Visualization Research Project, First Year Seminar: Everything is a Network
Authors: Mingyuan (Merlin) Li & Rephael Berkooz
Research Question. With the rise of computer technology being implemented into many fields of employment, jobs have radically changed over the last 20 years. In previous research projects in Everything is a Network, it was established that there is no correlation between the job types of Wooster graduates and the major they studied as undergraduates. Our research focuses on whether the correlation or relatedness between jobs and majors has changed during a 20 years period. We are interested in the trends between majors of academic study and the career paths that they contribute to, in the context of the changes between 1991-1995 and 2011-2015.
Hypothesis. Our hypothesis is that over the 20 years period, the relatedness of between stem major and non-stem major jobs will become less obvious. The rationale behind the hypothesis is that due to social changes, such as globalization and computerization, many new interdisciplinary jobs have been created. These changes to the job market have also changed the desired criteria of employers. With increased competition for employment, there is likely to be more students finding employment outside of their areas of study.
Approach. In order to show the change in both STEM and non-STEM field, Wooster majors were chosen from three STEM majors- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BCMB), Physics, and Chemistry- and three non-STEM majors- Political Science, Economics, and Business Economics. The majors were chosen for their popularity and their social perceptions as majors that translate more directly to related jobs, and for the expectation of significant changes in career trends in the BCMB and Business Economics majors, since these areas of study are relatively new to Wooster.
Each unit of data consisted of a Wooster graduate, with their graduation year, current employment classification, and their major. The network included 100 nodes each from 1991-1995 and 2011-2015. Only jobs within minor categories were used in Cytoscape, considering the number of jobs presented. The jobs were sorted into five categories based on their STEM-relatedness, and lined up in the middle, with more related jobs on the right, decreasing to the left. In order to the strength of the correlation between one major and one job, weight was applied on the links based on the number of alumni in links. The thiker a link was, the more alumni followed the exact path from one major to one job. Additionally, in order to capture the change in jobs and majors’ correlation, we used link color to indicate relative change of link weight over the two decades. A green link shows a decrease of link weight in 20 years, while a red link shows an increasing trend.
Findings. The network showed a general trend in the specialization of STEM majors to STEM-related jobs. No graduates with the selected STEM degrees went on to work in the least STEM-related job groups. Graduates with the selected STEM majors are increasingly finding employments in the highest STEM related jobs, and in particularly, more are becoming Physical Scientists. Nevertheless, fewer of these graduates were finding employment as Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners. On the contrast, graduates with non-STEM majors went to a more diverse group of careers. It was shown, for example, an increasing number of Economics and Political Science graduates chose Computer Occupations and Mathematical Science Occupations. However, the network also indicated some specialization in non-STEM fields. For example, the business-related non-STEM majors also become increasingly correlated to Business careers such as Financial Specialists and Financial Clerks. The network also indicated loss of graduates in some careers from both STEM and non-STEM fields, such as Operations Specialists Managers and Postsecondary Teachers.
Conclusion. Our findings rejected our hypothesis that, over two decades, the relatedness between either STEM or non-STEM majors and various careers will become less obvious. Research limitations, such as limited sample sizes and subjectiveness in categorizing the STEM-relatedness of jobs, could lead to the generalized findings and conclusions. Despite this, the network still indicates a significant change in job choices within the same categories. That is, there is a trend in changing job choices/availability between STEM majors and STEM jobs, and so is non-STEM majors and non-STEM jobs. The network is still consistent with healthy economic growth and the socio-technical tendencies with which STEM-related professions use to hire employees.