RE: Higher Education in the USA - Ripoff or Merely a Lost Cause?
An undergraduate degree, unfortunately, is now pretty much a necessity for what we would call a "good" job. But yes, everyone does have one. And it's going to continue. So the college degree is now basically the high school diploma. The basic requirement to get a decent paying job with a decently stable company. So now when I hire people and I'm looking to level up my talent, I find I'm looking at MBA's and other Masters degreed folks.
And we've completely lost experience. I can find MBA's easy enough now, but they went to grad school right out of college. They've had summer jobs and internships where they learned to file and do data entry. But they KNOW nothing. They understand the buzz words, and they have a pretty solid textbook understanding of a P&L and how a business works. But they can't handle people situations, they don't understand the subtleties of doing business or getting along in the workplace.
It's a slippery slope.
A slippery slope, indeed.
And there's a "B-side" to it, as well. Aforesaid daughter-- who graduated 3rd in her class, followed by an honors degree-- is now an "investor relations specialist" at a large real estate investment trust. This morning, she was telling me that she mostly "sits around and files and re-files paperwork, over and over, because there's nothing else to do." She "outgrew" her last position because she could do the job of everyone in that office, better than they could, themselves.
In other words, hand in hand with this decline in capacity, we also have employers whose expectations are that (new) hires are little more than "desk decoration."
Agreed
MBA's and other Masters degreed folks.
got one..didn't help.
Not only is a master's degree required it has to be from the RIGHT college and courses taken from the RIGHT professors and you have to be a member of the RIGHT fraternities and the RIGHT....
so I gave up and drove a truck
made a million dollars in twenty five years.
(my expenses were a million five....)
I respectfully disagree, to an extent. I've never asked about professors or fraternities (aren't those just for undergrads?) when interviewing. School matters a bit, but really depends on the situation. If I'm interviewing somebody that got their graduate degree as a working adult, schools like Univ of Phx are pretty common. And I take that with a grain of salt, factor in that they probably have work experience and roll with it. Unfortunate that it didn't work out for you. Hopefully you enjoy your career despite it being second choice.
thank you.
actually considering my personality it was a perfect fit.
I can only image what would have happened if I'd had to work in an orifice.