Am I wasting my degree?

If you’re like me, you’ve spent many sleepless nights asking yourself that question.

I had always envisioned myself as an architect. I loved design, craftsmanship and the satisfaction of building something. But by the time I was choosing where to go to school, none of the places I liked had an architecture program. So I chose the closest thing — Civil Engineering, at the University of California, Davis.

Just like that, I committed to a major that I thought was “good enough”. It got me through all of the:

“Have you declared something yet?”’s

“What do you want to do when you get out of college?”s

“Will you graduate on time?”s

And don’t get me wrong — college was great. Designing bridges and intersections isn’t the farthest thing from designing buildings. (And I definitely did my fair share of partying.) But I also hustled my ass off — and graduated the 5 year Civil Engineering program in 4 years flat.

So I went to work, first in construction as a project manager — operating equipment, supervising subcontractors, mediating change orders — then on to civil design as an engineer — designing commercial real estate, inspecting construction sites, negotiating with public agencies and managing a team of designers. I paid off my student loans, became debt free and earned my Civil Engineering license.

But something felt off…

I was good at what I did, but I started to lose drive and passion. I dreaded going into work. I was stuck at a job I was not interested in, doing something I didn’t love, all because I was following the prescribed path of a major I chose when still going through puberty.

I explained my situation to my close friend Chris one day. His reply was quick:

“Why don’t you do something else?”

I stopped and thought over the question. Why didn’t I do something else? What was stopping me? I answered him honestly, the only thing that came to mind:

“Well…that’s what my degree is in…and it’s the only thing I’ve ever done.”

Again, he shot back:

“If you’re not happy, then do something else. You can always go back.”

Simple advice — obvious even — but I hadn’t ever really thought of it that way. I took months mulling it over, and finally came to a realization:

Your college degree and work experience shouldn’t box you in. Your skills and experience come from everything you do, not just the top lines on your resume.

I didn’t have to be an engineer, if I didn’t want to. I started to rethink my job experience, seeing the skills that I had developed for what they were:

• Negotiating, from dealing with public entities
• People management, from supervising subcontractors
• Project management, from managing multi-million dollar developments
• Critical problem solving, from designing utility systems

I felt differently about my work than other engineers, but it turns out that was a good thing. Employers don’t just care about being a 1:1 match with your position — they want a willingness to hustle, to think outside the box and continue to learn.

In a Medium post, Peter Schroeder 🚀 states a favorite quote of mine:

“The possibilities are endless, as long as you prove you are willing to be a continuing learner.”

So be the jack-of-all-trades; learn; bring in ideas from your experiences and apply them to what you want to do.

In Originals — Adam Grant goes into great detail about the individuals who have the most original ideas having a large breadth of experience; those who can derive parallels between various fields of study.

You are different, so standout. Showcase how tending to difficult client needs as a SaaS account manager makes you the perfect executive assistant; or how handling sensitive information as a corporate controller makes you perfect for a trademark investigations manager (both real world examples).

So to those of you who are out there wondering if your degree or experience was all for naught — it’s not about where you start, but where you finish. Your skills and knowledge are more applicable than you realize.

We’re just getting out blogs up and running. For more career advice you can follow us here on Medium or visit us at www.jobbindr.com. More to come!