A New York Times article, “With Finance Disgraced, Which Career Will Be King?” discusses the increasing popularity of public policy as a career choice in the wake of Wall Street’s demise. This is particularly interesting to me, as I went to school for public policy. . .only (apparently) before this was trendy.
The article points out how America’s “top talent”–once attracted to the prestige and lifestyle awarded by the finance sector–are now looking to alternative careers:
At Harvard, for example, about 40 percent of undergraduates in recent years went into the most lucrative corporate arenas like finance and consulting, based on surveys at the school year’s end. “That certainly won’t be the case this year,” observed Lawrence Katz, a professor and labor economist who has studied undergraduate career choices at Harvard going back to the 1960s. “We’re seeing students who would have been part of the Ivy League pipeline to Wall Street in the past considering very different career paths.”
Additionally, Schools of Public Affairs and Administration–which include my alma mater–have seen an 82% increase in applications in 2008/9. Is this directly linked with economic recession? Unclear. What is clear, however, is that a shift is occuring and the public sector will likely benefit.
[...] undefined. For example, while public policy graduate programs exist all around the country (See Public Policy School?), many business schools now offer social entrepreneurship and nonprofit specialties, conferences, [...]