Does anyone regret going to college?

[iwishiknew]

Sometimes I regret going to college because so far it has not done me any good in life except for making me poor. I have 2 bachelors and I still can't find a job and make a living. In college I should of gotten a better advance technical degree, so I will be in high demand. Right now I feel like my college degrees are not in high demand. I have over $40,000 in school loans, plus credit cards bills & medical bills and I can't find a living wage job to pay it off. I graduated with my first bachelor in 2002 from Ferris State in Automotive Technology. Since graduation I could not find a job in the automotive field. I have always wanted to work for Bosch, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota or any car maker. I have been applying since after graduation and 10 yrs later nothing. A few years later in 2005, I was still not working in the automotive field for a car maker. I was working retail for Autozone, and the pay was low and not enough to live off of. One weekend, I was looking in the local paper and I found a job ad for a part-time HR Coordinator position for a small company. I applied and I got the job, I was really excitied and I enjoyed working HR. So, I decided to quit Autozone and go to school part-time to get my HR degree at ISU. I was thinking this would be a real good move for me to do. I also minored in marketing, and I graduated in 2008. A week later the company I was working for was going to close in a month. I was not down a lot because I just graduated with my HR degree and I felt good that I would be able to get a job in HR. But I was wrong! 4 years later, still nothing at all!! My second second degree seems like it is going to be a repeat from my first degree. Since I lost my HR job in 2008, I have not found any job in the HR field. I have applied to hundreds and hundreds of companies and I have had a lot of phone interviews & face to face and nothing. I'm really frustrated and disappointed with the outcome of going to college. I can't believe it is so difficult finding a job with a college degree. Now I'm stuck with this big school loan wondering how will I ever pay this off? I want to make a living so I can live a nice life but for me going to college has prevented me from doing that.

[Generation]

My answer would be no simply because I met some great people who I've networked with and will take me far in life. I should also mention that the people I networked with and I have nothing in common when it comes to academics, school and education. It was just with me being at the right place at the right time, very lucky stuff. Just like with one person, I was going to school for an exam, ran into someone on the train on my way to school, and bam, got a job just like that, a job I can potentially make a 6 figure career out of if I'm GOOD. The other person, I networked from my first connection, and together we've got another 6 figure plan going for us (7 for him actually) if it works out. In either case, I'm much more stoked about my future and career options as a result, and having the know-how and resources to accomplish my goals.

 

But if it weren't for those moments and connecting with people, my answer is yes I regret going. Waste of time, money for nothing. Could have done something else. Whatever I learned, it turned out to be pretty useless.

 

Moral of the story: making connections will take you far.

[Furbys]

Im starting to because my degree seems useless. Any job related to it seems like you can enter without the degree so it makes what i have done completely pointless. Now i have a useless degree and no way of finding a decent career. If i look at other types of careers it looks like i have to go get another degree which im not going to do because it costs a stupid amount. Its a no win situation for me, im stuck at a dead end and i have no idea what to do.

[blueidealist24]

I know what you mean. I think it's just the economy. I have a bachelor's degree but it seems I'm only wanted for retail jobs, the same jobs I was doing as a student, since that's what I have experience in.

[OracleofDoom]

Well if you got an education along with your degree you should be able to make it work. All hail liberal arts!

[friendsoulmate]

I don't regret going to college, but if there are more college graduates as compared to the market demand for a major, then I do think college is being oversold for that particular major. There needs to be a demand for your education/skills/intern/work-study experience for where you live. Ideally, if you are able to get your beginning intern/volunteer/low-paid position in or near a major metropolitan area, and, in the meantime, if you could live with your parents, or live in some low-income housing, especially when you are young, then you will have a significant advantage--a winning edge, as compared to your competitors for the jobs you want, as you gain experience and pay raises. My first college degree I received wasn't very marketable for where I lived, and the jobs required more experience than what I had, and I wasn't successful getting a job in my first chosen field. I did not live in a major metropolitan area. I was desperate for a job, so I decided to become an auto detailer, until I figured-out what I was going to do with my life. I felt let down, disappointed and depressed, for about seven years, until I decided to return to school for an office certificate, and then my skills were very common and marketable for where I lived, but I had to be a volunteer intern for a couple of years, until I was interviewed and awarded a permanent paid position. This is why the good life for me has been so slow at developing, and I have been sometimes sad and disappointed about my location, my choices, and my circumstances.

