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| Doctor of Thinkology |
John Wilder has some thoughts on choosing a path in life. RTWT.
We've broached this subject ourself, a time or two.
College is potentially a fabulous opportunity, but mostly intrinsically worthless.
There are only three things you need to know in life, none of which are taught in college:
1) What do I really like doing?
2) What am I really good at doing?
3) What can I make decent money doing?
When those three legs of that stool come together, you've found where you're supposed to be, and what you ought to be, in life. Period. (For porn stars, thieves, liars, prostitutes, journalists, politicians - but I repeat myself - and such, your morality, or lack of it, determines whether that is something you ought to be doing.)
But those legs need a seat to plug into, and those three questions must connect to one other thing, to be truly worthwhile:
Is this something that cannot be shipped to Shi*tholia or Trashcanistan and done for 5¢ on the dollar to wages here?
Why? Because if it can, it will be.
Loyalty is deader than canned tuna.
The days of 40 years, a gold watch, and a pension until you die left the building 40 years ago.
Employers (stupidly) expect, or even foolishly demand, loyalty to their interests, but never send any loyalty the other way.
They are as loyal to their employees as they are to used toilet paper, and always will be, for every position from janitor to CEO.
So answer those three questions, and then the fourth one, and ROWYBS.
If (as in about 5% of cases) that indicates a specific college course of study, go for it.
As to specifics:
Being a lawyer requires law school, not college. College is just to weed out the lazy and the really stupid f**ktards. (Looking at judges shows you how poorly it does at the latter.) Major in any damn thing you want to. Whatever it is, it will help you as a lawyer.
Including the anthropology of French basket-weaving poets. All that matters is an LSAT score to get in, and studying your ass off to get out. But only those who graduate from top-tier law schools will get top-tier salaries. The rest can make a living. Some can't even manage that. (Getting to SCOTUS from night law school is a very narrow and unlikely road.) Things are tough all over.
Medicine requires college, especially physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics. (See if you can guess what subjects the MCAT focuses on.) But once again, that's just to weed out those with no aptitude for finishing medical school, because letting somebody in means telling 100 other bright young wannabees to eff off, so if they let you in, they have a not-so-vested interest in making sure you won't screw the pooch and flunk out, thus wasting a chair that could have gone to any of 99 equally qualified candidates.
Engineering is all about college. To get you in the door with an engineering company.
But not all science degrees are equal. In the six months before I bailed out of computer science, I correctly recognized the scam. Computers were the hot thing, promising scads of jobs. But the course load was so bloatedly over-packed with prereqs and mandatory classes (in programming languages that are about as useful now as Aztec and Sanskrit), and impacted by too damned many applicants, that it took an extra year - maybe even two years extra - to get a basic four-year degree. At the same starting salary coming out as the guys in business and engineering. Dumb idea, and I ditched it ASAP. Bonus: All the guys I started with made good money - for about a decade. Then they spent another ten years as waiters and barristas when all their jobs were shipped to India, Singapore, Pakistan, etc. The guys ahead of them pulled up the ladder, and sold them out in a heartbeat.
The architects, civil engineers, and electrical engineers made a good living. The aerospace engineers spent more time on unemployment than actors, with the booms and busts and constant consolidation of a once diverse employment industry.
Nursing? Hard to get in. But after losing out on a NROTC scholarship that would have sent me to Stanford or MIT for free, if only I hadn't been white (they told me this to my face), then saw me unemployable in the fire and police departments for the same reasons, walking into the nursing department as a guy made me the same kind of diversity hire as if I was a handicapped gay black female: 2% of the field. Dean's list grades, and top 1/2% SATs meant they knew I wasn't going to flunk out, unlike 90% of their actual diversity selectees. Bonus: Can't ship the job anywhere. Ever. Permanent shortage of them from now until Forever. What does college - even my nursing classes - have to do with my job? Damned little. It only guarantees that on Day One, there's an 80% chance I won't kill my patient out of outright stupidity. Nothing more is certain. The real education started after I had the license, and hit the floor. Sucked to be told that after I graduated. Really pissed me off. Sucked even harder to find out it was true.
