College/University Degrees vs. Technical College/Trade Certificates and Military


SIR_GRAM

SIR_GRAM

Legend
With the way things have been going for the past 10 years, and where they are drastically heading now. In my opinion degrees are a waste of money and time now days. Worthless. Anyone that's 35 Yrs and younger who graduated from college in my opinion should have, or feel the same way I do as far as being successful and getting as one would say the bang for your buck. I have been out of college for almost 6 years and honestly I have been unstable in my career, I majored in business. All of the positions Ive hade since 2008 have been in entry level business sales related. But when I look around at my friends and people I know who haven't even stepped foot on a college campus, they are doing 10 times better than I am. No debt, no student loan debt, stable career, and there continually rising. These people are Welders, Hair dressers, Off shore workers, National guard, Army, Marines. And it angers me. Because a college degree hasn't brought me anything but debt, being over qualified, intimidating, and a waste of time I feel in some cases. It angers me with how all growing up my family and teachers always drilled in my head, "go to college, get a degree, you wont be anything without a degree".. then when I get there im worst off then ever. And all I keep thinking about is I should have went to the Military instead of college, or I should have did what others have done like going to school for 2 years, drop out and go get a trade and come out making $25hr. I got 2 college degrees and hadn't made $25 a hour.


What is your take?
 
I can tell you from research that those people going to get cosmetology certificates for the most part are wasting their time. College is still the best investment but it requires market research. You have to specialize in something...If I could have redone undergrad, I would have majored in Economics, minored in a second language, did a study abroad and looked for jobs overseas right out of college.

The military option works when you have a plan in life. The people I see flourishing with the military are the people who go in with a plan and make it work. Cats I see go in with no plan and just bounce from deployment to based to base with no promotion come out just as bad.

Also, mobility is key early in your career these days. After college, I moved to New Orleans to work at a radio station and on a campaign then up and moved to DC to find stable employment and go to grad school. After I leave here, it will probably be in Europe or Asia for a few years before coming back to the American South. My wife and I both racked up sizable debts in grad school (she went to Howard for Atmospheric Science) but I have a plan to pay them off.

Another thing is that entire concept of having kids in your 20's is kind of 20th century to me. I see what happened to my friends who had kids in college or right after and for many of them, it stifled their career some.
 



SIR_GRAM said:
With the way things have been going for the past 10 years, and where they are drastically heading now. In my opinion degrees are a waste of money and time now days. Worthless. Anyone that's 35 Yrs and younger who graduated from college in my opinion should have, or feel the same way I do as far as being successful and getting as one would say the bang for your buck. I have been out of college for almost 6 years and honestly I have been unstable in my career, I majored in business. All of the positions Ive hade since 2008 have been in entry level business sales related. But when I look around at my friends and people I know who haven't even stepped foot on a college campus, they are doing 10 times better than I am. No debt, no student loan debt, stable career, and there continually rising. These people are Welders, Hair dressers, Off shore workers, National guard, Army, Marines. And it angers me. Because a college degree hasn't brought me anything but debt, being over qualified, intimidating, and a waste of time I feel in some cases. It angers me with how all growing up my family and teachers always drilled in my head, "go to college, get a degree, you wont be anything without a degree".. then when I get there im worst off then ever. And all I keep thinking about is I should have went to the Military instead of college, or I should have did what others have done like going to school for 2 years, drop out and go get a trade and come out making $25hr. I got 2 college degrees and hadn't made $25 a hour.

What is your take?
Click to expand...

you are correct I know Xray tech, respiratory therapists, LPN etc etc all making 25+ an hour with a 2year education.

