Is it worth going back to school?

[darkshadow0001]

I am not sure if I am going to do this or not, or at least not at the moment, but I was just watching the local news and they were talking about teacher lay-offs. I noticed local colleges seem to be getting a lot more students since the recession. I think the only benefit if I went to school is if I moved to another city and the bussiness see I had an education, they would hire me. But I'm beginning to wonder, is it worth it?

 

[RoJoHen]

It depends entirely on the field you plan to study and the availability of jobs where you're living. One of the biggest impacts the recession has had has been that recent college graduates are unable to find work. Employers these days are looking for experience in addition to education.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

If you're talking community college or adult school I would say yes. it never hurts to add a little more knowledge or skills to your self, it will only cost you a few hundred dollars, and if you don't like it you can quit.

If you are talking four year school I would say no unless you are very focused on a certain goal. The world is replete right now with stories of college graduates who don't have a job any better than the one they had before college except now they have massive debt to boot.

 

[ArcherFanForever]

It depends entirely on the field you plan to study and the availability of jobs where you're living. One of the biggest impacts the recession has had has been that recent college graduates are unable to find work. Employers these days are looking for experience in addition to education.

Yes, I agree with RoJo. It is very difficult to get job experience when you are right out of college. I found it helpful to try and get an intern job. That may get you in the door sometime in the future as a permanent employee.

 

[Kirby]

It depends entirely on the field you plan to study and the availability of jobs where you're living. One of the biggest impacts the recession has had has been that recent college graduates are unable to find work. Employers these days are looking for experience in addition to education.

This is the best advice, but if you do go back to school, try not to take out student loans, and especially stay away from private loans since they will bleed you dry with their interest rates.
I work in the financial aid industry and we're seeing a rising trend in people going back to school, taking out loans, and then dropping out.

 

[SeerSGB]

It depends entirely on the field you plan to study and the availability of jobs where you're living. One of the biggest impacts the recession has had has been that recent college graduates are unable to find work. Employers these days are looking for experience in addition to education.

Also remember that "hot jobs" right now (say nursing-- just an example, cause everyone I know that's lost a job recently is going back to school for nursing of pharmacy tech training cause that's was the employment office told them was the "guaranteed job" market) are going to be filled up by the current classes by the time you get out of school. So look less towards the current "trend' in the market and more towards what you think will be there when you get out.

 

[darkshadow0001]

It depends entirely on the field you plan to study and the availability of jobs where you're living. One of the biggest impacts the recession has had has been that recent college graduates are unable to find work. Employers these days are looking for experience in addition to education.

This is the best advice, but if you do go back to school, try not to take out student loans, and especially stay away from private loans since they will bleed you dry with their interest rates.
I work in the financial aid industry and we're seeing a rising trend in people going back to school, taking out loans, and then dropping out.

I see. If I ever went back, I was thinking of possibly getting a business degree since when I was at my old job, most of the managers there had degrees. I was never allowed to move up much there I don't know if it's because of the lack of piece of paper or not.

But yeah I know what you mean about loans I am paying one off right now and if I ever go back I am making sure I have the money to. I am currently making money online as a second income but it's just enough to get bills paid off not to live off. At least, not yet anyway

 

[RoJoHen]

"Business degrees" are a dime a dozen, and they've become almost meaningless. I know so many people with business degrees that are waiting tables, working retail, etc. The market is flooded with people with those kinds of degree, and there is absolutely nothing about their education that sets them apart from the rest of the pack.

The problem with Bachelor's Degrees in this day and age is that everybody has them. Employers see it on your resume and say, "So what?" because, chances are, most of the resumes they look at have Bachelor's Degrees on them.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

When I lost my job as a COBOL programmer in 2004, and was having trouble finding a new one, I went back to school and took some Web development classes. I was hired halfway through the program, and when I was laid off from that job due to a lack of paying clients, I was hired about two weeks later.

If I ever get a chance, I'm going to go back to try and finish that program, because in IT, it can never hurt to know as much as possible. So I have to agree with RoJoHen - know what you want to do, and what it will take to be hired in that field.

