Tag / 48 days eagles

by Nathan Coumbe

6 reasons why you should and should not go back to school

I wrote recently about why taking action is more important to your work and career goals than going back to school for more degrees. Today I’m going to give you 6 reasons why you should and should not go back to school.

Why Not?

  1. DON’T go back to school if you cannot afford it. No education, not even a medical or law degree is worth massive amounts of debt. You won’t make as much money as you think you will, and you may not even get the degree. Don’t go to school if you can’t afford it.
  2. DON’T go back to school if you don’t have a plan for what you want to try to do. No plan is full-proof anyway–you may change your mind halfway through and decide the field is not for you. Also, you may be able to get the knowledge and education you need without spending a fortune on a degree (which may be irrelevant by the time you finish).
  3. DON’T go back to school because you think the degree will get a job for you. It will not: your skills, abilities, projects, portfolio of work, and ability to sell yourself are the only things that will do that.

Why You Should

  1. DO go back to school if the field you’re entering is highly specialized and requires certain education or certifications, e.g., medicine, law, engineering, public school teaching or administration, etc. This also applies to those of you who wish to become higher education professors.
    • Keep in mind that the opportunities in higher education are limited. You will most likely spend years as an adjunct, competing with hundreds of other candidates who have the same credentials and publications as you, and there is no guarantee that college will be as it was when this pandemic is all said and done. Check out this video by Adam Grant on graduate education.
  2. DO go back to school because you love education and simply want to further develop yourself with an advanced degree (but only if you can pay for it. DO NOT GO INTO DEBT FOR EDUCATION).
  3. DO go to school if it is the only way to obtain the knowledge you seek. It is highly unlikely this reason is valid: with all the options available to you online, it’s easy to get an unoffical master’s degree in just about any field imaginable. It’s also easy and free to take real college classes online from Ivy League universities and other top institutions all over the country. (Click here if you want tips on how to get a useful education for almost no money. Dan Miller has another great article on the subject here.)

Learning is important. Well-educated individuals are in demand and in short supply in every industry in the United States and abroad. But well-educated does not mean letters behind your name or fancy degrees from famous colleges.

Well-educated means you have the real and practical knowledge, skills, abilities, and most importantly, the will and the desire to take initiative and execute on the work put in front of you.

You don’t have to go back to school, but you do have to continue your education.

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by Nathan Coumbe

You probably don’t need more schooling. You DO need to take action.

You are stressed, frustrated, angry, bored, or perhaps feeling underutilized. Your job isn’t satisfying, you’re treated poorly, or maybe you’ve lost your job during this crisis.

A common solution to these problems seems to be more education: another degree in a different field, a higher-level degree like a master’s or doctorate, or some other very expensive piece of paper. But is more education going to get you that dream job? Probably not.

Going back to school might actually be a way to hide: you don’t know what you want to do so you hide from making a decision by doing the socially acceptable move of going back to school. You are looking only at job postings online that ask for master’s degrees and Ph.Ds (when in reality you don’t need either in truth–they are simply trying to weed out applicants so the don’t have to look at as many resumes).

Action, not education, is the key to better work

What you really need to do is take action! Start doing work that you actually care about whether or not you get paid for it.

Do you want to move into marketing? Raise $50,000 for your favorite charity, the local zoo, or a museum you love. Run social media for some small businesses and restaurants in your area. This is how you create a portfolio of work that proves you can do the work that someone who is looking for a marketer needs.

Do you want to start counseling people on how to better communicate with their spouses, coworkers or bosses? Read books, attend seminars, create free guides and send them out to friends and connections online. Start creating videos with tips. No one truly needs to have a Ph.D. in Psychology to help people with their personal problems.

Do you want to become a teacher? Start teaching! Read literature, history, business books, magazines, whatever material you can on whatever subject you want to teach. Be a lifelong student. Start tutoring. Private schools don’t require teaching licenses, but they do want to know that you know your subject and know how to teach.

Do you want to be a freelance writer? Start writing! Create a blog, write articles on LinkedIn, pick up a book on copywriting and start making fake promo materials for real companies you care about or fake companies you made up.

A portfolio of work is better than an expensive piece of paper

You need a portfolio, not an expensive degree, to find work you really care about. You need a body of work, examples of what you have done and can do in the future.

You need projects behind your name, not letters. Companies care less and less about degrees with each passing day–just look at Apple, Google, Amazon, or Tesla. They want to know if you can do the work and take initiative on your own. A portfolio of work and projects will show them both. You might need to learn how to code, but you can do that for $40 a month rather than $50,000 for a degree that will be outdated in 2 years.

Schooling rarely gives you what you need to thrive in a career. Actual work, practice, and personal development is the key.

Get an education that pays

If you want some ideas about how to develop yourself without spending a fortune on a soon-to-be useless degree, check out this post I created recently. Another great resource is this article here by my mentor Dan Miller.

While you’re at it, surround yourself with people who are trying to level up and find work that is meaningful, purposeful, and profitable. Check out the 48 Days Eagles group, and surround yourself with likeminded people. Click this link here and get 3 months for the price of 1!

Create a body of work you’re proud of, and you will never want for jobs or income.

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