I think about going back for my MBA sometimes (slightly different from the article, but still similar in other ways), but I'm at the mid point in my career and I'm not convinced the money and time I spend going back would actually help me further my career more than building connections and actually doing the work. Senior managers I've talked to have agreed with my assessment. At best, an MBA would get me back to where I've already managed to get myself, but with maybe more attention for certain recruiters.
I'm a big fan of anyone wanting to further their education for whatever the reason -- and I do wish I could sometimes just study really interesting subjects again -- but for a lot of working professionals, I sometimes wonder if the degree will really matter?
Obviously, some professions are different than others and really do require a certain degree to even get in the door (medicine, law, sciences), but by the time I was 34, I'd managed to successfully build two careers in different disciplines, and neither was the focus of my degree. (And I took forever to graduate.)
Every person and situation is different so I don't want to pretend my experiences are prescriptive for anyone else -- but what I value about my undergrad experience is much less "what I learned" and the experiences I had growing up, having time to explore things I care about, etc.
Frankly, I wish there was a collegiate equivalent of a GED that would cover undergrad required classes like a science, a math class, english lit, history, etc. Make people take the actual degree classes, but allow people to test out of all the basic requirements (I realize CLEP allows for some of this but CLEP isn't accepted everywhere and there can be CLEP caps for credits). I feel like for a lot of adult learners, this would greatly reduce the mental challenge of "going back."
What I wish this had touched on more is the pervasive and predatory nature of for-profit colleges and universities. I'm all for anyone going back to school, but it makes me sick when people pay tens of thousands of dollars for bad programs from fro-profit places that have a very small chance at even helping them get a better job.
I'm a big fan of anyone wanting to further their education for whatever the reason -- and I do wish I could sometimes just study really interesting subjects again -- but for a lot of working professionals, I sometimes wonder if the degree will really matter?
Obviously, some professions are different than others and really do require a certain degree to even get in the door (medicine, law, sciences), but by the time I was 34, I'd managed to successfully build two careers in different disciplines, and neither was the focus of my degree. (And I took forever to graduate.)
Every person and situation is different so I don't want to pretend my experiences are prescriptive for anyone else -- but what I value about my undergrad experience is much less "what I learned" and the experiences I had growing up, having time to explore things I care about, etc.
Frankly, I wish there was a collegiate equivalent of a GED that would cover undergrad required classes like a science, a math class, english lit, history, etc. Make people take the actual degree classes, but allow people to test out of all the basic requirements (I realize CLEP allows for some of this but CLEP isn't accepted everywhere and there can be CLEP caps for credits). I feel like for a lot of adult learners, this would greatly reduce the mental challenge of "going back."
What I wish this had touched on more is the pervasive and predatory nature of for-profit colleges and universities. I'm all for anyone going back to school, but it makes me sick when people pay tens of thousands of dollars for bad programs from fro-profit places that have a very small chance at even helping them get a better job.