SO what you do now is go get one of those 2 year educations in something you may like and upon graduation
your degrees + certifications will qualify you to make 30 or 40+ and hour and you'll be the supervisor of those in the field
without the degree
 
X-ray tech's won't be around much longer. I would go with the Respiratory Therapist route. Why not just go to med school though and make over $300k a year.
 
jsupop33 said:
X-ray tech's won't be around much longer. I would go with the Respiratory Therapist route. Why not just go to med school though and make over $300k a year.
Click to expand...

why wont xray tech be around much longer?

as far as med school, take it from me, it can be hard being a poor student for and additional 4 years,
then logging long hours as a resident for another 3-4 years making somewhere around 30k, then doing a year or 2
of fellowship for around 50k. Now you're ready to make "big" money. but I don't know where you're getting that 300K figure from
unless you're talking private practice, and that takes time to build your referral source


When you see others go from highschool, to 2 years in JUCO to the hospital starting around 35K @ 20
then with rasies, and additional certifications that can become 70k in less than 5 years
you got your nice house, nice car, and no med school debt and you're only 25 years old.

Oh and then like alot of people I know turn around and teach @ the JUCO for 70k+ off in the summer,
holidays etc etc and no longer see patients.
 
Last edited:
Tony said:
why wont xray tech be around much longer?

as far as med school, take it from me, it can be hard being a poor student for and additional 4 years,
then logging long hours as a resident for another 3-4 years making somewhere around 30k, then doing a year or 2
of fellowship for around 50k. Now you're ready to make "big" money. but I don't know where you're getting that 300K figure from
unless you're talking private practice, and that takes time to build your referral source


When you see others go from highschool, to 2 years in JUCO to the hospital starting around 35K @ 20
then with rasies, and additional certifications that can become 70k in less than 5 years
you got your nice house, nice car, and no med school debt and you're only 25 years old.

Oh and then like alot of people I know turn around and teach @ the JUCO for 70k+ off in the summer,
holidays etc etc and no longer see patients.
Click to expand...

Actually, I was thinking of radiologists. Those jobs are being outsourced.
 
SIR_GRAM said:
Its messed up. I feel Hoodwinked, Bamboozeled, Run A Mucked.... Why did I go to college?
Click to expand...

Where have you looked at for jobs? Did you go to grad school? Specialize in any field. A business degree to me automatically comes with an assumption of going to grad.

Have you considered going back and get a certificate in a tech field and combining the two skillsets to start or manage a tech business.
 
Ive looked for jobs with the government and state level. Ive looked in the Gas, oil, natural gas fields. Ive looked in the Energy fields. All I have got the opportunity to do is sales.
 
And people suggesting me to start my own business.. with atleast $30,000 Student loan debt.
How?
With what money?
From where?
With whom?

The minimum start up costs for most business or franchises are $150,000 to $200,000
 
I should just go be a welder and come out making $30 a hr? I couldn't get that coming out with my Bachelor's degree.
 
SIR_GRAM said:
And people suggesting me to start my own business.. with atleast $30,000 Student loan debt.
How?
With what money?
From where?
With whom?

The minimum start up costs for most business or franchises are $150,000 to $200,000
Click to expand...


Depends on the type of business that you want to start... I am about to start a business for less than $1000. I made I have to spend an additional $1000 on software but hopefully not.
 
Just at the end of the day I just feel regret for going to college because it hasn't really done anything for me like it has done for my parents and before them. It has just caused debt, confusion, and exile. If your not going for Education, or Nursing, or Law or anything that is like a specification or public servant type deal, to me you really don't need it. Im not trying to be a advocate for not going to college anymore, but now days if it is so easy for someone with a high school diploma or even a GED to go to trade school, get a certificate and make $25 a hour, with no loans, or go off to the military and make the same equivalent salary with the best benefits in the world, and if you decide to go have college paid for with no loans. Like man, that is a lot to wake up to and realize. I kick myself everyday for not going to the military, or doing ROTC to a Commissioned officer in college.
 
Last edited:
Like I know and heard of so many people who went to the military and did those quick 20 to 25 years, come out like 45 to 50 years old retirement with 1 check, Young and still moving. Then go back to work and making another like 2,000 income per month plus what they got with there retirement. Its like man... What did I do wrong?
 



Sir gram, I feel your pain bruh. I really do. After I graduated college in 2007, I could only find a job at a car dealership and I sucked at it. I went to a radio station and ended up getting fired basically because I sucked at sales back then.

