Which one is a career BOOSTER: Job or Higher Education!

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Higher education is, to a large extent, a waste of time and money in terms of the skills one acquires, but it does end up serving one very valuable purpose.

The world is full of blaggers – people that talk rubbish – and make it sound good. Thanks to social media, it’s becoming increasingly prevalent. And you find blaggers everywhere and anywhere.

But that top degree, that PhD, that GPA 3.8 is something you can’t blag your way through. It shows substance and authenticity.

When asked the question in the exam, you gave the right, logical, rationale, demonstrably-correct answer, you constructed a sound argument.

You didn’t just blag it – because while it might work with your friends or a social media platform. It won’t work with a professor.

While I frequently criticise higher education – it’s designed for students to become academics, not join a workforce outside academia which most graduates end up doing – but it does serve as some kind of test of grit and intelligence.

That degree certificate is a stamp that says this person can think critically. This person had what it took to last the course. It says, when they competed with others on a level playing field, they did what it took to win.

And that is the mindset of someone you want in your team and want to invest in.

Comment-01: Unfortunately, i have seen first hand that a degree does not equal common sense and hard work and in some instances, a degree even equals an air of entitlement, because “I did the time during my studies i dont plan to work hard now”

Comment-02: If a person has what it takes win, would they not be much more than their degree?  I’ve met and worked with people who have been brilliant and had no degree. I’ve met people with a 1st who you’d not want on your team.  With more than 50% of students going to uni in 2018 the average person is likely to have gone to uni.  I’d always look for things outside of standardised education when deciding on who I want in my team. That’s where you really find a persons value and skills.  A degree on its own is just a piece of paper. 

Comment-03: When I was planning to get into an MBA many people wrote it off saying it’s just waste of money. They suggested I should start working. To be honest a part of me was worried if all this becomes true and I would end up wasting my parents hard earned money. But just months into the MBA, I realised it was one of the best decisions of my life. The people I met and exposure I got so great that I know have solid plan on what I want to do with my life. More than the knowledge, I believe higher education is about the perspective and mindset you develop.

Comment-04: Most top schools don’t “produce” successful people, they simply accept them. My university’s accounting program was supposedly “highly ranked”, and yet it used the same textbooks as most other universities, except that getting into it was very hard to begin with, and it just happened to admit mostly kids of public accounting partners and CFOs. There were like less than 10 people in my graduating cohort who were not from highly affluent families.

Comment-05: I see college as a place to discover yourself, learn to be dynamic and persevere but what’s more important is it comes from within. It is more about the subject(students) and the system (university) rather than the curriculum. And what’s out there, a world where skill, marketing and presentation sells is much different from what academic mindset is that breeds in different universities around the world, which is more about substance and depth. While I am still skeptic on if colleges are great, college education should not be same for everyone and it does not prepare us for life, what we do during those years prepares us for life, but again that statement might again not apply for everyone!

Comment-06: I respect your view is yours, but please be considerate for those who doesn’t know better and might lose more job opportunities without a B.Tech. degree to prepare themselves for some systematic training for the workplace. Not everyone is lucky like you are after all.


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