A Bunch of Dropouts
CODE is a place full of people with a past that society would consider “crooked”, maybe even unsuccessful on the first sight. Besides some who decided to study at CODE right after their high school graduation, a lot of people started different study programs before switching to CODE. I am one of those, in fact did I not only study one different thing but two. The German language got a word for that with a very strong negative connotation: “Studienabbrecher”, in English you would call those people “dropouts”. A nightmare for all caring parents. Not far away from “looser”. Probably pretty close to homeless. Tough stuff at least. I assume, therefore it was not easy for some of the people switching to CODE from a different program to explain this decision to their parents. For those who rely on BAFöG (Germany’s Federal Training Assistance Act for students at secondary schools and universities) to cover their living expenses, it also comes with some financial trouble. For politicians in charge of educational affairs, the rate of dropouts is a success indicator. The more you have, the worse the educational system performs. Dropouts are seen as sunk costs, a waste of money and resources. To sum it up: Society does not like us, the dropouts. We contradict one of the main pillars of conservative understanding of values: It is good to push through with something you have started, it is good to have something finished, nice certificates are pure gold! And the old economy supports this absurdity: To the HR guys at a corporate, you are suspicious if you started something you have not finished. They question your determination, your reliability.
You are suspicious if you started something you have not finished. They question your determination, your reliability.
The concept of a study program is basically not much more than the fact that somebody within an academic institution made the decision that a certain collection of skills belongs to a certain category. What actually is part of a certain category can vary among different academic institutions. Furthermore, there are also a lot of combinations of different categories that then make a study program. As of now, there are more than 18.000 of these categories out there only in Germany while this number is constantly increasing. Still, the name and concept of a study program candidates went through is in general pretty far away from the requirements of a certain position a company wants to fill. You studied a lot that you won’t need, you will need a lot that you did not study. So you go through internships or just learn on the run, in the job in order to gain all the skills your job actually requires. Still, hiring decisions are made based on how well you performed regarding the ‘go through with what you started’-philosophy.
You studied a lot that you won’t need, you will need a lot that you did not study.
But what is it actually good for? Are you the better employee, the more productive team member, are you more qualified for higher positions if you are the kind of guy who always went through with all the decisions you made? Are you better educated if you got all your knowledge and skills through one single study program?
I doubt it.
A manager who is good at going through with decisions made at a certain point is a serious threat to his or her companies success. Decisions are made on a lot of assumptions about the future that might turn out to be wrong, market conditions change, new technologies emerge, social trends change customer behaviour. In my opinion, it is pretty obvious that adapting to new findings and developments is what you would expect from a good manager and employees in other positions. Why should this be any different if it comes to personal life decisions? How many of the decisions you made five years ago would you make just the same today? How many more factors can you take into account to evaluate the study program you were or are in compared to before you started it? What good managers do if they realise that a decision they made was wrong or at least is not right anymore is to change the strategy, sometimes radically if necessary.
The conservative approach towards life decisions regarding your education will also limit your personal development: If you find out that what you started studying is actually not the right thing for you but you go through with it anyways, it will leave you unhappy with your career path and will then certainly limit your performance even more. You can never be as good at something you don’t like as at something you love doing. Furthermore, the time you invested in a study program that you decided to quit with a degree is far away from sunk costs. When I studied economics, I learned a lot about market theories and business concepts, when I studied philosophy, I learned a lot about a strictly logical approach towards complex problems and the definition of my own values. This knowledge is not gone just because I did not receive a nice certificate for it. It was not wasted time just because after some semesters I realised that there is a study program out there which meets my talents and interests even better.
you can never be as good at something you don’t like as at something you love doing.
We give the full prerogative of interpretation of what way of learning is good or bad to institutions that are predominantly stuck in the last century.
We force our children into something that will not make them happy because we pressure them with our conservative understanding of success and failure.
We lie to ourselves and waste a significant amount of our very precious time with something that is not fulfilling just because we are afraid of being perceived as failures.
Education is much more like a puzzle that we build as we work, learn and experience rather than a package that is either complete or not.
While personal development and progress is something very individual and unique. The conclusion is a need for a different approach towards the evaluation of educational paths. Education is much more like a puzzle that we build as we work, learn and experience rather than a package that is either complete or not. Since the challenges companies face in our times are often new and very unique, people who bring the right puzzle instead of a package are not any worse equipped for success.