[Lonewing]

College has been by far oversold.

 

If you weren't the guy making As in college and getting a good advisee position, you will graduate and then go to work for the guys who were making Cs in High School. Suck it up and get in line; thought you could outsmart the social network??! HA!! You have no experience, no skills, and no connections to anyone except people like you. You have a piece of paper that is supposed to mean you know everything about everything, and yet you don't even know how to mop a floor right!! And now you want to walk RIGHT IN THE DOOR to these places where people have been working ten, twenty, Thirty years and expect to automatically go to the head of the line??? Because that's what the salary is that you're asking for!

 

Get comfortable with $10-$15 an hour, because that's what is available. You're supposed to be smart enough with that degree to simply whip up a great job out of thin air - don't ask how to do it, you're just supposed to know how to do it! If you're not going to make that job for yourself, you're stuck in the same position all those people who couldn't go to college got stuck in before they all sucked it up and went to work. And now, since they have five, ten, fifteen years of real world work experience in that retail job, they've been promoted to store manager, district manager, REGIONAL manager...did they get their degree in business? YES! But only after they worked ten years and earned the promotion that said "hey, YOU should get a business degree!" The paper is just a reflection of what that person knew before they ever even went to college in the first place!

 

If you do a study and see that sunburns increase the same time ice cream cone sales increase, you may be tempted to suggest that avoiding ice cream cones will prevent sunburns. This is EXACLTY what I think happened in the College degree Gambit! A couple honest researchers discovered that those people with college degrees make XX% more money in a lifetime than those without degrees, so they concluded that a College Degree is the ticket to making more money in a lifetime. This is about as silly as looking at an effective military unit all wearing berets and then jumping to the conclusion that it is a beret that makes an effective military, or looking at a crime statistics that shows that people with badges make more successful arrests - well DUH!!! - and then jumping to the conclusion that one needs a badge in order to make an arrest.

 

The reality is, as people are successful and earn a lot of money, they afford themselves the opportunity to get their degrees. Or their companies pay for them to get their degrees, or the university gives out an honorary degree to bring themselves and that person prestige and recognition. They did not earn their higher income because they had a degree, they got their degree for the same reason they got their income: they are good at something, capitalized on it, and earned it!

 

The degree only shows that you spent 120 hours in a classroom learning. While you were in learning, you were supposed to be building your empire form within, your business strategy, your great idea to make a living. If you were in the sciences, this would have meant that your freshman year, you were visiting all of your important professors at least once a week, you did the honors work, and your grades were impeccable. Your sophomore year, your time was spent researching what you are personally interested in researching and putting down a foundation to develop yourself in that field - aka, more of what you did the year prior with an emphasis on conferences, talks, presentations and current research to show your advisor or your professors how serious you are about the field. Your junior year, you were doing research with the professor; your senior year, you published your work that you did with your professor and used that publication to shop for a graduate research advisor to adopt you as his pupil - OR you took that research paper and shopped for an internship with a end connection being a graduate research advisor, an industry mentor, or a real world job application that would lead to a paid Master's/PhD program of study, and thus that is how you are successful in the sciences!!

 

If the class can be passed with an A with an hour of work a week, chances are, you will not ever make much money working in that field. If you can pass the test by cramming the night before and not attending a single lecture, chances are, your degree will not be worth much. If your idea of going to college is completing credits, chances are, your degree at the end won't be all that important - it'll be wall paper, which is a nice self-pat on the back, but otherwise, in the real world it's barely even worth the paper it's printed on.

 

I wasted a lot of time with college, but I had a lot of fun. It came with a price - oh well. Now I'm doing what I started 4 years too late, but at least I have a job...

[Mercurial Girl]

Yes. I make more now at a job I love, unskilled labour, than I would have made if I went into the field I studied. Maybe I will use it in the future when my body is too old for the work I do, and thankfully I didn't study a field where continuous education is required to keep up as much as other fields, but probably not as I'm looking to get into a skilled trade instead. But it is a long life ahead of me so who knows. Sometimes I wish I had just found this job sooner and just worked and saved than spend so much and take out so many loans to go to school on top of not earning full time wages.

