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I interviewed the other day at Amazon for a position called "Hazardous Material Specialist." It's an $18/hr, 50-60hrs/wk job that would be my best option after 10 months and over 500 applications to try and capitalize on my education. I really hope I get it. Funny thing is, I could've got that job straight out of high school. It doesn't even require a college degree.
Right now I'm fantasizing about where I would be if I got that job and never went to college. Since I'm a smart and usually motivated guy, I'm sure I would have worked my up the totem poll and maybe taught myself some programming and get in one of the lucrative positions I've tried to get after graduating college. I'm nowhere right now.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Just because a college degree isn't required for a position, it doesn't mean you could get the position without a degree. Huge difference between those two situations. I'm not saying one is realistically needed to get this position, but don't misinterpret the degree required for needing a degree.
I agree with you, OP. Instead of wasting the years getting a bachelors and a masters and becoming "too specialized", I could have just worked straight out of college and right now I would be at the top or near the top after 10 years of experience working my way up from the bottom instead of being 10 years out, little work experience in my field, and in debt from school, starting at the bottom with little to nowhere to move upwards.
I have a few friends with just high school, one is making over $100k a year, and the other is making almost $10k more than I do and she's an administrative assistant. Oh well!
I suppose you'll never really know what impact your education/degree will have on your career.
I have what many people consider to be a worthless BA. The jobs I've had over the past five years since graduating college either strongly preferred a BA/BS or required it. The majority of people I have worked with in these positions had a college degree. Also, I've seen my earning power double over the course of five years. I kid you not. With my new job that starts in a couple weeks, I will be making more than 100% of the salary I started making back in 2008. Did my college education have anything to do with my ability to achieve this? I can't really say for sure, but it's a strong possibility that it helped.
Can you perform many of the available white-collar, college degree requiring jobs without the knowledge you received in college? For the most part, the answer is probably yes. However, the fact is, most companies require or strongly prefer a college educated person to take on their white-collar jobs in today's job market. They want somebody who has demonstrated the ability to follow through on a large, difficult goal and complete it. They want somebody who has demonstrated the ability to critically think and communicate well. The success of their business in a knowledge-based economy relies on it. And more often than not, a college educated person (from a solid program) will be able to demonstrate this.
college degrees are a strange thing. i do agree we push college on kids too much, its like you have to go to college to be successful. i heard that over and over but i never heard anyone pushing trade schools or specialty training.
most college degree jobs aren't that great. unless you have a connection or some realy specialized skill you spend 4 years and a lot of money to get a job making 30k maybe 35k, 40k on the high end. obviously the end goal is you advance in a company but still.
you can go to school for a few months, become a radiology tech, be making 40k off the bat and maybe 60k after 2 years. obvoiusly that was more when they were in demand but still. i also had a buddy straight out of high school go to school to learn to drive cranes and heavy machinery. he was starting at like 30 an hour as a aprentice sorta deal. by the tiem i was one year into school he was making like 45 an hour and getting a ton of overtime.
currently im not even using my degree, i got a decent job not great money but not a bad job and good benefits but i coulda got it without a degree.
i think college is pushed way to much and kids who dont want college or arent cut out for college are still steered towards going to college.
if you want to go the professional route and get an office job yeah its good to have. many places wont even give you an interview without that piece of paper even if your degree is in like liesure studies htey just wanna see that piece of paper. that said there are still a lot of large companies who will hire you for professional jobs with no deree. i have several friends working as account managers with metlife making like 70k a year no degree.
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