In order to be "successful" you must go to college--and when times get tough, go back and get that MBA or Law Degree, right? Maybe there's another path to the American dream.
Want the American Dream? Don't Go to College
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7 comments:
If I had kids, I would encourage them to learn a trade and how to run a small business. A handyman/carpenter/plumber who shows up on time, returns phone calls, invoices and does a good job can get rich.
And never have to write her own performance evaluation with objectives she got one month before the end of the fiscal year.
Or sit in a cubicle, seeking an empty conference room when she has to make an appointment with her gyn.
I have considered telling my kids that I'll pay for refrigerator college. Because dang it, no one today makes a fridge that lasts. While the avocado green and harvest gold fridges from the 70's sit in the garage and store your beers and run happily decade after decade, these new fangled stainless contraptions will inevitably die a horribly slow lingering death in less than 5 years, after you spent over $1000 for it, and another $1000 fixing it, because the larger the pricetag, the more you don't want to throw out a REFRIGERATOR.
That's where the money is. I just know it.
Anon, or German car mechanic college. It makes me sick every time I take the car in for servicing. My husband insists on taking it to the dealer. We paid more for the last repair than I paid for my first car, which, admittedly, was a Chevette. But still.
As long as my daughter is happy with her career path, than so will I. If she decides that she wants to become a professional basket weaver, her father and I will be at every single basket weaving convention-front row wearing t-shirts with her name and a cheer on it. We will support her no matter what.
Great article and I can really connect with this one. My cousin is in High School and, ever since he was a little kid, has show immense mechanical dexterity and ingenuity. Hell he was taking apart motor cycles and putting them back together when he was 10. But he's lacking a bit on the excitement for math to become, say an engineer, as my parents would like to see him become because they feel being a blue collar worker or having a technical career is worst then a career you can have after going to a 4 year university. I have no doubts that my cousin will do very well with what ever he ends up doing, and more importantly loving it, rather then feeling like he has to conform to an education system that doesn't suit his career needs or desires.
I love this article! I used to be a legal secretary / paralegal who learned everything on the job (12 years experience).
I twice went on interviews wherein the attorneys interviewing me said, "I just had an applicant in here with a college degree and a paralegal certificate. Why should I hire you?" To which I responded both times, "You shouldn't. Thank you for your time." And both, within two weeks called me back to ask if I was still seeking employment. I asked why -- of course I did. Both stated that the "diploma'd" paralegal could not function in the office -- they did not know how to answer phones, run an adding machine, operate the copy, fax, postage and BINDING machines, nor did they understand how to file, transcribe dictation, send certified mail, or complete the billing. And, since we're talking small law firms here, there are full charge bookkeeping duties required that are not part of paralegal studies. Many hats to wear in small law firms. Imagine that.
For the record, I have not met many people in an office who CAN operate the binding machines so a greater part of my days were spent binding briefs for others along with not only operating but REPAIRING the copy and fax machines because YES!
I can do that too . . .
=)
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