[iwishiknew]

Im starting to because my degree seems useless. Any job related to it seems like you can enter without the degree so it makes what i have done completely pointless. Now i have a useless degree and no way of finding a decent career. If i look at other types of careers it looks like i have to go get another degree which im not going to do because it costs a stupid amount. Its a no win situation for me, im stuck at a dead end and i have no idea what to do.

 

What degree do you have? If I can do it over again, I would get a degree in science/health field. That is where all the jobs are at and I would be in high demand.

 

College has been by far oversold.

 

If you weren't the guy making As in college and getting a good advisee position, you will graduate and then go to work for the guys who were making Cs in High School. Suck it up and get in line; thought you could outsmart the social network??! HA!! You have no experience, no skills, and no connections to anyone except people like you. You have a piece of paper that is supposed to mean you know everything about everything, and yet you don't even know how to mop a floor right!! And now you want to walk RIGHT IN THE DOOR to these places where people have been working ten, twenty, Thirty years and expect to automatically go to the head of the line??? Because that's what the salary is that you're asking for!

 

Get comfortable with $10-$15 an hour, because that's what is available. You're supposed to be smart enough with that degree to simply whip up a great job out of thin air - don't ask how to do it, you're just supposed to know how to do it! If you're not going to make that job for yourself, you're stuck in the same position all those people who couldn't go to college got stuck in before they all sucked it up and went to work. And now, since they have five, ten, fifteen years of real world work experience in that retail job, they've been promoted to store manager, district manager, REGIONAL manager...did they get their degree in business? YES! But only after they worked ten years and earned the promotion that said "hey, YOU should get a business degree!" The paper is just a reflection of what that person knew before they ever even went to college in the first place!

 

If you do a study and see that sunburns increase the same time ice cream cone sales increase, you may be tempted to suggest that avoiding ice cream cones will prevent sunburns. This is EXACLTY what I think happened in the College degree Gambit! A couple honest researchers discovered that those people with college degrees make XX% more money in a lifetime than those without degrees, so they concluded that a College Degree is the ticket to making more money in a lifetime. This is about as silly as looking at an effective military unit all wearing berets and then jumping to the conclusion that it is a beret that makes an effective military, or looking at a crime statistics that shows that people with badges make more successful arrests - well DUH!!! - and then jumping to the conclusion that one needs a badge in order to make an arrest.

 

The reality is, as people are successful and earn a lot of money, they afford themselves the opportunity to get their degrees. Or their companies pay for them to get their degrees, or the university gives out an honorary degree to bring themselves and that person prestige and recognition. They did not earn their higher income because they had a degree, they got their degree for the same reason they got their income: they are good at something, capitalized on it, and earned it!

 

The degree only shows that you spent 120 hours in a classroom learning. While you were in learning, you were supposed to be building your empire form within, your business strategy, your great idea to make a living. If you were in the sciences, this would have meant that your freshman year, you were visiting all of your important professors at least once a week, you did the honors work, and your grades were impeccable. Your sophomore year, your time was spent researching what you are personally interested in researching and putting down a foundation to develop yourself in that field - aka, more of what you did the year prior with an emphasis on conferences, talks, presentations and current research to show your advisor or your professors how serious you are about the field. Your junior year, you were doing research with the professor; your senior year, you published your work that you did with your professor and used that publication to shop for a graduate research advisor to adopt you as his pupil - OR you took that research paper and shopped for an internship with a end connection being a graduate research advisor, an industry mentor, or a real world job application that would lead to a paid Master's/PhD program of study, and thus that is how you are successful in the sciences!!

 

If the class can be passed with an A with an hour of work a week, chances are, you will not ever make much money working in that field. If you can pass the test by cramming the night before and not attending a single lecture, chances are, your degree will not be worth much. If your idea of going to college is completing credits, chances are, your degree at the end won't be all that important - it'll be wall paper, which is a nice self-pat on the back, but otherwise, in the real world it's barely even worth the paper it's printed on.

 

I wasted a lot of time with college, but I had a lot of fun. It came with a price - oh well. Now I'm doing what I started 4 years too late, but at least I have a job...

 

I agree what you wrote

[SarahRose]

What is Automotive technology? Is that being a mechanic?

 

If you are getting interviews, then your resume is working. Did you write it yourself or have a resume writer do it?