I also found it a lot easier to go back at the age of 40 and focus on studying. I wasn't as distracted, and possibly more importantly, as thinly spread as I was when I was in university. It's much easier to take two classes, two nights a week, and keep up than it was to take five or six classes a term and find time to study and work on assignments.

 

[FPAlpha]

I am not sure if I am going to do this or not, or at least not at the moment, but I was just watching the local news and they were talking about teacher lay-offs. I noticed local colleges seem to be getting a lot more students since the recession. I think the only benefit if I went to school is if I moved to another city and the bussiness see I had an education, they would hire me. But I'm beginning to wonder, is it worth it?

Always and ever!

I enrolled in evening classes (Tuesday evening after work and the whole Satruday morning until 1pm) this November for the coming two years to get an improved degree for the field i work in and it's both very interesting and rewarding as in "when i finish i can look for a better job with better pay".

It is a fact that you need these official degrees to apply for a better job because initially that's all HR reps look at to judge you because they don't know you. It may be that you get by on experience alone but a fresh out of university guy with a good degree will most of the time get a drop on you if you don't have one if you're applying for the same position (even if you could kick the guy's ass intellectually and experience-wise).

So go to school if you can, learn and see where it takes you.

 

[RoJoHen]

It may be that you get by on experience alone but a fresh out of university guy with a good degree will most of the time get a drop on you if you don't have one if you're applying for the same position (even if you could kick the guy's ass intellectually and experience-wise).

Ehhh, not so much right now. These days, at least in America, experience wins out every time.

 

[ALF]

I really think there's no point in putting stock in what careers people "predict" will be in demand in several years.

Where I'm from, I remember when we graduated from high school 15 years ago, the general belief was that full time teachers were either retiring all at once or being forced to take early retirement and thus we all believed that going into education was an easy take at a job in a few years.

But as the years passed, the gov't didn't replace the full time teachers at all. They did pick up a few part timers (at a very low salary) here and there but very few of the people I graduated with from high school that have teaching degrees are actually teaching today...

Get really good at something. Focus on a trade or specialty. As long as you can provide useful skills that people need you won't go hungry.

It wouldn't hurt to innovate a bit, too (do something no one else is).

 

[RoJoHen]

^I generally agree. Things suck now for people, but we have no idea what the economy is going to be like a few years down the road. Things are slowly getting better right now, so who knows what kind of jobs will be available? There is certainly no good reason not to go to school; what matters is what you study and where you want to end up.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

It depends entirely on the field you plan to study and the availability of jobs where you're living. One of the biggest impacts the recession has had has been that recent college graduates are unable to find work. Employers these days are looking for experience in addition to education.

I'm not so sure about that. I was unemployed for 16 months and the most common thing I was told by recruiters was that I was overqualified.

Which was true in a lot of cases, but there were hardly any openings anywhere at my level...so I applied for jobs a step below too. I didn't care - I just wanted a job. But the recruiters told me time and again to not expect much from the employers...because they'd see that I was overqualified and eliminate me from the pool, based on the premise that I'd leave for something better and more challenging as soon as the economy improved.

Which was also true. But the economy down in GA has yet to 'improve'...and if any of those people had hired me, they'd have had my skill set for almost 2 years (and still counting) at a bargain price.

Finally, I gave up and moved back to Anchorage, where CPAs with strong skills are always in demand. But if I had stayed down in Atlanta, I'd no doubt still be looking for a frakkin' job. And I had international accounting firms and Fortune 500 companies on my resume.

So it's not just the college kids who are having a hard time.

I think the best experience level for this market is someone with about 2-5 years of experience. They can be left unsupervised most of the time...but are not so good that the boss would grow insecure over their own job and whether the new guy could outshine them.

As to the OP's original question, education is never a bad thing. It's true that 'everyone' has a bachelor's degree these days...which only makes it that much more essential to have one. Because unless you plan on doing manual labor or a job that requires you to ask "Do you want fries with that?" 300 times a day, your competition for pretty much any job WILL have that bachelor's degree. Which means, you lose.

