Does College Still [always] Make Sense?
EDUCATION COMES IN MANY FORMS — 21 AND UNDER
THE STUDENT
Going to college wasn’t on the table for me. I was such a poor student and absolutely hated sitting in a classroom. Being held back a grade, struggling with memorization, moved to classes positioned as ‘extra help’, when in reality they felt more like a place for the kids and teachers that seemed to just not care. I couldn’t keep up with the normal pace — even with extra help after school — and then again in the evenings at home. It was a pain in the ass with results of frustration and disappointment.
PARENTING
Flashback to 1998, I’m 18 and graduating high school. I finished a year early by applying ‘credit’ from a business I owned and managed after school and on weekends. A year earlier — my mom, an entrepreneur, decided to invest in my work ethic and interest in business. I had been working at her company, a marketing agency, since around 13. My brother and I put together a game plan, she cut a check, signed a lease, and off we went with our new company. How the school allowed me to graduate a year early for the simple fact that I was a working student is — to be transparent — probably because it was a privately owned school and there was an opportunity to pay 1/2 year tuition in advance to get out early. My mom recognized my STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES — and greenlit the early graduation.
SELF-AWARENESS
Instead of investing time and money in more of the traditional route — I did what I felt was right for me. I continued to grow my business while studying music production — until one day I freaked out and decided I wanted a ‘normal job’. Around 21 I sold the company to a partner I brought on earlier and put together a resume. Ultimately this led to a really crappy job, then came an amazing job with help of a friend. Microsoft and Adobe were all I needed to fit in, so I taught myself the basics on the job. I was earning money, meeting industry people, traveling, and getting real experience. More than my share. The economy seemed to be so bad, people were losing jobs weekly during the first few months after I started. As a result I inherited more responsibilities. And for me, that was the key — experience. Trial and error. Risk. That’s how I knew I learned best — with pressure and through doing. Becoming a practitioner.
EXPERIENCE
Now, is college still ALWAYS the right path? I don’t think so and it’s frustrating to see kids pressured into feeling that it is, and even more so to see companies requiring specific degrees to win a position. Judging the school instead of the person. College — for some people, sure. In my case, no.
This has been on my mind so I thought it would be worth sharing a short list of ways to gain experience, get an education, and hopefully learn more about yourself during the journey into your career(s).
Travel when you can afford it. If you can’t afford it — work, save, then afford it. Go places outside your comfort zone. Learn how to communicate with people that speak a different language than you (maybe learn some of the language), figure out planning and schedule management with cost-effective ways to get around, eat, and sleep, taste new foods, and put yourself in a completely different situation than you ever thought you would be in. After all — this is probably what will happen once you begin working. Problem-solving, planning, communication, budgeting, and figuring things out as you go along.
Make your own curriculum and use free online resources (or paid subscriptions). There are enough tutorials, keynotes from experts, classes, and reference materials on Youtube to learn nearly anything you want. Bonus — you get multiple points of views. You won’t walk away with a degree — but you’ll immediately see what interests you, what you don’t like, have access to endless teaching styles, control your own learning pace, and have an on/off 24/7 schedule from anywhere in the world.
Position yourself next to those you can learn from. Internship, apprenticeship, or low pay. Some companies may require school enrollment for an internship (?) — so find the ones that don’t. You’ll probably sync better with them anyway. Find the companies or people that care more about the person (you) VS the school (a brand) and go after it.
Move to a new city or country if you can afford it (or figure out a way to afford it). Then pay close attention. The value of learning how different people think, interact, and generally live day to day can be super effective when working with others. Learn to adapt if needed, communicate in different styles and paces, and hopefully find new things that interest you that can be applied to your life and career.
Learn things to help you understand people better. This probably helps best if you have a specific industry or topic to work from. Being more prolific in different points of view will help you translate and distill the info. Example — A room with a Marketer, Creative Director, and Client — One objective — three points of view — three ways to get there. If you can learn to listen to the underlying message, or better yet, learn to extract that out of people and boil it down — you’ll be more valuable to the outcome.
If you’re earning any money — save as much as possible. When you find an opportunity that you’ll benefit from and love, you can rely less on salary. In a lot of cases, you may be better off literally paying to work somewhere than missing the education, experience, and networking opportunities altogether.
Hire freelancers to create a personal brand package for you — write your resume, create a bio, take photos, design a website, refine your linked profile, etc. Hire a few and compare how each applied your direction. Barter services if you can’t afford to pay. This can help you learn to refine your ideas, find resources, research competition, develop clear messaging, edit, manage people and so on.
Create a fake resume. Fake isn’t the right term. Let’s say, non-traditional resume. You don’t need to be paid or be in school to do things. Give yourself the projects. You can develop marketing briefs, ad campaigns, stories, P&L’s, presentations, etc. Google helps here. Endless search and free word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation tools. Share it with your community for feedback. Then do it again until you can do whatever it is really fast. Speed matters. Make a portfolio of projects relative to the job you may want — then adapt it to a resume. Instead of companies, you have projects and a story that demonstrates a motivation and execution.
Try things and know that nothing has to be permanent. If you like what you try, great, maybe dig in deeper. If you don’t like it, move on and keep trying new things. It seems like a lot of the time people feel stuck once they’re in something — even if they’re not happy. Learn from what you didn’t like and apply that to the next go around. You spent 5 years in one direction — so what. You have a lifetime to go. This may lead you on a path of becoming a college professor, fashion designer, or fisherman. Those are extremes — but who knows. Whatever makes you happy as long as your doing (not waiting around).
Pay close attention to yourself. I think learning to know yourself and being optimistic are by far the most powerful tools when it comes to success in your career. Most of this list focuses on experiences. If you’re doing it — don’t be lazy. Pay attention to how you feel, what you’re good at, what you like, and what you’re not good at. Then use the info and your gut to move forward.
Learn what you’re not good at. If this list was in any particular order, this may have been first. This is a cousin to the above and may help save a lot of time, money, and frustration. You’ll learn through doing — and if you’re paying any attention at all, you might just realize you’re not good at what you like to do or what you think you should be doing. Maybe you find a way around it — or maybe you dodge a bullet and find something that makes you happier.
Meet new people like you. One major advantage to attending a college is the network of people you may build and relationships that continue after graduation. But this can be done outside of school too. Look for groups online and offline. For every interest of industry there are groups of people gathering and exchanging information and ideas — building relationships. Personally, I’m horrible at networking — and know I should do better. I live in New York, a city filled with business and creative. In the past year I’ve only met a handful of industry people, one neighbor couple, and two bar tenders. Missed opportunity. Don’t do this. Instead, look for small speaking engagements, industry meet-ups, and places online to engage with likeminded people — then build. Everyone is there (mostly) for the same reason. No experience required.
