Is going back to school the answer for a career change? When I started college at 18 I thought I knew what I wanted to do.
I didn’t know that by the time I graduated college I would go to three schools, have four majors and it would take eight years to get my degree. Some of those circumstances were choices I made (a break from college) but I also had things happen in life that were out of my control (a medical issue). I never set out to have my college experience be the uncertain roller coaster that it was. I would do it all differently now.
As I graduated in my mid-twenties it was from a major and with a degree (Visual and Media Arts) that didn’t lead to the job I wanted or working in the industry I wanted to work in (radio) and because it was so specific it didn't carry to other job applications.
I applied for years to jobs in that field. I worked in several positions but only got so far. I didn't get to that coveted job I thought I wanted. Along the way I took other jobs I could get. I worked in jobs that were in other industries, that were completely unsuited to my degree, what I am good at, my experience or what I wanted. I've held many jobs that were part-time, low paying, monotonous, unchallenging and unfulfilling, even had a period of long term unemployment. Jobs that I could get. Very few of the jobs I held were ones I sought, wanted or had any interest in. They have just been jobs I could and needed to do. When your career history looks like that it changes your life trajectory; from making enough money to live to not having a progressive resume to creating self doubt and unhappiness.
In time I gave up on idea of working in what I had studied in college. The industry has changed, the jobs are fewer but mostly because it never happened. When I was in college I didn't understand that industries change, interests change, what's needed in the economy changes.
The degree I have is no longer who I am or what I want to do. The degree I have didn't get me a job in my field then and it can't get me a different job now. At times since graduation family or fiends have suggested that I go back to school, get another degree (start over for another BA or go for an MA) or at least get a certificate in something "practical" that would guarantee me a job. I thought about it and even explored the idea a couple times.
I never wanted to go back to school though. And I particularly didn't want to learn a “practical” trade that I have no interest in just because it would "guarantee me a good job". I don't see the point of going into more debt than my degree has already given me or spending another however many years in school with only the possibility that I would get a job in an area I have no interest in. College was the first time I found school interesting or knew what I was good at. I choose my classes, my majors, my degree based on those things, not based on getting a job or creating a career. There's a reason they say hindsight is 20/20. So if I don't want to go back to school to learn a "practical" trade then can I reinvent the degree I have? Does that degree even matter years after graduation? How do I make the transferable skills and experience from low level or non-relevent jobs into a job I want and a different career instead?
I don't have the answers so I change my resume to emphasize the experience and skills I want employers to see. I read books about changing careers and do mock interviews and take skills tests. For various reasons; money, time, what would I study, the idea of starting over at an older age, another degree isn't an an option.
At this writing I am contemplating doing a certificate in a different creative area. It's not “practical”. I have no guarantee that it would lead to a job in that field but getting a certificate could put me on a new path.
Isn't that what further schooling is about? A new path.
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