 

[Mary Ann]

It seems to be a balance between education and experience, at least where I am. I'm 43 and am studying towards a law degree because my Bachelor degree in sociology and cultural anthropology was interesting but is pretty much useless in the job market. My tutor has told me that despite a lot of people studying law nowadays my age and my life and work experiences, despite not being anywhere near the field of law, will help me in the job market against fresh-faced grads young enough to be my children.

 

[RoJoHen]

So it's not just the college kids who are having a hard time.

As to the OP's original question, education is never a bad thing. It's true that 'everyone' has a bachelor's degree these days...which only makes it that much more essential to have one. Because unless you plan on doing manual labor or a job that requires you to ask "Do you want fries with that?" 300 times a day, your competition for pretty much any job WILL have that bachelor's degree. Which means, you lose.

These kinds of things are true, to a point. Again, it really depends on the field you're looking to get into.

And I have to say, I'm getting really tired of people looking down on manual labor and food service jobs. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working in the McDonald's drive thru. The economy blows, and we should be grateful for the jobs we have.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but the best job I ever had was as a bartender. I have a "real" job now, and it's nice having a steady, reliable paycheck, but I made so much more money when I was waiting tables and making drinks.

 

[Holdfast]

And I have to say, I'm getting really tired of people looking down on manual labor and food service jobs. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working in the McDonald's drive thru.

It's not a question of looking down on a job, but rather a question of whether it's actually what someone wants to do with their life. It's perfectly possible to be dismissive of doing a food service job, without being dismissive of a person doing a food service job, or indeed, without being dismissive of the role in itself. All three are conceptually entirely separate. That's how I read CindyLouWho's post, anyway, but I'm sure she can clarify for herself.

As for whether it's worth going back to school, it's almost impossible to run an accurate cost-benefit analysis on an individual level as there are too many unknown variables and you can't model/simulate it in advance as the variables change during the process (it's a form of wicked problem, in fact). You're going to have to do the research for yourself, and even then there will be a "roll of the dice" component with a time/cost implication associated with a negative outcome.

Having said all that, good luck!

 

[SmoothieX]

More education never hurts. It sounds like the OP does not have a degree. A bachelor's degree today is what a HS diploma was to our parents' generation. I know a number of companies we work with that won't even consider a candidate unless they have a masters.

In my line of work, you won't even be able to be a licensed engineer without a masters or equivalent starting in a couple of years.

I never have an issue with someone trying to go back to school and better themselves. The problem I have is with people who get a degree or two and then squander it. There are plenty of people in bad financial circumstances who would love the chance to go to college, and you end up with people that major in some inane program or are afraid to apply themselves and end up as a master of ditch digging.

 

[RoJoHen]

I never have an issue with someone trying to go back to school and better themselves. The problem I have is with people who get a degree or two and then squander it. There are plenty of people in bad financial circumstances who would love the chance to go to college, and you end up with people that major in some inane program or are afraid to apply themselves and end up as a master of ditch digging.

The big problem here, especially with younger people, is that there is so much pressure to go to college that they really have no idea why they're going to college. 18-year olds generally don't know what they want to do with their lives, so they end up going to college with no real goal in mind. I went to school with a lot of history and theater majors. They're never going to use those degrees. They knew while they were still in school that they were never going to use their degrees. There's just become this ridiculous expectation that people have to have degrees, so kids graduate from high school and go to college without a good motivation for doing so.

 

[Leroy]

I'd be careful with what you are going for if you are planning on a 4 year. I swear they are rigged to nickel and dime you at every turn I think they are the fleecing of my generation.

The only reason I'm getting a bachelor's (in electrical engineering) is because I need one to get a masters at some point and the economy is so bad I have nothing better to do. I did also get a degree at a 2 year tech school I liked them a lot better. Another pro of getting a degree at a 2 year tech school is that some 4 year colleges will waive SAT or ACT requirements, heck I didn't even need to send them my high school transcript! Not too shabby if you ask me.

With that said you've gotta go with what you want to do and not on somebody else's advice for the "hot new in thing".