EVERYONE is CEO/Chairman of the Board of Themself, INC. They just don't know it. Determine/develop what goods/services you have that others are willing to pay for. Run and management yourself like you are a company....SURPRISE!!!...you are. Want to make more money? Then, sell something at more than it cost you to more customers, or sell something to customers that are willing and able to pay more for what you have to sell. Easy Peasy concept. Most decide unconsciously to turn the management of Themself,INC over to others to manage for their own benefit, you accepting employee pay instead of owner pay. College kids major in disciplines that won't ever pay for the cost thereof. Congratulations, they just made their first disastrous business decision of Themself, INC. Then, they expect me to pay for their bad business decision.
The younger you get it the better off you will be. Unless you take out loans to pay for it. Find an employer that will pay for it for you.
The company I work for payed for mine. Good thing because I was in a situation where my position eventually moved to Houston. My advanced degree got me a different position in the same company.
Degrees don't ensure intelligence, but they do provide insight as to determination as well as exposure to a subject that may be what the business is looking to hire around.
My wife is a Veterinarian, and when we first started dating I had nothing more than a PHD (Plain High school Diploma). I figured she wouldn't keep me around forever just because I have a massive...uh...sense of humor, so I started my collegiate journey.
Three degrees including an MBA later, and I officially use none of it. We moved back to the ranch, so no corporate life and six figure salary for me.
I did look into teaching as it was about the only halfway job around if you aren't in a medical field. At least my education allowed me to walk into the Oklahoma teaching certification tests without studying and knock out a couple of pretty awesome scores. I received my certification in Business Education.
Boom...started out as a 7th grade English teacher. Yeah, connect those dots. I learned extremely quickly that junior high wasn't for me, so when a permanent position as a 6th grade English teacher opened I passed. Actually I passed on everything and became a stay at home dad and ranch hand. Thank goodness for retirement (USMC) and disability.
We are in the process of building our own practice here on the ranch, and the wife listens to business advice as well as she does any kind of marital input. I self-soothe by buying guns and ammo.
So I exhausted my GI Bill and spent seven years of sleepless nights in order to be right back where I started. At least my enormous sense of humor still works...
My wife is a Veterinarian, and when we first started dating I had nothing more than a PHD (Plain High school Diploma). I figured she wouldn't keep me around forever just because I have a massive...uh...sense of humor, so I started my collegiate journey.
Three degrees including an MBA later, and I officially use none of it. We moved back to the ranch, so no corporate life and six figure salary for me.
I did look into teaching as it was about the only halfway job around if you aren't in a medical field. At least my education allowed me to walk into the Oklahoma teaching certification tests without studying and knock out a couple of pretty awesome scores. I received my certification in Business Education.
Boom...started out as a 7th grade English teacher. Yeah, connect those dots. I learned extremely quickly that junior high wasn't for me, so when a permanent position as a 6th grade English teacher opened I passed. Actually I passed on everything and became a stay at home dad and ranch hand. Thank goodness for retirement (USMC) and disability.
We are in the process of building our own practice here on the ranch, and the wife listens to business advice as well as she does any kind of marital input. I self-soothe by buying guns and ammo.
So I exhausted my GI Bill and spent seven years of sleepless nights in order to be right back where I started. At least my enormous sense of humor still works...
I almost have an associates degree and I am a certified CNC and manual machinist. I don’t use either. I work for the gas company. I started as a meter reader and now work at the measurement center testing meters. I make pretty good money and have excellent benefits. I make more than a lot of people with degrees. There are many jobs that a degree isn’t required but companies want them anyway. My wife started with her last company in 2004 as a data entry clerk, no degree or anything. She rose the ranks and ended up being director of Finance for the business office. She made $84,000 a year with no degree. Now she did get some certificates such as a controller but no degree. That just goes to show how worthless some degrees are. It’s a bunch of crap to suck money out of people.
When a person goes to college they have to take the same dang classes they just took in high school. All to drain more money from the student. College should be just like tech school. You go and learn the career you choose to do. But that won’t happen because the colleges won’t be able to rip people off and make tons of money anymore. That and they won’t be able to indoctrinate like they do now.
When a person goes to college they have to take the same dang classes they just took in high school. All to drain more money from the student. College should be just like tech school. You go and learn the career you choose to do. But that won’t happen because the colleges won’t be able to rip people off and make tons of money anymore. That and they won’t be able to indoctrinate like they do now.
Most of my teachers in high school told me I wouldn’t be able to make it in life without a college degree. I searched and searched and nothing interested me plus I couldn’t qualify for financial aid so immediately after I graduated I went to work as a welders helper in Oil/Gas. Worked my way up, took the Oklahoma welding test, took other tests for a few energy/gas companies and became a welder. Things sort of crashed a year or two after and I looked for another job. I was a welder for a Fortune 500 company, didn’t like the huge corporate BS so I left and Now I am a company welder for a Oil/Gas company. This all happened between the age of 18-25.
