I’m been thinking a lot about my future lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve had it with blue collar work. I want more out of life than living paycheck to paycheck. For sometime now, I’ve been hearing that college degrees are worthless nowadays so thought about getting Comptia certifications (A+ and then Sec+) and working remotely. But then I thought about if AI will make those certifications obsolete. I know that “AI taking jobs” is a bit of sensationalist reporting but I do have legitimate concerns. I then thought about going back to college for “advance” careers like computer science and/or electrical engineering; more specifically, a bachelor’s degree.
What I want to know is this: would returning to college, especially for a tech-oriented degree, or will it be a waste of time and money? Should I pursue an alternative like certs? Thanks in advance.
I would recommend college if you have your eye on a specific career and a bachelor’s degree is MANDATORY.
Otherwise, I’d try to get an entry level spot in the industry. For example, if you’re looking at Tech, being a secretary, security guard, or janitor will teach you a lot about the business even though you aren’t directly involved in the Tech parts. You also start making connections with people who ARE involved in the tech parts, and they’ll be able to help you get there.
I was with you at first, but
This almost never works and working for a company in a completely unrelated role definitely does not count as “an entry level spot in the industry”. Being a secretary or a janitor at a tech company is not the same as working in the tech industry. Taking those sorts of jobs more often gets you stuck in those or similar roles.
that doesnt count, its the same as getting a lab tech job, and expecting to get a lab assistant, or lab research entry level position, its not the same, you’re resume will be automatically put in a trash. because you dont have the qualifications for lab work, such as experimentation, science paper research writing, because lab tech are just “lab specific janitors” or shown that you had research experience somewhere else, i only met one instance where it can be considered a possible entry in your resume to be hired as biotech employee, if you did enough for the lab to put your name in a research paper to be publish, than its possible. i met someone who did lab tech, and he was published. being published is a pretty big deal with EMPLOYERS and grad school(at least for phd), although its a very rare thing to do and lab work is not easily accessible to students which would be the catch-22 of volunteering.
maybe if have experience in tech field already, and working as a janitor as a inbetween job, than maybe.