BF2S Forums Wal-Mart to hire 100,000 veterans

Winston_Churchill wrote:

we've talked about this before, but if the difference between humanities degrees between the UK and NA is as stark as you say we're basically comparing apples to oranges here.  from my experience (being a physics/math major with friends in bio/chem but mostly humanities) our science programs are much, much more rigorous than any english/poli sci/etc degree.  and this is at one of the most highly regarded schools in the world, not any generic american fluff college.  i have a history and philosophy minor and in any of the classes i take under that i get significantly higher marks with at most 20% of the work of my other classes. on the other side, whenever any of my humanities friends take a science course (for breadth credit) they struggle on the tiniest things and their professors have to almost literally hold their hand and console them whenever they say the slightest bit of basic math needs to be used. 

im not trying to imply that anyone in sciences is smarter than someone in the humanities, its just that the culture of education here places the sciences far above humanities degrees.  people openly say they're taking a humanities degree just to breeze through university with the least difficulty possible all the time.  however, the majority of my friends are in non-science degrees as, in general, theyre more interesting people.  i get bored really easily with most of the painfully socially awkward people in physics (with the rare occasion of a good friend or two). especially the amount (~60% or more) of international students that almost refuse to speak to people outside their friend circle - even if they're your lab partner.

The basic difference between the UK and the US is not that the subjects or degrees are significantly different, its that the UK still has the remnants of a class system in place - in which 'art' subjects are still valued essentially because it used to be the 'done thing' to go to university and study something ridiculous with minimal teaching time to allow for the partying - and the more ridiculous the better for the twin purposes of provoking guffaws at dinner parties and conspicuously displaying the family wealth through the offspring showing they don't need to ever work if they choose not to - then Daddy would have a chum with the same tie find you a job in a firm or govt department to plod away on a nice salary while you figured out if you wanted to snooze through your time there until the family fortune was yours or go into politics for a bit of fun.
Any practical subject which could involve real work, or which is non-nebulous and therefore there is a prospect of some day being held up to irrefutable criticism is for plebs.

Middle-class kids swallow this lifestyle as being the right way to go through the world and can get on in life on the basis of their school-teacher 'having a chat' with the right people, having gone to the 'right' university and gone to the 'right' parties as there are enough of these types still in merchant banks and the civil service to perpetuate the system.
My father found it funny that he had Oxbridge firsts doing his filing at the FCO, but less funny none of them could file properly....
That there are too many graduates and companies are restricting recruitment to the 'right' universities is the system trying to protect itself. A degree from a redbrick is as valid as Oxbridge, the only difference is the scarf.

Its much the same in the US with the closed network which is the Ivy league. The difference is they study business, law, finance etc instead of art, literature, history.
So to be fair, business related subjects and so on are probably overvalued in the US, whereas 'art' subjects are probably overvalued in the UK, both for reasons of snobbery.
Then again if the majority of recruiters prefer technical graduates for roles which don't mandate technical degrees maybe the system is almost gone?

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-01-21 02:12:07)

it's obviously soothing to dilbert to tramp out the same strange delusional rants about 'class system' and 'everyone who does a non-science subject is a hipster who wears lampshades on their heads (?!?!?)'. any achievement in a non-scientific subject is thus the sign of a pink-bellied lord haw haw getting all the strings pulled in life. then some silly anecdotes about his father employing "oxford firsts who can't file paper". ah, of course, that oxford first is nowhere near as good as his degree! he can't accept otherwise. it must suck being him, perpetually resentful and anxious about so many other people who don't fall into the same narrow field.


the delusion really is topped off by the icing on the cake that is "i'd rather employ a veteran than a hipster". poor dilbert doesn't realize he will never employ anyone - he can't even move out of his parents' house, let alone start and run his own business. something has clearly hurt him severely in earlier life to have so much baseless, conjecturing nonsense stored up in his head, ready for a an insta-print identikit post once every month. it's not possible that humanities subjects at world top universities are - shock! horor! - actually difficult and prestigious... no, it's just an old boy's network drinking port and eating roast guinea-fowl all day, whilst reading the occasional line from spencer or milton to feel busy. rofl. what a prat.

fyi dilderp all the ivy league schools have prestigious - and large - humanities faculties. law and business are professional graduate schools, not part of the official academic-research body. they just carry the college brand-name. the ivies are all mega-powers and have a huge historical focus on classics, literature, history, art... all those things you hate so. it's also conspicuously funny (and kind of sad) that the "us overvalues business and the uk overvalues arts". this all sounds like the tragic boo-hooing of an engineering grad who feels left out of the prestige pie.

oh, that's right, because the 'technical' skills and degrees you talk about have some of the highest unemployment in the UK: http://www.allaboutcareers.com/features … ee-subject
http://www.studentbeans.com/student-mon … s2370.html

guess that's why you left the UK, eh? this pesky class system refusing to hold engineers up as the messiahs and philosopher-kings. all this talk about humanities grads only making it because they have connections, and not possibly because their degrees are genuinely difficult, genuinely analytical (if philosophy or theory isn't analytical according to you than R O F L...), and are basically badges that say 'look at me! i'll make a great employee!'. because that's how it works. humanities degrees show employers that the candidate is bright and has a great skillset to pick-up any specific job role. you're just pissed that everyone isn't spending 4 years at uni learning a specific vocational role.

