Thumbing Their Nose At The Edu-Bubble
Alex Williams writes in the NYT:
BENJAMIN GOERING does not look like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, talk like him or inspire the same controversy. But he does apparently think like him.Two years ago, Mr. Goering was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, studying computer science and philosophy and feeling frustrated in crowded lecture halls where the professors did not even know his name.
"I wanted to make Web experiences," said Mr. Goering, now 22, and create "tools that make the lives of others better."
So in the spring of 2010, Mr. Goering took the same leap as Mr. Zuckerberg: he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco to make his mark. He got a job as a software engineer at a social-software company, Livefyre, run by a college dropout, where the chief technology officer at the time and a lead engineer were also dropouts. None were sheepish about their lack of a diploma. Rather, they were proud of their real-life lessons on the job.
"Education isn't a four-year program," Mr. Goering said. "It's a mind-set."
The idea that a college diploma is an all-but-mandatory ticket to a successful career is showing fissures. Feeling squeezed by a sagging job market and mounting student debt, a groundswell of university-age heretics are pledging allegiance to new groups like UnCollege, dedicated to "hacking" higher education. Inspired by billionaire role models, and empowered by online college courses, they consider themselves a D.I.Y. vanguard, committed to changing the perception of dropping out from a personal failure to a sensible option, at least for a certain breed of risk-embracing maverick.
Risky? Perhaps. But it worked for the founders of Twitter, Tumblr and a little company known as Apple.
Maybe it will work for them, and I hope so. I'd like to see more support for entrepreneurs, and I definitely think that the "standard" 6 year degree is getting pretty bloated.
Still, modeling your life after a few very very lucky billionaire role models? Doesn't seem wise, especially with story after story of how startup salaries and careers do not match careers in establish Fortune 2000, story after story of how startup founders are screwed by VCs, story after story of how VC money is drying up, and well,
Well, there's a lot to learn in software that is NOT learned in the first two years of school.
Having been through a few software bubbles, it's not clear to me these guys are the next Zuckerberg, or just another bunch of gold miners panning away never to get rich ala 1849.
jerry at December 1, 2012 1:40 AM
Once the company goes beyond being a startup, it changes policies and looks around only for people who have completed college. That is why the education bubble is not bursting. If the education bubble really has to burst, established companies have to totally do away with the requirement of college since they are the biggest employers of college educated people(maybe other than govt.). But established companies are loath to do so since it is quite a risky move. I remember attending a address by the chairman of Timken. He said that in those days the number of college educated people was less and so was the number of school educated people and so when they picked up anyone who had even a school education, the chances of that guy being decent were good. Now everybody has a school education so they are finding it difficult to choose the good ones and hence they are trying to raise the level by picking up college educated since they have to sift through a smaller pool. The education as such was of no importance to him, he just said that the probability of the person being good was more if he had completed college since he had the drive and motivation to do it even though it might actually be useless for work and real life.
Redrajesh at December 1, 2012 4:03 AM
"even though it might actually be useless for work and real life"
Great....hear that kiddies you are in massive debt over something employers consider useless but still require.
And look I get it from the employers perspective. They have to sort through a lot of people.
I don't want to pay for your college (like they do in most other countries) but I also see a broken system where we are selling useless diplomas to kids still figuring out what they want to do with their lives and putting them in debt. Not just in any debt, but massive debt.
Purplepen at December 1, 2012 4:39 AM
I'm a little torn on this issue. I hold 2 bachelor's degrees, one in English and one in Nursing. The nursing one is much more profitable. I'm even planning to go back for a MS in nursing, simply because I know that while I can handle the job I'm doing now in a cardiac/step-down hospital unit in my 30s, I'm certainly not going to be able to do the same kind of work in my 60s, and my family has remarkable longevity. The MSN will open up other avenues that are less physically demanding. I can see the use of at least one of my degrees, because you can't sit for the RN accreditation exam without it, and I won't be able to sit for the next accreditation I want without also taking an accredited Master's or Doctorate level program.
I also don't regret anything I picked up while I was getting my English degree, although some of it came from waiting tables and bartending to pay tuition and bills, and not from all the literature I read and papers I wrote. I'm all for education as a mind-set and not a piece of paper.
