With such specialized fields, it’s difficult to find a job

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Specializations are becoming too detailed, making it difficult to find a job. Nowadays, universities are dividing specialties into increasingly fine categories. On the surface, this seems positive, indicating that the Ministry of Education is attentive to public needs and keeping up with international educational trends. But does this really suit China’s national conditions? ? Take my major, Pharmaceutical Engineering, for example. This major was established in 1999 and falls under the category of engineering disciplines. Before 1998 it was known as Fine Chemical Engineering; when specialties were divided up in 1999, it became three separate majors: Pharmaceutical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Formulation, and Applied Chemistry (I’m not sure about other universities; this is my own university, East China University of Science and Technology). At that time, the tuition fee for Pharmaceutical Engineering and Pharmaceutical Formulation was 3,800 yuan per year, while the tuition for Applied Chemistry was 3,400 yuan per year. From the tuition fees, it can be seen that better majors generally have higher tuition costs – in other words, Pharmaceutical Engineering and Pharmaceutical Formulation are considered better than Applied Chemistry. But when it comes to finding a job, it turns out that it’s quite difficult to find work in Pharmaceutical Engineering – cosmetics industries don’t hire people with this degree, nor do industries such as coatings, food, and beverages. Why is that? ? Because there is a subject related to medicine in the major. It feels like a waste of time. In fact, the courses offered in these three majors are almost identical, with only a few minor differences in the supplementary subjects; however, the major itself leads to significant differences in the range of employment opportunities available later on. This is quite frustrating, as applied chemistry can be used in all of the industries mentioned above. As we all know, there are only a few pharmaceutical factories in our country at present – very few indeed – and there is also a significant regional disparity. This has forced quite a number of people to leave their hometowns, or even to give up their original profession and switch to another one; very few people are able to work in their field of specialization. Specializations are becoming more and more detailed, though. . . . . . This result is unacceptable! When applying for a government job, the required qualification was ‘chemistry and chemical engineering,’ which is already considered a relatively low requirement among the constraints for such applications. However, when I specified pharmaceutical engineering as my field of study, I was rejected; they said that this field does not fall under the category of chemical engineering. I really wanted to hit them at that moment – they said I specialize in pharmacy, not chemical engineering. . . Alas, few people know all the related specialties in their field of work; these specialties keep changing from year to year, so it’s hard to say they would be aware of them. . . . . . This post was last edited by yang_liu2003 on 2009-2-8 09:43.]