Quote: (07-22-2013 12:54 PM)Master Of My Own Kingdom Wrote:
Young guy, currently in college, but I question the worth and the utility of a college degree for giving me abundant employment opportunites and financial stability.
What kind of jobs that have a low risk of employment relocation? I changed my field of study after seeing, reading and hearing dismal stories about students counting on their low-skill, lightweight liberal degrees to find work, instead they work like dogs in mcjobs to assure their survival and debt alleviation. Looked at information technology/computer science and while valuable skill and extensive knowledge can be gained for good pay, competition is fierce because of low cost imported labor. Manufacturing sector? They are the ones who suffer the most from globalization.
I want to avoid such unfruitful paths and want to secure a job, who provides a quick learning curve, good pay, and mobility.
Thanks in advance.
Do not depend on your degree or university education to prepare you for the real world.
This is what I would do if I was in university again:
-Major in a language or in a business topic that would be practical
-Minimize my courseload so that I could focus and excel at the classes that I do take on
-Use my spare time to independently acquire skills off the internet that I could later use to build my own web business, such as copywriting, PHP/coding, SEO, social media marketing
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My goal would be to graduate cum laude in a subject I enjoyed studying. That is the value in a liberal arts degree - it's for YOU not for the job market.
You need to independently develop digital or real world skills outside of the confines of university because university is the farthest thing from the world world possible.
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMateri...l?mid=2334
This is a great talk called "Unlearn your MBA" by the CTO of 37signals and creator of Ruby on Rails. This will tell you everything you need to know about university in the context you are asking.
University is good for social networking opportunities and for gaining that degree. However, the financial and time costs are high.
Thus, focus on excelling in the minimum amount of courses you can take and raising your GPA.
Then use your spare time to learn new digital skill sets on the internet and using them to freelance or build small projects of your own. Many will fail but some of them will work.
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If you are graduating very soon then you can move to Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and start paying off your student loan debt with 500-1500 USD a month or saving that money to invest in your business and picking up digital skill sets.
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Graduating cum laude with a degree in Philosophy/Anthropology/Sociology and having an independent portfolio of websites you've done and small businesses you are running is a great package to be hired or to launch your own business.
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Separate college and career preparation in your mind. They are totally different things.
You need to set time aside daily for university studies.
Then you need to set time aside daily for independent digital skill acquisition.
This will develop you into a well-rounded learned person who also has hard technical skills that immediately add value to any company - whether it's your own or someone else's.
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Getting hired is being able to successfully answer the question:
Is the salary we pay you going to be more or less than the money that you make for us or save for us?
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