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I don't know what to major in for my BA, I like sociology a lot but I'm not sure what type of careers I can get out of it as I do want to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle at some point in my life (like $50,000 a year give or take). Any suggestions for majors or career paths?

I know that feeling,I'm going toward my degree in sociology with hopes to become a teacher. You could also become an organizational sociologist, guys that go into to companies and re-arrange things, like staff. they make 200,000 a year.
The best bet, dont study something you hate. but you can find something promising even with sociology, trust me.

Oh, you're going for a BA and want a career...

Dont you really need a masters?

Cheesecat wrote:I don't know what to major in for my BA, I like sociology a lot but I'm not sure what type of careers I can get out of it as I do want to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle at some point in my life (like $50,000 a year give or take). Any suggestions for majors or career paths?

Well, I would suggest criminology and moving into somelike like the RCMP or CBSA, however your avatar suggests that might not be a compatible option...

Sociology likely means you'll end up teaching social studies if you also get a teachable minor with your BA, and that's well above middle class (Starts about 42k and will hit about 76k after ten years) but you'll be in TOC limbo for at least 3 years following 1 year in PDP, so it's a significant investment of time, and you need the proper disposition to teach as well. It's not a good fall-back option.

Although, being afraid of standing in front of people isn't a disqualifyer for teaching. Many of my best teachers have admitted they are still scared to stand infront of a class

hotsauceman1 wrote:Although, being afraid of standing in front of people isn't a disqualifyer for teaching. Many of my best teachers have admitted they are still scared to stand infront of a class

That's not even remotely what I was talking about.

To be a good teacher, you have to be incredibly patient, and be able to build a rapport with people easily. The job has very little to do with standing up and giving a lecture; it's about making a connection to the kids and getting them involved. It's something you have to want to do, and to care about it. It is not simply about performing a series of tasks (this is the mistake that every private-school-proponent makes). The job is closer to an art, honestly.

Why aren't you getting a BS?

 azazel the cat wrote:

hotsauceman1 wrote:Although, being afraid of standing in front of people isn't a disqualifyer for teaching. Many of my best teachers have admitted they are still scared to stand infront of a class

That's not even remotely what I was talking about.

To be a good teacher, you have to be incredibly patient, and be able to build a rapport with people easily. The job has very little to do with standing up and giving a lecture; it's about making a connection to the kids and getting them involved. It's something you have to want to do, and to care about it. It is not simply about performing a series of tasks (this is the mistake that every private-school-proponent makes). The job is closer to an art, honestly.

Oh, I have just had plenty of people tell me that because im shy i should not be a teacher.

 Seaward wrote:
Why aren't you getting a BS?

I'm not very science orientated and BA is pretty versatile plus I'm not totally sure what I want to do.

Can you do a PPE (politics, philosophy, economics) type degree in Canadian universities? I'd suggest something like that if you don't know what you want to do. You can do a whole lot of different stuff with that sort of degree in terms of career paths - join the civil service, become an accountant, or even the Prime Minister. Is Canada the same as the UK in that there are graduate schemes that take on trainees with degrees in any discipline, provided your results are good enough? There are some pretty good ones here.

Not that it really helps you Cheese.

But i'm going for Red Seal this year or next year.

I'm not sure how the system works for this in Canada, but you could become a licensed sociologist of some sort, but then you're looking at graduate school after you finish your BA.

If you really love it, you could try to become a professor.

My best advice is to pick something you love and figure out a way to make it work. At no point would I advise picking something you don't really like because you can make more money with it. That is a midlife (or possibly even quarter-life) crisis waiting to happen.

The "ologies" don't tend to pay too well.

I agree with Hordini, pick something that you can enjoy doing for 40+ years. A livable wage and a job you feel good about waking up for every day will do you a lot better than a high wage that makes you hate your life.

Fafnir wrote:The "ologies" don't tend to pay too well.

I disagree, but that may be anecdotal.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I don't know what to major in for my BA, I like sociology a lot but I'm not sure what type of careers I can get out of it as I do want to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle at some point in my life (like $50,000 a year give or take). Any suggestions for majors or career paths?

The pay in sociology is awful. You will only make good money if you can do something that few others can do well. Sociology is like an uppity version of psychology, only sociologists are typically not well versed in neuro- and cognitive sciences, and the statistics are often poorly executed.

