I have been railing against the mis-use of the university system in North America for years. It is no longer about learning, but memorizing, cheating and begging to get a 'grade' so you can get a job. It's a system designed to keep young people out of the work force (because work is mostly illusory these days anyways) , to keep them in debt and create a class of permanent woker/paupers with the illusion of being 'educated'. So they can get ready to compete against each other to curry favor with the dominant
A friend of mine, who has a Master's degree and is married to a college professor, recently called me "one of the smartest people (he'd) ever met".
He was flabbergasted to find out that I'd gone through the Chicago public grade/high school system, and had only completed a few years of commuter-school college before leaving to start my career at a no-paying job within my chosen industry. My logic at the time was "working for free is cheaper than tuition, and I'm going to learn a lot more."
In addition to learning about the industry, I learned a lot about getting by in life (at the industry jobs and at my many part-time jobs prior) and about the relative uselessness of a college degree.
Also of note: my old buddies from the neighborhood I grew up in either went to college or didn't, and either stayed in factory jobs or went into more lucrative and thoughtful industries -- but the dividing line between the destinations doesn't appear to jibe with the college/no college choice. Rather, it more or less lines up with how intelligent they seemed to be when they were fourteen years old.
One more thing: my father was the only one of his poor family who went on to relative prosperity. He was working as a security guard at IBM, and started teaching himself computers from the manuals that the staff left lying around. He eventually applied for and landed a job there, which started his lifetime career as a systems analyst. He also had only a few years of college under his belt.
He eventually applied for and landed a job there, which started his lifetime career as a systems analyst. He also had only a few years of college under his belt.
You'd have to wonder if anyone could pull this off in the same way today. Many HR departments cast off resumes right out of hand for not having degrees/certs. The web based ones like Taleo are even worse, using keyword weighting to sift though resumes, rejecting the ones that don't make the cut according to that criteria before human eyes even s
I don't see why not. I dropped out of college partway through my junior year, and started working for a Fortune 100 financial services company at which I'd interned during school breaks. I seemed to do okay with it. At the time I was 19 or 20, and was hired as a Senior Systems Analyst. (I think--I had a few different titles while I was there due to the usual reorgs)
Oh--I'm 23 now, happily employed elsewhere, and I took time off between during which I taught ballroom and latin dance fulltime. I'm probab
No you're not the only one. I dropped out of college the first semester of my second year, wasn't for me. Kicked around the country, learned "how to work" Rekindled my interes in electronic and computers and successfuly landed a job 10 years later making 70k plus that i've held for 5 years.
I'm 37 years old and believe this happens all the time.
start my career at a no-paying job within my chosen industry.
In most places this is illegal, thanks to the power of featherbedding labor unions. They are responsible for the minimum-wage laws, and hence for high unemployment among young and poorly educated people. They DEFINITELY don't like competing against volunteers [signonsandiego.com] or unpaid apprentices.
The Democrats are so in hock to the unions for manpower and money, they ignore the fact that unions regularly shit all over the most marginalized workers in our so
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
-- Ernest Rutherford
No kidding. (Score:2, Insightful)
So they can get ready to compete against each other to curry favor with the dominant
Re:No kidding. (Score:4, Interesting)
He was flabbergasted to find out that I'd gone through the Chicago public grade/high school system, and had only completed a few years of commuter-school college before leaving to start my career at a no-paying job within my chosen industry. My logic at the time was "working for free is cheaper than tuition, and I'm going to learn a lot more."
In addition to learning about the industry, I learned a lot about getting by in life (at the industry jobs and at my many part-time jobs prior) and about the relative uselessness of a college degree.
Also of note: my old buddies from the neighborhood I grew up in either went to college or didn't, and either stayed in factory jobs or went into more lucrative and thoughtful industries -- but the dividing line between the destinations doesn't appear to jibe with the college/no college choice. Rather, it more or less lines up with how intelligent they seemed to be when they were fourteen years old.
One more thing: my father was the only one of his poor family who went on to relative prosperity. He was working as a security guard at IBM, and started teaching himself computers from the manuals that the staff left lying around. He eventually applied for and landed a job there, which started his lifetime career as a systems analyst. He also had only a few years of college under his belt.
Re:No kidding. (Score:2, Interesting)
You'd have to wonder if anyone could pull this off in the same way today. Many HR departments cast off resumes right out of hand for not having degrees/certs. The web based ones like Taleo are even worse, using keyword weighting to sift though resumes, rejecting the ones that don't make the cut according to that criteria before human eyes even s
Re:No kidding. (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh--I'm 23 now, happily employed elsewhere, and I took time off between during which I taught ballroom and latin dance fulltime. I'm probab
Re:No kidding. (Score:2, Interesting)
I dropped out of college the first semester of my second year, wasn't for me.
Kicked around the country, learned "how to work"
Rekindled my interes in electronic and computers and successfuly landed a job 10 years later making 70k plus that i've held for 5 years.
I'm 37 years old and believe this happens all the time.
Lucky the union goons didn't catch you (Score:3, Interesting)
In most places this is illegal, thanks to the power of featherbedding labor unions. They are responsible for the minimum-wage laws, and hence for high unemployment among young and poorly educated people. They DEFINITELY don't like competing against volunteers [signonsandiego.com] or unpaid apprentices.
The Democrats are so in hock to the unions for manpower and money, they ignore the fact that unions regularly shit all over the most marginalized workers in our so