Why You Need A Degree

The Obsolescence Of Education

Everything you will learn in business school should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, some introductory classes spend considerable time proving a certain fundamental theory only to disprove it later. How lovely: you pay us thousands of dollars for an education so that at the end of the line, you can prove us wrong. Great business model! But aren't academic institutions non-profit enterprises? Of course not, so what are their purposes after all?

Discipline

The first thing that an education teaches you is discipline. You thought that discipline was not eating that extra bar of chocolate or averting that miscellaneous temptation? You were wrong. Discipline is sitting on your tush for hours (bar stool notwithstanding folks) and listening to a professor go on and on. If you can do this on a consistent basis, then surely you have discipline.

Responsibility

The second thing that an education instills is responsibility. This is most ironic because one can miss a class and go undetected. In your career, missing a day will get noticed and often reprimanded. If discipline and responsibility were it however, why go to school when boot camp would do the trick? Surely we are missing the most important factor: learning.

Learning

Some of you may have never completed your education and are working in a particular field. Do you need to return to school? You may need to at some point, but not now, unless of course completing your degree is the ultimate goal.

Others may have completed studies in high technology sectors like engineering or computer science and now believe that a business education is the way to go. Is it? Well, being in school is not the goal in itself; learning is and should always be. So whether you are learning in your industry firsthand or seek to return to school, you are moving in the right direction as long as you are learning.

A third category of students find themselves in a specific field and ask themselves whether or not they have pursued the right path. Truth is that what you are studying is irrelevant if you are pushing the envelope and maximizing your own development. If you have a technical mind, majoring in computer science or engineering will further your career while majoring in liberal arts may help you present your ideas better. If you are creative, majoring in business may be great in marketing and commercializing your work, but it will not help you become a better artist per se.

A degree also pushes you to learn and expand your knowledge base. The top employers care even less about what you think you know. They want knowledgeable students that can learn now and fast. After all, they believe that their training is superior to your education anyway. The more you think you know, the less attractive you are as an employee.

Completing an education requires dedication, a sense of responsibility, hard work, discipline and an intellectual capacity to learn. This is also the DNA of a successful employee.

Like many, you may find that you belong in none of the three categories. What is the right answer for you? Only you can tell, but sit up straight and pay attention as class is about to get started.