 

If you are getting interviews, but not offers then your interview skills need to be improved. Enrol in an interviewing workshop and toastmasters to skill up in those areas.

 

Apply for other office jobs besides HR. Sometimes you just have to get in the door before you can move to a specific role.

 

Have you enrolled with temp agencies?

[Batya33]

I had much better luck in the job market with a grad degree and not just a college degree although I was never unemployed. Going to college and grad school were great experiences. I had no college loans because I chose a very inexpensive college. In between college and grad school I was able to save up half of the grad school tuition and paid off the loans within 3 years after grad school. I met my future husband in my first job after grad school and because of the career I was able to have I was able to save enough before I had a child to be able to be home full time with my child in the event my husband needed a "second income". Total win win.

 

Have you thought about furthering your education in some way -any courses you could take that would make you more marketable?

[Alpine]

When I first completed my degree, I did in immediacy regret going to university. Why? Because I had no job, no savings, and a huge university debt. All of my friends who DIDN'T go to uni were debt-free, had jobs, and had a fair amount of savings because they had been working full-time while I had been a poor uni student! However, in the long-run, I do not regret going to university - in fact, I am so glad that I did. Because things are very different now. It has been almost 3 years since I completed my second degree. I have paid off all of my debt, have a great job with a good income, and am starting to build up a nice little pocket of savings. All of my friends that didn't go to university are still in the same job with the same income - they are nowhere to move. Some have even lost their jobs and can't find new ones because they have no qualifications. Thinking long-term, I am really glad now that I have a degree under my belt.

[Thorshammer]

I have always been a "hands on" guy, so i took college and got my degree in HVAC, and i am still working on my Bachelors in facility management. I started my new job last week, i got in because i had an actual degree in the trade, i have met guys who didnt even graduate from high school, making 60-80gs a year, and they easily make 100-150k a year due to our unions generous over-time policies, for doing what i consider, "really easy work". All they did was learn from their uncles, or started as helpers with no knowledge (hooked up by friends no doubt). They are all younger than me.

 

So it does sting a bit for me. Plus, college didnt really prepare me for what i am doing as well as i thought it would.

[Stay_home]

It's all about who you know.

 

College is crooked. Think about it. The more students they sell a dream too, the more money that comes out of our pockets to pay the salaries of the professors and other faculty members. So students are needed in attendance to accomplish that. I know of a lot of people who went into college with high hopes of graduating and landing some high paying job because their degree says they "should." What a rude awakening that was. Because not only were they completely and utterly incorrect in their analysis, but now they've compiled a ton of debt (some $40K or 50K or more depending on the field) just to get an average office job and get thrown into the corner stapling papers or putting together file cabinets. And now that $40K or $50K college debt really starts to hurt. Because it's difficult to pay that off and it effects your credit. Plus, everybody has a bachelor's degree or a master's degree these days. So now, it's not so much about the degree, but about the real world working experiences, connections you have and how you write your resume.

[Batya33]

I know that my degrees and the people I met during college and grad school, the life/world experiences they gave me (especially during field and clinical work, during volunteer work related to may classes) were invaluable to me in my careers and in my life. It's sad to see the viewpoint that "college is crooked" -no one sold me a dream - or my parents for that matter who also graduated college. I graduated college over 20 years ago and I could still get in touch with professors and administrators there if I wanted to and they would be glad to hear from me and help me if they could -even though I stopped paying the inexpensive tuition many years ago. I do think there are crooked enterprises out there but I know that colleges and universities (other than the fake ones of course!) aren't part of that problem. They help prevent a lot of those problems, actually by educating people who won't be as vulnerable to scams.

[Mercurial Girl]

I have always been a "hands on" guy, so i took college and got my degree in HVAC, and i am still working on my Bachelors in facility management. I started my new job last week, i got in because i had an actual degree in the trade, i have met guys who didnt even graduate from high school, making 60-80gs a year, and they easily make 100-150k a year due to our unions generous over-time policies, for doing what i consider, "really easy work". All they did was learn from their uncles, or started as helpers with no knowledge (hooked up by friends no doubt). They are all younger than me.

 

So it does sting a bit for me. Plus, college didnt really prepare me for what i am doing as well as i thought it would.

 

If there is anything I would go back to school for at this point it would be for a skilled trade. Do you think you would take something else (electric maybe?) knowing what you do now? Or just skip it altogether and go straight into the workforce like your coworkers did?

