Students Beware!

Since I started this blog late last year, I have tried very hard to not let it become a bully pulpit from which to rant about anything that makes me angry or to complain about my personal life. A quick perusal of the blogosphere will show that there's enough of that already. I think it's all well and good that there are blogs that describe the minutiae of someone's life, and I'm also sure that it's very therapeutic to jot down thoughts, but I just don't feel the need to put my personal crises out for all to see. For the most part, nobody cares what I had for breakfast or how my relationships are going. I try very hard to write about things I consider relevant, things that perhaps someone else can identify with and maybe, just maybe, draw some inspiration from.

Having said that, today's essay concerns the paradox of needing a college education in today's world juxtaposed against the real world's apparent desire for experience over schooling. To be blunt, I am fairly baffled that a BA means little to many employers. It doesn't matter if you have a degree in something if you have no "real world" experience. For instance, I have a degree in English with a specialty in composition. Anyone who has been to college knows that it is very difficult and time consuming (not to mention outrageously expensive) to EARN a degree in a chosen field. I chose English/Composition because I love to write, and I can think of no other job that would afford me the opportunity to get paid doing what I love to do. But do you think I can find a job doing it? I spent countless hours studying all styles of writing. MLA. Chicago. APA. Not only did I study them, I studied them under the tutelage of doctorate level professors, published authors and instructors with concrete, first hand knowledge of what to do and what not to do in order to succeed. And, if I might toot my own horn, I did very well at it. Yet every single job I apply to wants to know how much experience I have. Did they not read my resume? Do they think that degrees in composition are handed out willy-nilly to anyone who can afford it?

In almost every cover letter I write, I make sure and include the following line: "Anyone who knows anything about writing knows that in order to earn a degree in composition, one must do a good deal of writing". Doesn't my four years of seemingly endless hours producing reams of papers count for anything? Isn't that experience?

Let me digress for a moment. When I was 18 years old, I went to work in a 7up factory in Flint, Michigan. It was my first "real" job, and I of course had to start at the bottom of the ladder, as a general warehouse laborer. Except for a three year stint in the Army, it was the only job I had for nearly 20 years. In that time, I worked very hard, and eventually made it to supervisor of both the Quality Assurance and Maintenance departments. Anyone who has worked in a factory knows that it is not easy. Wait, I need to clarify that: It is not easy to do the same job, day after day after day for 20 years. Being tied to a machine or even supervising those tied to machines is a living hell. Some people do it for an entire career, operating the same machine every single day of their working lives, and good for them for being able to stand it. There's no doubt that I made decent money, but the sheer ennui of the job felt like very slow suicide, not to mention a waste of my life.

I applied for a managerial position, but was told I could not advance any farther because I did not have a college education. Fair enough. I took three years off and, by virtue of my hard work, finally earned a degree (University of Michigan). And now, firmly set in middle age, I cannot find a job writing, because I "have no experience". I have been around the world (thanks to the Army), and I have seen things that most people will never see, done things most will never do, and, crazy as it sounds, I remember it all. I have worked on both sides of a union, I have worked on farms, I have stood guard in the one of the most inhospitable places on the earth, I have even worked on a garbage truck (that's another essay). I have made presentations to boardroom executives and interviewed janitors to make sure I was able to produce training manuals that all audiences could understand, yet I do not have enough experience to write marketing material. How hard can it be?

I suppose the main point I'm trying to get across is this: Do not assume that a college degree is a ticket to an enjoyable, well paying job. I made that mistake, and I would save others that pain if I can. I often find myself wishing I had never gone to school, that I had stayed in the factory and relied heavily on alcohol to keep me from remembering that a monkey could do my job. No matter how bad it was, it was better than trying to convince a twenty-something job recruiter that experience, especially as it relates to writing is gained not only through work but life as well.