美國最具有價值的專業
With rising tuition costs and a rapidly changing job landscape, a student’s college major is more important than ever. It can either set you up for lifetime career success and high earnings or sink you into debt with few avenues to get ahead of it.
隨着學費的上漲和日新月異的工作前景，對於一名大學生而言，大學專業的重要性正在與日俱增。專業的選擇既可以爲你一輩子的成功事業和豐厚薪資打下基礎，也可以因爲沒有就業出路而令你債臺高築。“Unless you go to a top-20 brand name school, what matters most to employers is your major,” says Katie Bardaro, lead economist at compensation research firm PayScale. In fact, in a new report by Gen-Y researcher Millennial Branding, a full 69% of managers agreed that relevant coursework is important when considering job candidates.
“如果你並非來自於排名前20的名牌大學，那麼對於你的僱主而言，最重要的問題就是你的專業了。”PayScale薪酬調查公司的首席經濟學家凱蒂·巴德羅（Katie Bardaro）介紹道。實際上，根據Y世代研究機構Millennial Branding的一份最新報告，有高達69%的管理人員認爲，在畢業生求職時，他們所學的專業至關重要。So which college majors are most likely to land you a well-paying job right out of school? Analysts at PayScale compared its massive compensation database with 120 college majors and job growth projections through 2020 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine the 15 most valuable majors in the current marketplace. Ranked by median starting pay, median mid-career pay (at least 10 years in), growth in salary and wealth of job opportunities, engineering and math reigned supreme.
那麼，究竟哪些專業的畢業生能夠獲得報酬豐厚的工作呢？通過對比研究其薪酬數據庫中120種不同大學專業的數據以及美國勞動統計局（BLS）發佈的就業增長預測，PayScale薪酬調查公司的分析員們總結出了15個當今職場中最有價值的大學專業。
At No. 1, biomedical engineering is the major that is most worth your tuition, time and effort. Biomedical engineers earn a median starting salary of $53,800, which grows an average of 82% to $97,800 by mid-career. Moreover, the BLS projects a whopping 61.7% growth of job opportunities in the field—the most of any other major on the list.
位居榜首的是生物工程。對於這個專業的學生而言，他們的學費、時間和努力花的絕對值。生物工程師的平均起薪爲53,800美元，而中級生物工程師的薪資則將平均增長82%，也就是97,800美元。此外，美國勞動統計局還預測，生物工程領域的就業機會將會激增61.7%，跟其他榜上有名的專業相比，這一增幅亦位列第一。Engineering concentrations comprise one third of the most valuable majors. Software engineering majors (No. 4) earn a median of $87,800 after 10 years on the job; environmental engineering majors (No. 5) earn a median of $88,600; civil engineering majors (No. 6) earn a median of $90,200; and petroleum engineering majors (No. 9) earn a median of $155,000—the highest paycheck on the list.
在最有價值專業中，各類工程專業佔到了三分之一左右。軟件工程專業（第四名）的學生在畢業10年後平均能拿到87,800美元的年薪；環境工程專業（第五名）的平均年薪爲88,600美元；土木工程專業（第六名）的平均年薪爲90,200美元；石油工程專業（第九名）的平均年薪爲155,000美元，其薪資水平高居榜首。“These aren’t majors that anyone could do. They’re hard, and these programs weed people out,” says Bardaro. “However, there is high demand for them and a low supply of people with the skills, so it drives up the labor market price.
“這些專業並非誰都能學。它們非常難，只能物競天擇，適者生存，”巴德羅說道，“然而，一方面這些專業的人才供給較少，而另一方面職場需求卻居高不下，因此推高了它們的勞動力市場價格。”In the Millennial Branding survey, employers reported engineering and computer information systems majors as their top recruits. Also, nearly half of these employers (47%) said the competition for new science, technology, engineering and math talent is steep. That means while other recent grads fight for jobs, these students will likely field multiple offers.
Millennial Branding所進行的調查顯示，僱主們在招人時，將工程專業和計算機專業的畢業生作爲首選對象。此外，有接近半數的僱主（47%）稱，在招聘新科學、科技、工程學、及數學等專業的畢業生中，存在着異常激烈的競爭。這意味着，當其他專業的畢業生還在爲求職而你爭我奪時，這些搶手專業的學生很可能已經爭取到了多個工作機會。Math and science concentrations are also well-represented on this list. Biochemistry (No. 2), computer science (No. 3), applied mathematics (No. 10), mathematics (No. 11), physics (No. 14) and statistics (No. 15) majors are increasingly in demand and well-paid.
數學和理科相關專業在榜單上亦表現不俗，上榜的專業包括：生物化學（第二名），計算機科學（第三名），應用數學（第十名），數學（第十一名），物理（第十四名）和統計學（第十五名）；上榜理由是這些專業的職場需求日益旺盛，而薪資水平也隨之水漲船高。Bardaro believes that the new data-driven market makes math skills, particularly statistics, more and more valuable to employers. Many companies now collect large datasets on consumer behavior, be it online search patterns or user demographics. Statisticians who understand data and can use it to forecast trends and behavior will do especially well, she says.
巴德羅認爲，在依靠數據驅動的新市場中，數學知識（尤其是統計學知識）對於僱主而言變得越來越重要。目前，有很多公司都在收集大量的消費者行爲數據集，形成在線搜索模式或用戶統計數據等。統計員們對數據分析輕車熟路，他們可以根據數據預測消費者行爲趨勢，因此一定會有上佳的工作表現。Conversely, the worst-paying college majors are child and family studies, elementary education, social work, culinary arts, special education, recreation and leisure studies, religious studies, and athletic training.
反過來，收入最糟的大學專業有：兒童和家庭研究、基礎教育、社會福利工作、烹飪技能、特殊教育教學、宗教學、及田徑訓練等專業。