[Generation]

My girlfriend asked me yesterday "what are your skills?" in relation to jobs, and I didn't know how to answer that. I don't have any. I'm smart, I'm organized, I'm a fast learner, I'm sometimes handy around the house, but in no way am I skilled. She can list all her skills. She has knowledge and knows dosages for many drugs as well as their interactions and how to give them, can stick various needles in various places of a body, can stitch up a wound, can read an x-ray, able to run lab tests, and much more. So I mean, I think it matters what you get your degree in as well.

 

I'm thinking of getting into a skilled trade. Just not sure what, and how. I would like to avoid any further learning in a classroom and pay a tuition, and be more hands on.

[SarahRose]

My girlfriend asked me yesterday "what are your skills?" in relation to jobs, and I didn't know how to answer that. I don't have any. I'm smart, I'm organized, I'm a fast learner, I'm sometimes handy around the house, but in no way am I skilled. She can list all her skills. She has knowledge and knows dosages for many drugs as well as their interactions and how to give them, can stick various needles in various places of a body, can stitch up a wound, can read an x-ray, able to run lab tests, and much more. So I mean, I think it matters what you get your degree in as well.

 

I'm thinking of getting into a skilled trade. Just not sure what, and how. I would like to avoid any further learning in a classroom and pay a tuition, and be more hands on.

 

People tend to forget about the skilled trades as they aren't that glamorous.

 

Plumbing, electrician, heat and air, are good jobs.

 

I hear since manufacturing is making a comeback in the US they are desperate for machinists and tool and die makers.

[SarahRose]

I don't regret my education at all and I am always learning. Education is different now than it was 20-30 years ago.

 

I think it is much watered down curriculum and it is hard to find teachers who actually teach instead of putting up a power point slide show to read from or a workbook to work from.

 

I am taking a leadership course and the instructor is so slack. It is a terrible course. They put up a power point show or hand out a few sheets assignments and they sit down and read the newspaper the entire time.

[DogsAreLove]

I absolutely regret my degree, it's useless.

[Thorshammer]

If there is anything I would go back to school for at this point it would be for a skilled trade. Do you think you would take something else (electric maybe?) knowing what you do now? Or just skip it altogether and go straight into the workforce like your coworkers did?

 

I actually wanted to do electric first, but all i found was electrical engineering classes in all the colleges around me. I never understood how to get into the field, and i had no connections. But, HVAC is 90% electrical, except we only mess with the HVAC systems in buildings only, so that means we have to know how to operate them electrically, and learn the machines and systems (hence why they refer to us as mechanics). We have to pull apart machine parts, as well as rewire systems, splice them, etc.

 

Reason why now i wouldnt change trades is because electricans seem to do more work on construction sites. My company does service, maintenance, and installs (which are usually done on new floors going under construction). I see electricians always on the floor or on a ladder working non-stop. I see them placing wires on the ground, running them along, pulling and ripping floors, while we do a few connections, and sit for the rest of the day (even carpenters are running around). I can branch off to electrical because we have to learn that, since most problems are electrical, rarely mechanical. I can branch off to plumbing, because we use the same pipes on water systems. I can do sheet-metal work, since they install the ducts in the ceilings, and those ducts connect to hvac systems (we dont do them). I can do air balancing, which are the guys who check the ducts for proper air-flow, etc. I can be a project manager, since we learn other trades in hvac, but electricans dont learn hvac systems- so we can manage a project slightly better, as well as become a building engineer.

 

Only problem is, you might have to lift heavy equipment. Like heavy motors and compressors. Its not safe to lift these up and climb a ladder. Also, we have to enter through office ceilings (youd be suprised how its a whole new world up there), sometimes we literally have to go all the way up, balancing on the ladder, and vanishing inside into it, electricians have to do this too). Me and a coworker sat on a huge column 18 feet in the air talking while people under us were working in their offices. But I love driving around manhattan (times square, union square, central park) and doing service calls into offices (we eat their food and drink their coffee, and girls like us for some reason).