Last edited by aynrandroolz (2013-01-21 09:39:47)

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

You're getting no better deal by either hiring or not hiring veterans. Some of them work out great. Others are convinced that their way of doing things shouldn't be changed to suit the company, so they leave to find other work or are let go.

Mixed bag, as with anyone else. They usually receive hiring preference because it's assumed that they have experience in a leadership role, or that they are able to take orders. I would never hire anyone that has served for more than six years, probably. The authoritarian-style military leadership they've picked up by that point doesn't translate well to the more sensitive civilian world.

That said, depending on the industry the person is trying to get into, I'd say that military experience is probably superior to what a lot of people get out of college. I don't understand how someone can think spending four years being indoctrinated in Progressive political philosophy can be seen as superior to someone who actually worked, paid bills, learned a skill etc. From what I understand, most HR departments prefer a college degree or military experience and use them interchangeably. Kind of puts a damper on the whole 'I'm superior because I went to college' egotism when you're considered equal to someone who turned a wrench for four years, or it should at least.

Well, you all missed the obvious.

Why would WalMart hire veterans?

Invasion

I don't think you need four years of anything to get a job at walmart...

Macbeth wrote:

Jay wrote:

I don't understand how someone can think spending four years being indoctrinated in Progressive political philosophy can be seen as superior to someone who actually worked, paid bills, learned a skill etc.

I don't see how someone can think spending four years in a borderline cult environment in Iraq pealing potatoes in a kitchen while they get a paycheck is superior to someone getting an education, working, and paying bills.

Oh I don't know, because you do a lot of training? I spent a year in training, 3 months of basic training followed by 9 months of AIT, where I sat in a classroom for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week learning about communications networks, communications security etc. Needed a secret security clearance for that too. Then there was the continuing training that I took part in over time. I went back to school for another 8 week course learning about Cisco routers and IP addressing for phones and stuff. Then there was the combat lifesaver course, and the college courses I took on the side at night. Oh, and then then there was the year and a half I spent in charge of a satellite communications team that looks pretty good on my resume too.

I badmouth the military because I had a bad experience in a bad unit. There are a lot of dumbfucks, yes, but not everyone is a cook or works in laundry support There are a lot of dumbfucks in college too that skate by in bullshit degrees to play sports or 'get the experience'. Don't kid yourself that the piece of paper they will hand you in May makes you better than anyone, it just means you passed advanced high school along with 1,600,000 other people. You'll be making less money than the union dude you see sitting on the side of the road leaning on a shovel that you sneer at.

Last edited by Jay (2013-01-21 17:15:08)

@ Jay:  Did any of what you learn translate into real world applicable skills?  Why weren't you doing IT support with your CCNA-type knowledge once you got out of the Army?

My little anecdote - when I was in my first year of college I was doing school part time and work part time.  I thought I wanted to be an architect so I was doing drafting.  This guy who just spent 8 years in the military was hired because he had the same skill set as I did in AutoCad.  I was his boss.  I never touched AutoCad until I worked for this architect.  19 year old me with no prior experience had the same skill set as 8 year in young army guy who did drafting in some sort of capacity for the Army.  That was the skill set he left the Army with.

Frank Reynolds wrote:

"get free healthcare for life, free college, super low interest loans, pensions"

hmmm...

lets see after 4 years of service you get free healthcare for life, college, and a pension?  that is news to me lol.  i must have signed the wrong document or something.

Yeah, no shit.

Sounds pretty legit.

You can get bumped to an O-4 straight off the bat from med school with a 100k signing bonus.

Jay wrote:

So what?

just saying how much the military needs doctors right now. I wish I could go into med school and be a high O and order people around just to be a dick.

Cybargs wrote:

Jay wrote:

So what?

just saying how much the military needs doctors right now. I wish I could go into med school and be a high O and order people around just to be a dick.

going to med school so you can be in the military is like going to college so you can be in the military

Mutantbear wrote:

Cybargs wrote:

Jay wrote:

So what?

just saying how much the military needs doctors right now. I wish I could go into med school and be a high O and order people around just to be a dick.

going to med school so you can be in the military is like going to college so you can be in the military

and I can get US citizenship