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How many jobs really require college?

devinhelton.com

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Re: How many jobs really require college?

#301

Post by wtbob »

GCA10 wrote: post #42

Lots of interesting ideas here, but also some wacky or condescending assumptions about other people's lines of work. Let's take two: TRUCK DRIVERS: They don't just move big rigs around. They also need to keep detailed log books, plan out routes, pass inspections -- and know how to talk civilly and constructively to DOT inspectors. An eighth grade education will not get you there. Especially on the last part. The back…

> They also need to keep detailed log books, plan out routes, pass inspections -- and know how to talk civilly and constructively to DOT inspectors. An eighth grade education will not get you there. Especially on the last part.

I don't think you need a high school or college education to learn how to talk civilly and constructively with authority; decent parents should be sufficient. Ignorance need not automatically mean petulance.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#302

Post by GCA10 »

literallycancer wrote: post #241
GCA10 wrote: post #42

Lots of interesting ideas here, but also some wacky or condescending assumptions about other people's lines of work. Let's take two: TRUCK DRIVERS: They don't just move big rigs around. They also need to keep detailed log books, plan out routes, pass inspections -- and know how to talk civilly and constructively to DOT inspectors. An eighth grade education will not get you there. Especially on the last part. The back…

>TRUCK DRIVERS: They don't just move big rigs around. They also need to keep detailed log books, plan out routes, pass inspections -- and know how to talk civilly and constructively to DOT inspectors. An eighth grade education will not get you there. Especially on the last part. The back-and-forth of a high-school classroom socializes teenagers to work with authority. Most high school dropouts give up because they ca…

Funny! Of course, the consequences of poorly assembled furniture are pretty trivial, so Ikea's current laissez-faire attitude towards its customers doesn't ruin society as we know it. (Besides, college grads like me are probably some of the worst furniture assemblers. We don't know what we don't know.) The consequences of truck-driving mistakes can be more serious, affecting many other lives in irreversible ways. Thus the greater interest in credentials, training, regulation, etc.

But I enjoyed the spoof anyway. Thanks for posting.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#303

Post by matchagaucho »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #252
matchagaucho wrote: post #187

When writing Developer job descriptions I typically settle on "Bachelors degree or equivalent" for the education requirement. The best Programmers I've worked with were self-taught autodidacts with insatiable curiosity.

How do people prove they have autodidacted the "equivalent" of a bachelors degree?

I prefer a take-home coding exercise for interviews, paid at an hourly rate. Equal parts subjective and objective.

The exercise requires candidates to git clone, unit test, document, submit PR, and walk a reviewer through the solution.... basically go full lifecycle on a coding task.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#304

Post by GCA10 »

dsacco wrote: post #276
mynameishere wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far from needing a college degree, financial advisors benefit from the unique professional advantage of not needing to exist.

Let me guess - you think financial advisors aren't worth their fees, and their jobs are entirely obviated by index funds with sensible portfolio allocations. Is that about the sum of it? Everyone who agrees with you already nodded to themselves in agreement and scrolled on. No one who doesn't already agree with your just-so statement was persuaded to consider a different perspective. You came into a conversation abou…

Wow! Not sure where all these assumptions came from, but let's try to get back to the simple point of the original post. Financial advisers, at their best, inject common sense and steady judgment into the lives of some highly successful people who might make reckless money decisions otherwise. That's impossible without commanding the respect of your clients.

Consider a guy I know that we'll call Jack. He's rich and headstrong. On his own, he'd be buying jets and chasing hot tips in the stock market. A financial adviser helped Jack keep his money decisions sane enough that after the inevitable divorce, there was still enough money for Jack's kids to be able to go to college.

Focusing only on portfolio modeling (with or without index funds) misses the essence of the job. Getting the person-to-person stuff right is huge. College helps make that happen.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#305

Post by humanrebar »

aphextron wrote: post #254

Any "job" does not require a college degree. A "job" is something that anyone can be trained to do. If you think that the purpose of college is to train you for a "job" then you're doing it wrong. The point of college is teach you the underlying fundamentals of how things like language and science work, so that you can extend those rules and use them to create new things and new ideas. You go to college to learn how…

There's a lot good about this point of view, but it comes from a fundamentally privileged point of view.

For first generation college students, the goal is to get a return on the substantial investment they are making. Achievement in abstract notions is fine, but paying off loans and escaping the career trajectories of their parents and neighbors is paramount.

Maybe the "advancement of humanity" education needs to be more distinct from elite vocational training.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#306

Post by Clubber »

felipemnoa wrote: post #269
Clubber wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You give them a task, point them to the source code that the task involves and let them figure it out. They can ask questions here and there, but they won't learn unless they are ass deep in the code trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I mean the world was educated through text for over a millennia. It works.

>>I mean the world was educated through text for over a millennia. It works I would replace text with mentors

You certainly make a good point. I would say hands on mentors are much more valuable in hands on skills, like an electrician or physician. I think programming falls into a less hands on skill like Math, Philosophy, or writing. You can have a Math mentor, but you gain most of your knowledge from reading what your mentors have written down.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#307

Post by komali2 »

iamacynic wrote: post #196
komali2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't your investment banker be replaced? Most trades are by bots anyway.

wrong job. i suggest you consider that you may not know as much as you think you know; this is one of those points in your life where cognitive dissonance kicks in.

Thanks, that's the rudest thing ever said to me on this website :) had to happen eventually

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#308

Post by user5994461 »

Clubber wrote: post #306
felipemnoa wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I mean the world was educated through text for over a millennia. It works I would replace text with mentors

You certainly make a good point. I would say hands on mentors are much more valuable in hands on skills, like an electrician or physician. I think programming falls into a less hands on skill like Math, Philosophy, or writing. You can have a Math mentor, but you gain most of your knowledge from reading what your mentors have written down.

To continue on the math example, you will need explanation from the mentor as long as you are facing something unfamiliar, or you're up for a very long struggle.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#309

Post by amptorn »

randomdata wrote: post #299
amptorn wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At age 13, give everyone a $100k education voucher. Good lord, how about just give that money to schools ?

Some of the most valuable education one can receive isn't offered at school. If the $100k can be spent freely on education, that becomes quite powerful.

> Some of the most valuable education one can receive isn't offered at school.

Yes, but all the rest of it is.

Re: How many jobs really require college?

#310

Post by rhizome »

overgard wrote: post #84
rhizome wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Unpopular?" That's the word you choose to describe this? "Men have natural abilities and disposition towards leadership. To deny this, to mandate equality of results, to push women into masculine roles, to domesticate and feminize men, only results in misery for both men and women. Universal suffrage elections are virtually always a bad idea." Ad hominem doesn't render an argument invalid, it just speaks to the cred…

Just because I dont feel the need to vent my outrage doesnt mean I approve. "Unpopular" seems totally accurate. If you're talking merits/credibility, I feel like his opinions on the other things just aren't relevant here. Is the standard that every time someone shares an opinion their entire history is judged?

Is the standard that every time someone shares an opinion their entire history is judged?

To some degree (I won't say 'entire'), this is the very definition of "credibility."

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