is college the right choice for me?

[ComradeBadger]

Still, you're rather full of yourself.

Yep.

Anyway, I'm not going to derail this thread to discuss your opinions on the state of the nation haha, so we'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[repiV]

Yep.

Anyway, I'm not going to derail this thread to discuss your opinions on the state of the nation haha, so we'll have to agree to disagree.

Disagree all you want. Just don't accuse me of being a blinkered racist with no grasp of reality and then go on to claim that your ignorance makes you superior to me.
It's clear from your comments that your ego is writing cheques that you cannot cash.

 

[zleppelin]

repIV, you make a good argument for not going to college. But what about the person who is not as suave and persuasive as you? Should that person still try to make it on his own? Not everyone has the personality of an entrepeneur.

 

[repiV]

repIV, you make a good argument for not going to college. But what about the person who is not as suave and persuasive as you? Should that person still try to make it on his own? Not everyone has the personality of an entrepeneur.

Thanks.
Thing is, even with a degree, you're still going to have to be persuasive to get the job. Usually, the best interviewee is the one who gets hired, not the best employee.
If your interviewer says to you "well, I've noticed that you don't have much experience in this field...so I'm a bit reluctant to hire you", you're hopefully not going to say "okay". You're going to say "well, let me counter your objection by saying..."
You'll have to handle objections to get jobs.
Same goes for not having a degree. The objection always comes up, it's a simple matter of responding to it in a positive way. Prepare your answers beforehand.

But...what career are you planning to go into? And where do you live?

 

[tehsolace]

Thanks.
Thing is, even with a degree, you're still going to have to be persuasive to get the job. Usually, the best interviewee is the one who gets hired, not the best employee.
If your interviewer says to you "well, I've noticed that you don't have much experience in this field...so I'm a bit reluctant to hire you", you're hopefully not going to say "okay". You're going to say "well, let me counter your objection by saying..."
You'll have to handle objections to get jobs.
Same goes for not having a degree. The objection always comes up, it's a simple matter of responding to it in a positive way. Prepare your answers beforehand.

But...what career are you planning to go into? And where do you live?

Its so easy to say "instead of saying 'okay', you should say 'well let me persuade you to hire me by saying that...' ". Those three dots at the end aren't exactly easy to fill in with your own words when your trying to think up reasons why someone should hire you and you don't have the skills needed to do the job.

I would imagine the result of the persuasion sounds alot like "I'm a hard worker and I learn fast and etc etc" ALL respectable jobs require hard work and learning quickly.

If you don't have something to show for, they pretty much don't expect much from you.

 

[repiV]

Its so easy to say "instead of saying 'okay', you should say 'well let me persuade you to hire me by saying that...' ". Those three dots at the end aren't exactly easy to fill in with your own words when your trying to think up reasons why someone should hire you and you don't have the skills needed to do the job.

Who says he doesn't have the skills needed to do the job?
The point of an interview is to show that you do. Like I said, the guy that gets hired is the best interviewee. And any good recruiter knows that a CV does not necessarily represent a person's true ability, especially in sales!

I would imagine the result of the persuasion sounds alot like "I'm a hard worker and I learn fast and etc etc" ALL respectable jobs require hard work and learning quickly.

If you don't have something to show for, they pretty much don't expect much from you.

At an interview for a recruitment consultant job, if the question of my lack of experience came up, I would say that I do have sales experience and customer service experience, both of which I excelled at and these are key skills for recruitment. Furthermore, I would point out that I have the traits needed to drive success in the competitive industry such as ambition, determination, drive, I can get over setbacks, willing to learn and put in the hours, I'm dedicated to the career path as is evident by the training course I have done, I am driven to succeed and don't like being watched over like a hawk - like to be given the tools and left to do the job, good sales skills, and most importantly I am enthusiastic about both the career and about your company...there's more I could say too that isn't "hard worker" or "fast learner".
Objections that are raised aren't conclusive proof that you are unsuitable for the job.

 

[zleppelin]

Thanks.
Thing is, even with a degree, you're still going to have to be persuasive to get the job. Usually, the best interviewee is the one who gets hired, not the best employee.
If your interviewer says to you "well, I've noticed that you don't have much experience in this field...so I'm a bit reluctant to hire you", you're hopefully not going to say "okay". You're going to say "well, let me counter your objection by saying..."
You'll have to handle objections to get jobs.
Same goes for not having a degree. The objection always comes up, it's a simple matter of responding to it in a positive way. Prepare your answers beforehand.

But...what career are you planning to go into? And where do you live?

I live on the other side of the Atlantic and I want to go into programming/software engineering. I thought about studying CS in college, but as you said, a college degree doesn't guarantee I'll get the job that I desire.

As for your argument that the best entrepeneurs are the ones with the least academic credentials, the same could be said about programmers. The problem is that the Bill Gateses and John Carmacks of the world are few and far between.

 

[repiV]

I live on the other side of the Atlantic and I want to go into programming/software engineering. I thought about studying CS in college, but as you said, a college degree doesn't guarantee I'll get the job that I desire.