Between July 2008 and December 2009, I applied to over 500 jobs (easily). I saved 450 rejection emails in my gmail account as motivation. It was soul-draining. About two years ago, I watched this speech by Eric Thomas on youtube titled, “The Secret to Success”. It literally changed my life. It is just now that I really understand what he means when says you have to want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe.
 
As ignorant as it may sound man, and im truly not trying to be that way, but with looking at the economy, the way the world is now, and the way things are overall, I have a bachelor in Business and MBA. I just want to be successful, Im not trying to make 100,000 a year or above, im not trying to rich, but just stable and comfortable. With a possible median to below average wage I make a month. With student loans, and the way that things cost now days involving necessities, energy, and living costs. This is not the life I worked , thought I was preparing for, and thought I would be living at 27 years old. When I know others around me, same age as I am or age group, who are better off with less credentials.
 
Last edited:
jsupop33 said:
Actually, I was thinking of radiologists. Those jobs are being outsourced.
Click to expand...


just think radiology used to be one of the hardest residency to get, because lots of people dreamed
of interpreting film from home in pajamas or from an island. So you're saying now people in other countries
are doing it?
 
SIR_GRAM said:
Its messed up. I feel Hoodwinked, Bamboozeled, Run A Mucked.... Why did I go to college?
Click to expand...


nothing wrong with getting a degree BUT when I lecture to college kids I tell them
do not over look what's offered @ the community college, because until the career you desire pops off
you still can make a living wage, instead of slaving, and killing ya spirit @ some dead end job
 
SIR_GRAM said:
I should just go be a welder and come out making $30 a hr? I couldn't get that coming out with my Bachelor's degree.
Click to expand...


go be a welder, but still look for something in the field you enjoy, and when you find it go do it, and weld on the side.
either way the "good" life is yours to have
 
SIR_GRAM said:
Just at the end of the day I just feel regret for going to college because it hasn't really done anything for me like it has done for my parents and before them. It has just caused debt, confusion, and exile. If your not going for Education, or Nursing, or Law or anything that is like a specification or public servant type deal, to me you really don't need it. Im not trying to be a advocate for not going to college anymore, but now days if it is so easy for someone with a high school diploma or even a GED to go to trade school, get a certificate and make $25 a hour, with no loans, or go off to the military and make the same equivalent salary with the best benefits in the world, and if you decide to go have college paid for with no loans. Like man, that is a lot to wake up to and realize. I kick myself everyday for not going to the military, or doing ROTC to a Commissioned officer in college.
Click to expand...

we have to live in the world we have today, and our world changes everyday.
the military has always been there, BUT all these certifications popping up
wasn't around back then.

None of my IT guys have a college degree but they all have tons of crazy computer certifications
some ,I have never heard of.
 
Tony said:
nothing wrong with getting a degree BUT when I lecture to college kids I tell them
do not over look what's offered @ the community college, because until the career you desire pops off
you still can make a living wage, instead of slaving, and killing ya spirit @ some dead end job
Click to expand...

Yeah, doctors in India are studying your x-rays over night and sending diagnosis back to the doctor by the time he walks into the building the next morning. They can pay a fee for a firm oversees to perform the task and not worry about sick days and insurance.
 
SIR_GRAM said:
As ignorant as it may sound man, and im truly not trying to be that way, but with looking at the economy, the way the world is now, and the way things are overall, I have a bachelor in Business and MBA. I just want to be successful, Im not trying to make 100,000 a year or above, im not trying to rich, but just stable and comfortable. With a possible median to below average wage I make a month. With student loans, and the way that things cost now days involving necessities, energy, and living costs. This is not the life I worked , thought I was preparing for, and thought I would be living at 27 years old. When I know others around me, same age as I am or age group, who are better off with less credentials.
Click to expand...

ok look @ those you consider successful, you can either do what they did or
seach long and hard for what's out there different rules apply in different locations

you don't even know all the jobs that are out here find some time to follow the morning rush, and
see where they are going to work I guarantee it'll be an eye opener
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top