Should You Study Math, Physics, Engineering, or Computer Science?
This lesson discusses one of the biggest questions many STEM students struggle with:
Should you major in mathematics, physics, engineering, or computer science?
The lesson argues that at the undergraduate level, these fields overlap much more than students initially realize.
According to the lesson, many STEM graduates from mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science programs ultimately apply for many of the same technical jobs.
Most Technical Jobs Want Similar Skills
The lesson examines modern technical job applications and explains that companies often request applicants from:
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Computer Science
- Engineering
- Statistics
- Related quantitative fields
Many positions list:
“Math, physics, engineering, computer science, statistics, or similar quantitative degree.”
The lesson explains that employers frequently care less about the exact title of the undergraduate degree and more about the student’s practical technical abilities.
Programming and Statistics Matter for Everyone
A major point throughout the lesson is that nearly all modern STEM fields now require:
- Programming experience
- Statistics knowledge
- Data analysis
- Written communication skills
- Oral communication skills
- Microsoft Office familiarity
- Technical documentation skills
- Software versatility
The lesson argues that regardless of whether students choose mathematics, physics, engineering, or computer science, they will still need strong computational and communication skills to remain competitive in the modern job market.
The Problem Most STEM Students Face
According to the lesson, many students spend years studying difficult technical theory while failing to build:
- Programming portfolios
- Professional websites
- Communication skills
- Project documentation
- Technical writing experience
- Resume targeted projects
- Practical software familiarity
As graduation approaches, many students discover that employers expect years of experience using tools and workflows that were never fully emphasized inside traditional coursework.
How P.L.E.M. Academy Approaches Resume Building
The lesson explains that P.L.E.M. Academy was designed to help students gradually build the exact skills repeatedly requested on technical job applications.
Students are encouraged to:
- Study real job applications.
- Identify repeated technical requirements.
- Create an itemized checklist of needed skills.
- Build projects targeting those skills.
- Document the work professionally.
- Host the material on a personal website.
- Develop a technical portfolio over several years.
The lesson explains that the certificate and research systems inside P.L.E.M. Academy are structured as long term projects completed gradually over time rather than overwhelming students with large workloads immediately.
Building Your Own Technical Textbook
A major feature discussed in the lesson is the idea of students building their own technical textbooks while learning.
Students gradually:
- Create educational lessons.
- Document projects.
- Write explanations.
- Use WordPress and HTML.
- Use ChatGPT professionally.
- Peer review each other’s work.
- Build a public technical portfolio.
The lesson explains that the process simultaneously builds:
- Communication ability
- Technical writing skills
- Programming familiarity
- Portfolio evidence
- Long term resume experience
Graduate School Expectations vs Reality
The lesson also discusses how many students initially enter STEM fields planning to pursue PhDs or advanced graduate degrees.
However, the lesson argues that by senior year many students become exhausted and instead focus primarily on obtaining stable high paying employment.
For that reason, the lesson emphasizes preparing early for the practical realities of the job market rather than waiting until the final year of college.
“You guys are all essentially going to apply for the same job.”
The Importance of Experience
The lesson repeatedly emphasizes that employers often care more about:
- Experience
- Projects
- Communication ability
- Portfolio quality
- Technical versatility
- Programming familiarity
than the exact wording of the undergraduate degree title itself.
The overall goal of P.L.E.M. Academy is presented as helping students graduate with visible proof of technical work rather than relying only on coursework and GPA.