Some "ologies" pay very well. Human factors pays well, and is a subset of psychology. The mean salary in Ohio's aviation capital is over $100,000 / yr, and opportunities are abundant. Generally, "ologies" that have industry applications tend to pay well. Again, though, you usually need to have a PhD, and you need to have a skill set that allows you to do things that others cannot do. Anybody can run some basic analyses in SPSS, and that's all that most sociology programs will prepare you to do.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I know that feeling,I'm going toward my degree in sociology with hopes to become a teacher. You could also become an organizational sociologist, guys that go into to companies and re-arrange things, like staff. they make 200,000 a year.
The best bet, dont study something you hate. but you can find something promising even with sociology, trust me.

No offense, but somebody has been lying to you. The mean salary for sociologists is definitely not $200,000/yr. Try more like $70,000/yr if you have a PhD, and more like ~$50,000/yr without it.

You live in BC, right? Ever consider horticulture?

 NuggzTheNinja wrote:

The pay in sociology is awful. You will only make good money if you can do something that few others can do well. Sociology is like an uppity version of psychology, only sociologists are typically not well versed in neuro- and cognitive sciences, and the statistics are often poorly executed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I know that feeling,I'm going toward my degree in sociology with hopes to become a teacher. You could also become an organizational sociologist, guys that go into to companies and re-arrange things, like staff. they make 200,000 a year.
The best bet, dont study something you hate. but you can find something promising even with sociology, trust me.

No offense, but somebody has been lying to you. The mean salary for sociologists is definitely not $200,000/yr. Try more like $70,000/yr if you have a PhD, and more like ~$50,000/yr without it.

Do you consider $70,000 a year awful? I realize that that's with a PhD, but still.

 rubiksnoob wrote:
You live in BC, right? Ever consider horticulture?

Zing!

 Albatross wrote:
Can you do a PPE (politics, philosophy, economics) type degree in Canadian universities? I'd suggest something like that if you don't know what you want to do. You can do a whole lot of different stuff with that sort of degree in terms of career paths - join the civil service, become an accountant, or even the Prime Minister. Is Canada the same as the UK in that there are graduate schemes that take on trainees with degrees in any discipline, provided your results are good enough? There are some pretty good ones here.

There isn't anything like that at TRU but there is one in UBC-Okanagon.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I know that feeling,I'm going toward my degree in sociology with hopes to become a teacher. You could also become an organizational sociologist, guys that go into to companies and re-arrange things, like staff. they make 200,000 a year.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds more like HR than anything approaching sociology?

Possibly, but it doesn't sound useless enough.

 purplefood wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I know that feeling,I'm going toward my degree in sociology with hopes to become a teacher. You could also become an organizational sociologist, guys that go into to companies and re-arrange things, like staff. they make 200,000 a year.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds more like HR than anything approaching sociology?

Kinda, my old proff told me it is i a way a form of sociology, learning how certain groups of people work well together and certain people dont, and arranging companies around things like certain work environments and time schedules to make places more efficient. Im not sure, but they do make money off of it.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 azazel the cat wrote:

Fafnir wrote:The "ologies" don't tend to pay too well.

I disagree, but that may be anecdotal.

I concur, they can pay well if you know where to work and you know that stuff. Me I plan on teaching in HS(ah HS teacher here makes around 40,000 a year) then possibly college, then I might rule the world.

 Hordini wrote:


Do you consider $70,000 a year awful? I realize that that's with a PhD, but still.

To be fair, those are mean salaries. They factor in sociologists working in areas such as NY and CA, where $70,000 puts you smack in the poor house. $70,000 a year isn't awful, but when you consider ~$100,000+ debt from your undergrad, then 9 years combined for your undergrad education and your PhD, during which you are paid very little, you're talking about spending over $100,000 and 9 years of your life to make a job that, over your entire career, will net roughly $70,000/yr. You won't be making $70,000 out the gate, that's for sure.

My girlfriend is a mental health technician. Most of the people she works with have their bachelors (the employees, not the patients), and very very few have their masters. She pulls in up to $50,000 a year with overtime in a part of the country with low living costs, and she started last year. This is a fairly common salary as long as you're willing to work. Considering that she could have started that job straight out of college, that would put her at $50,000 for 5 years where she wasn't working for her PhD. After 5 years, at that income level, she will probably have paid off her debt and can continue to accrue income. A guy with his PhD in sociology won't even begin to pay off his debt until he graduates and finds a job.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I know that feeling,I'm going toward my degree in sociology with hopes to become a teacher. You could also become an organizational sociologist, guys that go into to companies and re-arrange things, like staff. they make 200,000 a year.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds more like HR than anything approaching sociology?

Kinda, my old proff told me it is i a way a form of sociology, learning how certain groups of people work well together and certain people dont, and arranging companies around things like certain work environments and time schedules to make places more efficient. Im not sure, but they do make money off of it.

Not HR at all then.

