Was college useful for you?

Swan Knight

Hey all,

I was just wondering whether the college course you picked was useful for the career you chose. Im doing a science course and will have to find a job soon and Im just interested to hear how other people have gotten on. Did you feel it was of benefit to you? Does your job bear any resemblance to the career that youd thought youd get out of college?

Or did you end up doing something completely different from what youd intended originally. Sorry, there are a few questions stuck together there.

I also want to hear how others got on, not neccessarily people that have a third-level qualification.

Thanks.

Borzoi

Did engineering, became an engineer, now an engineering manager.

So, absolutely essential:D

Kolodny

I sort of did things in reverse. My qualifications are completely irrelevant to the job I do now (I studied law and politics and I work as a secretary to the social work and psychology departments in a special school).

I think that's partly because I started college (in the UK) when I was 16 and I didn't have a clue at that age what I wanted to do. I studied what interested me at the time and didn't give much thought to what I might do afterwards (subsequently I ended up doing all kinds of jobs so I learned along the way what suited me and what didn't).

My current job has given me a much clearer idea of what I want to do in the future so I plan to go back to college eventually and get the qualification I will need for that.

I'd still say college was useful for me - my CV would be much less impressive if I hadn't gone and it was my first experience of living away from home - but second time around I think it will be much more relevant.

TempestSabre

Peronnally I didn't make direct use of my degree afterwards.

shepthedog

Think its useful in the fact that a degree will open alot of doors for you that would otherwise be unavailable without one..
I think the whole college experience is what makes up how useful it was/is to a person...
In today's world it would seem that in order get alot of jobs a degree and some experience is needed before you can be considered for a number of jobs..
So many people here go to college in comparison to other countries which means the workforce is alot more educated and hence more competitive..

Our man in Havana

TempestSabre wrote:

Peronnally I didn't make direct use of my degree afterwards.

Me neither. It is hanging on the wall at home, never used it.

Running Bing

Most of the actual material you learn in college is useless to the job you will eventually take. For example im studying economics and I can esure you when I get a job I wont be sitting around drawing IS-LM graphs all day. Much more important to employers are the skills you learn in college like working as part of a group, communication skills(written and oral) etc. of course there are carerrs like medicine where doing the relevent course is essential.

Eoin

Babybing wrote:

Most of the actual material you learn in college is useless to the job you will eventually take. For example im studying economics and I can esure you when I get a job I wont be sitting around drawing IS-LM graphs all day. Much more important to employers are the skills you learn in college like working as part of a group, communication skills(written and oral) etc. of course there are carerrs like medicine where doing the relevent course is essential.

Totally agree with this - I wonder if there are any statistics available on the percentage of people whose career directly reflects their college course.

I didn't do a degree; I did a VLC cert in Marketing (crap leaving), and the smaller more personal classes meant a lot more focus on written reports, presentations etc. This definitely helped me without a shadow of doubt. I don't think I would have been able to give any sort of presentation in work, had I not done this in college first. Haven't touched one particular aspect of the course since I left though as I went in to IT directly after leaving college.

charba

I'm doing a degree in accounting and finance.

The core modules are aimed at helping you develop intellectually while your in college such as the accounting and tax.

Then we have options that we have to do to get exemptions from the ACAI.

But like previous posters my fave modules are the ones where we actually have to integrate. My communication, presentation skills and report writing skills have all improved because of this.

I'm finishing my degree in a weeks time, I'm sitting my finals at the min and I'm hoping to use my degree to get a job in business, however after last years work experience I'm not too sure whether or not that I will be using my degree.

homah_7ft

Swan Knight wrote:

I was just wondering whether the college course you picked was useful for the career you chose. Im doing a science course and will have to find a job soon and Im just interested to hear how other people have gotten on. Did you feel it was of benefit to you? Does your job bear any resemblance to the career that youd thought youd get out of college?

Or did you end up doing something completely different from what youd intended originally. Sorry, there are a few questions stuck together there.

Hi. I also went down the science route. I wouldn't have been hired for my current career without my qualification. On a day to day basis I think I could do my job without it, however I wouldn't understand what I was doing so well. I can think of particular situations where I used what I learned in college without it being essential.

As for your question regarding whether my career matches my expectations in college, I would say pretty much so.

Swan Knight

So weve gotten a mixed response. Would I be correct in saying that those whose degrees are hanging on the wall are people that studied humanities, English, philosophy, etc? Did their course benefit them as people, make them well rounded individuals, which is supposedly a large part of education?

