WestCoaster said:
I'm not sure why suggesting focusing on career is criticized so much here.
Many more foreigners and women are attending college, trade school, or getting apprenticeships than men. I've read the data and continue to read the data. I'm not sure why bringing these things to light is considered "bad" by the likes of Vulpine and his ilk.
You know what? My beefs aren't with focusing on career at all. My beef is with the little rider that attaches itself EVERY TIME the subject comes up. The little rider is that "you have to get a degree to have a career". My beef is with some people's definition of "successful career" including "must get a degree". And you have a personal interest in that rider - it's your career! I have a little personal interest in it as well...
I've been in my "career field" for 14 years. I started at rock bottom because noone recognized my secondary schooling as relevant, though it was. My "degree" was routinely blown off because it wasn't from a university. Chip on my shoulder? Sure. But, since my entry at the bottom of a corporation, I worked up through the ranks into management, only to be transplanted into a machine that was broken and scrapped as a whole. Ahh... the corporate money machine. After those 9 years, I took my experience and jumped ahead with a small company, then later again found a well paying job with ease.
The point? No degree. Stable career.
I come in to work late, take off when I want, stay late if I want. Hell, I'm getting paid while I type this. :yawn: And, should I care to move, I'm employable in any city in the US (with a population of over 5000).
I'm all for having a career, something you do for a living. I'm all for advancing in your career, but I disagree strongly that stepping foot on a campus makes you automatically more successful.
I'm very employable. I can fix diesel-electric locomotives and install security electronics, but I don't. Nope, those are "back-up" careers. Instead, I continue to add to my 14 years experience in my field of choice.
Which would you rather hire? Someone who has 14 years experience? Or, someone fresh out of college with a degree?
I'm not buying that "corporate cubicle" version of the American Dream... I'm not.
And, to get back to the point of the thread: "Does anyone just get tired of the games?" Yes. You have to see through to the cause: greed, money, degrees, green, glitter, glamour, gold-digging, judging value based on income, marketing, hype, etc. etc.
People don't associate with other people for silly sh!t like "Oh, he didn't go to college." or "Oh, he works at XYZ Co... eww!"
Talk about silly! Games?
In 1960 the poet Archibald MacLeish, debating ‘national purpose,’ said: ‘There are those, I know, who will reply that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right, It is. It is the American dream.’
The game I'm most tired of is the shell game that is media, marketing, and society's version of the "American Dream" which has no regard for "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
Don't tread on me.