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Original Transcript
All right. So, are you concerned about whether you should do a math, physics, or computer science or engineering degree? Well, for the most part, if you’re a math, physics, computer science, or engineering student at the undergraduate level, what’s going to happen is you guys are all essentially going to work the same exact jobs. So, I wanted to just show you guys some standard applications for an undergraduate. Um, say you’re an undergraduate. Come on now. Let’s go back here. Where was I just at for that computer science somewhere? Data science. Let’s look at the data science one here. I just I just wanted to show you guys if you’re concerned about doing math, physics, or engineering that um is that the one bachelor’s degree. Okay. Right. This is what I want to show you. quantive field, statistics, computer science, math, engineering, or similar. A masters or PhD is a plus. Most companies don’t look for PhDs. They just look for bachelors with five years of experience or somebody with a masters and a few years of experience. Uh that’s besides the point. The majority of you, if you’re doing a math, physics, computer science, or engineering degree, what you really need to take account to to pay attention to is your level of computer programming knowledge. because you guys are all going to apply for the same job and you all need to know how to code multiple languages and you also need to have many years of experience using all kinds of things. You need to have good written and oral communication skills. You need to know how to use Microsoft Office tools. You need to know how to code four or five different things. You need to know a lot of stuff that and that’s what Plem Academy is about. the certificate program here. The program is teaches you walks you through writing your very own textbook that pinpoints and targets all the stuff that you need on your resume and it it’s a it’s a multipleyear program that you do a little bit every month. You engage in my research position. You um you do all the certificate lessons. These are 12 and 24 plus month projects. You do a little bit every month. It’s not overwhelming. It’s just a little bit every month that pinpoints all this stuff you need on your resume. And then you get your own website with Plem Academy that allows you to host all of the content that you create. So my mine’s blank right now. We’re going to start building that this week. I’m [snorts] going to show you how to build the resumes, how to do everything. Um because for me, I’m qualified for a job like this. My problem is that I don’t have I don’t remember how to code. It’s been like 15 years since I’ve coded and I’ve done like 10 statistics and probability courses, but I don’t remember I don’t remember how to um I mean I remember it but I don’t I’m not I’m not like I’m not confident enough to put that on my resume and be like yeah I can code and do statistics. I’m not confident enough to say that. So I’m a PLM Academy student too. So I as I make the library of how to do this with PLM Academy, I am going to be um doing my own book which is computer programming statistics and probability and it’s a modern resume approach for STEM majors. You guys need to have this all of you whether you’re math, physics or engineering, you need to have this on your resume. So I’m writing this book teaching you and that’s how I’m teaching myself because I’ll know I understand it if I can explain it correctly. And then with Plem Academy, me and the team, we peer review each other’s work to make sure that it’s on point. So, you do this in you do this in segments on Plem Academy. You’ll do something on your website. You’ll post it in the peerreview section that’ll be up here shortly. And then other students will peerreview it and tell you what they think. And then you can give them credit in your book and they can give you credit in their book. It’s a whole it’s a whole it’s a whole uh kind of culture community of of upand cominging scientists. If you’re a graduate student, you want to do this, that’s fine. If you’re not in college, you want to do this, that’s fine. You’re all welcome here. The point is to develop high skills and everything. But uh if you if you’re a if you’re a math, physics, engineering, comp SAI major and you’re confused between the degrees, don’t be. You’re all going to work the same job for the most part. Some of you will be specific to your degree, but for the most part, you’re all going to get a bachelor’s degree in your senior year and you’re going to be like, come senior year, you’re going to be like, “Oh my god, I’ve had enough of college. I don’t care about master’s degree. I just want to get a job and leave. I just want to make money and leave.” Right now, your freshman, sophomore, high school student, you’re all excited. You want to be a PhD. You want to do graduate school. You want to do this. By the time you get to senior year, you are not going to want to do that. You’re going to be exhausted. You’re just going to get a high paying job. And I’m here to try to make sure that you can get that pay highpaying job by showing you everything you need to know and giving you an an opportunity to um hit the nail on the head. I got this hair tickling my nose. My beard is curling up. And uh anyways, look, we what we do in Flem Academy, we look at job applications. What do you need to know how to do? You need to know how to do all of this stuff. So, so you pick like three to five jobs that you’re interested in working in five years from now, and we make an itemized checklist of all the things you need to know in order to make that resume awesome. We take that itemized checklist, we document it in the table of contents for your book. And then you spend the next x amount of years, a little bit each month, tackling all those projects by creating a lesson, showing somebody else how to use it. And then you host it on your website with your resume so that a future employer can come to your website and be like, “Oh, wow. Oh, this person did all of this and here’s is beautiful. They know how to build the WordPress website cuz they built it. I can see it right here. They built it. They know how to do all of these things. They know and then they can go deeper into it with all the technicalities and they know how to use they know how to use um HTML with artificial intelligence to to code the website and do all these different things. I I’m using HTML for uh making these accordionss here. And so you come here and then you I have not started filling this in yet, but month one is setting up your textbook. I’m making these libraries right now. And uh you come here. I had AI draw up this um certificate for me and this accordion. This is a perfect use and a professional use of AI. I did not have it do my math for me, though. Okay. So, you come back here and you go to the research position books. I type this up live. I record myself typing this live. I write my books myself. I don’t use AI to write my books, but I use AI for for professionalism. Uh so, this is Pllem Academy. But um anyways, those of you if you’re if you should you’re wondering if you should do math, physics, computer science, or engineering, I I would I would just focus on understanding that you’re all going to apply for the same job. And they all essentially want you to know how to do statistics and computer programming and that’s about it. And then have experience in all kinds of other things, which is what Plem Academy focuses on getting you guys experience with. Plem Academy is all about getting your resume to be rock solid stellar by the time you’re in senior year. All right, kids. Uh so that’s