It was a while there and I couldn’t speak–so upset was I that countless, thoughtless bloggers were telling us the Worst and Best Degrees–and we’re already feeling an uncertain future. I’m calm now.
Okay, I’m back and re-posting. I had to go count, name all the Presidents, then all the State Capitols until I stopped being irrational and breaking things. Not really, but just thinking about the subject that I became (how do you make swear words without swear words?) so I displaced myself from this thoughtless social media society for a bit. I couldn’t look at the screen.
I actually had things to do, but with not one, but three of the worst degrees one can have, I am worth even less in this economy. I don’t know if I can go on, but I’ll try.
So, there’s good news and bad news. NOT. Just the bad news the bright bloggers tell us. Do a quick search and stand far enough from the screen so you aren’t hit by the wave of depression and self-loathing, but you will learn something very important: compare yourself to everyone else in the world–especially those working in the field they went to college for–and you’ll feel the emotion the blogger felt. If you can only imagine…
You got the hits! Lots of them! Shock value. You are probably a blogger so you didn’t get paid a lot–if any–but you gain self-esteem as you took away others who take you seriously. We got the bloggers though; as far as I know there is no degree in blogging, yet. Close, probably social media. Hope they teach ethics in that program.
So, what to do. Besides the asinine act of telling an audience in an economic downturn, that their credentials may be pretty worthless, what’s wrong with it. It is a free country. I’m a big proponent of free speech. Remember, 1929? I doubt it, but you know where I’m going with this.
In this age of instant knowledge, in a time when the Internet gets more credence than it is probably due, you don’t tell people it’s just going to get worse for you. Don’t go back to school. Don’t try to do what you love because that is what will make you happy and probably successful.
Instead run out the door and get one of those degrees from the people who want you to hear, “we can get you the degree that will get you a job.” They’ll even help you with financial aid. What they aren’t telling you, is that you are being compared with others from schools with bigger names, and you had best be at the top of your class, and, oh, you need to fit the company profile.
Education for its own sake is great. I don’t care what kind of degree you have as long as you can work with others of varying degrees of sophistication, culture and education. You see–that is the work force. Improve yourself. Listen to what is needed around you. Make yourself useful and you will be who other people want working for them.
Yes, I have the lowest possible degrees to find a job–and at a masters level, too. English, Theatre and Social Psychology. All that means is that I have a big mouth. Forbes actually ran a blog, looking at the best and worst of masters degrees. To be honest, I was afraid to look, but then I don’t think of who I am as my degree and my value to an employer.
My education helped me become who I am, develop a character, and live in this world. And, there are different kinds of education; I was educated before I ever went to school. Some good, some not-so-good, but that doesn’t mean we don’t learn how to be good, productive people. Blogs are small words on a broad world-sized canvas. We give a smattering of what’s going on in our brain. Hopefully, the idiots are identified by you and eliminated from your brains. I just try to make sure people know that is what I am doing, too. I think, sometimes, not everyone gets it or they see it in a different way. I like to write. I like to express ideas. Thanks to my “pointless” education and plenty of life experience after and before that, but it is who I am and I wouldn’t be anyone else for any amount of money. I’d be tempted. Might be a nice life for a while, but happiness is eternal.
To my theatre friends #3 on the list I saw: you already know what it is to do what you love, to wait on tables until you get your turn on stage. Don’t let these idiots tell you the kind of degree you need to get a job. Especially in acting. The bloggers will surely tell you all you have to do is memorize lines and other people called directors will tell you where to go. Just so this audience knows, theatre taught me more about life than any other degree I have–even psychology–because it is who we are inside that counts.
Well, the Cave Man is back from Cave seclusion, feeling better now that I let it out. If bloggers didn’t know this before I hope they know it now: BLOGGING COMES WITH RESPONSIBILITY. Can’t handle it, get an education–any on the list will do regardless of ranking.
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For more resources about training, see the Training library.
Check out my book and buy it this time, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, and if I have the a minimal of sales–say 200 copies–I’ll come out with another book in three months. Happy Training.
Ironic that the ads that appear on my screen next to this column are for the University of Phoenix and DegreeSearch.org!
I agree that education for its own sake is a good thing (“Knowledge is Good” – Emil Faber, Faber College, “Animal House” (1978)). I also understand that people go to college to increase their career potential, and that some careers pay more than others.
I have two pet peeves that I hope are not contradictory.
