new thread
i was wondering how many of you girls/guys have college degrees, and what you all do?..not that it matters, i'm just curious.
I used to be an HR manager for a global bank. Then I became a full time alcoholic. Now I'm happy human being, sober 4 years and run a small guesthouse with my wife.
Associate of Science in Mathematics. I currently do skilled labor, so that I can pay for my next two years of college (going into programming).
Yes, I have a college degree, even though not a very good one. Colleges always seem to have a good number of longhairs, male and female.
I have a degree in mass communications and work full-time as a copywriter/project manager for an ad agency, part-time in administration at a resort and 1/3-time cater-waitering. Yeesh...I need a life.
I have two degrees (BA and M.Div) and am working on Ph.D. I am a Latin teacher. I am also a certified Massage Therapist.
Robert
No I droped out 18 months through my 3 year degree in Mathematics & Computing. No College degree for me.
Funny thing is I dropped out because I was depressed and really couldn't face studying. If I hadn't been depressed my grades suggested I would have graduated with 1st Class Honours.
Then again - I don't put a lot of value in diplomas or degrees, these days they are generally indicative of a persons ability to be taught rather than their ability to learn.
Plus after 18 months of straight A grades, I was surprised about how many useful things I didn't know, and how much crap I did know about. I learned more in my first year at work than I did in my entire high school and college life. I now have a lot more respect for vocational courses or academic courses which involve work placement rather than 3 years sheltered studying at some university.
Yes, I'm with you on the above statement. But really, it is so true with a handful of exceptions.
ALL the greats of the past that have left so much to the world didn't have all these degrees: Edison, Mozart, Wright Brothers, Lincoln etc. And to think, in College one studies these peoples accomplishments. And also to think............so many genius people over the past centuries hardly went to school!
This is true, but the world has changed a little in the meantime. These days it is a good idea to get a degree.
Yes, without a degree these days one has little chance $$$ wise. But what a shame. So many grads coming on to the market that can't think for themselves, have no feel for their chosen profession and can only (in a Robotic way) get around their jobs with ONLY remembering or refering to the books. Common sense has nearly vanished.
Yeah - Agreed, as ever there are exceptions but generally people need to come out of college a little more "worldly wise", so many grads, know their books, know their beer, but know nothing about business, (Business Studies Students included!) Everyone is too wrapped up in case studies and business models, they have no idea how to deal with people, and its people that drive business not case studies or model answers.
Sorry but I feel a little frustrated by this at the moment as I've been looking to recruit. :-(
Frustrated? Well Sorted, you are not alone on this College stuff of today. It makes me sick. And, it is very depressing!
And these Grads of today................just examine who THEY have studied from! (Majority of their teachers and majority of them.) No, better not........that makes it even worse. Minds arrive on the job scene ever so closed. Nobody can "get by" on the job..........or so it seems to myself 90% of the time. "I could care less" attitudes prevail.
Scientists ONLY believe what has been stated in some book. The "inventive spirit" surpressed by "higher education." Creative Spirits "bred-out" of the students. Books, books, books..............but where are the ones who think? (Anyone can write a book even if he knows NOTHING! It is the publisher that sees a "money-making" opportunity............which is ALL they care about.) If ALL one can do is quote from a "book," it is quite pitiful. Thinking for oneself rather seems now almost a lost art.
Saddest of all are the ones that today cannot afford College and are already MILES AHEAD of the Grads in "natural abilities!" THEY are the ones of genius potential, (if not so already) and end-up working "neath" the "Golden Arches." :-(
Good thing Ben Franklin, Edison, Beethoven, Ford, Monet (well, you get the picture) didn't have to "put-up" with this society college stuff of today. If so, they could very well be forced into todays, "fliping of the Hamburger" Fast Food Jobs of which they couldn't make a living.
At one time College DID serve a purpose. But that was nearly 100 years ago. I think since WWll the REAL decline set-in. People that really didn't belong in higher education got in anyway. Why? Suddenly the College was MONEY HUNGRY for anything they could drag-in that had the bucks. And so it continues. If you can kick a Football...............you have an "in!" (For FREE I might add.)
Better get off my Soap-Box.
