My 3 cents: I went back to school to finish my Bachelor's after 11 years (I should've finished 15 years before that). Lost my business during the Recession. The job market was very tough; without a degree, it was like never having been to college at all to employers. Then I found employers were now treating the Bachelor's degree the same as a high school diploma, and an Associate's is really only good is you've been on the job for some years at a labor level and want to promote to low level management. The job market changed so much post-Recession where I've even seen situations where Ph.D's couldn't get a job, at least not at the level they were used to working at. As crazy as this is gonna sound, the people I see doing the best (out of the academic background), were people with 2 Master's in different subjects - they have flexibility to move between occupations and can command a decent starting salary in any case that a job or industry falls through. Unless you have connections in HR somewhere.
RE: Thinking about to going back to school for a second Bachelor's... Computer Science Degree!
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Thinking about to going back to school for a second Bachelor's... Computer Science Degree!
thank you so much for that input! yeah it's definitely tough getting getting hired with a B.A. and no experience. It took me about a year a half after I graduated to land a position in marketing. How was your experience going back? If you don't mind me asking, what degree did you go back for?
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Don't mind at all. I really didn't know what I wanted to do coming out of high school, but I eventually settled on the business field. I got an opportunity to get into real estate while I was in college, so I started stringing my classes along, taking less and less each semester. I found the classes simply didn't apply to what I was starting to become good at: finding and flipping property. All my classes were just leading me to end up in a job, when I already had the responsibilities of the boss. I stuck with the entrepreneurial thing until the Recession, up until then it was hard work and a lot of growth, but it wasn't long before the money was good. Post Recession, having to go back into the job market sucked. I found out, especially with my age, a lot of people lie about having a self-supporting business on their resume. With what I had, I was only marketable to an investor. I didn't have the time in jobs, positions and titles an employer wanted to see. I ended up serving 6 years in the Army Reserves with a complete career change to the medical field. That gave me the spark to get back into school; again, I found a lot of people lie about their capabilities and even an investor wants to see a Bachelor's degree to weed out the phonies. The reason for the change to medical is that I presented myself as a candidate for upper rank advancement walking into the recruiter's station. At my age, the military would only pay for certain professions to become officers; nursing was the best option. I was in a weird period again after discharging; I got hurt pretty bad and it was a process to get medical attention and compensation. In that time, I took one course at a time to complete my Bachelor's in Business Finance (that was where I originally started versus backtracking and starting from square one). Once things were somewhat settled in my personal life, the VA opened a path for me to get into the FDA. While I was there (and I took forever to figure out what was the best combination of past and future skills), I started working on a Master's in Health Science, Public Health concentration. My logical step was to go RN/BSN, but I didn't think my body would handle it, so I should start looking at the admin side. I eventually went back to real estate, I've now accumulated enough credits to become a licensed broker, so now I can employ other people, which is what I'm best at. I have one class left in my Master's program. With that, if necessary, I can teach, if I had to go back into military/government work, I would have some rank and a decent position, or i could tack on 2 more years of school and go the PA route. With a Master's and military experience I don't think I'd be out of work long. Entrepreneurship is where I'm best, and this was a long, grueling route (even spoke with the ex-wife for her HR advice). All said to say what I've learned is nothing is secure, you have to set yourself up for multiple options for success. I assumed real estate would always be there, and half a degree only left me "qualified" for labor in the private sector. It's been a long roundabout path with some dark moments, but I'm marketable now globally in multiple directions if push comes to shove again.
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you are 100% correct, being as marketable as possible in today's economy is probably for the best, seems you like have an abundance of experience in different fields of study, so you are set for any type of drastic change in the job market. I hadn't even thought about combining past and future experiences like you did. As a major in public relations with experience marketing I might be able to combine that with a computer science degree and programming experience to get some sort of corporate job in the tech world. I'm feeling really excited to go back to school and just LEARN, maybe it's the wrong choice but its what my heart is telling me to do. I can worry about the finance later, personally I never stress out too much about money. Thanks again for your feedback.
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You're ahead of the game, you'll be fine. I thought I was set for life then found my whole industry gone at 30. As long as you're there to learn and you know what you want to get out of it, in and of itself school is not a bad idea. My beef is that you should be able to pick and choose what benefits you once you know where you're going. Yes, I needed guidance counseling at 21, when it wasnt' mandatory; its kinda ridiculous now to go thru the same counseling at 42 and now it is mandatory.
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