How do bachelors in general studies compare to other degrees?

[SteveFoerster]

Only two mistresses? Well that's a boring story!

But seriously, it's amazing what sort of ridiculous nonsense goes on in environments that are supposed to be professional.

[OfficerA]

Well, I sure learned a lot from this topic.

I've heard of the pedigree that the USAFA carries, and how it's heavy on engineering (I believe even written documents/sites from them carry the word "hard science"), so I was surprised that a General Studies degree would even be a thing from there. Not to knock it, but when I consider that for my station it's a general officer in charge of not only the base but also relations with the local community it made me wonder how much help his degree offered. His master's are all from Air University, all of them flight-related/possibly mandatory PME, so I'm not sure how those too help.

As well, I've worked with a LOT of Lts from the academy who've told me that they earned way more credits than a normal bachelor's degree would take, as well as certain programs not having the kind of accreditation that would actually matter outside the military. I've posted this before, but a LOT of these same officers have opted to get an MBA regardless of what their bachelor's was in, as it was the main way to stand out for promotion years down the line thanks to the perception of how useful it is. Air Staff have recently tried to downplay this though by not making graduate degrees for most careers "strongly recommended" for promotion until they go up for Colonel.

Lastly, I've met a rather large number of people (both enlisted and commissioned) who have Criminal Justice degrees, including my own unit commander. I've not asked my commander anything (as his master's was in something unrelated, I think it was an MPA?), but from at least two other people I heard that it was the easiest degree for them to get, especially this one Airman who's trying to commission as a CRO, and this one Chief who confided to one "Troops to Teacher" program advisor that he earned the degree for promotion, and now regrets how useless it is. It just reminded me of a lot of the things sanantone has said in the past.

[sanantone]

I'm sorry you deal with it as well. It's one of the many reasons HR is the only part of my job I do not like. Give me a cranky or indecisive customer to coordinate bulk shipments, or a financial report that just won't balance because of a bad journal entry that hides from me, or anything else. My teeth start grinding as soon as I get word to post for certain positions in certain work groups, because I know what's coming and it doesn't matter what shiny star I put on the top of the resume stack, he's going to hire his buddy's friend's grandkid who is fresh out of school, probably won't last a full year, and might drive off a couple of the good people when they have to pick up the slack...and then I'll get griped at that I'm not doing enough to increase retention in that work group.

I've seen hiring managers make bad decisions. I interviewed for this account manager job a couple of years ago. Even though I was a supervisor for 3 years, the hiring manager said I didn't have enough experience because I had never been responsible for scheduling. I only did emergency scheduling when people called off. I don't think it's really that hard to schedule 20 in a software program, but okay. The last I heard, they have gone through 4 account managers in 2 years.

[defscarlett]

Believe me you wouldn't want that position. They did you a favor. You will literally have no life outside of the job.

I've seen hiring managers make bad decisions. I interviewed for this account manager job a couple of years ago. Even though I was a supervisor for 3 years, the hiring manager said I didn't have enough experience because I had never been responsible for scheduling. I only did emergency scheduling when people called off. I don't think it's really that hard to schedule 20 in a software program, but okay. The last I heard, they have gone through 4 account managers in 2 years.