Random thought: ATTN COLLEGE GRADS...Was college worth it?

[olivedrabcj7]

I was on the shitter a minute ago and i got to thinking about school. I just started my 4th and final year of college. Im a Management and Marketing major. My degree will be BSBA.

To those of you with an associates and or bachelors degree, was college worth it when you went out to find a job? I keep hearing people say they still can't find a job even with a bachelors degree. This is starting to worry me. I plan to start sending out resumes soon, but i was just wondering what everyone elses view on this is. [/end rant]
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[jcnoble]

I got an engineering degree in the 80's, was definately worth it.

 

[Kejtar]

I was on the shitter a minute ago and i got to thinking about school. I just started my 4th and final year of college. Im a Management and Marketing major. My degree will be BSBA.

To those of you with an associates and or bachelors degree, was college worth it when you went out to find a job? I keep hearing people say they still can't find a job even with a bachelors degree. This is starting to worry me. I plan to start sending out resumes soon, but i was just wondering what everyone elses view on this is. [/end rant]
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BS worth it if not for employment reasons then for the things I took out of it, MS, not really (at least not in my field).
As manager, when I'm hiring I look at experience more then the degree but experience + degree is a definate winner but..... usually there is only so far that you will go with just the experience.

 

[bajacalal]

I was on the shitter a minute ago and i got to thinking about school. I just started my 4th and final year of college. Im a Management and Marketing major. My degree will be BSBA.

To those of you with an associates and or bachelors degree, was college worth it when you went out to find a job? I keep hearing people say they still can't find a job even with a bachelors degree. This is starting to worry me. I plan to start sending out resumes soon, but i was just wondering what everyone elses view on this is. [/end rant]
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Yes. I recently graduated though I have not been working at a job yet that relates to my degree. Your college degree will be something that can't be taken away, you will have if for the rest of your life. You are a more educated, insightful and well rounded person because you went to college and having a bachelors degree will set you apart from a significant portion of society. Try to look at it this way, the job is a fringe benefit of having something that is a concrete statement of your years of hard work and accomplishment: your degree. Do what it takes to graduate even if you are unsure of things to come in the future.

 

[Kejtar]

Yes. I recently graduated though I have not been working at a job yet that relates to my degree. Your college degree will be something that can't be taken away, you will have if for the rest of your life. You are a more educated, insightful and well rounded person because you went to college and having a bachelors degree will set you apart from a significant portion of society. Try to look at it this way, the job is a fringe benefit of having something that is a concrete statement of your years of hard work and accomplishment: your degree. Do what it takes to graduate even if you are unsure of things to come in the future.

Hmmmmm let me see if I can rephrase what you just said: it's the educational experience that counts but not the degree?

 

[Weasel]

Mines is/will be but it's in engineering. I'm not done yet and already have a Gov. job waiting for me, probably will start my master after grad. in Dec. though.

 

[bajacalal]

Hmmmmm let me see if I can rephrase what you just said: it's the educational experience that counts but not the degree?

No, obtaining your degree is the culmination and a tangble result of 4 years of hard work. The educational experience is very important, but it is the degree that is a statement to you and others that you stuck with it and produced results. My 4th year (ok 5th, it took me 5 years) was the hardest as I only had boring no-brainer classes left and I thought about quitting many times but I am glad I got my degree. My point was, graduating is important even if you don't find a job in your chose field right away.

 

[5-90]

Yes. I recently graduated though I have not been working at a job yet that relates to my degree. Your college degree will be something that can't be taken away, you will have if for the rest of your life. You are a more educated, insightful and well rounded person because you went to college and having a bachelors degree will set you apart from a significant portion of society. Try to look at it this way, the job is a fringe benefit of having something that is a concrete statement of your years of hard work and accomplishment: your degree. Do what it takes to graduate even if you are unsure of things to come in the future.

Debatable. I've talked to a few highly educated and reasonably intelligent college grads (that came out of school ten or fifteed years ago...) but I've talked to far more "intellectuals" in the Heinleinian definition - of an intellectual being an individual educated beyond his intelligence.

I don't mean to run down higher education - but when some damn fool gets a job that I'm more qualified for, I tend to wonder. I've also been told at several job interviews that I was "overqualified and undereducated" - meaning, yet again, that some yoyo right out of college with no work experience would get the gig, while I was perfectly and totally capable of doing the job and would not get it because I didn't have another scrap of paper.

So, I'm back in school. It took me this long to decide what I wanted to do - I'm gearing up for Mechanical Engineering with an Automotive emphasis. I couldn't see the point in getting something like a four-year degree in "Liberal Arts" or "General Education" that would, now, involve learning considerably less than I did in high school.

