Hello People,
For the past few weeks, I have been contemplating whether to get a degree.
Personally, I have no wish to get a degree because I am doing fine relying on my "SALES" skillset. I am doing it for the sake of my parents, and also to conform myself to what society expects of me.
In fact, I have already paid for the first semester. $2,000 SGD. Ouch! I know! At least I am proud to say that I paid for it myself, without the aid of my parents.
In this post, I will break down the pros and cons of having a degree and you will be the judge.
PROS
- Better Career Opportunities
- Personal Development
- Better Recognition By Society
- Networking
Cons
- Losing Out On Potential Opportunities
- Acquiring Knowledge That Might Be Irrelevant
- Uncertain Value
Are you ready to dive deeper?
1. Better Career Opportunities
In today's extremely competitive market, most job descriptions mentioned that a degree is necessary in order for you to even score an interview. It is evident that with a degree, it is easier to seek for jobs as compared to someone without. Given that all variables are the same, both candidates can perform equally well; A recruiter will easily hire the person with a degree as compared to someone without. Also, it is a given that having a degree increases your basic and maximum salary. A degree is the bare minimum for someone to even spend minutes to judge your resume. Without it, you really have to rely on your expeirences/previous achievements to impress the recruiter.
2. Personal Development
Personally, I think that in today's time and age, schools are not a place for you to simply acquire knowledge because that's what Google's for. But more towards equipping us with the right mentality and learning methodology so that we can carry on with our lifelong learning once we graduated. Important skill sets such as confidence, presentation, teamwork, project management, ability to think analytically and work independently. That being said, it is also dependent on which institute you graduated from, the different institute has different system and structure in place. That's the reason why people tend to perceive Stamford, Oxford and Harvard differently.
3. Better Recognition By Society
Kudos to the media! They have successfully brainwashed the vast majority of us to think that having a degree is compulsory if you want to have an awesome career. That is the reason why companies will include that as a requirement and also parents urging their children to get one. Worse still, the fact that 80% of students are on track to get their degrees. If you fall into the other 20%, you will be "standing out".
4. Networking
University is just one step before everyone heads to the working world. That is also the place for you to network, make friends and form connections with people who might or might not help you in the future. Afterall, there is a chinese saying, "At home, you rely on your parents. Outside, you rely on friends."
So, through university, you can meet like-minded people who will potentially be in your field of work that could benefit you one way or the other in near future! That's exactly why graduates in top schools have strong alumni groups to support each other!
On the other hand....
1. Losing Out On Potential Opportunities
Once you have graduated with a diploma, or maybe you have a certain skill that you are competent at, you can immediately monetize that and begin to work. There will definitely be opportunities for you to either work for a great company or even start your own. By studying for the subsequent 1-4 years for a degree, you are pushing back potential opportunities that might lead to something great. That could be something for you to factor in. How confident are you that the opportunity will skyrocket and is it opportunity very rare and will not come by after you're done with your degree?
2. Acquiring Knowledge That Might Be Irrelevant
I think this factor is the most popular reason why people do not want to get a degree. Personally, it's my number one reason. I am entrepreneurial and I don't see how having a degree is able to make me sell my ideas better or make me a better businessman. That is my primary concern. I don't think that learning marketing principles is going to make me sell hundreds and thousands of products on Instagram or Facebook as compared to learning the ACTUAL TECHNIQUES of those advertisements. To me, knowledge is available online and it is redundant for you to head over to a university JUST FOR this set of knowledge.
3. Uncertain Value
This point is linked very closely to my previous point. I mentioned that universities might not be imparting real-world knowledge that is applicable to today's market. Also, to add to that. If I am a professional plumber or technician, will having a degree bring more value to my career? "Maybe. I don't know'. Because of this uncertainty in the value of a degree, most people think twice or even thrice before getting one. Artists, Musicians, Entrepreneurs are better off taking the time and money spent on a degree to build their craft and hone their skills.
