There are so many questions surrounding college degrees and careers. Mainly, do you need a college degree to have a successful career? In truth, no, you don’t. There are many successful people out there that have enjoyed prosperous careers without going through higher education at all. Sometimes, you might have the talent and experience to get hired for a role and then work your way up the career ladder. Of course, there’s an element of luck involved too as you hope the ideal job for you lands in your lap.
What I have an issue with are people that hear things like this and automatically assume a degree is worthless. They see that other people didn’t get one and are incredibly successful, so they assume all degrees are a waste of time. Don’t fall for this mistake, degrees are still very worthwhile. Choosing whether or not to study for one depends a lot on the person you are; your dreams, aspirations, and the career path you hope to go down.
Bearing that in mind, I want to show you why a college degree is more worthwhile than you might think. There are plenty of reasons you should get one, and I’ve listed the biggest and best reasons in this piece:
Broaden Your Mind
The key benefit of a college degree is that you sit through an extra 3+ years of education. Not only that, but you’re being taught things that are potentially way beyond anything you learned in high school.
Consequently, you’re broadening your mind and taking on loads of new and important information. You can learn things in college that you might not have learned if you didn’t go. Therefore, it prepares you for the career you have in mind. You can start looking for jobs - once you graduate - with more confidence in your chances as you’ve got lots of knowledge. In my eyes, the aim of college is to turn regular people like you or I into experts within their chosen field. This is particularly important in careers such as finance and accounting. You need to learn about various financial laws and best practices to operate in this field. A college degree is the best way to do this and expand your knowledge.
Expand Your Career
A lot of people always assume you need to get a degree before you start work. However, this isn’t always the case. You could get a job and work for a good few years before starting to study for a degree. In some cases, you may need to get a degree to expand your career and progress further.
There are so many careers like this, such as nursing. You can become an RN (Registered Nurse) without doing a proper degree course in a college. There are expedited programs that you can sit through and pass to earn your qualifications. However, an RN doesn’t get to do as much as someone with a BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing). People with a BSN got a full bachelor’s degree and can do more things as a nurse, thus expanding their career. But, if you start out as a registered nurse, you can always study a Nursing RN to BSN online college degree. This will improve your career, give you more responsibilities, and allow you to progress further. You see, you don’t have to jump into your career with a bachelor's degree, but you can add one later on if you’re looking to open up your options and maybe earn a promotion.
Earn Lots Of Money
This is probably the big reason that pushes most people to earn a degree. Everyone is always taught that a degree equals more money. Well, we’ve already established that this isn’t always the case. You can earn more money without a degree than some people earn with one. But, there’s no denying people with a degree put themselves in a better position to earn money.
It all boils down to the degree you’re studying. A lot of the highest paid jobs in the country make it essential that potential employees have certain degrees. Let’s pick out a handful of the top earning jobs right now; attorney, a nuclear engineer, architect, pharmacist, physician. What do all of these jobs have in common? Two things. One; to be considered for any of these jobs you will need a degree. Two; they all earn an average of $90,000+ a year. So, you can see that a college degree will help you earn money as it opens the door to these top-level jobs.
Build Networking Opportunities
One of the best kept secrets regarding career success is that networking should never be overlooked. Too many people seem to think networking is something businesses do to try and gain contacts in different industries/areas. While this is true, it’s also a great idea for everyone to start networking as early as can be.
With a college degree, you’re going to be around lots of other people studying degrees to go into different industries. It’s well worth making as many friends as possible while you’re there, as you never know when it can come in handy. You could become good friends with someone in your college that has lots of big contacts through their family, which can open the door to some good career possibilities in the future. Likewise, you can become friendly with the staff and professors there too. They will undoubtedly know people who know people, and it can help you build a nice little network of contacts. People often say it’s not what you know, but who you know. Well, with a degree, you’ll know a lot of stuff, and you can know a lot of important people too.
I don’t want you to feel like I’m saying you definitely 100% should get a college degree. It’s more a case of showing you the benefits that one can bring. If you’re considering college, I will say make sure you research your degree beforehand. Figure out if it’s truly necessary for your chosen career. If it is, go for it, and see all these benefits.
Disclosure: This is a contributed post.
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