I graduated with a degree in...; is it employable now?

[SpaceRook]

Practical career-oriented degrees that would keep me away from overseas contract work:

B.Comm (Hospital and Health Care Administration),
B.C.Sc. (Programming)
B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering)
B.Sc. (Forestry)

If anyone with one of those degrees taught English overseas I'd ask, what's wrong with you? Did you get burned out or what?

Well, some of us wanted to try something different for awhile.  I wanted to get some international experience, and also use teaching to improve my communication & presentation skills.  The nice thing about those degrees is that if you have some solid experience, you can take a bit of a detour to teach for a year or two, and then go back to your original field.  I did.   

[vpluong]

Practical career-oriented degrees that would keep me away from overseas contract work:

B.Comm (Hospital and Health Care Administration),
B.C.Sc. (Programming)
B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering)
B.Sc. (Forestry)

If anyone with one of those degrees taught English overseas I'd ask, what's wrong with you? Did you get burned out or what?

Well, some of us wanted to try something different for awhile.  I wanted to get some international experience, and also use teaching to improve my communication & presentation skills.  The nice thing about those degrees is that if you have some solid experience, you can take a bit of a detour to teach for a year or two, and then go back to your original field.  I did.   

I've always thought that even in those fields, you usually need direct experience at entry level work to move up the ladder. Instead of a two year detour you could spend those two years climbing up the ladder in your field. Taking that detour leaves you two years behind the rest of the people in that field. I have quite a few family members Comp sci as well as in enginering and that is what they've told me. What matters is networking with people in your field of study. If you are living in Korea teaching ESL there isn't much networking going on.

[sunshinefiasco]

Practical career-oriented degrees that would keep me away from overseas contract work:

B.Comm (Hospital and Health Care Administration),
B.C.Sc. (Programming)
B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering)
B.Sc. (Forestry)

If anyone with one of those degrees taught English overseas I'd ask, what's wrong with you? Did you get burned out or what?

Well, some of us wanted to try something different for awhile.  I wanted to get some international experience, and also use teaching to improve my communication & presentation skills.  The nice thing about those degrees is that if you have some solid experience, you can take a bit of a detour to teach for a year or two, and then go back to your original field.  I did.   

I've always thought that even in those fields, you usually need direct experience at entry level work to move up the ladder. Instead of a two year detour you could spend those two years climbing up the ladder in your field. Taking that detour leaves you two years behind the rest of the people in that field. I have quite a few family members Comp sci as well as in enginering and that is what they've told me. What matters is networking with people in your field of study. If you are living in Korea teaching ESL there isn't much networking going on.

are there fields where that isn't true?

[Frozencat99]

Practical career-oriented degrees that would keep me away from overseas contract work:

B.Comm (Hospital and Health Care Administration),
B.C.Sc. (Programming)
B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering)
B.Sc. (Forestry)

If anyone with one of those degrees taught English overseas I'd ask, what's wrong with you? Did you get burned out or what?

Well, some of us wanted to try something different for awhile.  I wanted to get some international experience, and also use teaching to improve my communication & presentation skills.  The nice thing about those degrees is that if you have some solid experience, you can take a bit of a detour to teach for a year or two, and then go back to your original field.  I did.   

I've always thought that even in those fields, you usually need direct experience at entry level work to move up the ladder. Instead of a two year detour you could spend those two years climbing up the ladder in your field. Taking that detour leaves you two years behind the rest of the people in that field. I have quite a few family members Comp sci as well as in enginering and that is what they've told me. What matters is networking with people in your field of study. If you are living in Korea teaching ESL there isn't much networking going on.

are there fields where that isn't true?

Criminology.

[SpaceRook]

Practical career-oriented degrees that would keep me away from overseas contract work:

B.Comm (Hospital and Health Care Administration),
B.C.Sc. (Programming)
B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering)
B.Sc. (Forestry)

If anyone with one of those degrees taught English overseas I'd ask, what's wrong with you? Did you get burned out or what?

Well, some of us wanted to try something different for awhile.  I wanted to get some international experience, and also use teaching to improve my communication & presentation skills.  The nice thing about those degrees is that if you have some solid experience, you can take a bit of a detour to teach for a year or two, and then go back to your original field.  I did.   

I've always thought that even in those fields, you usually need direct experience at entry level work to move up the ladder. Instead of a two year detour you could spend those two years climbing up the ladder in your field. Taking that detour leaves you two years behind the rest of the people in that field. I have quite a few family members Comp sci as well as in enginering and that is what they've told me. What matters is networking with people in your field of study. If you are living in Korea teaching ESL there isn't much networking going on.

Yes, that is why I recommend taking a detour after you've been working in the field for several years (maybe at least 5 years).  You'll have built a network, and will have people to fall back on if you need to go back.  When I told my engineering friends & superiors that I was quitting to go teach in Asia, the most common response was, "Dude, that sounds awesome.  I wish I could do that.  Give me a call if you need a job when you come back."

You can also build a network in Asia.  Join professional organizations, go to Toastmasters, go to job fairs, go to meetup.com groups, make friends with Koreans who work in the field you are interested in, etc...

[Superchick3]

Undergrad: Social Work
Minor: Women's Studies

Master's: Forensic Sexology
Focus: International Human Rights

[Frozencat99]

Practical career-oriented degrees that would keep me away from overseas contract work:

B.Comm (Hospital and Health Care Administration),
B.C.Sc. (Programming)
B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering)
B.Sc. (Forestry)

If anyone with one of those degrees taught English overseas I'd ask, what's wrong with you? Did you get burned out or what?

Well, some of us wanted to try something different for awhile.  I wanted to get some international experience, and also use teaching to improve my communication & presentation skills.  The nice thing about those degrees is that if you have some solid experience, you can take a bit of a detour to teach for a year or two, and then go back to your original field.  I did.   

I've always thought that even in those fields, you usually need direct experience at entry level work to move up the ladder. Instead of a two year detour you could spend those two years climbing up the ladder in your field. Taking that detour leaves you two years behind the rest of the people in that field. I have quite a few family members Comp sci as well as in enginering and that is what they've told me. What matters is networking with people in your field of study. If you are living in Korea teaching ESL there isn't much networking going on.

Yes, that is why I recommend taking a detour after you've been working in the field for several years (maybe at least 5 years).  You'll have built a network, and will have people to fall back on if you need to go back.  When I told my engineering friends & superiors that I was quitting to go teach in Asia, the most common response was, "Dude, that sounds awesome.  I wish I could do that.  Give me a call if you need a job when you come back."

You can also build a network in Asia.  Join professional organizations, go to Toastmasters, go to job fairs, go to meetup.com groups, make friends with Koreans who work in the field you are interested in, etc...

Unlike other fields, though, hard sciences (esp. computer sciences, medicine, and the varying engineering fields) tend to exponentially develop. I wouldn't have any place in criminology if it developed that quickly, regardless of my contacts.

[Suz-goose]

I graduated with a Degree in Medical Microbiology. I got a good job in it for several months too. Annoyingly though I graduated in 2008 and the company took a hit by it, I lost out by the last in first out rule. This was made worse as I knew everyone there was lazy beyond words and were milking their employers by doing as little as humanly possible each day. They didn't like cute and keen me making them look bad! After that I looked in the field a bit more and bounced between temp jobs in call centres. I am glad I came to Korea, teaching is awesome most of the time and waaaay more fulfilling. I may go back to the UK and try to get a job in a language school teaching foreigners, if I can convince my k-bf it's a good move. It doesn't seem like a good idea at the moment with the new recession though, few more years maybe  ::)