Collapsing Value

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the practical value of college education - mine and that of others. The vast majority of people I have worked with over the decades, did not require any of their fancy degrees to do the work they were being paid to do. 

For the most part a bright eight-grader with the benefit of life experience, emotional intelligence and situational awareness could have done the work just fine. Maybe this hypothetical eight-grader would even bring greater creative spark to the job than much older, experienced people are able to. 

Yet, the degrees do look nice on the resume, the brand of the college acts as a social signal and in some circles and some jobs that confers advantage.The use case for college education has not existed for many for a long time now. Perhaps the value proposition is collapsing  for even more people now as this Atlantic article suggests. 

There is still plenty of work that requires specialized education and many years of rigorous training. There are no short-cuts there. When our best talent leaves scientific research, core engineering and academia to work much simpler jobs that happen to pay better, we falsely undervalue college education to the great detriment for society overall. The better question to ask is - do you need a college education to fulfill your particular career aspirations?