Forgot to mention that I bought my first house at 20 years old all because I didn’t go to college. I am way ahead of my friends and my own brothers that ended up going the academic route. They have student loan debt on top of all their other debt and it doesn’t look like they have an end in sight.
I will encourage my children to go to college for something in the medical field or something with computers. If they aren’t the academic type then definitely I will promote learning a trade.
Forgot to mention that I bought my first house at 20 years old all because I didn’t go to college. I am way ahead of my friends and my own brothers that ended up going the academic route. They have student loan debt on top of all their other debt and it doesn’t look like they have an end in sight.
I will encourage my children to go to college for something in the medical field or something with computers. If they aren’t the academic type then definitely I will promote learning a trade.
First paragraph - congrats to both of you and the life you've had.
Second paragraph - I think your comment about college being like tech school is off the mark. College is supposed to be an education, not a trade school with a defined route to a job. Unfortunately, the college experience has been degraded across the decades with multiple influences being behind this misdirection.
Outside of college intern/prep, I never worked in the field of my BS degree. It was merely the piece of paper that was required to keep the doors open to get considered for jobs. I did, however, use the thinking and writing skills I learned to have value for my employers and build my resume. With a move into an entirely different field, getting a master's degree did connect to my actual work for the next 2 decades. It was still about thinking, problem solving, and finding value for the client. Sure, it had to be backed up with certain technical and business skills but the other part was the larger portion, IMO.
I would echo your wife's experience that certifications derived from real-world experience also had value in my career development process.
My wife is a Chiropractor with a Doctorate and also an MBA/BBA that she earned along the way. She runs her own business and is quite successful. She couldn’t do what she does without the Doctorate.
I work for the gooberment. Earned an Associates of Science in Computer Networking and Minored in Drafting before I was hired on by Tinker as a fuel control mechanic. My AS didn’t help me at all for that job so with some prodding by some influential people in my life I went back for a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. Unfortunately I got fed up and switched over to a Bachelors in Business Admin, was only 12 hours shy. This didn’t help me at all at Tinker for several years. The Electrical Engineering portion did come in handy when we had a RIF (reduction in force) and they asked for volunteers to swap positions/organizations. They only had positions for sheet metal mechanics - meh, whatever I wanted out - but when the guy doing my interview saw my resume with the electrical engineering he called up his boss who called the electrical section chief who then drove over there and “hired” me because of it. So, that part worked out well. Became an aircraft electrician and did that for 6 years before I had the opportunity to become an Avionics technician (no degree needed). Did that for another 6 years before I took some initiative because we couldn’t get equipment and learned how to get it through contracting and in our hands. That initiative opened up a big door and they brought me into the administrative side of things and became the purchasing and budget analyst for my area with a 7 figure yearly budget I had to manage. My BBA came in handy for that part. Then my boss pressured me into getting my MBA. That MBA allowed me to take advantage of another job opportunity and was promoted into my current position as a program manager.
In summary, associates didn’t do crap for me. Bachelors was just a box checked, that did have some benefit when I applied what I learned in the administration of my programs that I was responsible for. My MBA was the easiest degree I’ve ever earned and honestly don’t think I learned anything that I didn’t already know. But, the commitment it takes to earn it means a lot in the admin side of our organization.
I could probably have made it to where I’m at eventually without the degrees, but there is no guarantee that’s true. A couple of my coworkers don’t have any degrees but know more than most of my other coworkers with degrees. But, if it hadn’t been for the boxes being checked by the degrees, my hard work and smarts might not have gotten me where I needed to go. Worth it? For me, definetly.
I work for the gooberment. Earned an Associates of Science in Computer Networking and Minored in Drafting before I was hired on by Tinker as a fuel control mechanic. My AS didn’t help me at all for that job so with some prodding by some influential people in my life I went back for a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. Unfortunately I got fed up and switched over to a Bachelors in Business Admin, was only 12 hours shy. This didn’t help me at all at Tinker for several years. The Electrical Engineering portion did come in handy when we had a RIF (reduction in force) and they asked for volunteers to swap positions/organizations. They only had positions for sheet metal mechanics - meh, whatever I wanted out - but when the guy doing my interview saw my resume with the electrical engineering he called up his boss who called the electrical section chief who then drove over there and “hired” me because of it. So, that part worked out well. Became an aircraft electrician and did that for 6 years before I had the opportunity to become an Avionics technician (no degree needed). Did that for another 6 years before I took some initiative because we couldn’t get equipment and learned how to get it through contracting and in our hands. That initiative opened up a big door and they brought me into the administrative side of things and became the purchasing and budget analyst for my area with a 7 figure yearly budget I had to manage. My BBA came in handy for that part. Then my boss pressured me into getting my MBA. That MBA allowed me to take advantage of another job opportunity and was promoted into my current position as a program manager.
In summary, associates didn’t do crap for me. Bachelors was just a box checked, that did have some benefit when I applied what I learned in the administration of my programs that I was responsible for. My MBA was the easiest degree I’ve ever earned and honestly don’t think I learned anything that I didn’t already know. But, the commitment it takes to earn it means a lot in the admin side of our organization.