Do many who study technical discilpines such as accounting, engineering and science miss out on this part of education, the part that develops your way of thinking and looking at things?

TempestSabre

Your looking at it backwards IMO. All experiences of college regardless of discipline develop you as a person. Some courses however are required for certain careers and professions. I wouldn't be of the opinion that personal development is the primary aim of the majoiry third level courses leading to dip/deg qualifications.

smurfbaby

I did arts & media in college, and Im now working in a media related job, but I have to say that 99% of stuff I know about the industry was learned on the job rather than in college!
Most jobs Ive worked in since college have either required a degree or asked if I had one, but never asked to see proof, or asked me to talk about it in any great detail.
I really enjoyed my time at college, had good experiences and made loads of friends etc, but I cant help wondering if I would now be at the same level Im at now or higher if Id worked my way up after leaving school

TempestSabre

smurfbaby wrote:

I....Most jobs Ive worked in since college have either required a degree or asked if I had one, but never asked to see proof, or asked me to talk about it in any great detail.
I really enjoyed my time at college, had good experiences and made loads of friends etc, but I cant help wondering if I would now be at the same level Im at now or higher if Id worked my way up after leaving school

Same here.

chump

Won't use my original degree but it has been very useful for me in that it had made me uber-intelligent and provided me with the arrogance needed to be the best. :cool:

But really, I went down the science route, bad decision really, although was very good for maths and logic and computer skills, which I will need in my career in accounting

charba

Swan Knight wrote:

Do many who study technical discilpines such as accounting, engineering and science miss out on this part of education, the part that develops your way of thinking and looking at things?

I think most colleges at this stage actually relaise that there is more to college than just the academic side. And they are also pushing the extracurricular side as well to show that the students who emerge from these colleges are well rounded and prepared for the working world.

DCU took a major step this year in introducing an extracurricular awards module that some courses can take up in their final year. This allow students who are involved in extracurricualr activites inside and outside the college to put together a portfolio and to submit it. Many other colleges have been in contact and I think this shows that the overall college experience is moving away from the sole focus that just used to be academics

Running Bing

Without a doubt extra currics are becomming more important imo. So many people are going to college now a third level degree isnt as big a thing as it once was. If you have 50 people going for a job most will have a similiar degree and similiar results, so your extra currics are what will really seperate you from the rest and give you that head start in the interview.

gerrycollins

i went to college studying electronic engineering

did 2 years of a 4 years course(can go back if i want)

I now run a grocery store lol

connundrum

I did a media course in college, had a great time and was presented with a lot of hands on experience.. but one of the modules was International Marketing, and I took a bit of a shining to that subject.

So I started off in Ad Sales, quickly became a sales manager, and I'll hopefully be taking up a role of Assistant Sales and Marketing Manager for a company soon. Technically you could say that what I'm doing now has nothing to do with college, but like other people have said - team building, working with deadlines, leadership qualities etc were all a big help.

In my line of work, whatever degree you have doesn't really matter. My CV could read 2 Degrees and a Masters, but employers don't really care as they will mould you into the person that they want.. what they want is a flexible/versatile person to work with.

That said, I know of loads of people who lie on their CVs (big lies) and they get away with it, which could undermine the people who actually have got a degree.. meh, such is life though :rolleyes:

leeroybrown

Both directly and indirecly. I studied Computer and Electronic Engineering, started work as a Computer Programmer and now work as a High-End Computing System Administrator. I did gain some useful skills and the qualification required to get a job from my degree but the majority of the skills that make me good at my job were learned indirectly during my time in college as opposed to directly as part of my course work.

I would say that college was more useful because of the people I met and the other things I did as opposed to the quality of education I directly received.

squirrelmonkey

Not one bit, i work in accounts and never did it in college!

optiplexgx270

Studied Software dev and now working in SW dev. So I guess yes was useful, although the job I took is primarily working with a language I’d never looked at until i started work.

DJDC

Education goes far deeper than making you suitable for a job or profession.Its far more important than that.

Paulj

I'm just finishing my computer engineering degree. It's got me a software dev job in the telecoms area so i guess it was useful there. While i haven't spent much time in the workplace (1 year) i still think that some of the stuff taught was useful, particularly the stuff from the start of the course. Also the projects (and group projects) we worked on seemed important, I got asked a lot about those at interviews. But having said that a lot of what we did seems so pointless and I know i'll never use it again.

Like others have said the college experience itself seems very useful. First time living away from home and all that forces ya to fend for yourself a bit, which is good.