This year’s job market has been bleak, to say the least. Layoffs hit the highest level in 14 years; job openings are barely budging; and quits figures are plummeting. It’s no wonder people feel stuck and discouraged—especially as many candidates have been on the job hunt for a year.
But some mid-career professionals are working with the cards they’ve been dealt by going back to school. Many are turning to data analytics, cybersecurity, AI-focused courses, health care, MBA programs, or trade certifications for an “immediate impact on their careers,” Metaintro CEO Lacey Kaelani told Fortune.
But while grad school can certainly offer the opportunity to level-up your career once you’ve completed a program, it comes with financial and personal sacrifices, like time. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one year of grad school, on average, costs about $43,000 in tuition. That’s nearly 70% of the average salary in the U.S.
Late 40s, highly skilled, trans, unemployed for 2+ years.
I’ve been down to the final candidate selection a few times now and still haven’t been selected yet.
I’ve hired plenty of people. In general, final candidates are usually all fully capable of doing the job they’re applying for. In the end, the hiring manager just gets to pick the one they want to work with most.
I feel like when hiring managers look at me, all they see are problems and risks. Time consuming HR meetings, extra effort making sure people use the right pronouns, judgements from executive leaders who might see a middle manager not doing a good job at leaning into where the winds are headed.
I wonder, even if I spend 3 more years on a secondary degree, whether I’ll find myself right back in same situation (talented and surrounded by cowards unwilling to hire me), but now with $200k in new student loan debt.
Oi! Not trans, but queer, also unemployed for over 2 years now.
I used to be an econometrician, so I can tell you:
You, me?
We’re not unemployed.
We are ‘Not in the Labor Force’.
… we do not count towards the offical unemployment numbers.
… we do not count towards the offical unemployment numbers.
Wait…
unemployed for over 2 years now.
If you’re still actively seeking jobs you’d still be counted in the official unemployment category of U-3 unemployment. Even if you weren’t applying to jobs but still wanted to work you’d be counted in the (potentially more accurate) U-6 unemployment, right?
Normally, in a more sane and functioning world, you’d simply be correct.
I was a bit overzealous, I myself have given up looking because of the massive shadow jobs problem, the interview processes are ridiculous, etc etc, I erroneously transposed that onto them as well.
However, because Trump fired the head of the BLS, and Elon/DOGE cut back their workforce a good deal…
https://www.nisa.com/perspectives/heavily-distorted-cpi-print-reveals-little-useful-information/
https://www.markets.com/analysis/cpi-estimation-methodology-concerns-us-1010-en
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/imputation.htm
For most of this year, they haven’t even had enough staff to actually directly measure about a third of what goes into CPI… they just take the old data, run a model on it, predict it forward, and pretend thats real data.
They call this ‘carry forward price imputation’ or something like that.
So they’re just using some esoteric price model(s) to estimate, instead of actually gather, a bunch of data that is then treated as if it is real data, for the next stages of actually calculating the various cpi segments.
If they’re that fucked at doing cpi, they’re almost certainly also fucked at actually doing the Household Survey properly.
Granted, I can’t strictly prove this, because I do not have a team of forensic accountants auditing their data…
… But, having worked as varying kinds of data analyst, I can say with high confidence that the BLS methodology itself is flawed, and their ability to actually undertake that methodology is severely hamstrung for this whole year.
You don’t end up realizing that you overcounted job growth by a fucking million jobs… if you have a sound methodology.
… So thats a very long way of saying ‘well technically, if you wanna get technical, actually, this is all horseshit at this point, thus the person I’m replying to probably isn’t actually being counted, via problems that go outside/beyond the simple stated BLS methodology.’
You make a very good point. I’ve stopped using CDC for any realistic data or health guidance and instead defer to Health Canada or the NHS.
I should have also assumed economic data from the trump administration was equally suspect now.
$200k in new student loan debt.
Jesus. I’m looking at getting some additional masters degree in Spain and it’s 10-14 months and 1.5-4k Euros.
That’s like the cost of a college meal plan for a 4 year degree in the US. Not including housing in the dorms, just the food.
