A degree is no guarantee
By Matt Brown
If you’re looking for the easy and self-justifying answer to the question: “Do I need a college degree?” simply remind yourself (and your future employer) that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah and many others didn’t.
Now, prepared that you are, you may move on from this article and continue building your empire.
But, if you were looking for a more logical answer, I would argue that a college degree doesn’t guarantee success, and not getting a college degree doesn’t guarantee failure.
More often than not — especially in the United States — we seem to gauge intelligence by the amount of time spent in an accredited college or university. This isn’t necessarily a bad system. You can guarantee that a skilled tradesman or health professional garnered a solid foundation for their vocation during their collegiate years.
Additionally, having a degree serves as a self-selection tool for employers. To me, school has always seemed like an obedience test. During the course of obtaining a degree, one proves that they are punctual, self-motivating and most importantly, can do the work assigned.
I, however, subscribed to a different modus operandi — getting my hands dirty as quickly as possible.
Once I leaned toward working in media, I decided that instead of jumping through the hoops of an expensive technical school like Full Sail University, I’d rather build a strong portfolio.
Although I ultimately chose to attend Delta College, the money I didn’t spend at a big-ticket school allowed me to put time and effort toward actually producing media, and landing an internship.
There also seems to be a fallacy in schooling where one, “can’t wait to graduate to work on blank!” or even, “I need a degree to work with this/that.” This is flawed thinking, and lacks the self-confidence an employer is looking for.
At the end of the day, I’d rather have the at-home hobbyist on my team with years of tinkering experience than the freshly graduated 20-something with only class projects under their belt.
With certain fields, especially media, a college degree doesn’t really mean anything. It doesn’t guarantee that your end product will be anything but branded by your alma mater.
The American Dream is no more
By MaCayla Jablonski
I, and my fellow Millennial generation, were born from those fortunate enough to live in a vastly different time. Our parents or guardians raised us with their big-dream, “anything is possible, we live in America,” baby-boomer attitudes, and quite frankly, I resent them for it.
We were raised with intentions to chase our dreams, but grew up in a time where chasing them breaks the bank and causes homelessness. As sad as it is, most of us will pass the age of being able to reach a personal goal due to the fact that in this day in age you must have a lengthy college education to get a relatively decent job (and even then you’re not promised a position). By the time I get that bachelor’s degree, I’ll be too old to be a pop singer, and I’ll be too bitter about it to even try.
The age of being fortunate enough to walk out of high school and into a steady, well-paying job is long gone unless you’re one of those lucky enough to be skilled in manual labor, such as construction, machinists, linemen, etc. There is also no feasible way to take a well-deserved year off of college to find yourself or travel the world, because there are zero ways to make money to support yourself. And don’t even think of getting a full-time job in that time frame because the odds of you going to college after having the ability to pay your bills are slim to none. But can you truly say that you’re confident you can live your life off of that minimum wage job? In this economy? There’s no way in hell. You need to have an education to work a decent job to be able to live in this economy.
On a more serious note, this all boils down to what exactly you plan to do with yourself. Personally, I think getting a college education could only benefit your resume when applying for jobs, but if you’re planning to go into a trade type of career, you need experience on your resume as well. That being said, experience is undeniably one of the most vital things to have on your resume. Select employers have gone on the record saying they choose experience over education when recruiting for jobs, however, without an education I can only assume that in 20 years, times will continue to shift and the odds of you being beaten out of your job by a 20-year-old with a better education is very likely.
The sad truth is, is that there are very little available jobs to be taken. You can have a bachelor’s degree and work at McDonald’s. So it’s hard to say whether or not education is completely necessary for having a job. It varies with everyone.
