Here is the question that was put up at Linkedin Answers …
How come 20 years of classroom education does not ensure work to one’s liking?
In most cases… If its opposite in your case. Do let me know the factors that helped you utilize 15-20 years@school+college to its best.
FRANK FEATHER ★ “A future you can bank on”
●Business Futurist / Strategist / Ex-Banker ●Start-up / Re-invent / Turnaround CEO ●Innovation + Change ●SpeakerOne basic problem is that much of what is taught is not relevant to real life. Secondly it is taught in grossly inefficient and ineffective ways.
The era of mass education, based on the Industrial-era factory model, served us well with available resources. But it is essentially obsolete and must be replaced with individualized learning of future-relevant content.
Education needs to be mainly about where and how to find information and knowledge, not to attempt to learn it off by heart.
The future is a matter of lifelong learning or of learning a living.
The education system utterly fails to grasp this need to reinvent itself.
Raynay Valles
Strategic Marketer helping Business Owners get more customers. Author, Public SpeakerGreat question.
I have a degree in Architecture but now I spend my time helping business owners sell more and developing products.
This happened because I made a choice at 18 to major in SOMETHING. I only personally knew one person who graduated from college as I was growing up. Architecture was good to me, but marketing is the challenge I really like.
I still use creativity, I still use problem-solving, but my effectiveness can be measured – dare I say – more concretely. 
Bill Nigh
Information Technology and Services Professional
Part of the answer, in addition to the mass education approach already discussed, is that the “work to one’s liking” notion is at least partly dependent on how easily one is satisfied. Not everyone does or can derive pleasure, even satisfaction, from work. It’s not as if being happy at work is a God-given right (although I wish it were).
Hope this helps; just my perspective of course.
John ジョン S. Rajeski
APAC Business Development / Marketing Professional | Photographer | Global CitizenGood day Kamal,
A quote comes to mind:
“Rather than provide knowledge itself, we must encourage the joy and excitement that arise from learning.” – Tsunesaburo Makiguchi.
Regards,
John S. Rajeski
Links:
Doreen Perri-Gynn
AVP Corporate Human Resources at Yang Ming (America)Corp
I think its because there are no guarantees in life. A lesson probably not taught in a classroom in your twenty years of schooling, or anyone else’s.
It is up to you to decide where your interests lie, find your passion and go for it. Work hard at your passion. Then, you will have work that is to your liking. It does not just happen and it is never ensured.
Richard Dodson
Professional communicator and Certified Trainer (CTT+)I am a Certified Technical Trainer (CompTIA CTT+) with 20 years of experience in the real world. I’ve done technical support, been a radio announcer, and delivered pizza. I have liked all of my jobs not because they fit my idea of the ideal job, but because I found the good aspects of all of them. And they all had downsides as well. I like the other answers that have already been given, but I have a few things to add.
1. There is no teacher like experience. It’s one thing to know about a subject academically, but knowing about it because you’ve lived it is a whole other level of understanding. Changes to the education system could help this somewhat, but no matter what you do in the classroom, it’s always going to be different in the “real world”.
2. There are *no* guarantees. Life is tough and stuff happens. Sometimes being happy is not about having what you want, but wanting what you have. And sometimes you have to “pay your dues” before you can reach for something you really like (see above about experience). But there is no combination of education, experience, and luck that will ever “ensure” work to one’s liking. Ever.
Joe McComas
Technical Support Architect First Data Merchant Services
I focused on what I liked instead of what will land me a job. This helped me to see all sides of a plan/issue/event and excel in my position over the years. I also found joy in the variety I injected into my job. My education taught me that there was no box.
Unfortunately, my focus on what I liked racked up credits but no degree. Now I’m in competition with BS/MS toting lemmings. A degree of any magnitude (albiet boxing) helps to, at least, get a new job.
sidharth rai
Intern at Reliance Capital
Probably you are right…classroom education based on the fact everyone is like ..more or less..everybody goals is same either Doctor or Engineer…So they teach with a typical methodology and ended up making a student what they want him to be….
