“If you’re not in STEM, you’re screwed.”

You’ve probably heard this take before from your parents, friends, and Reddit. Whether you’re still in school or already graduated, the question ends up being the same:

Did I pick something that won’t hold up in the real world?

Especially if you studied something like English, psychology, communications…it’s easy to feel like you’re on the “wrong” side of the future.

At the same time, you’ll see people with those exact backgrounds doing well. Getting hired. Moving up. Seemingly unhindered by their non-stem major.

So, which one is it?

Where are you at right now? I studied / am studying non-STEM and I’m worried about it I’m already working and not sure if my path will hold up I’m choosing a path and trying to avoid a bad bet I don’t really buy the STEM vs non-STEM narrative

Check out our take: Can a non-STEM major be future-proof? →​

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⭐️ GradSimple Industry Insiders:
Jackson Y.

Director of Development, National University of Singapore Business School

After 30 years watching higher education from both inside universities and inside the private sector, Jackson’s biggest takeaway is surprisingly simple: a lot of young people are spending enormous amounts of money chasing credentials that no longer guarantee much in return.

He studied philosophy on scholarship, built a long career in business and fundraising, earned a PhD, and eventually worked inside one of the best universities in the world.

From that vantage point, he watched higher education slowly transform, not just academically, but financially. Tuition climbed. Universities expanded. More degrees became available, but the job market didn’t necessarily expand alongside them.

Jackson talks about how college shifted from public good to big business, the value of a degree today, and why practical skills are starting to matter more than prestige. He also explains where he does still believe college is absolutely worth it.

In GradSimple Insiders, we went deeper into one of the biggest anxieties our readers have right now: whether going back to school is the right move.

Jackson gives his unfiltered thoughts on MBAs, master’s degrees, and PhDs, when they make sense, when they absolutely don’t, and why many working professionals misunderstand the career value of additional credentials in today’s market.

"Employers increasingly value initiative, self-teaching, experimentation, and building things independently."

If degrees matter less than they used to, what separates people who build successful careers from the ones who stay stuck?

Get Jackson's Take

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⭐️ The Pivot Report

A hiring insider's take on how people get from where they are to where they want to be.

Higher education has become a consumption product that a lot of people are buying on instalment plans without checking the return policy. What a mic drop.

Jackson spent 20 years in the private sector, then inside a university watching how the machine runs and the bread gets made. If anyone knows, he does.

What does this look like to a hiring team, though? Do we care about your MBA? Do we reject the candidate with no degree? Can your career advisor read my mind? Well:

1. A non-traditional background isn't the problem. Liberal arts grads, career changers, people whose degree has nothing to do with the job they want get hired constantly, and what separates the ones who land from the ones who don't isn't the credential. It's whether they can connect what they did to what the role needs.
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   Philosophy teaches you to argue precisely and identify weak reasoning. That's useful in a lot of rooms. Most rooms, honestly. People just never say it that way. Bit of a waste.
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2. Career centers aren't what you think they are. Jackson was pretty candid about this, and he's right. Universities are businesses, and career centers are part of the marketing system. They keep enrollment numbers healthy, not necessarily to get you hired.
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   Resume reviews and LinkedIn tips are nice, sure. But an actual picture of what's happening in your industry right now? Less common, understandably. One is more useful than the other. Surprise, surprise.
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3. The "I'll figure it out" phase has a time limit. Hiring teams are more selective than they've been in years. The candidates moving through pipelines aren't the ones waiting for clarity. They made a call, built something around it, and can explain why. Applied skills and quantifiable results are king. I cannot emphasize this enough.

The college question is really just one version of a bigger problem: most career decisions are made with incomplete information. Things that look safe, impressive, or obvious from the outside can feel very different once you understand how hiring and career progression work up close.

Jackson was pretty blunt when we asked him for his thoughts on when graduate school is genuinely worth it, when an MBA helps versus hurts, and what hiring teams are rewarding in today’s market.

GradSimple Insiders members get access to EXCLUSIVE interview questions next week.

​Check out GradSimple Insiders →​

— Grace

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How's finding your career really going? We feature stories from people figuring things out in real time. It'll get shared with 6,000+ readers going through the same thing! ​👉🏽 Become a Human of GradSimple →​

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