How are you Monetizing using your Degree or Certificates

[Lindagerr]

I'm sorry I missed this the first time around. Interesting discussion. My degree was started this time 34 years after it was first started and 19 years after my last college course. I have attended many schools for short times but never gotten even half way to an AA. When I started at TESC I had ~30 CC credits and I just wanted to have a degree any degree. I wanted it for myself and I wanted so I didn't have to be embarrassed when someone asked where I went to school. I went for the Liberal Studies AA because I could get it done fast. Once I was close to the AA I knew I wanted to go further so I sent my oldest credits to TESC I had kept them out earlier because I thought they would be repeats and the grades were not good. Tesc took them and put them in other areas. so I now had a total of about 70 credits. I went for a BA in Natural Sciences/Mathematics because that was the closest to what I was doing.

While I was working on my BA I started substitute teaching, it turned out I loved teaching and decided to change my focus toward a teaching career. I took the free and general alectives in areas that would help in that area , but I kept the science focus because that is what I wanted to teach. In NJ where I was born and had lived all my life I was at the point where I could get a job teaching while completing the remaining requirements. I was happy with the choices I had made and I could not have even considered Teaching without a BA. I still worked in the lab part time to help pay the bills, but teaching was my focus. I subbed as much as I wanted and I even considered going to WGU for my masters in teaching to shorten the road to certification.

But then as life often does a wrench was thrown into the mix when my husband got a good job (he had been laid off) the offer included relocating us to the Buffalo area. When I first came to NY I started worrying about being able to get certified here. I was willing to just be a substitute here. I didn't know that although NJ was desperate for Subs even With minimal qualifications NY has more subs then it needs and will hire only certified teachers as subs. I was eventually able to find a school which would hire me, but most if not all the work would be as an aide to severely disabled children. Because I was not certified I would make in one day what I used to make in under 2 hours. At that point my degree had not helped me one bit but I was still glad I had it because it was something I did for myself in the first place and I was proud that I had seen it through. Of course if I had wanted to put the time, money, and effort into meeting the NY requirements I could have done that quicker only because I had the degree.

Then I decided why not see what else is out there? So I started applying to jobs back in the laboratory (Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology) You know the areas you can't earn a "Fast paced" degree in. I have only had one interview, but they would not have even looked twice at my resume if I didn't have those two little letters on there. I have over 30 years experience in a lab so they knew I could do the work but it seems the degree was interesting to them, The woman who would be my boss told me she had seen that and was impressed, she had thought about returning to school to get her Masters but didn't think she would have the self discipline to do it on-line. In the end I didn't get the job (part of me suspects age discrimination) but it was obvious I was in the top few that got to the interview.

The summary of this long post is that even when you start older the direction your college or career path takes can make many twist and turns in life, but having a degree (Yes ANY degree) will help open doors and make things possible.