First, I bemoan the increasingly career-orientedness and narrowing of degree programs. A breadth of knowledge and exposure, cooupled with a shared understanding of intellectual traditions, is of great value and increasingly rare.
Second, I cringe when I hear of so many college graduates being saddled with 5-figure and even 6-figure student loans incurred in receiving degrees in fields unlikely to provide significant earning potential for years to come.
I remember an acquaintance (friend of a friend) who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in theater, each from different private colleges. Two years after graduation, she was working at the fragrance counter at Neiman-Marcus in San Francisco because she couldn’t get work in her field.
She bemoaned her fate, but who did she blame? The universities for their high tuition and fees? Her parents for not being able to support her aspirations and education? The job market for not providing opportunity? Did she blame, or even question, the advisability of her incurring significant debt to attend *private* rather than public education? Did she question the advisability of her incurring significant debt to be educated in a field with limited career potential and limited earning potential?
No. She blamed – Ronald Reagan! Seriously. Her last student loan was at a higher interest rate because Congress changed Federally guaranteed and Federally subsidized student loan rates to be closer to – but still below – market loan interest rates.
Not all students are created equal, intellectually, attitudinally, or economically. Not all educational instiutions are created equal in terms of academic rigor, quality, values, or value (ROI). The oppotunity is the same as the tragedy – human choice and its influence on outcomes. As much as we might wish for better information, there is a stronger need for clarity in goals and expectations as well as understanding of options and limitations.
Michael,
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Education is misunderstood–unfortunately mostly by those who need it most.
Being serious and somewhat philosophical here for once, I wrote my “rant” because I was upset not at education or the market, although some people need to think of what it means outside their personal world, but that bloggers had to take note that some degrees were worth more than others–forget that where you went to school or who you knew was also a factor in success, and that the economy was going to make it even harder. Bloggers made it simple. Tough times and tougher ahead. Jobs and careers should be made of “sterner stuff” to misuse a quote. In today’s world, we hang our importance on economic factors and the importance of the job we hold. Or, the market we are trying to reach.
In the caveman’s world, the important people were the life givers–the mothers, the hunters, who could bring much sustenance to the people, the craftsmen and women who could bring new and better ways of doing things and make useful tools, the artist who could record a good deed, the teachers who told how it all worked together. Sometimes we forget that.
True, but the caveman’s world was also one of “you eat what you kill” and a strong need to avoid being killed oneself. Rousseau’s idealized “state of nature” misstated the pre-civilization imperatives and reality. Pre-civilization was Eden *with* predators.
In a way, it’s really unfair to ask a teenager to select their educational trajectory and likely career path. There’s a lot to be said about the “gap year”, the “grand tour”, or even Superman’s Fortress of Solitude as an opportunity for a teenager to gain life experience and reflect on adult choices.
Of course, in the US about 1/2 of all university students are “nontraditional”; i.e., older than 18-22 and who did not finish university in the typical sequential way. Online education options and for-profit universities have accellerated this trend, but the trend was present and pronounced long before.
Now, we are told that the typical young graduate will have 7-11 different occupations in their working lifetime. The required new flexibility is flexibility in new skills mastery and competency attainment.
When I went to college, it was reported that only about 1/3 of business executives had a business-relate ddegree. Of course, that was in a time when many business executives were administrative. As the organizational pyramid has become more of an hourglass, speialized knowhedge and applied skill have become even more valued. Generalized knowledge and “soft skills” became too expensive to focus on.
Of course, the pendulum has swung back and there is fertile ground for “soft skills” consultants, facilitators, counselors, and coaches to atempt to infuse what has been squeezed out of business and, to an extent, education.
That is true,Jack. As an author and business man, I can relate to how you said, “I actually had things to do, but with not one, but three of the worst degrees one can have, I am worth even less in this economy. I don’t know if I can go on, but I’ll try”. I hope more people discover your blog because you really know what you’re talking about. Can’t wait to read more from you!
Not all trainers can train “soft skills;” it is fertile ground to make money. It sounds easy, but it’s not. It’s easy to sell. From my point-of-view if more business and professional people knew about the rest of the world than just business, we probably wouldn’t be in the fix we are in right now where applied skills and business acumen are the focus. There is the tendency to never move away from that focus or improve–only demand more money. Let’s throw society the foundation when we get to fat to give the impression we really care. There are more predators in our world than before– only many ordinary folk can’t recognize them. Sucker beware.