University Degrees That Turn Into Money

Going to university used to be a relatively unusual thing to do. The majority of people finished their education after school or college, and the university was reserved only for academics, or those pursuing highly specialized careers. That’s no longer the case.

So many people go to university now that it’s almost expected of our young people, but it doesn’t always turn out to be the career benefit that it ought to be. The years you spend at university can leave you with a lot of debt, and if your degree doesn’t lead you on to a job that helps you to repay that debt or makes use of the skills you worked so hard to earn, it can feel like a waste of time.

Unfortunately, the feeling that a degree has been wasted is a common one among recent university graduates. Research has shown that degrees have half the value in the modern workplace that they did twenty years ago, and that goes for earnings potential as well as job opportunities.

It seems that in many workplaces, practical skills and experience are weighted more heavily than degrees, and there’s every chance that your first post-graduate job could involve you working for someone who didn’t go to university at all.

Fortunately, there’s something you can do about this. Degrees haven’t lost their value – you just have to ensure that you’re choosing the right degree. If you want to get onto the fast track for riches after you’ve finished your studies, pick a degree in one of the five fields we’re about to outline below!

Computer Science

Allow us to stress this point – if you’re considering doing a degree involving computing, opt for computer science. Information Technology is a near-worthless subject as a degree course, and Computing will lead you down a dead end.

Computer Science will give you a fundamentally good understanding of computer architecture, computer software, and mathematics. You can turn those skills into almost anything as far as computers are concerned, including several career options you’ve probably never considered before.

As an example, look at the way that online slots websites have sprung up everywhere during the past few years. Once a niche interest, the industry that’s grown up around online slots and internet casinos is now worth several billion dollars per year. Every single one of those Online Slots UK runs on intricate mathematics-driven pieces of software created by computer scientists. It’s worth thinking about.

Engineering

Engineering is a practical skill that never gets old and will likely never become obsolete. There are various industries and types of business – including several we can’t even imagine right now – that will become obsolete as technology marches on into the next decade.

Engineering won’t be one of them. Someone has to design and build the robots that will eventually replace the human workforce, and that person will be an engineer. An engineering degree will also give you a sound understanding of computing along with several other transferable skills. On average, someone with an engineering degree starts earning $50,000 per year or more within five years of leaving university.

Finance

The idea that accountants are boring is one of the oldest and laziest business cliches in the world. Accountants are well aware that everybody else thinks they’re boring, and they don’t care about that one iota. That’s because they’re usually earning far more money than the person who’s judging them so harshly.

A career in finance might not sound as exciting as many of the other options that are out there for you – especially now that the world of finance is a lot more regulated than it was during the days of Jordan Belfort – but it’s still extremely lucrative so long as you’re ethical, competent, and charming enough to persuade people to part with their money.

There are several directions a finance career might take you in. You could become an insurance salesperson, a personal banker, an investment adviser, an accountant – the choice is yours, but you’ll rarely find someone who’s good at finance and lacking in the money of their own.

Chemistry

We don’t want to harp on about the current state of the world, but we all know why 2020 hasn’t been great so far. We also all know that 2020 won’t get much better until someone comes up with a form of medication that will resolve the current problem. That breakthrough will be made by someone in a lab somewhere, and that person will have a degree in chemistry.

“Big pharma” is called “big pharma” for a reason, and it isn’t that all the people who work in the industry are tall. Chemistry isn’t all about manufacturing drugs, though; it’s about creating something using calculations and combinations that the average person could never visualize. From new forms of glass to potential cures for cancer, people with degrees in chemistry will save the world one day – and it’s a career that’s future proof.

Law

The classics are almost always the best. For all the advances that the human race has made over the course of the past few centuries, we’ve never stopped finding ways to get into trouble. When we do, we need legal advice. Knowing about the law isn’t all about defending people, though – it’s also about protecting human rights, keeping corporate behavior in check, and contributing to the fabric of our future society.

A law degree might make you a judge one day, or it might make you a professor. Alternatively, you could do what most people with a law degree do and become a lawyer. The one thing you won’t be is broke. So long as you have a good law degree and you follow it to its logical conclusion, you should always find that your services are in high demand.

Please don’t mistake this article for us saying that no other degrees have value. They obviously do, and there’s no reason than any degree can’t lead to a satisfying, high-paying career so long as you make intelligent career choices and aim for jobs that are connected to the degree you’ve done. To get to the top one percent of earners as quickly as possible, though, the options we’ve listed above represent the best route.