Career Options

[kalishakti]

Thanks for the replies.

Did any of y'all feel this way after completing your degrees? In the competency-based education world, there's always some test or project where you can prove yourself, and your progress and achievement is measured by specific skills you've developed and topics you've mastered, as demonstrated by said projects and tests.

Even at the B&M college I got my AA from, the fact that I was the first woman in my family to graduate with a degree and being only 19 years old was something that was celebrated. The school interviewed me and used the video as marketing on their social media pages.

In K-12 education, being interested in and reasonably good at everything with no particular "specialty" is highly rewarded...I was the straight-A student who liked and was good at everything from Chemistry to Wood Shop to Choir to French. In middle and high school, there was also always some test you could take or contest you could enter that would immediately open doors for you, like the ACT, PSAT/National Merit Scholarship test, AP exams, spelling bees, essay contests, etc. I got a 33 on the ACT and made it into my hometown newspaper and received several scholarships. When I won my school and regional spelling bees, nobody cared that I was only 11 and in sixth grade, and if anything, being younger and having no experience made it more of an accomplishment. I was the only girl in my state to make it to the finals of the Geographic Bee and won $500 and a big trophy. And, if nothing else, you could always fall back on charm, persuasion and negotiation. I convinced my principal to let me skip a grade when I was 11 (yes, I won the spelling bee about a month after talking my way into the sixth grade) so I could graduate high school by 17. I got countless extra credit points in high school by baking mole cookies for my chemistry class and various other little projects.

The self-employment, contractor and freelancer space also is generally more skill-oriented and personality-oriented and less tenure-oriented.

Now, trying to break into traditional employment where so much is all about YEARS feels like hitting a big ol' brick wall.