Mary Koehn
While I was completing high school, college was an optional life choice. It wasn't necessary to have a college degree in order to have a career—finding a good job where you could receive on-the-job training at and learn your trade was the normal route. College was for people that didn't need to work yet and could take their time in joining the work force. Businesses were looking for someone they could mold to their needs, someone that could accommodate their specific requirements, learning and growing with the company. Loyalty and longevity on the job was rewarded and encouraged. Unfortunately, today's job market is a totally different story with more and more older workers being let go prior to retirement or even having to go back to work due to their retirement fund having shrunk drastically in the current economy. With hundreds of job seekers for each advertised position, an applicant must offer more to the potential employer.
I've worked at one job or another (and occasionally even two at a time) since I was sixteen. The majority of those positions have revolved around accounting, with a wide variety of job industries, ranging from safety equipment suppliers to Internet marketers. My last job succeeded so well that the owner was able to retire at 39!
I've got an excellent work history, having stayed at several jobs for over 5 years at a stretch, ample skill history, working the same basic job throughout my career, am intelligent and independent enough to work out the unknown, obtaining any skills I may be lacking. I've performed accounting procedures manually as well as using modern skill sets on the computer. Yet, what is it that job advertisement after job advertisement wants? A degree. Many of the advertised positions don't even require a degree that is relevant to the job; any degree will do. Why? Does having stayed in school for a minimum of 2-4 years, regardless of your resulting degree, really carry more credence than life experience? Apparently, the answer is a loud and resounding YES with today's employers.
So what's a job seeker to do? Take a position that doesn't pay what is needed to live a fruitful life, let alone cover the basic necessities, but that you are "qualified" for? Bend the truth on your application, committing fraud and denying your own personal values? Or suck it up, conform to what is being required and go back to school to earn a degree?
Personally, the first two ideas are not real options. Which leaves the third option: School. Not a quick or easy solution but, potentially, a permanent one. One that can lead to a better life for my kids and myself. One that can allow my savings to grow rather than be depleted. One that can provide for my children's future, and both directly and indirectly, my own. One that teaches my children an incredibly important life lesson—that you're never too old to learn and grow and achieve your goals and dreams.
To achieve my end result of a college degree I know will be a rather daunting task. After all, I'm currently assisting my oldest child in HER goal to obtain a degree at Southern Oregon University. I've got two younger children to still provide for, a home to manage and am seeking a full time job to take over after my current seasonal job ends April 15th. Am I capable enough to take on even more, loading my schedule with even more activities then I already have? Is a college degree worth the additional work load, stress and sacrifices that would be required to achieve it? I believe so. I've taken online courses in the past and find them to incredibly convenient as I can often partake in them after the children are in bed or at the very least, after a normal work day, proceeding at my pace within the instructor's parameters.
My last position as a manager for an Internet Marketing business that I worked from my home office allowed me the flexibility to manage my household, be available for my children when they needed me, yet I still got the job done and done well. The position allowed me to become very comfortable with the Internet and computer, as well as learn to manage my time efficiently and effectively, juggling the many aspects of my life. Achieving an online degree would fit into the balance of my life easier and without as much inconvenience to my family more than attempting to achieve the degree the traditional route of traveling to a local college. Once my online degree is completed, I will be able to obtain a position with a reputable organization or company that will allow me to provide the life and future I want to my family and to myself.