I started college at a young, and left at an age when most people are still taking their SAT’s. I thought about going back to finish, but between more immediate financial concerns, and the fact that even at 20, I felt too old to go back to school, I just never got around to finishing.
In my position I work with some of the biggest companies in the world, and their employees are almost without exception college degreed professional. I would say over 50% have a graduate degree (usually MBA).
Not having a degree never really slowed me down in my profession. In my early 20’s most of my jobs didn’t require one. And when I started going for jobs that did, it was during the initial dot com boom, so I just lied about having one, knowing that these companies had no time to double check the history of a much needed workforce. And not to brag, but I rarely had anyone question me once I had a face-to-face interview.
To be honest, my work experience has made me for the most part think less of college degrees. I get exposed to people who are fresh out of business programs from some of the top schools in the country, and I am amazed at how little they know. And 4 of the dot com’s I worked in during my early interactive days were run by Harvard MBA’s. Let’s just say that I was far from impressed. I figured out later that it wasn’t that these people were stupid; they just were more trained on how to run a big business, not a start-up.
But†¦there are times when I see gaps in my education. Keep in mind that I did spend 2 years in college. I took business and accounting classes, and I took some law classes. I even knocked out some of my general ed. stuff like English and Math. I even took aerobic dance (the class was filled with really hot women). But I see things that I have missed, like certain principals in accounting, or developing better writing skills.
I have taken measures to fill in these gaps. I read a lot of business books, and I devour magazines, which I believe is a much-missed aspect of business schools. But I still feel like maybe I should have that degree.
I also have to admit to having some interest in possibly teaching at the college level sometime. One of the things I really enjoy about consulting is educating our clients. There is something very fulfilling about passing on knowledge. Maybe it just lends itself to my annoying know-it-all attitude. And I really think that I could provide some valuable information to business students about Internet marketing. But of course in order to teach at a college, you my first have graduated from a college. This is not something I think should necessarily be the case.
The fact is though; I’m way to busy for a college program. There is a University here in town, but my travel and work schedule make it difficult for me to commit to class times. I guess this is the point to getting an online degree from a place like Capella University. But even that has a level of time that needs to be committed to it.
I guess for the time being, I’ll just stick to my books and magazines. But maybe in a year or so I’ll try to pick up a class or two in the evenings.
