How to Become “Recession-Proof!”
Or, why traditional education may not be the best path!
Setting aside the evident (I don't really like Hotel.com's Captain Obvious), which is that young men and women are spending a boat load of money for a university-based education…
(NOTE: in 1971, the average tuition was just 7% of the median household income. Today, in 2018, it's at 25%)...
...Whenever a twenty-something asks me for advice about "getting a job," my standard stop-em-in-their-tracks reply is simply a point-blank question:
"Who in particular actually convinced you that you need one?"
Yup, that never fails to set the foundation for a paradigm shift in thinking.
Like anything that has ridden on an unending wave of dogma and time-worn status quo beliefs, thinking that getting a J-O-B — especially because you have a college degree — is the right path... it needs some extrapolation.
First, if you're just entering college, in deep already, or about to graduate, what are you actually striving for?
Is the end result to show that you can/could comprehend multiple areas of information and learning modalities? Is that all a prospective employer, in your mind, gets dazzled by?
Just some thought-provoking questions to ponder. As rhetorical and intentionally biting as they may be, it's this kind of questioning… that any new entrant into the workforce should be asking themselves.
We're in the midst of a new era of work.
No longer is it simply about "here's my credentials, hire me!" It's about, "Here's a project, or idea, that I worked on with passion and creativity. If you want some of this valuable goodness, here's what I propose!"
Seth Godin's book, Poke The Box, is all about this idea — the appeal to do and live outside the boundaries of what societal norms have told you should be doing.
And, in my critical-thinking mind, maybe (yes, just maybe), one financial-morbid cycle to break would be to NOT go into debt to go to a school because you think you'll get a better paying job in order to make enough money just so you can pay off that debt. ;)
Recently I stumbled upon a great 16-minute presentation from 25-year-old Charlie Hoehn, who at just 23 years old managed to figure out how to work with marketing god Seth Godin.
I highly encourage you to listen to Charlie talk about the shift in thinking he went through, upon graduation, to take himself from entitlement-minded graduate to I've-got-to-prove-myself driven "free worker."
Final Thought:
It’s no secret that classroom education can cost a ton of money… sometimes more than we can afford.
Or, the schools of higher learning (University) leave us paying off loans for decades.
And, while specialized advanced knowledge (such as Law or Medicine) still requires the traditional route, you can actually obtain the knowledge, skills, and certifications for various trades… for free!
For a list of unknown sites (over 25) that allow you to ‘get your learn on’ for free, or at low cost, simply Message Me.
But, if you are going to pay for institution-based education (i.e. a traditional college), you can pretty much put your financing options on a napkin:
