The real world of employment is startlingly different than what I was taught in school. I was taught to believe that if you received a good education and learned a skill that was employable, that if you wrote an airtight resume and cover letter, and that if you look, felt and acted a specific way – employment would always be easy. Now that I am much closer to the end of my career than the beginning, I can say that while the above paragraph may have been true at one time, today much of what I have learned about the real world of employment rings hollow.
Let’s start with point number one: education. Education is important, but not like it once was. For sure, without education you can see a future of minimum wage positions intermixed with frequent periods of unemployment. But whereas a degreed individual was once an exception, they are now common place. The bachelor degree today has replaced the high school diploma as the standard. But if you try to obtain a degree today, there are pitfalls. A degree does not ever guarantee a job. And a degree could guarantee that you will start your career squarely behind the eight ball known as SCHOOL DEBT. Not a promising beginning.
What are the alternatives? Staying uneducated in NOT an option, but experience is. If you started working a job in high school in an industry that requires experienced people, you could have a future in the industry. Those industries are usually retail industries or industries that require the abilities to work with your hands. Of course, there are disadvantages. In retail, you have to deal with people and that is not always easy. Plus, you usually end up working, nights, weekends, holidays or all. If this type of experience is not appealing to you, look closely at the type of education that you pursue.
If you pursue an undergraduate degree in law, healthcare, psychology or sociology, your choices as to what you can do without further education will be limited. If you pursued a degree in philosophy, how will you use it? The demand for philosophers is not exactly great or one of high compensation. And if you pursue a degree in business, you will have tremendous competition and maybe could have learned the essentials through work experience and have a leg up on the competition. Be careful what you choose to study. Be sure that you can convert your knowledge of any subject to money through employment.
Work hard so God can say to you, “Well done.” Be a good workman, one who does not need to be ashamed when God examines your work. Know what his Word says and means. II Timothy 2:15