We are also one of the victims of this…but they are not the alone culprit …may be we are also helping them..as study is the easiest thing to do and earn your livelihood….in India. (Sports too difficult i know number of people who play too good but are at nowhere…while in studies a mediocre can earn a good salary).
People who are good in other activities they need to encouraged otherwise at one point of time we won’t have anything else but engineers.
So what to be done is need funding,determination and Govt, Help to transform the way education is heading..
Jeff Dyck
Founder of Our Change
Kamal,
Great question. I could write for hours on this topic alone. I’m a young 20 something myself, that being said I think my situation is much different from that of my peers.
I believe the current educational system in the US and Canada greatly under serves the student population; especially those in high school. (grades 9-12). The educational system keeps students real personalities and talents from shinning. If a student has no interest in math or science he or she is forced to pursue that through high school vs. focusing on a trade, or business experience that would benefit that student better. The real problem is that school is not customizable for the masses.
My view is vastly different from others in my age group because of the education I was able to enjoy in high school. I probably would not have graduated (just plain board) had I not been pulled out of school.
Our family opted for a homeschool environment in which I was able to chose classes to take that were interesting (I chose a lot of biology, aeronautics, trades, business, and other things that helped ultimately shaped the person I am today.)
Schools really need this customization. They need to prepare students for life after school, and the process can’t start in university; by then it’s too late.
On another note: from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Schools in the US and Canada teach students to be employees and not business owners…There are so many students out there with so much potential. Their whole lives’ they’ve been told to become doctors or lawyers when they should become whatever makes them happy.
My two cents.
-Jeff
Jim Brennan
Senior Associate at ERI Economic Research Institute
Follow your interests. Your interests usually reflect your talents. Whatever you enjoy doing most, you usually can do best. The areas where you excel should be those where you can command the highest remuneration with the greatest personal enjoyment and intrinsic satisfaction.
Be prepared to balance the two: joy in your work and pay for your work. Be aware that the work that pays the most may be highly paid because it is onerous and distasteful, while the most pleasant jobs may pay the least because everyone wants them. There is nothing sadder than seeing someone trapped in an occupation they despise because they cannot afford to leave it to do what they really want to do. Better to be happy in your work and relatively low-paid than miserable but wealthy.
David W. Rudge
Associate Professor, Western Michigan University
I can’t help but notice that the question and a couple of the responses start with the assumption that classroom education should ensure work to one’s liking and it is a fault of the system if it does not. Most people don’t enter the educational system with a set career goal in mind, and even those that do often change their minds repeatedly over the course of 20 years. It’s a little unfair to criticize educators over the course of two decades for not efficiently streamlining your education to meet your ultimate career aims when not even you knew what they were. Beyond this, even if you do know what occupation you want to enter, you still have to deal with the fact that in a capitalist society, there is no guarantee the job of your dreams will be offered to you. The way to approach education is to think of it as a series of opportunities to grow and develop skills (reading, writing, math, science, art etc.) that have broad applications. For most of us, it is only in retrospect that we begin to recognize how the unique educational experiences we have had (inside and outside of formal educational settings) have prepared us for the job we ultimately wound up doing.
Mónica Díaz de Peralta
Author, Experienced Coach and Human Organization Developer, International Speaker and Entrepreneur.
I believe that many people view their education as a path set out by others, or by themselves trying to fulfill expectations of others, such as society, parents, spouses, friends. Classroom education in particular is dead for many, just an occupation for the first years of life before joining the labor force.
Though there can be much to say about improving the role and methods of education, the main thing is attitude towards it. When you view education as part of the continuum of life, then it is always to the best.
I believe I choose every aspect of my life from the choices available and those that I allow myself to see and explore. In that sense, I can always move close to or away from the past. I choose a line of work I love and I move to make it passionate, high quality, enjoyable and profitable.
My formal schooling left me with very much like structure of work, research skills, etc. So, though I studied computer science originally, then moved to education and then to organizational consulting I consider every aspect of my life to build on my character and learning. This is of course one way to perceive it. I find it much more useful than considering my formal training as futile. It has simply contributed to make me who I am.
You can find work you like or like the work you have. Always. No ifs ands or buts! It is a choice.