Sadly, since high schools out here are releasing people generally untaught (a combination of the "touchy-feely" lunatic fringe that doesn't want to fail someone because it might "damage their self-esteem," and the PC lunatic fringe pushing bilingual education...) we're ending up with college-educated idiots who are less educated than I was when I graduated high school (and I was ready to graduate a few years early already - due to a streak of autodidact...)

So, I would think that a degree in some relatively specialised field would be useful - but if all you can handle is LA or GE (or, Gawd forbid, PoliSci! Is there a more useless and misnamed area of study?) you should get your arse back into high school somewhere, and get your basic education done.

5-90

 

[Captain Ron]

...
Sadly, since high schools out here are releasing people generally untaught (a combination of the "touchy-feely" lunatic fringe that doesn't want to fail someone because it might "damage their self-esteem," and the PC lunatic fringe pushing bilingual education...) we're ending up with college-educated idiots who are less educated than I was when I graduated high school (and I was ready to graduate a few years early already - due to a streak of autodidact...)

So, I would think that a degree in some relatively specialised field would be useful - but if all you can handle is LA or GE ...

5-90

So is this a blanket application, or just your "in the workplace" experience? Not to bash, but if it's in the workplace, you see what you are qualified to see. I've hired and fired hundreds of degreed engineers over the years, and the pure ability to suceed is not always synonymous with a high school or college education.

I did not graduate High School or take the GED.

The last few on my resume. I started my own operation in 2000. We will do 15M this year in commercial sheetmetal fabrication.

http://www.trendtechnologies.com/
VP Global Engineering.

http://www.sanmina-sci.com/
VP Engineering, Enclosure Operations, Global.

http://www.flextronics.com/
Engineering Manager, Box Build Operations

http://www.telect.com/
Manufacturing Engineer

http://www.amada.com/
Automation Applications Consultant

http://www.genesis-systems.com/
Automation Applications Consultant

A host of Aerospace manufacturers...
Manufacturing Engineer

It does not matter what your field is. Generally to get into management, you'll need a degree.

To find a job, it just takes talking into it. To keep it, you just need to be better than those around you, or at least have a degree.

There are exceptions though.

--ron

 

[Ramsey]

No, obtaining your degree is the culmination and a tangble result of 4 years of hard work. The educational experience is very important, but it is the degree that is a statement to you and others that you stuck with it and produced results. My 4th year (ok 5th, it took me 5 years) was the hardest as I only had boring no-brainer classes left and I thought about quitting many times but I am glad I got my degree. My point was, graduating is important even if you don't find a job in your chose field right away.

4 years huh? bragging, you son of a..

 

[Captain Ron]

...
usually there is only so far that you will go with just the experience.

College is not a detour around the "Peter Principal."

--ron

 

[5-90]

So is this a blanket application, or just your "in the workplace" experience? Not to bash, but if it's in the workplace, you see what you are qualified to see. I've hired and fired hundreds of degreed engineers over the years, and the pure ability to suceed is not always synonymous with a high school or college education.

I did not graduate High School or take the GED.

The last few on my resume. I started my own operation in 2000. We will do 15M this year in commercial sheetmetal fabrication.

http://www.trendtechnologies.com/
VP Global Engineering.

http://www.sanmina-sci.com/
VP Engineering, Enclosure Operations, Global.

http://www.flextronics.com/
Engineering Manager, Box Build Operations

http://www.telect.com/
Manufacturing Engineer

http://www.amada.com/
Automation Applications Consultant

http://www.genesis-systems.com/
Automation Applications Consultant

A host of Aerospace manufacturers...
Manufacturing Engineer

It does not matter what your field is. Generally to get into management, you'll need a degree.

To find a job, it just takes talking into it. To keep it, you just need to be better than those around you, or at least have a degree.

There are exceptions though.

--ron

When did you graduate, anyhow? Not being a smartass - a valid question! I'm only 34, and I've noted a trend towards "dumbing down" in public primary education - it shows in the use of language, grammar/spelling/punctuation in writing, maths ability, understanding of basic sciences, and pretty much any other subject.

Paradoxically, schools around here are getting rid of the various "shop" classes (the only things that kept me interested and awake - I was doing something in class!) in favour of robotics and suchlike, economics, management, and what-have-you.

Not everyone can be a CEO, and some people just don't want to be a CEO. I don't. I'm highly intelligent, and baffled everyone by enjoying the idea of working in trades more than in management - and I still do. I don't mind designing something, as long as I get to build it afterwards.

I suppose it's more of a blanket application than anything else. While I tend to be asocial, I'm also an unabashed "people watcher" - I scan and pick up damn near everything around me (always have - it comes in handy...) and I notice things and file them for future reference. So, while I'd not really call it "research" or a "study," it's a definite trend.

Someone who dropped out in the eighth grade 15 years ago would probably be more "educated" than someone with a full high school education these days, if not adding in a two-year GE or LA degree.

What say you?

5-90

 

[Captain Ron]

....

What say you?