That said, I had much better instruction and institutional organization during my BA then during my BS. I paid a lot less for it, too. My nursing school came very close to losing state board of nursing approval while I was there, and I wasn't the only one in the class who felt like we were basically teaching ourselves based on outlines. I totally busted my tail, and I did far more than was required of me by the program. I got my license on the first try with the minimum number of questions, meaning that I was in the top percentiles of those taking the exam. I feel like I could have probably had the same result on my own for several tens of thousands cheaper than what I got. I had support and seasoned instruction for my BA, but it didn't do me much good. My second school's nursing program almost fell apart, that was still good enough to get me to the NCLEX. I doubt that my experience was terribly uncommon--I'm sure there are plenty of programs out there passing out degrees that are not worth the paper they're printed on.
Even taking all of that into account, I'm still not sure I'd personally want a nurse who was self-taught (if that were even an option to get a nursing license), but I feel pretty sure that there are plenty of "students of life" who muddled through on their own and are better than others who went through some programs in any field.
Kelli at December 1, 2012 6:57 AM
I don't understand:
> I'm still not sure I'd personally want a nurse
> who was self-taught
after you said:
> I wasn't the only one in the class who felt like
> we were basically teaching ourselves
Snoopy at December 1, 2012 9:02 AM
There are some things that need to have a formal education. And the payoff for the education makes sense.
Most software programming just needs a general understanding of the subject to be completed, and a subject matter expert to do the QA before the end-user sees it. Think about most software for figuring drug dosing. How much insulin do you give a patient: it is based on the patient's weight, age and type of insulins being used. If a nurse can calculate it, so can a computer programmer given the formula and a nurse in a QA to check it.
Besides the Student Loan bubble is about to burst. From the link: Today, just 6 months later, a full 1/2 of outstanding loans are in arrears and 13% are officially in default. If you consider that about half the student loans are in deferment for one reason or another, that means that the number is more like 25% are in default, that is about $250 billion in loans that were co-signed by the American people and is owed to the banks.
Having a requirement for a college degree in most jobs is not needed. There is a need for specific knowledge for some jobs, but OJT or a three month course could probably make most a subject matter expert. If you want to change careers, take another three month course.
Some things do require a college degree -- such as medicine, civil engineering, rocket science. But a lot of jobs and careers don't.
The other
Jim P. at December 1, 2012 12:08 PM
Yeah... I doubt if that little company called apple will even allow your CV through their system if you don't indicate you have a degree...
It's always BEEN an arms race to see who can bring the best discriminator to the table, and the HR person who likely doesen't know Java from coffee needs a really basic way to slice and dice info.
That it requires years of life and fortune is not their concern.
The other problem is that continuing your education after you start a family and have more responsibility, becomes much harder than doing it fresh outta highschool.
SwissArmyD at December 1, 2012 12:54 PM
Yeah, I took a class with a guy who worked at Facebook and he tired to put my CV in for me and they wouldn't even it take because I didn't have a masters.
The Former Banker at December 1, 2012 6:40 PM
My last two jobs were there because I was talking to the head hunter and my future manager. HR is only involved to fill out the details, not to present my resume to my manager. When HR thinks they are important and sets the standards -- the company is having problems.
Get your resume to the division manager you want to work for, not HR.
Jim P. at December 2, 2012 5:19 AM
Maybe some of the kids have seen this:
http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/personal-finance/articles/Shocking-Chart-on-Tuition-Vs-Earnings/11/30/2012/id/46251
Tuition's up 72%, pay for new graduates down 15% since 2000. This can't continue, and it won't.
People flipped houses, always making money,because houses always increased in value. Until they didn't. College grads make more money, until they don't anymore. Those loans? They don't go down because you can't get a job.
MarkD at December 2, 2012 7:27 AM
A college degree can still be a ticket to a well-paying career, but not if you major in Diversity Studies. My kid just graduated and immediately landed a fabulous job with fabulous salary and bennies. His major (prepare to be shocked): Engineering.
Jim Simon at December 2, 2012 8:52 PM
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