 

What i would have done different is i should have applied for an apprentice spot while i was certified (which came before my degree), then continued college for my degree. With my degree, i can work for a bigger company, or work as a manager or consultant (like work as the guy who buys the proper equipment and sets up a team to install it, i know how to calculate how many btus and how long the ducts should run, etc. you cant learn that on the job as a mechanic since thats not their job). I also know more than just a simple mechanic, i know auto-cad for building floorplans, how to project manage, etc. Though, i dont remember it all. But, it would have been hard, since the summer will have us really busy. I am told mechanics have no summer.

 

Only thing is that i had to learn all the above, and all the hands-on, which is what I am doing now, is buried under all that knowledge and mashed together.

 

I would try to see if you can get a helper spot first. Check to see what they want. You might be able to just go to school and get certified if thats all they ask for, and not even need a degree. Note, jobs that are trades-related, make money in the cities, not small towns. You wont make 50-80k in a small town.

 

People tend to forget about the skilled trades as they aren't that glamorous.

 

Plumbing, electrician, heat and air, are good jobs.

 

I hear since manufacturing is making a comeback in the US they are desperate for machinists and tool and die makers.

 

Yeah, i had an ex who i could read didnt approve of me getting my degree in hvac. She thought it was a poor-mans job. I showed her how much they made and she had no idea they made that much. Labor unions really worked the system, if i worked on good friday, i would have made triple pay, if i worked on weekends, same deal, if i did more than 8 hrs on one day, regardless if i worked 40hrs that week or not, is time and a half, and certain jobs are triple pay.

 

Despite that she still pushed me to be a cop.

 

When we enter buildings, they make us go through the back. And some office workers seem to scoff at us (the guys mostly, the girls like us), yet some of the mechanics i work with make the same amount of money as the vice presidents on these floors.

[Silverbirch]

I actually feel heartened to read other people are feeling a bit like me with regard to their degrees, especially today after the day I had. I got a lot of personal satisfaction from completing my degree, and I guess I did get some confidence. I do have regrets about the particular degree I did though. I'm glad I didn't let myself get talked into doing post-grad. I'm seeing other people who did it in my course, and it just looks like more debt. I've had quite a few times where I wish I had done a hairdressing course and then opened my own salon. People who know me say that I wouldn't be happy doing that, but I dunno.

 

What I am actually thinking though is that the workplace can be such a cut-throat world that people have to have a particular type of "smarts" to really get ahead - at least where I'm working at present. I'm not sure I have that type of "smarts" or even if I want to. Sorry if I'm sounding very negative here, but I've seen at least quite a few people who aren't THAT great at what they do, but they are good at promoting themselves and bluff their way through a lot, and sorry to say capable of some dirty play. There have also been other occasions when people got into management positions because not too many other people applied. I think a lot of it is not only who you know, but who you are mates with. Maybe I'll be less cynical tomorrow.

[Gracelove]

It's always a great idea to go to college. Degrees always come in handy. You have two bachelor's degrees and that's good. If you ever want to go to Graduate school they'll come in handy.

 

Maybe you just need someone to help you with your interview skills and resume.

[equinox]

I don't regret going to college in that I don't regret earning a degree but I strongly regret how I went about it. I walked into a handy job out of school that I eventually left to study music and eventually computer science. Had I kept my mouth shut and looked forwards with a clear head, I could have applied to study law through the company, on full wages with a nice job at the end. I was 18 at the time, how I wish I could go back and slap myself into seeing things straight.

 

As it happened, I went on to study computers. I got a job but I'm getting laid off soon due to, as my manager put it "technical incompetence". Thus, I am qualified in a field that I can't really work in.

[Lonewing]

It's always a great idea to go to college. Degrees always come in handy. You have two bachelor's degrees and that's good. If you ever want to go to Graduate school they'll come in handy.

 

Maybe you just need someone to help you with your interview skills and resume.

 

Hook line and sinker, you have swallowed the Bait of Ignorance...Seriously, How many degrees does it take for you to finally see through this???? And it's great because now with two undergraduates, a graduate degree looms ahead???? And then what, a job IN THE UNIVERSITY??????? It all seems a bit Self serving, doesn't it?

 

No.

 

Go back and read Thor's Post. This is one of the wisest posts you will see on this topic ANYWHERE. No matter what happens, People will always need water - either good clean coming in, or bad dirty being safely removed going out, people will always need electricity, and people will always need their cars repaired. When you have a job in needs that cannot be outsourced, you'll ALWAYS have an income.