5-90

1980 Would have been my last year in High School. I was too busy installing antennas on F-86's under contract to Raytheon out at Pt Mugu, and watching the guys learn how to fly them remote control for Project Lobos to finish though.

Folks, getting a job, and getting what you want out of a job has, in reality, almost zero to do with your level of education. It has to do with your ability to produce.

Sure, maybe there is a "dumbing down" going on in education, generally speaking. What the hell does that have to do with personal initiative? If your lazy, and a dumbass, a college education isn't going to change that. You will.

If you do not want to be a CEO, then you lack drive. People need to come to terms with their expectations, work and live accordingly. Bitch about it? Your lot in working life? That's just throwing a spotlight on how college, if you did it, really didn't teach you much about reality.

College will not teach you how to make your own breaks. It will not prepare you for how your built up sense of intelligence just won't get you "all the way" to where you think you should be. It won't show you how to deal with those "problem" co-workers, managers, owners, or all the other people holding you down. It will not serve as a substitute for initiative, hard work, compromise, or help you to shed your "comfort level." It will not tell you what you are really talented at. It almost always will get you what you "think" and "present" yourself as, in life.

You know what? You learn everything you need to know to suceed in kindergarten.

Comfort level. Ever had an instructor tell you that you need to change jobs every 3 years? Try it. Forget where the job is, or who it is with.

Education. Get what you need. College does not have a lock on all the books in the world. You literally have anything you need to know a book or two away.

I think 99% of the natives here could benefit from a different perspective... one that comes from living in, say, the Maldives for 4 years. The waste of opportunity here is appalling. "Oh geez, I went to college for 4 years and my job sucks."

Guess what?

You were a loser by birth and environment. College didn't change a thing.

--ron

 

[Captain Ron]

...
I don't mind designing something, as long as I get to build it afterwards.
...

5-90

Concept for you that might be overlooked in college.

"Team Player."



--ron

 

[Fergie]

No, college was not worth it. I still shovel dirt like a laborer, and work 70 plus hours a week.

Yes, college was worth it. I make more money than most straight out of college, have top notch benefits(FREE healthcare), love my job, and in about 5 years, I will have it made.

For my specific area though, and the company I work for, no college degree is needed, so again, it all depends.

Fergie

 

[wall04]

Folks, getting a job, and getting what you want out of a job has, in reality, almost zero to do with your level of education. It has to do with your ability to produce.

Sure, maybe there is a "dumbing down" going on in education, generally speaking. What the hell does that have to do with personal initiative? If your lazy, and a dumbass, a college education isn't going to change that. You will.

If you do not want to be a CEO, then you lack drive. People need to come to terms with their expectations, work and live accordingly. Bitch about it? Your lot in working life? That's just throwing a spotlight on how college, if you did it, really didn't teach you much about reality.

College will not teach you how to make your own breaks. It will not prepare you for how your built up sense of intelligence just won't get you "all the way" to where you think you should be. It won't show you how to deal with those "problem" co-workers, managers, owners, or all the other people holding you down. It will not serve as a substitute for initiative, hard work, compromise, or help you to shed your "comfort level." It will not tell you what you are really talented at. It almost always will get you what you "think" and "present" yourself as, in life.

Education. Get what you need. College does not have a lock on all the books in the world. You literally have anything you need to know a book or two away.

--ron

Ron just nailed it. I have one engineering BS degree and another technical BS degree from a big 10 school and I will be starting an MBA this spring (hopefully). I knew that I wanted this education when I was in HS because that is where my interests are. The education will give you a head start but you can fall behind if you don't have a work ethic. Wonder why Ron's bringing in 15MM in revenue per year? Probably because he and his employees work their azzes off and have satisified customers. In my case, I got the education and then hit the floor to get the right experience. Now, I have a huge edge becase I can relate to everyone in the organization.

Nobody can take your education away from you. It may open some doors and will always work to your advantage with all else being equal. For example, I'm not a job hopper but I have no fear about quitting or getting laid off. I know I can just get another good paying job somewhere else.

Lastly, if you do get the education do not ever use it to look down on those that don't have it. You may find that they are more qualified to do your job than you are.

 

[the1jzahn]

One thing that should be looked at is the ratio of student loan to how much you will be making. If you student loan are "x" times higher than you make, this could cause problems. And seeing that so many people are going to college these days and getting a college degree, that college degree is the same as a high school degree of 15-20 years ago. (depending on your field of choice).

 

[CRASH]

I believe my degree and post grad work in biological sciences helped me land a Director's post. YMMV.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

not sure if college was worth it.....i'm too lazy to find another job

 

[XJ Dreamin']

I believe my degree and post grad work in biological sciences helped me land a Director's post. YMMV.

What's the pay for that position? Fringe benefits? Vacation? Healthcare? Retirement?

Just asking...I might want to try that (NOT!)