I’m fucking stuck in this economic pit.
Oregon Trail Sub-Generation. Always the God Damned Guinea Pigs.
I’m tired, Boss.
I have 7 years of oncological research experience with teaching/consulting. 2 years as the sole animal manager at a nonprofit with therapy animals. I can’t find a fucking job. It’s insane. Either I’m overqualified, or I’m lacking some niche experience.
It sounds like all your experience it’s niche. But I’m an outsider.
But I should be able to do anything involving teaching, management, biological science bench work, or animal related. That’s a lot of leeway imho.
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If a potential employer is telling you you’re overqualified, could you potentially be putting too much knowledge and experience on your resume (for that specific role)?
We don’t need any more MBAs.
We actively need fewer, a lot fewer
MBA programs are highly profitable for most universities. they are big money makers.
I actually think we need more people who hate MBAs to go through the degree so we can tell whats bullshit and whats not.
MBA programs are mostly about joining the MBA cult. they aren’t much for education or learning.
the biggest benefit is the networking you get based on what MBA program you went to.
Tldr; it’s all bullshit
So software engineer here. I went back to school in my 40s and got my Executive MBA and graduated in 2024. I knew nothing about how businesses truly worked going in. I learned the basics for accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, entrepreneurship, org behavior, and more.
I’m glad I did it, I learned a lot, but overall it’s like the sample platter of topics. I know enough to mostly understand the specialists when they speak, but I’m no expert in any of the topics above. I know enough to be dangerous if I was left to my own devices on any of the topics.
Let me save you all a lot of money. An MBA teaches you to view all business decisions through a finance lense. For non business people reading this, Finance projects forward in time, Accounting looks backward in time. The goal of a business is to maximize profit. You can maximize profit by increasing revenue and/or decreasing costs. If you list our all possible business projects, you pick a collection of projects you believe will maximize profit OVER TIME. Aka the time-value of money.
Now an executive MBA is basically the same as any other MBA program, but it’s for people with over a decade in professional experience. I could easily see someone with less real world experience falling into Dunning Kruger. What business people fuck up is their assumptions on their “business opportunities” models. In other words, they don’t account for some factor, grossly misunderstand a factor’s influence, or don’t give two shits because the timeline of a project will extend beyond their tenure. That last point is especially important to understand because on paper the finance might look great, but they won’t be at the firm by the time the accounting of a project fully wraps up.
So yeah, the system is ripe for exploitation and bullshit. An incompetent business leader can make decisions that maximize short term wins, and split to another company before the long term losses land.
Grad school wreeeecked my finances. I went into it knowing that if it didn’t pass my boards I’d be ruined. And in the US all that takes is one medical issue practically. I just paid everything off at 38. Still renting 🥲
resorting to going to school instead of looking for work
I think they looked for work before considering more debt.
i did at 38, lost wages and savings for a while, starting now with 2.2x salary, should get all back and more as long as I don’t die before age 50
Everyone: Learn how to code!
Corporate Masters: Who needs coders? We have AI.
I can only speak for my employer …. The ai mandate has actually led to some nice new features for our product. However using it on a daily basis has resulted in a lot of made up metrics and increased tech debt. Everywhere it’s saved us a bit of time, it’s wasted our time elsewhere.
I actually do believe ai can be a useful coding tool, can help coders be more efficient, but it’s not ready to create final products and may never be. It’s just another tool but you have to know what you’re doing, recognize when it needs guidance, and understand that you are the one responsible for doing a good job
level-up your career
Cursed turn of phase
They’re helping me the unemployment rate by giving up. Such patriotic Americans
Discovering new paths and education is good. We should not look down at this, but encourage reschooling at 30, 40, 50 or any age. Most skills are out of date within 5 years of leaving school. Having said that, you can reup or relearn stuff in a year or two, or even six months.
Most skills are out of date within 5 years of leaving school.
Then they weren’t skills, they were trivia.
most skills are out of date within 5 years of leaving school
What kind of “skills” are you talking about and what kind of job are you doing if you require re-education after five years?? I honestly can’t imagine an education/job where you can’t remain up to date throughout your career, not to mention grow in your role.
