17th
This is why I have a job in Boston with a professional sports team, and two jobs in New York getting experience writing as well as experience on set. I do all of that as well as juggle a full schedule of classes, and honestly, everything I have done outside of school has prepared me so much more than just focusing on my degree.
Click the link for Squashed’s excellent post. Here’s my twenty-something story…
I had to work while I was in college to pay the bills. I wasn’t making a ton of money doing it but what it did give me real work experience which was more valuable to eventual employers than the education I was receiving.
I also was very entreprenurial when I was in college and ran an online business that made me a modest $70,000 in one year, all while holding down a full schedule of classes. When you’re in your twenties you have unlimited energy so I enjoyed trying to juggle my business and school at the same time.
I was still under the illusion that I had to get a degree. If I was a student today, I probably would have abandoned college entirely and worked on my business full time, but too many people put the outdated concept in my head that you needed at least a BA to go anywhere.
I know it’s tougher now to get a job, but I would encourage twenty-somethings to get real job experience by any means necessary. Spending more time on your degree than working, even if it’s for low pay and doing entry level tasks, is going to be a waste of your time and won’t give you what you really need, experience, when it comes time to get a ‘real job’
You may have learned wonderful things at the college you’re attending but those skills aren’t worth much to employers if you can’t demonstrate you can and have applied them. On top of that, since everyone thinks they need a degree, you’re more like the other applicants than you are different than them. You need something to differentiate yourself from the pack.
Is this a result of the baby boomers screwing up the educatorial-industrial complex? Maybe. I hate to be the one to say it but, tough. It is what it is and you need to adapt. Either way, you’re going to have to work your ass off. Studying your ass off is overrated and doesn’t pay well.
