The Danger of Too Much Education Without Increasingly Responsible Experience

[cookderosa]

of course we always talk about the connections and assumptions of education and value. I think if you're young, and you run like hell to the top of the academic mountain, you have more time and no "black marks" that create wonder and confusion about a resume (like this guy). A resume is a giant venn diagram, the intersection is the most telling in my opinion, and for someone to only fill in one set or to think that only one set matters is probably south of 30. Working adults have complex lives, and have developed a long "story" that they tell on their resume. The story this guy tells me, I'll keep to myself.

But the big picture for working adults, I think, is that if you're mid career (as opposed to new-career/changer) you probably have good insight BEFORE you go into a degree as to where it's going to take you. If you're a new-career/changer as an adult (this guy trying to break into HR possibly) you need to ask yourself "what is the degree I need to break in on the ground floor as an entry level employee in this field?" and that's the degree to get. Coming in over-educated makes you heavy on cost for what you bring to the table (nothing much). Once you get your feet wet, then you can go back to the previous sentence and use your insight into the field as to where your next degree is going to take you.

I think a common mistake I've noticed among adult career changers in culinary arts (and maybe other fields), is that they assume that because they're older or have another degree, that they somehow should rightfully earn more money to start than the 17 year old next to them that can (frankly) pull 14 hour shifts and bust out a 50# bag of carrots lightening fast. Being older with more degrees is not equal to more money. I listened to a nurse tell me years back how she left a job earning $20~ an hour and couldn't work for $7/hour. Um? Huh? Wrong field.

So Mr. Onion probably can't get a job making more than $20k because he doesn't bring value to a company. Mr. Walmart probably lacks resourcefulness. But, no one's perfect, and out of the two, Mr. Walmart has my respect. Bustin suds for 2 years is hard work.