Conclusion
After weighing both sides, I would rather spend 3 years of my life getting this degree because I want to set this challenge for myself to study part-time and work full time. If I am able to handle this, entrepreneurship or future hurdles will definitely not be an obstacle for me. On top of that, I am currently doing social media marketing management services for my clients. If I were to venture in depth and head towards business consultancy, having a degree in marketing will make me seem more trustworthy and reliable. With all these reasons in place, I would gladly face all my upcoming challenges than to suffer the fate of regretting not having a degree.
DISCLAIMER
All these are my personal thoughts and opinions, feel free to challenge me by leaving your opinions in the comment box below!
Also, if you have any advice for me or people who are facing this same thing, feel free to drop your comments as well!
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This is a topic which I find very interesting. I went to college not really because I wanted to, or had a career plan. I went to college because my parents, guidance counselors, teachers, etc all said you have to go to college. Go to college and you'll have a good comfortable life.
There's an education inflation going on, basically too many people have bachelors degrees so it no longer makes you stand out, its no longer something special, there's not enough professional jobs for people with degrees. Your basically getting yourself into a huge amount of debt and there's not necessarily a job waiting for you when you get out.
Also the cost of education is going up way faster than salaries. It's getting to the point where your just not going to see an ROI on paying for college. People say you'll earn more over your lifetime, more opportunities for advancement, that's all well and good but when people are comming out of school hundreds of thousands in debt making 70k instead of 40k is still a losing proposition.
That brings me to another problem which is education can be done cheaper than people do it. Go to community college for 2 years before going to a 4 year school. Apply for grants and scholarships to lighten the load. Don't go to a 4 year out of state or private school go to an affordable school. Don't get a degree in some nonsense degree that is never going to land you a job.
I have a buddy going through kind of an alternative college program called Praxis. I would compare it to a trade school for white collar workers. You go through an online boot camp for 6 months, then do a 6 month internetship. The tracks so to speak are programming, copywriting, sales, marketing and maybe a general office if I remember correctly. It costs 11k to start the program, your earning money working the second half so you come out worst case scenario break even maybe even profitable. Your also guranteed a 50k plus a year job upon graduation. You get through quicker, don't have a ton of debt, get real world work experience, and land a good job. The only catch so to speak is they only take something like 10% of applicants. That sounds really interesting as an alternative to getting into a ton of debt and taking a bunch of nonsense elective classses you really dont need which cost you time and money.
College degrees aren't pointless yet,there's still a lot of older more traditional people who think they are important but as our generation starts to become the hiring managers I think its going to be less important.
I do think one valuable thing degrees do is open doors. There's many jobs you can't even get an interview for without a degree. Sometimes you can't advance at your company or be promoted without a degree. That is still the case but again I think as time goes on and people continue to realize degrees don't really mean that much, they dont really train you for jobs and they are overpriced it will be less and less a focus or benefit to people
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Hey rulesforrebels,
Thank you so much for pouring out your thought! Whatever youve mentioned is extremely true, partially why I’m getting it is also because my current degree is heavily subsidized by the government. It’s like 10k USD for one.
Thankfully the education system here is not as insane as in the US whereby college is pegged at an insane amount.
Once again, I agree with everything that you’ve said! Thank you for your input :)
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I believe getting a degree may not necessarily give you success but it can provide more opportunities as well as widen your knowledge to see things in different perspective. You are still quite young. Getting a degree in Singapore before you are married is really a wise choice.
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Yup! The potential of having a degree > the opportunity cost of having one. Plus my degree is at a discounted price, that's why I decided to go for it!
Thanks for reading this post and leaving such constructive comment buddy :)
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What I interpreted was that your thoughts were skewed more towards the cons side. Just saying :)
I'm a honored degree holder but if I were given second chance to decide whether I should enrol into tertiary study, the answer was still a yes but in completely different course. Therefore choosing the right course is utmost important. A lot of students who persue study just for the sake of studying and are indecisive which course to take ended up went to the wrong field or even being dropped out (from what I observed).
Luckily from what I know you through this platform is that you're assertive and you are going to places in all your endeavors. Prove to me that I'm right lol
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Hahaha I’ve to admit. You’re kind of right when you say I’m moving more towards the con. But nevertheless, I will still take up a degree. I’ll prove to you & most importantly to myself that I can handle this challenge :)
Thanks Sean!!
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