College for anything else?
Okay, if they require it.
Major in whatever-the-hell you want, because it literally doesn't matter.
The utility isn't what you learn in college (which is always damned little, trust me.)
The value is in learning how to think, how to learn, and most important of all, how to teach yourself anything and everything, and how to teach it to others.
Someone that can learn, think, and teach others can (and will) excel in any business on the planet. That's what businesses are hoping they get when they hire college graduates. What they mostly get instead is over-educated children who can't tie their shoes, dress themselves appropriately, answer the phone without a 6-month training class, can't show up on time, nor work long and hard without a boot in the ass from a boss with a high school diploma, and a Ph.D. from the School Of Hard Knocks, subbing in for idiot parents and rent-seeking public school teachers.
A horrible instructor teaches you what to think. (This describes 90% of all colleges, everywhere, at all times, BTW.)
A mediocre instructor teaches you what you should know. (This is maybe another 8%.)
A good one teaches you how to think, not what to think. (This is Top 2% stuff, and can be gotten anywhere, at any school.)
A great one teaches you how to integrate and synthesize that learning and integrate knowledge from diverse subject areas, and convey it to others. (In most cases, this is supposed to be what Master's programs are all about, but seldom are).
Doctorates are supposed to be for those actually expanding the edge of knowledge beyond what is already known, plugging it into what's already known, and presenting it to everyone else.
College that fulfills that mission is worth the investment, if you need it, or want it for its own sake.
College just to get a job may as well be accomplished online or at the JC, for pennies on the dollar to Harvard or Stanford. (And both schools know that too.)
And you can make more money than college grads if you have aptitude for the trades.
A high school classmate, solid C student, nice guy, was a total gearhead. Not college material in any way, shape, or form, and he knew it. But a good guy, and good with transmissions and engines. Three years out of high school, he bought his boss's shop. Ten years out, he owned ten auto shops. Was married, paid-off house, and worth $1M. Before age 30. Never even bothered with the SAT. Knew what he liked, did what he wanted. None of the college grads (which was 95% of my class) could touch that at the 10-year reunion.
A guy fixing air conditioners, transmissions, or furnaces and water heaters is going to make a good living anywhere but Trashcanistan, and the entry requirement is a GED, aptitude, and a work ethic.
Mike Rowe annually pounds the drum that Caterpillar every year has unfilled openings for people willing to learn how to repair bulldozers, cranes, and graders, has a full apprenticeship program, and that in 2 years, you'll graduate with zero debt, and skill that can take you worldwide, and pay $100K a year within a couple of years after graduating, and can't be shipped overseas, unless that's where the broken bulldozer is. And they go begging for applicants, because people would rather mortgage their entire future and not get their fingernails dirty.
College is not for everybody, probably not even for most people, and totally unrelated to one's education, or one's career, in most cases. It's the biggest scam and unexploded bubble market in the world at the moment, and it's going to pop sooner or later.
What never goes out of fashion is being able to learn, and knowing how to think. With or without a sheepskin. Brighter folks figured that out by the end of The Wizard Of Oz.
20 comments:
I am a tinner. Commercial HVAC installation for those that do not speak construction. I am 61 and just hired on wearing tools for 80k. We cannot find competent help either HS grad or college grad. Most applicants cannot do simple math without a calculator and forget following direction without holding their hands. Example; Assemble 4 pieces of ductwork that have been laid out on the floor and have "TOP" written on them. The college graduate with the high school graduate could not handle the task. 3 out of four I could read "TOP" and told them to try again. Wearing tools this time is a blessing because being foreman just means you have a "degree" in advanced babysitting. As I have aged my tolerance for the stupid has waned. The education system in this country is a joke for anything above being a democrat voter and screaming for more "FREE" shit. I remain, Foot in the Forest.
I tell people that my degree is in Business, but my major was Air Force Officer.
