The Illusion of College

College is the golden ticket to success. Everyone gets a great job that goes to college. All you have to do is get accepted, get good grades, graduate, and the jobs will come flowing in. Employers will be waiting outside of the graduation doors with jobs in hand.

Then you wake up from that dream to a totally different life. A life where you did all of that and haven’t landed a job in three months after graduation. A life where the market salary for your degree is only $35,000 as opposed to the $80,000 starting salary you were told. A life where you have over $40,000 in student loan debt and one word is keeping you from getting interviews… “experience”.

What happened? Was it all a lie? Did they mislead you into a life that doesn’t exist?

No, they didn’t…you just started too late.

The Good Life of College

College has this strange way of making you think that the life you build while you’re there is how life really operates. You’re valued based on your grades and the social groups you become a part of… and everyone there seems to believe in you.

Your family is proud that you’re in college and encourages you to stay until you graduate, regardless of whether you can pay at the moment or not.

Life as you know it is great! Until you graduate and fid out that real life is totally different.

The Real World

College is not a place for you to spend years of your life trying to figure out what you want to do. It’s designed to help provide you a specialized skill and endorse that you have the knowledge.

In the real world, most will not care that you had good grades, socialized, and graduated. This is because most of everyone that’s applying has the same credentials.

The only thing the real world cares about is whether you can quickly solve a problem they have. Attaining a degree tells everyone that you have the knowledge, but does not indicate you can actually do the job. The only way you can exhibit this is through actual experience doing the job or very close to it.

You may not consciously agree with me, but deep down you know it’s true. If you’re in denial, do a simple job search and read several job descriptions. What you will notice is that the bulk of the job description is spent detailing things you must be able to do and most aren’t directly associated with what you learned in school. You’ll also notice that the mention of a degree is just one or two lines in the description. This is because they don’t value degrees the same as they value experience.

Winning at College

So how do you avoid this? You do so by starting early! By the time you finish high school, you should have a firm grasp on what you want to do as a career. This may sound weird but if you don’t spend your early years identifying this, you will have to do so when you should be focusing on building your career. Yes, building your career starts the first day of college.

 Here’s an example of what a student should be doing in high school:

High school:

1.    Find a Mentor

2.    Identify their strengthens and weaknesses

3.    Research and identify a career that interests them and will provide the life they desire.

4.    Develop a career plan that contains the steps that should be taken in college to get the maximum level of success

5.    Figure out how to pay for college for free if it’s apart of the plan

6.    Actually learn what’s being taught in High School.

College:

1.    Find a mentor in the career you desire

2.    Execute on your plan

3.    Hone your plan to take into account new knowledge and experiences

4.    Socialize

5.    Take college seriously

At the end of the day, if you can go into college prepared with a plan and a goal, it’s less likely you’ll fall victim of the curse of starting too late. Feel free to leave your thoughts.