The American "Guy"

[Hallen]

The funny thing is, there is nothing really different there than it was 20 years ago. Same old stuff. I just scanned most of it because it is mostly drivel, but I got the idea. There has to be something wrong if these young men are not driving forward with real lives and are still just perpetuating their college fun times with no real goal in life. Well, ya, duh.
All young men come to grips with adult life at different rates and different stages in their lives. For some, like me, it takes a major event for you to get with it. For others, like some of my buddies, they had plans and goals from the start and they were half way down the track before I even started thinking about it. For others, it takes a good woman to get them thinking about something deeper than where their next beer is coming from.

So, there is nothing different or unusual in what those guys are doing.

A degree is your stepping stone to better jobs and better pay. Once you get that first good job, you can go ahead and throw that degree away. It really doesn't matter much anymore. If you went to a top college somewhere, it might get some play, but only because of name recognition. Employers are looking for a wide variety of different things, but they are mostly looking for somebody with intelligence, competency, drive, and the ability to fit in well with their team and work environment. You can't find much of that stuff on a degree or a resume'. Those things just get you in the door for the interview. The rest is all up to you.

[shiftbmw]

EDIT: Also, are you aware of how much cheating goes in in academia? That doesn't make it right... but you can't think the system if pure. And I don't mean just cheating on tests... I mean parents getting kids on sports teams, into different schools, passing grades on a paper, etc. It doesn't make it OK I guess, but regardless it's the way shit works.

This man speaks the truth. It's staggering...but in the end they only cheat themselves.

[Scotaku]

Very well said, Hallen. I agree 100%.

[SpecM]

Consider:

-I have an 2 yr B/S degree in Automotive Service, no I am no genius (i'm only 21), and work at Advance Auto Parts.

-My neighber is 28, has a masters in some liberal arts crap, and works at the grociery store across from where I work.

Advance Auto is not a glamorous career, but I make $1.50/hr more than he does, and my wife's way hotter. It's about what you know, and are willing to learn, not what some stupid paper says. (Total IMO, btw)

[Rigmaster]

You think this doesn't happen? You think I'm bragging about it? I'm trying to make a point. Good luck proving academic dishonesty BTW.

I'm proving the point that the "infallibility" of higher education isn't so infallible.

Oh, and yes it's OK. I didn't have someone write the paper for me, so my conscious is clear. I wouldn't have someone do MY work for me, but if he wants to buy me 80 bucks worth of fine alcohol for an hours worth of my time on a topic that I enjoy - sounds fine to me. He's only cheating himself.

EDIT: Also, are you aware of how much cheating goes in in academia? That doesn't make it right... but you can't think the system if pure. And I don't mean just cheating on tests... I mean parents getting kids on sports teams, into different schools, passing grades on a paper, etc. It doesn't make it OK I guess, but regardless it's the way shit works.

Wow, just wow.

[Dave]

Damn, Ted. I am with Bret on this one.

I guess it is a generational thing. But I like to think that integrity still means something.

[Jand3rson]

I seriously think you should consider finishing out at night or online if possible. You can put your current work experience together with CIT or CIS education and get into a more stable job with better benefits. This ought to be important to a family man, especially with your shaky weeks working for a contractor and all with demand or finishing early.

You also have a couple local and close on the board mentors to reach out to for advice and networking. (Kruzen, James, etc.) They can give you direction and an "in" that could give you a better foundation of a career instead of a job.

I know, I really need to get on top of getting that finished up, it would be so much more beneficial to me in the short and long run. Especially considering that there are rumours starting to fly around my company about the owner possibly being broke, and possibly selling our citie's branch, and keeping only the Portland office. It's shaky, that's for sure.

There are majors out there that prepare you for a career, not a dead-end job. If you aren't going for one of those, not much sense wasting 4-5 years and $$$$$ when you would be better off training for a trade, etc.

I think that was a big part of the reason I at least switched from a sociology major. I kind of just woke up one day and thought to myself, "ok, when I get this degree, what am I going to do? I could be a social worker, and sit around at a desk all day. No thanks." I realized I was just wasting money on something I wasn't that interested in, so I switched immediatley.

[Dave]

So Josh, you are 4 classes away from a Bachelors degree? What the hell are you waiting for? You can do that with night and weekend classes easy! Even with a kid.

[rwh11385]

I know, I really need to get on top of getting that finished up, it would be so much more beneficial to me in the short and long run. Especially considering that there are rumours starting to fly around my company about the owner possibly being broke, and possibly selling our citie's branch, and keeping only the Portland office. It's shaky, that's for sure.


I think that was a big part of the reason I at least switched from a sociology major. I kind of just woke up one day and thought to myself, "ok, when I get this degree, what am I going to do? I could be a social worker, and sit around at a desk all day. No thanks." I realized I was just wasting money on something I wasn't that interested in, so I switched immediatley.

Uh, yes, you do.

One of the girls I partied with was in social services major. Which would be good if that's what she wanted to do and help people.

But then she was blacked out on the phone with her mom in my room saying "I just want Brett to get me pregnant so I don't have to worry about a job". Damn M.R.S. degrees.

[Dave]

Sociology major is not the same as a Social Work Major, FWIW.

[Jand3rson]

So Josh, you are 4 classes away from a Bachelors degree? What the hell are you waiting for? You can do that with night and weekend classes easy! Even with a kid.

It's not a bachelor's, it's an AA, but it's better than nothing. I could easily ramp it up to a bachelor's, though. Community college FTW.

But the awesome thing is at the CC here, you can attend OSU though them, and earn a BA by attending classes locally.

[Dave]

Well, its a start. Get that and get yourself into a job that will pay for (at least some) of your tuition to get the bachelors.

[Jand3rson]

Well, its a start. Get that and get yourself into a job that will pay for (at least some) of your tuition to get the bachelors.

My job right now is paying very well, and it will get better soon, I'm coming up for another rerate soon (wage increases mandatory through the apprenticeship program). It's also recently been made available to us the program that the classes we're taking online for our license will soon become credit classes, and we can apply them toward a degree program in information systems and networking. And the badass thing about that, is I can transfer almost all of my credits from my unfinished CIS degree here to their degree program. I can also take Cisco classes through my employer, and as long as I pass them, he foots the bill.

[rwh11385]

Sociology major is not the same as a Social Work Major, FWIW.

Josh mentioned social worker and my friend is in child and family services "school" (?) of the university.

[nando]

I went to college until I got to the point that I didn't feel like they had anything more to offer me - I really felt like i was being treated like a child, nobody in classes took it seriously, the homework was terribly uninteresting or irrelevant. I mean, it got a little harder - but when 2/3rds of your classmates fail every test, it's easy to get an A in a class I should have gotten a C or B for. I felt more like I was in a high school than a university.

Basically, it was a waste of my time to continue. So I got a job, a really good job, with a huge future and tons of opportunities to move up from "grunt" work. But I had a lot of experience built up from things other than school - so not everyone would be able to get an "in" without a full degree. I do get that question too "what's your degree in?". it's a little hard to explain, especially to co-workers who may have spent 5-6 years and tens of thousands on their degrees to make the same amount of money as me.

I can always go back and finish, it just wasn't working for me anymore. I definitely got something out of what I experienced up until the point I left, though.