Comment by kstenerud | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kstenerud | Hacker News Reader

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I think the real insight is sorely absent from the article.

It seems that most people who undergo higher education do so with the expectation that it will lead to a "higher" job, and that's magical thinking.

Sure, higher education is pretty much a requirement for certain classes of jobs, but it's not the only requirement, and it pales compared to the most important requirement: contacts.

This is a human world we live in, and humans by nature are friendlier to someone they know than to someone they don't know.

I, too, once believed in the entitlement that an education "should" bring, until I looked back at all of the jobs I landed (and the thousands I didn't), and realized that every single job I successfully interviewed for was a direct result of a contact in my network.

This is even more important in times of recession, because you're up against a whole army of faceless job seekers, all flooding potential employers with pieces of paper and lamenting the lack of response.

If an employer can't put a face to your name, you stand as much a chance of getting in as winning the lottery.

> It seems that most people who undergo higher education do so with the expectation that it will lead to a "higher" job, and that's magical thinking.

It's also false advertisement.

"Get a degree from us and you'll get a job" is how it's sold to us from the age of elementary school forwards.

Degrees are expensive and this industry earns 100s of billions every year. There is only 1 way they can market a degree to you, and that's to connect it directly with a job.

College loans is one of the crummiest industries in the US.

By manipulating legislature to gain recourse status (even after a personal bankruptcy), accepting government money to finance such futile aspirations, and pushing up the overall price of higher ed, they're in a unique position to be disliked by both liberals and conservatives.

With graduate degrees especially the loan applicant should be required to cover a good portion of their education from their current job. Which will make them at least test the waters (i.e. internship offices and recruiting departments) to see what market applicability their current/future degree has, instead of finding the truth a few years later with a six-digit debt.

100% agreed.

I don't think it's really false, just misleading. You very well may land a great job because you were in college. But is so it will because of who you met, not what you learned.

I agree. But can you really blame people for believing what we're told our entire lives? Most of our childhood we're told to stop socializing and work hard so you can go to a good college and get a good job. When you become an adult you find out that those social contacts are more important than the degree you worked for.

It's not really a question of blame. It's terrible for all of these people to be trapped in a lie, but the fact remains that the only way out of it is to realize the truth of the matter and change course. Life never feels sorry for you, no matter how much you've been wronged.

Oh purlheez. It's not a "lie".

I don't know about you, but my career is based entirely on my university degree(s). And not because of the piece of paper, either, because of the crapload of stuff I learned at university which I never would have learned any other way.

Many of the people who proclaim that university is useless are programmers. No surprises there -- programming is one of the few marketable skills which you can actually teach yourself from a book. Aeronautical engineering? Not so much.

I don't think anyone would deny that a degree can sometimes help you attain a specific job.

The "lie" is the notion that without a degree, your job choices will be limited to burger flipper at McDonalds. With a degree, any degree at all, your dream job will fall into your lap and you'll be paid handsomely to do it. Obviously neither are true, but that is what pre-college aged students are regularly told.

If you have a love of aeronautical engineering, university is a fantastic place to study what you love. If you land a great job upon completion, even better. However, if you only have a love of money, studying aeronautical engineering is a waste of time. There are better and easier ways to make your fortune.

You misunderstand me. I'm not saying that a degree is unimportant; It is VERY important to getting a good job. Avoid a degree and you hobble yourself severely.

The lie is the belief that a degree pretty much guarantees you a job, which it doesn't. The degree is but one step along the way, but most people come out of school believing that it is the only step (followed by that magical "experience" that comes up with the rations), and so have a false sense of entitlement.

This is a lie that, though not always told directly, is nonetheless communicated to all students as they pass through the hallowed halls, as they complete difficult courses, as they don the robes and cap, as they "climb the corporate ladder". It's a false sense of security because they've only done part of what they need to do in order to be successful in life, and they don't even realize it!

So is it any wonder that uninformed and dispirited job seekers come at the world with plaintive cries of "I have a PHD in X and here I am flipping burgers!"?

In short, your CONTACTS get you the interview and a sympathetic ear, and your education, experience, references and personality do the rest. Without the contacts, you probably won't even get in the door to show off the rest.

Great points. I thought that if I stayed in the library and studied as much as humanly possible that I would be very successful. Then I saw all the C students that went to lots of parties have way more job opportunities than me. And they make much more money than me. It took me a couple years to get over the bitterness and sense of being stabbed in the back.

The two can be combined. Lot of jobs I've landed were due both to knowledge gained in college, and networking gained via college.

That's my point exactly. Always be networking.

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