I’ve just had to relearn about superheated steam 17 years after graduating with an Engineering degree. This was probably only about the 5th time that I have had to apply it despite working in a technical job.

Top 5 useful things that I learned during my degree course.

1) How to make decent boiled rice.
2) Speckled Hen makes me puke. Lots.
3) Miller Lite makes me very very angry.
4) If 2 people that you don’t like are having a fight you should sit back and enjoy the show instead of breaking it up.
5) Superheated steam.

You're a steam engineer??

Perhaps if you'd studied Electronic Engineering you may have found your skills were.. y'know.. erm.. more suited to this century 😀

But the thing is that you might have gone into a vocational area that DID make use of the info.
I'm using no more than 20% of my degree area even though i've gone into that vocation, but only because of the career choices i've made…

My degree is pretty useless nowadays, but that is kind of because I don't do software engineering anymore and switched to graphic design – I did a computer sicence degree…

You're a steam engineer??

I am today.

[dull]The degree got me the job and demonstrated a capacity to understand the nature of the industry.[/dull]

Being able to speak German/Japanese/Chinese would have suited me better than some of the more advanced maths though.

Computing Science degree here too.

I used to know a great deal about non-deterministic finite-state automata and function theory and Turing Machines and all sorts of obscure stuff, but was a bit shit with relational databases.

Now I teach 16 year-olds about… relational databases.

Some degrees are so detailed-try Haematology-preps you up with background knowledge. The job itself is a learning process too.

Thing is wage is shockingly poop for knowlegde you have.

I'm doing a PhD on how some sand dunes in South Africa have evolved over the past ~500 thousand years. Total waste of time. Interesting though 😀

ha ha – Mr Spider – I seem to remember doing :

Thermal Power and Process
Thermofluids
Rotodynamic machinery
and a variety of other equally exciting topics in the final year of my engineering degree many years ago…
can't say I've used many of the concepts during my working life – couldn't even explain what entropy was to my chemistry studying son….

sic transit gloria mundi

NuLabour seemed to **** it all up didn't they.

Education Education Education…yeah Tony but what exactly in you **** clown?!

but was a bit shit with relational databases.

Databases are odd because they seem to be really badly taught at universities, on really very boring courses (I fell asleep in a couple of my database lectures). But then when you work with them, you end up doing actually quite fun stuff, making SQL do what you want it to do, whilst not hosing the database by being inefficient is a bit like a crossword puzzle or something*.

The important thing about a degree isn't to teach you specific things that you'll use in your job, it should teach you to learn, which is the most important thing about doing any hard job. At least that's true in Computer Science – in software jobs you need to be able to learn stuff on the job, with the help of google / books etc., being able to pass a Computer Science is an okay indicator of this ability.

Joe

*or maybe I'm just a bit sick and twisted

I fell asleep in a couple of my database lectures

Which Uni did you go to because my database lectures were exactly the same. It was like some kind of perverse sleep deprivation experiment. Most of the class were catatonic by the end of it.

You mean Higher Education?

Whatever.

I have a Physics degree. Probably would have been useful 5 years ago, but now it's simply overqualifying me for every job I apply for. I agree, waste of time if you're seeking it for career advancement (unless it's something like medicine), had a great time at uni though.

Degrees aren't just about the content, they are also about the skills you gain.