I could probably have made it to where I’m at eventually without the degrees, but there is no guarantee that’s true. A couple of my coworkers don’t have any degrees but know more than most of my other coworkers with degrees. But, if it hadn’t been for the boxes being checked by the degrees, my hard work and smarts might not have gotten me where I needed to go. Worth it? For me, definetly.
My wife lied about her age and got a job at 16 in the company she retired from 44 year later.
Pretty much got the job because of her female "assets" being top heavy she assumed and confirmed later. High school graduate.
She got hired into the accounting department as a clerk. Over the years worked her way into a junior accountant, finally taking over the top spot with several jobs as project accountant, and others over a 500 million dollar a year company.
Company sold out to Schlumberger in the early 2000. The first thing they did was try to replace the people in the office that didn't have a degree with those that did.
Wife had a college trainee come in she had to train to take over her job. After 90 days she was assigned to Human Recourses.
After 6 months the new accountant left with no notice, so wife was brought back in to train another college educated trainee.
That one made almost a year and left the department in disarray. The books were so screwed up they brought wife back in to get things back in order and they left her there.
When Schlumberger shut the doors after moving the company to Houston, wife actually locked the doors in the Ponca City plant as the longest employee in the local company's history and was in the top 1% of the 100,005 or so employees of Schlumberger worldwide at that time. Got a VERY nice Rolex watch for retirement.
I find it amazing watching the whiners on TV wanting the government to pay off the debts with some amounting to a half million dollars to get a bachelor's degree.
Why in the hell do you need a half million dollars to get through 4 years of college? Oh, I get it. Young pups seeing big bucks dangling in front of them as low hanging fruit to harvest with no thought of the future to pay back, then lamenting they can't pay back for their debauchery.
I honestly don't know how the system operates but if banks operated by that system with zero collateral, the banking system as we know it wouldn't exist.
I went to a year of college while working a 40 hour work week before the draft hooked me. Zero college loans.
I also get it that colleges have become incredibly expensive. Why is that? Perhaps that issue needs to be addressed? Colleges spend a huge amount of money on things other than education.
There is a huge monolith in Tulsa for OSU that probably cost a half million to put in that could have been covered by a highway billboard sign to accomplish the same message.
Pretty much got the job because of her female "assets" being top heavy she assumed and confirmed later. High school graduate.
She got hired into the accounting department as a clerk. Over the years worked her way into a junior accountant, finally taking over the top spot with several jobs as project accountant, and others over a 500 million dollar a year company.
Company sold out to Schlumberger in the early 2000. The first thing they did was try to replace the people in the office that didn't have a degree with those that did.
Wife had a college trainee come in she had to train to take over her job. After 90 days she was assigned to Human Recourses.
After 6 months the new accountant left with no notice, so wife was brought back in to train another college educated trainee.
That one made almost a year and left the department in disarray. The books were so screwed up they brought wife back in to get things back in order and they left her there.
When Schlumberger shut the doors after moving the company to Houston, wife actually locked the doors in the Ponca City plant as the longest employee in the local company's history and was in the top 1% of the 100,005 or so employees of Schlumberger worldwide at that time. Got a VERY nice Rolex watch for retirement.
I find it amazing watching the whiners on TV wanting the government to pay off the debts with some amounting to a half million dollars to get a bachelor's degree.
Why in the hell do you need a half million dollars to get through 4 years of college? Oh, I get it. Young pups seeing big bucks dangling in front of them as low hanging fruit to harvest with no thought of the future to pay back, then lamenting they can't pay back for their debauchery.
I honestly don't know how the system operates but if banks operated by that system with zero collateral, the banking system as we know it wouldn't exist.
I went to a year of college while working a 40 hour work week before the draft hooked me. Zero college loans.
I also get it that colleges have become incredibly expensive. Why is that? Perhaps that issue needs to be addressed? Colleges spend a huge amount of money on things other than education.
There is a huge monolith in Tulsa for OSU that probably cost a half million to put in that could have been covered by a highway billboard sign to accomplish the same message.
If I had it to do all over again, I'd seriously think about joining the military and get trained in a career that would be in demand and pay well in the civilian market. Avionics, aircraft maintenance, computer skills, metal work, medical training, even medical school or pharmacy, etc. Use the GI Bill benefits to get an engineering degree, etc.
Military has its drawbacks, some good points are a steady paycheck, decent income, benefits, medical care, etc.
Get in, get out after 20 years with a retirement, go work another 15-20 years in the civilian market using a very marketable skill learned in the military.
And no, don't go into the military to be a tank driver or grunt. They're necessary, of course, for our national security, but where are you going to get a civilian job driving tanks?
Military has its drawbacks, some good points are a steady paycheck, decent income, benefits, medical care, etc.
Get in, get out after 20 years with a retirement, go work another 15-20 years in the civilian market using a very marketable skill learned in the military.
And no, don't go into the military to be a tank driver or grunt. They're necessary, of course, for our national security, but where are you going to get a civilian job driving tanks?
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