I never said HR

No but it sounded a bit like it and when I asked you said 'kinda'.

Cheesecat wrote:There isn't anything like that at TRU but there is one in UBC-Okanagon.

I will say this once, and I will say this clearly:

Do not attend Thomspon Rivers University

It's a massive scam. PM me if you want more info, as it's very off-topic.

I know it may not be what you want to hear, but I know a lot of people in your shoes cheesecat


consider dropping out, and getting a full time job, even if only to figure out for sure what you want to do.

A BA isnt really an employable skill set, its just a generic "i have a post 2ndary degree, so I am slightly smarter then a high school graduate" step up.

esp if you dont know what you want to SPECIFICALLY do with that BA, and unless you have a huge passion on for whatever you want to do with that BA, I would consider the very real probability that you are just spending $ on a less effective degree for employment then you could have at other places.

unless you intend to go into fine arts, or get a masters, or phd, with a real career involved with that BA degree (law, research, education ect) I would think long and hard about going into student debt to get a piece of paper, when you could spend 4 years making money and acquiring employable skills.

any trade can make 100 grand a year easy with overtime,

most make 50+ grand a year easily, and the employer often pays for your trade ticket education.

none of that pesky student debt either, you work to learn while you earn.

also, most people I know who are finishing their degrees are asking me if I can get them a job, and these are science and business degrees. Most people I know with a BA regret spending so much $ on something that doesnt make them significantly more employable.

My GF has a PHD, and I still make more then her, and she isnt in a "soft" field either. not to mention all the $ she had to spend.

if trades are not for you, plenty of tech/skill orientated schools, and so on that will actually train you with job related skills.

I can get more 50-100,000 grand a year jobs with a simple cisco certification from SAIT or some small and CHEAP program, then I could with my BSC.

right now, everyone and their mother has a "soft" degree of some sort, and there really isnt a need for it.

Gone are the days when you can take basket weaving courses with the hopes of it making you a (insert profession here)

 easysauce wrote:
I know it may not be what you want to hear, but I know a lot of people in your shoes cheesecat


consider dropping out, and getting a full time job, even if only to figure out for sure what you want to do.

A BA isnt really an employable skill set, its just a generic "i have a post 2ndary degree, so I am slightly smarter then a high school graduate" step up.

esp if you dont know what you want to SPECIFICALLY do with that BA, and unless you have a huge passion on for whatever you want to do with that BA, I would consider the very real probability that you are just spending $ on a less effective degree for employment then you could have at other places.

unless you intend to go into fine arts, or get a masters, or phd, with a real career involved with that BA degree (law, research, education ect) I would think long and hard about going into student debt to get a piece of paper, when you could spend 4 years making money and acquiring employable skills.

any trade can make 100 grand a year easy with overtime,

most make 50+ grand a year easily, and the employer often pays for your trade ticket education.

none of that pesky student debt either, you work to learn while you earn.

also, most people I know who are finishing their degrees are asking me if I can get them a job, and these are science and business degrees. Most people I know with a BA regret spending so much $ on something that doesnt make them significantly more employable.

My GF has a PHD, and I still make more then her, and she isnt in a "soft" field either. not to mention all the $ she had to spend.

if trades are not for you, plenty of tech/skill orientated schools, and so on that will actually train you with job related skills.

I can get more 50-100,000 grand a year jobs with a simple cisco certification from SAIT or some small and CHEAP program, then I could with my BSC.

right now, everyone and their mother has a "soft" degree of some sort, and there really isnt a need for it.

Gone are the days when you can take basket weaving courses with the hopes of it making you a (insert profession here)

Sometime the truth is the thing you least want to know. My sister is going to an expensive college just to get a degree is sociology with no idea what she wants to do. Im going in sociology with hopes of becoming a teacher, and I'm scared of finding employment, but i tried several trades, including accounting, IT and other things, and sociology is the one thing im not only good at but love with all my heart. I might just go into IT.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 azazel the cat wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:I don't know what to major in for my BA, I like sociology a lot but I'm not sure what type of careers I can get out of it as I do want to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle at some point in my life (like $50,000 a year give or take). Any suggestions for majors or career paths?

Well, I would suggest criminology and moving into somelike like the RCMP or CBSA, however your avatar suggests that might not be a compatible option...

Sociology likely means you'll end up teaching social studies if you also get a teachable minor with your BA, and that's well above middle class (Starts about 42k and will hit about 76k after ten years) but you'll be in TOC limbo for at least 3 years following 1 year in PDP, so it's a significant investment of time, and you need the proper disposition to teach as well. It's not a good fall-back option.

Criminology, interesting, I never though of that.