A College Degree Does Not Lead to a Better Job

Published by

Clarissa

September 9, 2014

My sister is coming to give a talk to my students about their career prospects. She will tell them that a college degree does NOT lead to a better job or a higher salary.

Instead, it leads to a better career. Faster promotion, greater lifetime earnings, better prospects. And this is something that recent graduates really need to know: people with college degrees should start thinking of their lives in terms of fashioning a career, not just finding a job.

College graduates will probably find the same job and get the same starting salary as people who didn’t go to college. However, college grads will have a completely different life strategy which will be about life-long projects, not solving a temporary need of the moment. They will not get stuck in those first jobs for nearly as long. And that’s the whole point: not being a helpless toy of forces beyond your comprehension.

OK, maybe I also need to give a talk. Of the motivational kind, possibly.

Rate this:

3 responses to “A College Degree Does Not Lead to a Better Job”

n8chz

September 9, 2014

That sounds encouraging.

I know you take an interest in all the libertarian-themed undertakings that are supposed to “disrupt” education. I’d love to read your take on “Praxis”. I understand the name “Praxis” is taken from “Praxeology,” something straight out of Austrian Economics.

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  September 10, 2014
  
  I’m not in business, so what do I know? But to me this sounds like a scam.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
David P. Bellamy

September 10, 2014

I am skeptical about this. I do not know many non college graduates whose first job was teaching children in school. In fact, I know exactly one, and he did finish college a few years later. He was able to do this only because the rules governing private elementary schools in Delaware are, or were, flexible. He may have retired by now; I am not sure.

LikeLike

Reply

Clarissa's Blog