To Belbo

[Telejazzer]

Telejazzer, on a side note about your uni degree . . . . Don't overrate it.

Back in my youth I did a few years as a first-years' tutor at uni. When it came time to marking essays all of the tutors were brought into a room with the course lecturer for a collective scaling exercise. We tutors would all have to take it in turns to read aloud an essay on each of the essay questions the students could choose from to achieve a common sense of how to grade the papers to an agreed standard.

I tell you! The tears of laughter, the hysterical shrieks in stomach-wrenching chortle-pain, the absolute renal relief when the excruciating exercise was over, stays with me to this day. And we'd pass everything - everything! - just to avoid any legal complications with peeved parents because they were paying HECs.

The breaking point for me came when my head of department forced me to pass an essay that was lifted word for word from the preface to one of the most well-known texts in the feild. The only thing that had changed was that half the full stops in it had been replaced by the student with commas, rendering it grammatically unintelligible! In my own pre-HECs undergraduate days that would have been cause for immediate dismissal from the course, and possibly even from the university. And it was by no means an isolated or unusual example. I resigned shortly thereafter, having utterly lost faith in 'higher education'.

My advice: Take what you can from the experience, but don't delude yourself into thinking its a real education. You'll only get that after you graduate and start learning how to handle yourself in the business. Think of it as a tool kit that you're assembling for building useful things later, because in itself it's as useless as man-nipples.

Thanks for taking the time to respond Belbo, much appreciated. I tried to send you a PM in response to your post but I have no luck so I'm doing it here.

I do not overrate uni as I've met people who are successful that didn't have a degree or whatever but a degree, specially a property degree would give me so much leverage as I would like to do business overseas. I would consider it as a tool but not the only means to use in the future.

I've done Uni before and didn't like the structure or format so I dropped. It took sometime to find a program to suit my learning style. I also checked the background of the instructors to see who I can connect with and learn the most from and most looks like they are credible specially the ones who are working in the field.

I am mostly self-taught, a slow starter but a hard worker. It takes me a while to figure things out sometimes but I do have an attitude that when I want to figure something out I don't stop until I do, and I learn from most people I meet. As you can probably tell, I am not in my 20s (I do feel like it though ) pretending to know everything. As a matter of fact, the more I learn, the more I realise I don't know much.

I am on the back foot with debts from my previous mistakes, working 40-50 hours a week and trying to devote 36 hours of study is no easy feat but this is what my gut is telling me and it feels right. I cannot predict the future nor guarantee that this will provide me the success that I'm after I believe it will increase my chances.

 

[locko24]

You may not be getting a 'real' education at uni, but without it, you don't get that piece of paper with 'Degree' printed on it!!!

(Though i never went to uni)

In the words of my mentor;

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!!"
Ralph Wiggam


Regards
Locko

 

[Belbo]

It sounds to me TJ that you're working your butt off to make a new future for yourself. Damn well good on you indeed!

I did it myself around 8 years ago, and am profoundly glad I did. I too held down a full-time job while doing a year-long grad cert of accounting at nights and weekends (by internet-based correspondence study thru Deakin Uni).

It gave me an extremely useful bunch of new tools to add to those picked up in my earlier arts degree, and so contributed handily to being considered for, and now performing in, my current (very well-paid ) business management role.

But on top of those tools and most vital of all I think is the real education that comes from actually doing business itself. Something like 'street-smarts', it's a mixture of insight and instinct that actual business experience alone teaches, such as is needed for example to sense market directions, negotiate large sales contracts, smell out hidden dangers, take calculated purchasing risks, etc.

It's by no means a given that by simply working in a business this education will come to you. After all, how many people very experienced in their industries holding plenty of qualifications are never offered those organisations' critical leadership roles? This is where self-education really comes into its own. No-one else can teach you good judgement, but it is to my mind unquestionably the most important skill you do have to learn if you are to become a successful person in business.

I won't end by saying good luck with your studies TJ, because luck should have absolutely nothing to with it. You'll go far if you work hard and think harder.

Therein endeth the lesson (one you definitely won't ever hear in a motivational speaker seminar)!

 

[Ocean Architect]

Higher education is actually vocational training in a specific field. I have a pharmacy degree folded in 4 under my bed somewhere. Couldn't bear to have slaved away at uni for 4 years just to go and work for someone else for 30 bucks an hour when I could make more than that playing CDs in a nightclub and renting out audio gear from home in my boxer shorts.

Also, Belbo, you need a PM button. Just sayin.

 

[Belbo]

OA, I've got all the boxes in 'messaging and notification' ticked. What am I missing?

 

[Ocean Architect]

Oh. It seems to be working now.

 

[warrioress]

As someone who worked in recruitment, that piece of paper shows potential employers that you have the ability to stick to something and finish it.

I agree that there is not a lot of things that beat life experience but the award is still not to be disregarded.