Justin~
Thanks Sorted-
I really did get going on that one............but it has urked me to no end. Only a handful of people I dare say would agree. (Instilled in their heads is what "they" perceive of Higher Education today.) Their minds fully blocked to any thinking for themselves.
And to think, I am not only a College Grad myself, but went on to Post Graduate Study also! But I was the rebel........most of the professors disliked me because I would challenge them on their (Book remarks) to which they had no answer. Sometimes another student would start to agree with me. The professors face would turn red with "rage" and I had to keep my mouth shut.
Guess I have a "natural" talent which while in College was downed. Hmmmmmmm, it is strange that certain things have changed since then, and the VERY people who "downed-me" are now doing some of it the way I was as a Teen! (New books have come out most probably that disputed some of the older views?)
Ah..........
Who knows.
I am doing A level Biology now and since my GCSE days, I have asked my science teacher no end of questions, I have a wild imagination. The teacher has a higher degree in biology, A degree in Chemistry and Physics and psychology, so he basically knows everything. I do not do my thinking form a textbook, I question everything, not to on purposely annoy him, but because I'm really interested in Pseudoscience (I think that's the term I'm looking for?) For example, we were talking about maths, he happens to be awesome at that too, and I reminded him a quote from a famous person that anything will be possible in the future, no matter how wild it may seem now, maybe Enrico Fermi said that. So I asked him, quite innocently, What would happen or what would I see if I 'went' inside a number. Yea, pure gibborish, but remembering the quote, it must be possible someday. That is certainly not textbook stuff, and I believe in not being influenced by any such material like textbooks.
BTW, he didn't know what to say:)
Smiley! lol
Yes, in electronics/electrical engineering, and I'm a patent agent
I have a Bachlor of fine arts, It is in Photo, I worked for 4 years right out of school a $21 hr, I was laid off in feb, and can't find anything that pays any were close to it, most jobs around me are $7 maybe $8 and they are shitty jobs. I am still paying off my school loans, it really sucks.
Maybe I am proud, but damnit there is no way I am going to go so far backwards, and work at a Mc Job, I'll die first.
Bachelors in Chemistry, Biology, Music from Hiram College. MD from university of Cincinnati. Have been in Family Practice for 12 years and for the past one year (two to go) and changing specialties to Anesthesiology.
ToddB
PS I don't take my work home with me.... :-)
That..... is..... AWESOME!!!:) I have the utmost respect for you.
I hope to take Biology in University and Music in a royal conservatoire next year after my A levels. Probably Music first, then Biology afterwards as I can't be in 2 places the same time!
Picture Purged
BS in information systems
sorry, meant that pic to go at the top of the message
No degree; although I was studying to be an electronic engineer.
Now, I'm a computer and electronics technician. The pay is OK, not great. This is probably due to the fact that I live in a small area.
BS, MS in Biology...emphasis in molecular biology. Used to work in biotech research but got downsized last year. Just recently swallowed my pride and moved in with dear old mom as research jobs in mol. bio. are scarce right now.
Degrees:
BSEE 1969 - NMSU - University Park, N.M.
JD - 1973 - U of Ill. - Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
What I do:
Retired!
Bill
Not going to become a patent attorney then, Bill?
Yeah, you and I had e-mailed about that last year. What happened was that my partner retired in December, and this April we took a long and hard look at things - our financial condition, the toll that dealing with today's nearly futile job market levies upon one's soul, and what we both wanted to do with our time.
Anyone can retire at any age if one is willing to live in destitute poverty. :-) And anyone who works at a good career to his dying day will have plenty of money because he will be working so hard he won't have free time to spend much of it. Somewhere in between those extremes is the ideal where you trade some of the lavishness of your retirement for more years of freedom. As one friend joked, the ideal is for the first check you bounce to be the one for your funeral. However, one wants to aim toward the cautious side of that ideal, naturally.
When we looked at everything, we decided the time to retire is "now"! It's been working out very well. Besides our spending more time with the Internet hobby, I've been doing some hiking, and we've been traveling and spending a LOT more time with our friends!
Bill
Currently i'm studying for a BS in Computer Science. Lots of long hairs here ;)
Working toward becoming a licensed Veterinary Technologist right now...which explains my recent absence from the board.