Needed a degree to get commissioned, and needed good grades to get a scholarship and a Navigator school slot. A BBA fulfilled those requirements. Most of my actual education in management and leadership took place during my ROTC activities, not in the Business School classrooms.
The degree has also gotten me through the first filter of many job interviews and actual jobs, none of them jobs that actually had anything to do with the degree's subject matter.
These days employers that require a college degree are often really looking for someone with skills that used to be what you got with a High School graduate; the ability to do basic readin' writin' and 'rithmetic.
A righteous and right on rant. The only thing I'd add is something I tell any rootless, directionless youngster: Keep your eyes and mind open. Because your best career could be something you don't even know exists. It was for me. I enlisted after college with a BA in philosophy (and I will always treasure my classical liberal arts education). Uncle Sugar told me I was going to be a medical technologist. To which I could only say: "Huh? What is it?" Well, I was never fond of the military, but I will say that the tech schools are top notch. It was intense, never dull, and I loved it. 38 years in the medical field, now retired with an adequate retirement, and all in something I had no clue about.
I used to highly recommend military service for any kid who didn't know what they wanted to do. I can't do that anymore for all too obvious reasons. But ugly as military service is, it's a damned hard cluebat upside the head about the real world. And a little discipline never hurts either. Keep yer mouth shut, do what you're told, and you'll cruise through. Those four or six years are the fasted years of your life, and college after that is a cakewalk. I turned my financially worthless BA into a science degree at the local JC, got my registry credentials, and was set for life.
THEY USED TO SAY RIGHT ON. TODAY EMOTICONS. I MADE IT THROUGH MEDICAL SCHOOL AFTER A DEGREE IN JAPANESE STUDIES AND THEN A SHORT ORDER COOK. THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS IS STILL THE BEST PREPARATION FOR LIFE, WITH HELP FROM THE ETERNAL.
The Electrician's Union has a well regarded training program for little or no cost. They get you an apprenticeship when you're done making maybe $15/hour doing work that won't get outsourced.
Lots of ways to get your picket punched for no cost. All you have to do is ignore your High School Guidance Counselor and basically every teach er you ever had. They envy and respect Harvard grads, because teachers aren't very smart.
I worked as a software engineer for 40 years, made good money and was never unemppoyed. I worked on classified defence related projects, so the work was guaranteed to never be shipped overseas, unlike a lot of my classmates who worked in finance etc, and who were replaced by dot Indians.
Excellent post. You just gave me an education, on education. More than two decades ago, I made a major career change from print journalism, to the construction trades. I don't regret my decision one bit.
AMEN, Brother!
There's some comfort here. I thought I was the only one that ROTC sneered at and then was denied entry to law enforcement (the family trade) because I was "too smart" (they told me to my face at academy graduation). My genius friend made it because he looked stupid (very large and quiet). All for the best I guess, since I fell into doing a job I love and am very good at - and that happens to pay well and can't be outsourced. Aesop, this article should be laminated and hanging on the door of every guidance counselor in the land. Though we know why it won't be.
Great column, and spot on. I worked at GE in the early 90s when Jack Welch said, "the era of corporate loyalty is over". OK. So I left for a job in academic medicine where no one could explain how an MRI scanner worked, but that was my specialty. I eventually did a PhD there because I had an idea and a fire burning inside to chase it. Every job I had through my entire career was because somebody realized that I could do something they needed, not because I showed up with a credential. Sadly, the world is headed in the opposite direction. Back in my GE days, I was working as an electrical engineer (that was not my degree but was a passion from childhood) and was given a summer intern who was an electrical engineering student at Harvard. I gave him progressively simpler assignments in the lab, all of which he failed miserably. Finally I asked him why he'd chosen that profession and he told me he had done a salary survey and 'electrical engineers make a lot of money'. I told him to return to school and change his major immediately.
For about the last ten years, I have counseled kids to go directly into the trades. That was about the time that the president of the AMA came to my academic institution and gave a lecture where he showed that around the age of 60, the lifetime earnings of a kid in the trades is equal to that of an MD. Before then, the MD lags the tradesman.
