a degree, quit grad school after a year, and ended up working a lovely career that had nothing to do with my degree for 8 years. :D

 

Do I use it? No more or less than I did when I worked full time. ;)

[StephanieZ]

So I am currently almost done with my Marriage and Family Therapy MA but I always knew that if/when I had kids any degree I had would be more of a contingency degree in the event that dh loses his job, or passes away or something similar.

 

i am wondering how common it is for a homeschooling parent (mom mainly) to have a higher degree but not actual use it for work.....

 

Well, of course!!

 

I don't use my BS or MS in ecology on a regular basis.

 

My "paid" work is in business mgment (no relation to my degrees). My important work is limited to "primate behavior", lol.

 

HOWEVER, the brains/thinking/etc skills that my education helped develop are used everyday!!

 

(Good) education is never wasted.

[sadiegirl]

yep...B.S. in Fashion Merchandising and unless picking out the latest camo for my hunting fellas or accessorizing my son's new Bone Collector bedding with fashion pillows and rugs counts as using my degree...I'm outta luck!!!

[lakotajm]

I had to chuckle about those who've said education is never wasted, but I'm afraid I got very little education when I got my degree.

My degree is a B.A. in Political Science with minor in criminology. I figured to either be a civil rights lawyer or public policy wonk. Then I got pregnant shortly before law school exam time. She was 7 wks. old when I graduated. At the time, I was working at Cracker Barrel. I got gradually squeezed out when I came back from leave and had to quit. I tried to find work, finally working at a movie theater.

 

My break came when I got hired for a job that required a degree ("gatekeeping" as pp put it), for a grant-funded job as a Welfare-to-Work Life Coach. Payed well (per my life's yard stick of abject poverty-$21,000), but so draining. Did teen mom program another couple years and then found a man who would work while I homeschooled and never looked back.

 

I hate working-for others,that is. And I honestly am not a people person.

So I will not be using my degree for a job. Do I use anything I learned at uni? Ummmm...not much. I learned some resourcefulness while involved in student organizations-I had a bent toward a cause I believed in. I enjoyed taking vocal lessons and ceramics-I did that just for me. I do sing almost every day-but my degree is poli sci. So, nope. I see most of my time at uni as a large gaping hole. And some money fell in, darn the luck.

 

My dream is developing our farm into an agritourism venture: CSA/B&B/dude ranch kinda thing with a pottery studio thrown in as well. We got waylaid from our dreams by fire, flood and bills/children. My husband is trying to rebuild us a log home (while working as an OTR truck driver-not very effective).

 

It is interesting the number of posters who emphasize their desire to return to work. I purposefully ran away from it. I'm too entrepreneurial. I feel so much more purposeful working on my dreams instead of someone else's.

 

Lakota

[Sugarfoot]

LOL that's hysterical i love that. i annoy dh because i always want him to take the assessments we are doing in my assessment class :lol: he's always looking at me like this:glare: and i'm like :tongue_smilie: and he just sighs and says hand it over.

 

 

:) Love those assessments!

 

I remember reading aloud to my DH something from Carl Rogers. It was a couple of paragraphs, and when I was done, he was silent. I finally said, "So, isn't that interesting?" He just looked at me and said, "That was the most confusing thing I've ever heard in my life." :001_huh:

 

Of course, I knew he'd feel that way. All of the assessments said so!:lol:

[redheadeddaughter]

I feel like I use it at least once a month. I don't have it on a wall or anything... but it sure does soften people up at my husband's work parties (He is always the one to bring it up... which is kind of awkward really). People are strange. Really though, it helps me relate to my husband, who is also an attorney. It helps me negotiate random home/kid related things... renting out a vacation home, filling out taxes, things like that. But there are many many days when I think I paid way too much for a degree that taught me very little. It just gave me access to a group of people who see me as "one of them (the educated)" because of a piece of paper.

 

I worked in my field and outside my field (also had my Series 7) for a small while and I would never choose to work for someone else unless I absolutely had no other way to provide for my kids. I don't mind the working from 8-6 every day (or 9-5 or 6am-10pm)... it's the pouring of my life into someone else's dream that grates on you (I imagine working with children might feel differently than selling stocks or writing up a will). I'm not lazy, just really really defiant. So I'd love to someday start my own business... with my husband if we can swing it at some point. That said, alot can happen that isn't planned. Death, divorce, child getting really really sick, etc. and I do feel relief when I think I might be able to find gainful employment more quickly with my degrees. Not immediately, I realize that (being nearly 10 years out of the market). But more quickly than if I just had my Sizzler waitress and Victoria's Secret jobs on the resume. :)

 

Hopefully all that after I graduate some littles. Teaching them is the most fun I've ever had.

DL

Edited December 30, 2009 by redheadeddaughter

[asta]

I feel like I use it at least once a month. I don't have it on a wall or anything... but it sure does soften people up at my husband's work parties (He is always the one to bring it up... which is kind of awkward really). People are strange.

DL

 

You know, this is one of the weirdest things I have encountered - DS's work get togethers. For the most part, they are uneventful, but some of the women are... nasty.

 

I went to one and got the "so, Asta, what do YOU do?". I said that, firstly, I educated DS and that I was also a pharmaceutical researcher (I am - I translate pharm gobbledygook into layman's language, it's a type of medical writing). There were ooo's and ahhh's all around -- until they found out I didn't work for Pfizer, but rather the top ranked consumer web site. All I could think was - SNOBS!

 

Why does it always seem to be women? I've never gotten that reaction from guys. Guys are always saying "you're teaching your kid? That's wonderful! You're helping people? That's great!"

