Brandon Moore has an unusual job for someone with a degree in philosophy. A graduate of the University of Central Missouri, Moore works as a welder for Jacobs Field Services, a contractor at an ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, Texas. Although he says he enjoyed his time in college, he questions the market value of his education and wonders what might have happened had he spent four years traveling the world instead of grinding away over the works of Plato, Nietzsche and Kant.
As it is, Moore is doing as well or better than many recent graduates, a sizable percentage of whom are unemployed or underemployed, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. With overtime, Moore earns more than $40,000 annually, and his company is paying for his welding apprenticeship classes. He envisions the day when he’ll make $100,000 a year or more as a skilled craftsman in a high-demand field.