My diploma.
I'm sitting here staring at my diploma. It's sort of different in that it is formatted vertically as opposed to the typical horizontal style of diploma. It is framed, and it has followed me around the United States wherever I have been. It's sort of pretty I guess.
My colleagues keep their diplomas (fabulously framed) close by their desks at the office, as well as certifications, licenses, and the like. It's as if they need constant reassurance that the hours spent doing pointless route memorization while giving untold thousands of dollars to said educational institution somehow lifts these worthless pieces of paper, and the meaning of their work, from mediocrity.
My degree isn't any more or less hard fought or valuable than theirs in my opinion. Yet there exists for some people some amount of "degree discrimination" that I've encountered which I find distasteful, especially since I do not hold a Masters degree in the traditional, university sense of the word. I am pleased that I hold my own with the invaluable experience of owning my own business, which actually paid me when I was done.
So, who is smarter?
I suppose it could be argued that a Masters or Doctorate would pay you just as well with the kind of work you could get, but those jobs are hard to come by. It took my sister almost a decade to get the job she wanted once she had obtained her Masters. Then you have the added cost of the degree itself to pay off, unless you were blessed with a scholarship.
I would rather open another business and learn something completely new simply by doing it rather than going back to school, unless someone else was footing the bill. And in that case I would have to think long and hard about the time I would spend back in school versus time just spent actually doing something, which is much more exciting and interesting.
Learning something new is always valuable, no matter the venue; however, academia and the whole college experience as an integral part of the American Dream has lost its cache with me. Universities are in business to make money. Period. I gave the university money, I got my piece of paper. Whoo-hoo. Big deal.
I'm so ready to start another business, and my diploma will not matter at all when that time comes. But wherever that might be, I can guarantee that it won't be hanging anywhere in my place of business. Maybe I'll put it under the bed, or in my closet, or where it is now, close to my home computer area.
My colleagues keep their diplomas (fabulously framed) close by their desks at the office, as well as certifications, licenses, and the like. It's as if they need constant reassurance that the hours spent doing pointless route memorization while giving untold thousands of dollars to said educational institution somehow lifts these worthless pieces of paper, and the meaning of their work, from mediocrity.
My degree isn't any more or less hard fought or valuable than theirs in my opinion. Yet there exists for some people some amount of "degree discrimination" that I've encountered which I find distasteful, especially since I do not hold a Masters degree in the traditional, university sense of the word. I am pleased that I hold my own with the invaluable experience of owning my own business, which actually paid me when I was done.
So, who is smarter?
I suppose it could be argued that a Masters or Doctorate would pay you just as well with the kind of work you could get, but those jobs are hard to come by. It took my sister almost a decade to get the job she wanted once she had obtained her Masters. Then you have the added cost of the degree itself to pay off, unless you were blessed with a scholarship.
I would rather open another business and learn something completely new simply by doing it rather than going back to school, unless someone else was footing the bill. And in that case I would have to think long and hard about the time I would spend back in school versus time just spent actually doing something, which is much more exciting and interesting.
Learning something new is always valuable, no matter the venue; however, academia and the whole college experience as an integral part of the American Dream has lost its cache with me. Universities are in business to make money. Period. I gave the university money, I got my piece of paper. Whoo-hoo. Big deal.
I'm so ready to start another business, and my diploma will not matter at all when that time comes. But wherever that might be, I can guarantee that it won't be hanging anywhere in my place of business. Maybe I'll put it under the bed, or in my closet, or where it is now, close to my home computer area.
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