Where’s the leisure society? We have all the resources we need, all the energy we need, and simply put, there just isn’t all that much that needs doing that can keep everyone busy.
There are huge shortages in skilled experienced trades. I’ve seen it all over the US in steel mills. Operators, electricians, welders, etc.
Emphasis on experienced. There’s a fuckton of green apprentices who recently switched careers.
Been doin this work for like 10 years as an electrician so I literally applied to 12 jobs when I finally quit my job of 7 years, got 3 interviews, 2 offers.
Still love my job but I see the labor shortages that can’t be replaced by AI and even automated robotics for production lines
Just look at the multiple fires at the Oswego plant in upstate New York for why the mills are still the wild west sometimes.
This article seems to be exclusively about masters degrees or people going back to school for a second degree in a new field, but what I’m curious about is if there’s been a similar spike in people going for their first degree. I’m trying to figure out how much of this is people trying to land a job in a recession and how much of it is people trying to make themselves appealing from an immigration perspective. There’s definitely a lot of people who feel like getting out of the country is a nonstarter simply because countries only want the kind of labor that comes from obtaining a degree in a field.
it’s the fact nobody will hire you for anything unless you have multiple degrees
Getting a degree? But that’s what started the problem in the first place!
This is all corporate tech stuff anyhow. Inflating an already inflated market destined to be whittled down by AI is probably one of the most short term goals iv ever heard
the worth of a degree is highly correlated to the field of study and the institution of study.
a lot of people get bogus degrees from bogus fields of study and are shocked they can’t get productive high-paying employment…
Apprenticeships or career tech certificates can help.
I’m a journey level worker and I’m back in school. Construction has been recession level for at least a couple years in my area and it’s getting worse fast. They’re purging anyone female or brown from the unions in my area because that’s DEI. We’ve had incidents of union officers threatening to lynch black apprentices and hanging nooses, I’ve seen female apprentices complain about SA and getting blackballed. It’s back to the good ol boy system full force in construction right now. I’d say 90% of these high paid white nepo baby construction guys are rabid Trump supporters. It’s full FBI friends, brothers and in-laws only and your tax dollars pay for these apprenticeships and a lot of projects these guys pull six figures on so telling people to go into an apprenticeship is just a racist dog whistle unless they’re related to someone
I mean we’re seeing the same thing in Canada only it’s every racial/religious enclave doing it. Indians are redrawing the caste lines, Jews are pushing out gentiles, Chinese are holding condo board meetings in Mandarin and then using them to force out other people…
This is what happens when people let themselves be divided; they’re going to carve up the pittance left to us while leaving the rest of the pie to the sickeningly wealthy.
Who’s doing all the work? As a homeowner, I’ve definitely seen stereotypes in action for work I’ve had done. Replacing my roof was typical. All white guys selling me on how wonderful it’ll be. But it was a crew of Hispanics that came out to do the work, and they hustled like no ones business. I know who I’d trust to get a job done.
Actually similar deal for my electrician. I went through several companies of delays and excessive fees for truck rolls, upselling, etc. but I found this local guy who happens to be Hispanic, who is very responsive, cheaper, and does an outstanding job
I know who to trust to give me a good deal, excellent service, great response, and they’re not the white glad-handlers. I understand good work is not a racial characteristic but perhaps the extra hurdles to the business make it so. I would never claim the white guts can’t do the work but if you’re firing in a racial manner, how the heck do you have enough people to get the job done? And yes I’m a white guy who has always valued competent hard work in myself and others
Well… thanks for the racist dog whistle accusation. I’m a light bringer — I’m trying to be encouraging. Career tech certificates in medical are making hundreds of thousands of people of all races and genders eligible for careers starting 60k, 70k, up to 110k. Radiology tech is just one of many.
Onward.
It wasn’t meant as an accusation. It’s just a statement of facts. I don’t expect you to know that if you’re not in the trades but I have a lot of trauma from seeing horrible things happening to people around racism and sexism in the trades
