Is it worth going back to school?

[Lindley]

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.

And yet, because it is so common, many jobs make a Bachelors a prerequisite; and then eliminate anyone who doesn't have that on their resume.

 

[RoJoHen]

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.

And yet, because it is so common, many jobs make a Bachelors a prerequisite; and then eliminate anyone who doesn't have that on their resume.

Indeed. It's quite annoying.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

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.

Thanks, Holdfast. I appreciate the clarity in my absence.

Nothing wrong with working food service. I grew up in the restaurant business, in fact - my father owned a very successful restaurant and I worked there all through high school and summers in college. So I know exactly what it's about, and that it is very hard work.

Same goes for any manual labor job, no doubt.

The question, however, is whether you want to be working the McDonald's drive thru at age 50. It might be okay at 17 or 22...but at a certain point, it really blows standing on one's feet all day getting greasy and sticky and tired and hot. And I'd imagine it would also blow to be working McDonald's at age 50, when nearly all of your co-workers are teens...and when the wages made there will not support a family.

If someone really liked the work, I think it's fine - an honest day's work is an honest day's work. But to be working a drive thru...or putting a roof on a house in the blistering heat of a 95 degree summer...or the the frigid temperatures of a snowy, windy, damp winter's day...well, I just don't know many older guys who want to be doing that.

It's fine at 20...but trust me...at age 45 and above, it begins to sound less and less appealing every nanosecond. And if you have no skills but that, you also have no choices but that.

Because just try going back to school at age 45 when you have 2 or 3 kids, a wife, a mortgage, and a job that doesn't pay all that well, like a lot of these jobs pay. There will be no time for school, because every waking hour will be spent working the manual job to keep the bills paid. You become trapped.

It's not a matter of these manual jobs being less honorable - they are not. But if you do not get an education, you end up limiting your possibilities to ONLY those kinds of jobs. For the rest of your life.

And I just don't think that is very wise, knowing what I know about the human body, and the aches and pains you develop as you grow older.

I was a runner for a lot of years, and still run. I got out of shape for a while, but have been in good shape the greater part of my life. And let me tell you - standing on my feet, throwing sacks of flour around, cooking, waiting on tables, working fryers, etc for 8 hours a day sounds a LOT less appealing now than it did at age 17 when I was working for my dad and doing that. You can make book on that.

And it has absolutely NOTHING to do with whether or not the work is 'honorable'. It has EVERYTHING to do with the aging process, to which none of us is immune.

At 25, you think that if you are in good shape, you will always feel great and will be immune from aches and pains. And I'm here to tell you that if you believe that, you are wrong.

 

[Paradon]

IT took my brother in laws months after graduation to find a job as resperatory therapist and that's in the medical field. It totally depends on your situation.

 

[AFEK ESLCAFE W]

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.

Here where I've been residing in South Korea for the past 3 years (I am originally from Orange County, California) you are your job.

Your status, your income, your social class, the type of home you live in, the type of car you drive, the manner of dress, what social networks you have, etc. is all predicated on that.

In America people are primarily distinguished by race. Here in South Korea, I've discovered people are separated by social class. People of different social classes generally do not acknowledge each other let alone sit at the same table together to socialize or dine. Visualize Jack Dawson dining with the condescending Cal in Titanic and you get the picture.

It's a fact of life I've been learning for the past few years where the ethnocentric view of your typical Americans with American and western values being the primary center of the world quite don't fly here. Most of the people I run across here are highly competitive and just plain shallow.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the American way of life, and in particular "the freedom of self-expression," but I am learning more and more everyday that was a privileged life I lived back in America. It's generally more stultifying here with the rigid traditional rules and the lack of social decorum which I mentioned above. I really miss the good life back in America; just not the part about having to pay a whole stack of bills all the time and a chunk of my income going to the IRS. Besides that, it was mostly bliss!

 

[RoJoHen]

At 25, you think that if you are in good shape, you will always feel great and will be immune from aches and pains. And I'm here to tell you that if you believe that, you are wrong.

I'm hoping to take after my dad in that regard. He's 55 and is in better shape than me!

 

[BlazePin]

^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.

Well a good reason would be if you don't have enough money... I know mothers in their 50s still paying off debt and it stresses them out a lot... that's not worth it.

 

[Stephen!]

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.

For some people, it's probably to buy themselves time, so they don't have to immediately find work, but not be seen to be doing nothing.

 

[Paradon]

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.

Here where I've been residing in South Korea for the past 3 years (I am originally from Orange County, California) you are your job.

Your status, your income, your social class, the type of home you live in, the type of car you drive, the manner of dress, what social networks you have, etc. is all predicated on that.

In America people are primarily distinguished by race. Here in South Korea, I've discovered people are separated by social class. People of different social classes generally do not acknowledge each other let alone sit at the same table together to socialize or dine. Visualize Jack Dawson dining with the condescending Cal in Titanic and you get the picture.

It's a fact of life I've been learning for the past few years where the ethnocentric view of your typical Americans with American and western values being the primary center of the world quite don't fly here. Most of the people I run across here are highly competitive and just plain shallow.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the American way of life, and in particular "the freedom of self-expression," but I am learning more and more everyday that was a privileged life I lived back in America. It's generally more stultifying here with the rigid traditional rules and the lack of social decorum which I mentioned above. I really miss the good life back in America; just not the part about having to pay a whole stack of bills all the time and a chunk of my income going to the IRS. Besides that, it was mostly bliss!

I guess that's one thing I really like about America. But if you go to Thailand, they love westerners... Some of them think westerners are better than Thai people.