Get an Education: It Will Pay Big Dividends

I had a very successful career going as a 20 year veteran with a custom machinery manufacturing company. I started as a design engineer and worked my way up the ladder to a high-profile management position, Director of Manufacturing. It seemed like I had make my mark and life was good, until the president of the company decided to relocate the corporate office. Not wanting to uproot our family and disrupt the lives of our small children, I decided to take a different path. To make a long story short, I have spent most of the past 10 years searching for a comparable position with very limited success.
I can’t complain because I have been fortunate enough to maintain a career as a plant manager; however, I know that with additional formal education I would be considered for a role with greater responsibility within better organizations. If I was younger, I would return to school myself, so I could add a few acronyms to my resume like a BA or MBA.
Recruiters today are inundated with resumes. The fortune 500 companies need a quick method to pare down the massive pile of applications sitting on the HR desk. The easiest thing to do is discard any application that doesn’t include a four year degree. It’s unfortunate, really, since there are many very intelligent people out there that did not have the opportunity to attend a college, yet they learned the same skills on the job; perhaps they are even more of an asset than the college grad. Too bad!!!
Conversely, just because someone has graduated from college, it doesn’t mean that they are smarter or more valuable. Okay time for a story: I hired a graduate mechanical engineer for a simple design project. When I reviewed his drawing of a simple stepped shaft, it was drawn as 2 components welded together. I asked him why he didn’t draw it as one shaft machined on a lathe, and he said, “what’s a lathe? what do you mean, ‘machine it?’” You can’t make this stuff up! Unfortunately, recruiters today don’t see things my way, so you had better get an education.
I just heard a story today of an 80-year-old woman who just graduated from college. She wanted to volunteer for a literacy group but was denied because she didn’t complete high school. At the age of 80 she returned to school, graduated, and became a volunteer.
Find something you are really passionate about and make it your career. If you like to write, take up journalism. If you are creative, perhaps engineering, architecture, or some form of art. If you enjoy finance and math, perhaps you should consider a career in accounting. The moral of the story is to find something that you would enjoy doing for the rest of your life and to get a formal education in that field, and you are set for life. If you miss the education step, you may be left out in the cold even if you are the best engineer, the top accountant, or the greatest writer of all time.
Life lesson learned: a formal education will pay big dividends later in life. Take whatever steps necessary to help your children get through school and follow their dreams.