Go To School Get a Job

I recently turned 35. I look back on my life and if I had to do it all over again, there are certainly some things I would have done differently. But there are a lot of things I wouldn't have changed.

As is fairly common in people of my age bracket, I am nowhere near as professionally or financially successful as I thought I'd be at this point in my life. That is due to a number of variables, some I could have affected, some I could not have. Sure I like my job well enough....well....I like my boss well enough, the job is decent because my boss is decent this time around. The same cannot be said for previous employment choices.

I somehow fell into the job path I've pretty much been in for the last 5 years or so by accident. I thought I was on my way toward gaining good experience and making some good upward progress until I lost my job a couple of years back. Sitting down and hammering out resumes all day long gave me time to reflect on what I really wanted to do with my life. And I came to the following conclusion:

I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

Some people have certain "callings" in life, or so they say. I've never had that. There are a lot of things I enjoy, but unfortunately the things I enjoy have never panned out to profitable opportunities.

So I'm here, like millions of Americans in a job that isn't really where I want to be, but it pays well enough that I'm content for the time being.

As a kid in the 1980's and 1990's I had illusions of grandeur that someday I'd be the high powered CEO or the high priced lawyer. I had gotten good grades until I went to college. I bumbled around for a few years while I drank massive quantities of alcohol laden beverages, trying to figure what I wanted to do. I wanted to write.....but that doesn't get you a job. I wanted to make films...but that doesn't get you a job. After all, going to college is about getting a job, right? Isn't that why you spend all that money?

That's what I thought because that is what I had been told by everyone in my family, including the ones who never went to college.

And I found out that they were wrong.

If you enter an institute of higher learning with the sole intentions on getting a job, then find out what is trending in the job market, study your ass off even if it is in a subject you do not enjoy in the least bit, participate in every extracurricular activity you can get into, work a full time job and graduate cum lade. You will find a job when you exit school.
Of course you may also end up being miserable and shoving a shotgun in your own mouth when you realize that you've spend the formative years of your life doing what everyone else wanted you to do.

College shouldn't be about finding a job....at least that should not be anyones complete focus and rationale upon entering college. What you learn in the classroom is only a small portion of what you really learn in college. Kids should explore opportunities they are not afforded in high school. Go ahead, take that underwater basket weaving class. Who knows? Maybe that will be your calling. If you find out that you had some underlying basket weaving talent that was never exposed, was it worth taking that class and pursuing that passion?

I think so.

Join that frat house, drink too much once in a while (but not all the time!) and have those stupid drunken "I was in college" stories to share with your friends throughout the years.

People need to experience college. It's more than just classes, term papers and GPA's for most people. There are social aspects to get involved in, life lessons to be learned. Ramen noodles cooked 14 different ways.

For some people, it's only about classes, term papers and GPAs. We call those people nerds.

And you know what? There's nothing wrong with being a nerd either. People that become billionaire software and internet tycoons were/are nerds. So don't pick on the nerd at the frat party, he's going to be your signing your paychecks one day.

In my experience, the things you learn in college outside of the classroom are much more valuable than what you take away from analyzing Beowulf. I never once been asked about the things I learned within the classroom walls of my Alma matter. Not once.

One aspect of college that I wish I would have taken advantage of was networking. I'm not talking about Facebook or Twitter. I mean real  interaction with real people. You never know who you're going to meet. Some of the people I met in college were relatives of high-powered business owners, some are now radio and entertainment personalities and others are business owners.

You never know who you are going to meet.

Unfortunately I didn't realize the value of networking until later in life and believe me, I leverage it when I can. That being said, I  also do what I can to help out others within my circles.

But not everyone can go to college or should go to college and people who go to college don't necessarily need to go right after high school.
Maybe I was one of those people.


It was. Or so I thought.

What it really came down to was that my parents had told me that they would help pay for college if I enrolled after high school. If I waited, I would be on my own.

So I went directly to college, I didn't pass go and I didn't collect $200.
I also didn't go to class.

For the number of years I was in school, I should have "Dr." in front of my name.
But I don't.

And I don't have M.B.A, PhD., Esquire, M.F.A, M.D or C.P.A. after it either.

I often wonder what life would have been like had I not attended college or if I would have waited until I had some life experience under my belt. I certainly wouldn't have the debt I currently carry around every month. It's like a $500 a month period without the blood. I get moody and irritable every month when I have to pay that bill.
I'm pretty confident that I would still be in the same tax bracket had I not gone to school.

There are plenty of trades to learn and other industries where you can still rise to the top with little or no education at all: retail, the food industry, sales.  Some of the best sales people I know never went to college and many barely made it through high school. Sales is a talent that is groomed from natural ability, it isn't something you can teach in a classroom.

As I said, what you learn in the classroom is only a fraction of what you really learn in college, and you'll never use most of that shit anyway. Especially the crap you learn in your first 2 years of school.

I realize that the 100 and 200 level classes are the prerequisites to entering your major, but let's face it, most of it is just an extension of the worthless crap you learned in high school. I know some schools are actually structured in the opposite manner: you take your major first, then take the bullshit in your last couple of years. Schools are now offering credits for life experience.

I think that should be more commonplace. Even today, you learn more on the job than you do in the classroom in most cases. And let's face it, there are a lot of crappy teachers and professors out there that have never tried or never succeeded at anything else professionally.

So who the fuck are they to teach you how to do succeed?

With the exception of a few subjects such as math, life and business cannot be learned from a book. In fact, what the book tells you is often wrong. The theories were written by those same people who never ventured outside of the classroom.

My two favorite professors in college weren't even "real" professors. Neither had a doctorate at the time, but both had careers previous to entering the teaching profession. They didn't dictate to the class from a book religiously. Most of the time, their classes revolved around real-world projects with real local and national schools and businesses.

That is how college should be taught. In the real world. Let students experience what it's really like to work in certain industries. Require them to do internships, useful internships, not bullshit internships selling tickets for the Spokane Indians games.

I would much rather work for a person who has experience and expertise in their field as opposed to a freshly minted MBA. I've worked for both, and I'll never pick working for the kid fresh out of grad school. Ever.

People should go to school for two reasons: to learn new things or to supplement knowledge they already have. Study for enjoyment not for employment. If you enjoy what you do, the employment will follow.