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More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

wsj.com

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Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#161

Post by jonathantf2 »

One thing these articles usually fail to mention is the fact that college/university is also a huge social experience.

I'm a young person who took an apprenticeship instead of going to university - only one of my high school friends did the same as me, literally everybody else went onto university. I'm from a small town, there's not much going on and apart from when all my friends come back at Christmas and those few weeks in the summer I'm not doing much of anything other than work and sitting on my computer. I imagine if I grew up in a city this would be completely different but there's not much opportunity to make friends of my age around here and I really really really wish I had gone to university just so I wouldn't be so damn lonely, even if learning on the job works better for me.

(oh and the fact that most companies don't recognise the qualification I do have, makes it pretty much useless)

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#162

Post by nemo44x »

Mc91 wrote: post #9

I have been programming for a Fortune 500 company for four years. Not long ago, I applied for a job at another Fortune 500 company. HR really had only question for me, they saw on my resume I did not have a college degree listed, and did I have one? I said I went through most of college towards a Bachelors in Computer Science but dropped out before graduation. I did not get the job, although I don't know if that's wh…

Larger places tend to have blanket requirements in part to protect themselves from hiring lawsuits, discrimination, etc.

I look at education when I hire but I’m more interested in experience and I never use a degree as a requirement. I am probably more likely to have the recruiter put the candidate into the pipeline if they have a CS degree but don’t have much experience or experience that doesn’t seem 100% relevant. But that’s not super common.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#163

Post by [deleted] »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

College seems to have ~3 uses from students' perspectives: 1. A trade school for technical professionals who actually need specialist education (scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.) 2. A finishing school for the elite 3. A blood sports arena for the brilliant to complete for professorships (almost all of whom will lose and be saddled with 6 figures of debt and 7 figures of opportunity cost) A lot of people…

[deleted]

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#164

Post by suzzer99 »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

College seems to have ~3 uses from students' perspectives: 1. A trade school for technical professionals who actually need specialist education (scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.) 2. A finishing school for the elite 3. A blood sports arena for the brilliant to complete for professorships (almost all of whom will lose and be saddled with 6 figures of debt and 7 figures of opportunity cost) A lot of people…

I'm an engineer now, but am still very glad I had a liberal arts undergrad.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#166

Post by passwordoops »

As a PhD analytical chemist, about 15 years past graduation I now regret just not becoming a plumber in my early 20s. Basically the same skill set, but the tubes are wider. Also would have been higher life time pay, at least to this point and possibly into retirement

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#167

Post by suzzer99 »

alsaaro wrote: post #88

As someone who has worked two of the most intensive blue collar jobs, people should be wary of romanticizing blue collar work. Blue collar workers are expected to really work at their jobs. White collar workers can chill if there is no work to be done, or be sent home early with pay, or take a relaxation day and just browse the internet and listen to podcasts. They have perks, you see white collar workers leaving wor…

If I was rich I would still make sure my kids worked at least one blue collar job in their teens. There's no substitute for first-hand experience in that world.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#168

Post by tempsy »

gloryjulio wrote: post #123
tempsy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wouldn’t say that. i just think if you go to a lower ranked school your path to career success more so relies on getting a technical degree but yes you shouldn’t be studying liberal arts at a no name school.

You just proved my point. Since most of the ppl do need to work for money and success or their quality of life suffers.They would need something like unis, trade school, online schools or whatever to bring them to their goal. By this standard lots of low tier unis are not worth the time

no i didn’t. it’s not about the ranking it’s about what you choose to study. if you go to a lower ranked school you need to focus on technical skills. saying it’s not worth it in general is not what i said at all

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#169

Post by kcplate »

bluedino wrote: post #31
Mc91 wrote: post #9

I have been programming for a Fortune 500 company for four years. Not long ago, I applied for a job at another Fortune 500 company. HR really had only question for me, they saw on my resume I did not have a college degree listed, and did I have one? I said I went through most of college towards a Bachelors in Computer Science but dropped out before graduation. I did not get the job, although I don't know if that's wh…

A job opened on my team where I am working at as contractor. My boss told me to apply for the job. I got an email back right away from HR stating that I didn't meet the requirements of having a degree. Joke's on them, I already work there.

I had a similar situation where the lack of a specific degree algorithmicly sorted me out of a job where i was not only an expert in some extremely vertical tech, but a known person within the industry for the tech and probably the only person in my metro area with the ability currently looking for new opportunities.

After I got the rejection email i called their HR and asked to just lay my resume on the desk of the COO abd was told “no can do because i wasn’t qualified”

I got so frustrated that their HR dept was so tone deaf, I decided the org was a bad fit for me.

Later on had connected with one of the executives after I moved on to another org and an industry expo. Told him the story and he was horrified that they missed the opportunity.

The moral to the story is you need to get via networking if you don’t have a degree thanks to the rigidity of HR nowadays.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#170

Post by iLoveOncall »

alsaaro wrote: post #88

As someone who has worked two of the most intensive blue collar jobs, people should be wary of romanticizing blue collar work. Blue collar workers are expected to really work at their jobs. White collar workers can chill if there is no work to be done, or be sent home early with pay, or take a relaxation day and just browse the internet and listen to podcasts. They have perks, you see white collar workers leaving wor…

You are romanticizing white collar jobs as much as you claim people do blue collar ones.
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