Like Randy my degree meant a commission. Hadn't even thought about it till Officer Selection Office called and said " Sergeant, I understand you finished your degree. Come down and talk to me". The only proper response being "Aye aye, Sir" that's what I did. One of very few to get to Field Grade without a Masters.
Boat Guy
HVAC. Because when the heart surgeon's AC unit goes out in July, neither he nor his wife care what the cost is, they just want it fixed RIGHT NOW.
College should teach one to think...how to solve a problem. They don't.
All the knowledge of the universe is at your fingertips and...you search for the newest memes.
Want to KNOW what it was like to be a slave in the US in 1865? Read UP FROM SLAVERY by BT WASHINGTON.
Want to know why physicists think the universe is expanding? Study Einstein's "cosmological constant".
There is no excuse for imbecility. Twain once said (and probably stole from an unaccredited author) "a person who will not read has no particular advantage over a person who cannot read."
Work for yourself...so NO ONE can force you to take an experimental genetic therapy under penalty of losing your job.
aj
"But only those who graduate from top-tier law schools will get top-tier salaries."
No, those who graduated from top-tier law schools in the top 5% or so will get top-tier salaries, unless Daddy is a partner at a big law firm. After I read "Worthless" I asked a lawyer friend about this. He said his firm only hired top 4% from one law school. Other than that they'd be lucky to make $40k or so as a public defender or prosecutor.
I laughed at once you're out of school you find out how much you don't know. That happened to me FAST. Also found out something about myself, namely I work best alone and away from an office. So I became a field tech. Never unemployed, always had work except for once after a layoff.
I was in telecommunications and networking. Still am, but on the software side now. Even now, with HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing, these gray collar jobs are easy to get and easy to succeed. All you need is intellect, work ethic, and drive.
Top-tier is rather wide.
Pretty much every grad from the Ivy League law schools will outperform those from Podunk U., ad infinitum. (Nepotism cancels everything out, in any field.)
But yes, the top firms only hire the top-most fraction of grads.
But that doesn't really change what I wrote, it just narrows the funnel.
The comments of Dr. Ray Stantz are always illuminating:
"Personally, I like the university: they gave us money and facilities; we didn't have to produce anything. You've never been out of college. You don't know what it's like out there! I've worked in the private sector; they expect results."
You are preaching to the choir, everything you said is right on. Manufacturers in New England are all clamoring for skilled people, and they are difficult to find. The high school guidance counselors do a disservice to students by trying to get them in a "name" college with no clear idea of what they want to do, or are even capable of doing. It looks good for the high school to say that a certain percentage went to certain schools though.
Mike Rowe is my hero for this reason, we need more advocates for worthwhile degrees and jobs.
Very, very true. Engineering, law, and medicine back in the days before credentialism was based on bright students learning the actual practice of those fields by practitioners. They taught as well as employed, and would boot those that were unsuited to the field ruthlessly. Today, all of them depend on accredited schools and tests and standards.
I was fortunate - the college I was at really did focus on thought processes versus memorization, etc. The professors had been in the field (for the most part) and had been there/done that. It was also a funnel where only about a third of us graduated in four or five years. Now, of course, that's a negative. Hard is bad.
Again, perfectly said.
The value is in learning how to think, how to learn, and most important of all, how to teach yourself anything and everything, ...
^^^^^^^
This. I told both of my kids this pretty much verbatim. One took the other not so much, but this is what will set you apart from 99% of your competition in any field.
Blue Collar Ballers. "I just hate papercuts from fresh $100 bills..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H5q9qWE-2E
My youngest daughter got into the IBEW low voltage apprenticeship at age 23 and never looked back. She has worked almost continuously since then (now age 31) and is less than two years away from completing the Inside Wireman apprenticeship. Journey wage for that is $60 an hour plus benefits. Reasonable intelligence (she is above average) and a strong work ethic are what it takes to succeed in the skilled trades.
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