 

Then again, that's probably why we all hang out here...

 

 

a

[SheilaZ]

I have bachelors in Biology and Education but I don't feel like I'm not using them. I'm teaching my own children and I teach co-op classes. I also am a Boy Scout Merit badge counselor for several science related topics.

 

I sure don't feel like I am wasting my education at all. Even my Dad, who footed most of the bill on that education, didn't feel that I was wasting it.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I have a BA in Psychology/English and an MA in Psych/Gero. I worked full time for 4 months as a manager of an assisted living facility. I detested the work place politics - a game I have never been able to play - and quit. I am currently working part-time at a local comm. college.

 

Unlike most of you I would give anything to be able to have a full time position using my education. I think my decision to homeschool was due in part to my inability to find adequate work in our area.

[Amy loves Bud]

M.D. here. Left ob/gyn residency to stay home 9.5 years ago.

[littlebug42]

I have a BA in Theatre Arts/Acting emphasis. I work PT from home as a Medical Transcriptionist and am a full time SAHM homeschooling my kids. Both kiddos love doing theatre so I am getting to put some of it all to work in helping them be able to do what they love. I used to do a lot of community theatre but haven't been able to in a long time because of the kids and work. I miss it A LOT! It is almost like there is a part of me missing without it but my kids remain my highest priority.

[Crimson Wife]

You know, this is one of the weirdest things I have encountered - DS's work get togethers. For the most part, they are uneventful, but some of the women are... nasty....Why does it always seem to be women? I've never gotten that reaction from guys.

 

My DH went to an Ivy League graduate school. While he was a student, I was employed full-time in a high-powered executive position, but I also had a toddler (my oldest). When we would go to family events, it always struck me as odd how disinterested his female classmates were in DD. She's a cute kid and most women we encountered at the time would go gaga over her. But these female classmates at best were neutral and some of them seemed downright chilly. The only one who actually was warm to her was a former schoolteacher who was studying educational policy at the school of government.

 

Even before I had my own children, I always loved kids. I guess that's why I'm now a SAHM rather than climbing the corporate ladder with an MBA on my wall...

Edited December 30, 2009 by Crimson Wife
fixed typo

[cin]

I have a B.S. in El. Ed. as someone else said earlier....need I say more? Honestly, I NEVER use anything from that degree. And I've let my teaching cert. expire. I'm actually thinking about going back to school to study criminal justice/forensics. My kids are both good workers, and even right now, at 8 & 5, we can leave them at home for short periods of time. I would LOVE to have a degree and be working part time in 5-7 years. Hopefully, my Math/English/Psych will transfer towards another degree. I know Shakespeare hasnt' changed in the past 20 years....

 

If I can't get anothe degree, I can always do substitute teaching. All you need in Ohio is a college degree.

[asta]

I have a BA in Psychology/English and an MA in Psych/Gero. I worked full time for 4 months as a manager of an assisted living facility. I detested the work place politics - a game I have never been able to play - and quit. I am currently working part-time at a local comm. college.

 

Unlike most of you I would give anything to be able to have a full time position using my education. I think my decision to homeschool was due in part to my inability to find adequate work in our area.

 

Oh - I think many of us have traveled a rather long road to get where we currently are.

 

If you had asked me when DS was in 4th grade (PS) if I would EVER be a completely SAHM, homeschooling, etc. etc., I would have looked at you like you were on drugs. I was raised to be a CEO and dump my kids in PS/at the nanny, not do this. I wouldn't hesitate to say that many women born in the 60s were raised with similar 'expectations' (for lack of a better term).

 

I honestly believe that my brain blowing up (we still don't know if it was a stroke, a bad seizure or what) was Gaia stomping her foot to wake my happy @ss up to what I was supposed to be doing - my kid - versus what I *was* doing - which was, in retrospect, pretty dang meaningless.

 

We all have a path to follow in life. I don't think we end up anywhere, doing any specific thing, by accident.

 

Wow, that sounds like a Buddhist greeting card...

 

 

a

[lovemywhirlygirls]

B.A. in Sociology. I don't get paid for using it, but I draw from it all the time.

[KS_]

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering. It comes in handy for teaching Physics and Algebra, and I'm quite handy around the house, but I don't use it for pay.

 

What's sad is that I don't know that I could use it at this point. Everything I learned in engineering school has either become obsolete, or has slipped out of my Teflon brain. I remember very little of it. My dh, who got his MS in Aerospace Engineering after being out of school and working in the field for 10 years at the time, swears that if I went into it, all my vast knowledge would come flooding back. :) I don't know if that's true. Hopefully, I won't have to find out any time soon. I don't really want to be an engineer right now. :) I just want to do what I'm doing already, only better.

 

I have a degree in Biological Systems Engineering, and like you, I'm not sure I could go back into the workforce and use it w/o relearning a bunch of stuff. I would hope that most of the knowledge is somewhere in my brain still, but some days, I'm not so sure. . .

[dirty ethel rackham]

I have a BS in Mathematics. I never used it per se. My career before kids was a computer analyst. My degree was only marginally helpful. However, it was the best logic training ever:). I can cut through baloney really quickly!

 

I don't feel that my degree and understanding of theoretical mathematics has been useful in and of itself, but the education I received was more than just classroom learning. I feel that it was worth every cent.

[FO4UR]

I have a BSE - music education.

 

Other than giving a few voice lessons, Iv'e never used it to make $. I found out we were having our first dc 3 days before being offered a job in the school were I student taught...I turned down the offer and haven't looked back.