As for your argument that the best entrepeneurs are the ones with the least academic credentials, the same could be said about programmers. The problem is that the Bill Gateses and John Carmacks of the world are few and far between.

Oh, if it's programming you want to go into then I would definitely recommend going to university...
But there are routes that don't involve university. Take Splash Damage...they got hired to make Enemy Territory after making Quake 3 Fortress, a free mod. Now they're big.
My belief is...scientific/technical/engineering careers - go to uni. Anything else - probably not necessary.
If you're hot stuff, and you can make an incredible product that will catch people's attention?
And you can put together an impressive portfolio of work you have done?
Then it could work. But (and I could be wrong, of course) I think you're gonna have to go to uni for that...

 

[zleppelin]

repIV, what exactly do you call an impressive portfolio of work I have done? Do you think a simple java-based web browser, to give you an idea, would be a meaningful addition to that portfolio? If that's not sufficient, just exactly what type of program do you think I should come up with before someone takes me seriously?

 

[repiV]

repIV, what exactly do you call an impressive portfolio of work I have done? Do you think a simple java-based web browser, to give you an idea, would be a meaningful addition to that portfolio? If that's not sufficient, just exactly what type of program do you think I should come up with before someone takes me seriously?

I really don't know what would be considered impressive...I'm about as technical as Ann Coulter is intelligent. Sorry.
I figured you would know - but there's plenty of people here you can ask.

 

[nofx]

Goto college you can always drop out. I dont know why you are treating this situation as some legal obligation, some black and white picture, no one is going to say you cant drop out. Imho if I were you I would go around looking at universities that you think you will like, for example I like the small private college where everyone kind of knows everyone else and action of having small class sizes. But you may prefer a large university where you pretty much have a mini world inside the actual world, I like small colleges better because I think the people I have my great university dance orgy with will become a perfect situation that will have purpose and meaning, plus you can pretty much know almost everyone on campus and experience everything. It is not like youve tried everything in the world, what if you took a foreign policy class or something like that and found you have an extreme dharma to do something about shortcomings the world today.

If i were you I'd go for a year just to take the basic classes and see if theres a major you would like to do. OR after highschool just take a year off from school and relax possibly try to talk to people about their jobs. IMHO some of the people ive talked to have had completely different jobs from what their major wanted them to do. also imho people with jobs like science/medicine/engineering have always wanted to do that thing or may have been pushed to do that thing because of money usually have that job. BUT if you goto colege for underwater basket weaving you will probably come out with a random job somewhere NOT necessarilary in an office. I know a lady who loves to be outside she took a random major but when she get out of college opened her own landscaping business and now lives a decent life.

My belief is...scientific/technical/engineering careers - go to uni. Anything else - probably not necessary.

I dont agree with this at all some universities offer study abroad programs where you can goto a different country and earn credit hours to me college is a grand experience and to negate yourself away from this experience is kind of dumb imho you are only limiting yourself in the people you will meet, what if yuo goto college and meet the next Bill Gates start your anti microsoft corporation. College is also the grand push also if you dont goto college you wont be poor you just may have a hard time finding a job down the line, or perhaps starting a business. my 2 cents hopefuly you can read it and understand.

 

[Zeus]

^^ agreed. The thing is my mom won't let me take a year off, because she seems to think if I take a year off after HS that I'll get lazy and not go to college. Which she may be right because I really can't friggin stand school, I never liked it and never will, and now I'm a senior in high school. But I decided im just going to community college, its cheaper and easier.

 

[nofx]

^^ agreed. The thing is my mom won't let me take a year off, because she seems to think if I take a year off after HS that I'll get lazy and not go to college. Which she may be right because I really can't friggin stand school, I never liked it and never will, and now I'm a senior in high school. But I decided im just going to community college, its cheaper and easier.

i am becoming similar to this i love learning and eveyrthing but i dont know how someone can say i learned to the level of an A or B or D or C or F this paradigm i dont agree with grades and I dont agree with homework, there shud be homework but it should be something like a lab or in field analysis or going to somewhrere and conversing in spanish or finding the derivative of how long it takes bananas in a grocery store to expire, the problem with school is that they dont teach us how to think they just feed us seemingly useless strands of random information but i live in florida the school system here has alot of holes and gaps. for example the computers we have in our classroom are from 1996 it seems the internet is always down and finding a printer that works is like finding a pot of gold near the rainbow but that is just my school i am sure other schools (recent) have decent computers and stuff like that

i am in the ib program at my school, which is basically an international program which many universities respect give generous amount of money to ib grads and i have alot of credit hours already for college so if I wanted to I can take off a year, im not going to do that, however IF was going to do that iwould definately try to open my own business be it ebay or just something weird and obscure that you think ppl will need. or go scout out the college you want to goto maybe they need a pizza shop closer to the school stuff like that

my main goal is just to keep thinking its ok to quit something and start over just do some self introspection no matter what we type what we may bicker about in this thread the decision ultimately resides in you and this decision has probably already been made and concluded upon we can only point you in our directions seriously just do some self introspection and stop worrying about "time" if you get into programming and you dont like it dont be afraid to turn away and find something else. bye