Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
colleges prior crash and between the yeas 2007-2013 were focused on well roundness.
In order to avoid accountability, universities argued that the purpose of college was not to find employment, but to educate the population Paraphrasing, but yeah fast forward today nobody buying that crap especially when tuition outpaces wage growth. The career services at many institutions were (iunno if still are) atrocious. Scummy jobs, scams, temp work, limited options, low pay you name it. Only the career fairs that occurred 1-2 times per year were decent. This sentiment also applies to Ivys and Universities like NYU when they realized simply obtaining a degree wouldn't cut it anymore.
The college or school within the University you went to really determined your career prospects. Business schools stepped up their game and invested into head hunters forming direct contacts with various corporations securing potential spots for students. People saw this trend occur around 2012/13 because many Universities were getting heat for unemployment underemployment numbers from the government and media. Unemployment of young adults reached its peak at either 2011/12. Anyway, that's how top tier Universities operate today. Back then it was either the lackluster career service has a job opportunity you want or go to Indeed.com.
I believe in restoring the apprentice system for many careers. In my law firm of three people (since merged on January 1, 2020 into another firm) we could have trained any reasonable bright person over the age of 20 better than law schools did.
Do most people feel like college adequately prepared them for their career? I don't.
I majored in accounting at a top school and did REALLY well. I even got my masters in 1 extra year. Everything seemed to be going well until I actually started working and felt like I slammed into a brick wall. It turned out that I lacked some very important skills that were never tested in school. I know this could happen in many fields but I was surprised because accounting is such an academic profession that there shouldn't have been this massive skills/personality gap. I guess I can blame this on multiple-choice tests and term-papers, where I excelled.
After several years I've earned enough experience to side-step into more general management roles that are a better fit, but I still struggle.
Looking back I would have preferred some kind of screening-out exam where they told me from the beginning to major in anything else. Or at least have given us classwork that more accurately simulated what we'd really do on the job.
Education, whether college, trades, or highschool is the foundation upon which you build the rest of your career. It's not the end-all and cannot be reasonably expected to teach everything you need to know in the working world. Especially as school tends to be academic and theoretical, and the "real world" tends to be more practical.
If you entered the workforce and felt like you slammed into a brick wall, then yeah you didn't get what you needed to out of it. I've seen this happen A LOT from 4.0 type students. Excel in school because you spend all your time memorizing, but never truly understanding the fundamentals and theory behind the classes. On top of that, they have trouble dealing with the stresses of performing under pressure and a constrained deadline. It probably would have been A LOT better to enter some sort of internship or work-study program, where you would have discovered this while you were in school. If you truly were at a "top school", you should have had no difficulty finding one.
College just teaches you to study, take tests etc. Nothing to do with navigating your way/networking through the workplace and developing connections with people in power (which is all that seems to matter in most places now).
College is USELESS for the most part. Its just a way to check off the resume job application that you have a degree. Loved my college years, but I didn't gain much of anything from it.
In terms of developing "Skills/experience" in college.. Mehhh. most jobs in corporate can be learned within a few months with proper on the job training and from there you continue to build on that foundation from there. Of course, most employers want someone else to foot the bill to train their employees
I think the overall problem for me was that my school bought TOO much into the whole "leaders of tomorrow" perspective. I think they took for granted how "smart" all of their students were and focused on all the big-picture stuff to the point where they overlooked some fundamentals. It was all very high-level conceptual and memorization, but for example we never "did" a tax return or bank rec. (Which I did think was a bit odd at the time.) Every adult looked at my grades like "great, you're going to do well." At age 18-22, I had no reason to doubt their assessment. But when I started working it turned out I did the everyday nitty-gritty accounting work at half-speed of my peers. I tried hard, but my bosses weren't happy.
I've finally started to find my footing (and better pay) by getting into more general management roles, but I just wondered how others felt about their schooling. Either in accounting or just in general. I really like the idea that was proposed above to make our system more internship-based to guarantee a more real world perspective.
I think the overall problem for me was that my school bought TOO much into the whole "leaders of tomorrow" perspective. I think they took for granted how "smart" all of their students were and focused on all the big-picture stuff to the point where they overlooked some fundamentals. It was all very high-level conceptual and memorization, but for example we never "did" a tax return or bank rec. (Which I did think was a bit odd at the time.) Every adult looked at my grades like "great, you're going to do well." At age 18-22, I had no reason to doubt their assessment. But when I started working it turned out I did the everyday nitty-gritty accounting work at half-speed of my peers. I tried hard, but my bosses weren't happy.
I've finally started to find my footing (and better pay) by getting into more general management roles, but I just wondered how others felt about their schooling. Either in accounting or just in general. I really like the idea that was proposed above to make our system more internship-based to guarantee a more real world perspective.
Sounds tough, they were expecting more of you, given the school you came from. I'm guessing you might have been the first hire from the school?
My opinion, which is worthless, is that at both high school and college level, they should emphasize more classes on practicality. An individual isn't going to remember the particulars of 16th century literature, but may take something away from a personal finance/investment class or cooking cheap, but nutritious meals, home ec. whatever. For your accounting classes, probably need one that teaches how to do bank reconciliations, how to input payroll into a system how to calculate employer/employee payroll, how to enter transactions, etc.
It depends on what you mean by "prepared for a career." College isn't supposed to prepare you to do a job. It gives you the fundamental knowledge to learn how to do a job. Basically it's a college degree is a license to learn. It's step 1, not the top of the learning ladder.
I think the overall problem for me was that my school bought TOO much into the whole "leaders of tomorrow" perspective. I think they took for granted how "smart" all of their students were and focused on all the big-picture stuff to the point where they overlooked some fundamentals. It was all very high-level conceptual and memorization, but for example we never "did" a tax return or bank rec. (Which I did think was a bit odd at the time.) Every adult looked at my grades like "great, you're going to do well." At age 18-22, I had no reason to doubt their assessment. But when I started working it turned out I did the everyday nitty-gritty accounting work at half-speed of my peers. I tried hard, but my bosses weren't happy.
I've finally started to find my footing (and better pay) by getting into more general management roles, but I just wondered how others felt about their schooling. Either in accounting or just in general. I really like the idea that was proposed above to make our system more internship-based to guarantee a more real world perspective.
I never did a tax return or bank rec in any of my college classes either. I don't think they should be included either. There's not nearly enough time to cover every example of work you may be doing. As others have stated, your college courses should provide a foundation for your career, not a place where you learn everything or experience everything you would in a job setting. I had to learn how to do tax returns and bank recs on the job. Maybe you're one of those people who do well in school but have trouble applying what you've learned on the job. Internships are great for some people, though the one internship I had didn't really help me except to find out what it was like to work in an office setting. It's good that you seem to have found your path.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Paraphrasing, but yeah fast forward today nobody buying that crap especially when tuition outpaces wage growth. The career services at many institutions were (iunno if still are) atrocious. Scummy jobs, scams, temp work, limited options, low pay you name it. Only the career fairs that occurred 1-2 times per year were decent. This sentiment also applies to Ivys and Universities like NYU when they realized simply obtaining a degree wouldn't cut it anymore. 
