# Why I found my college education to be worthless **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 26, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479 "2017-05-26T15:14:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479/61 "2017-05-29T15:50:28Z")
> [@PoppaSan](#): > > From the careers listed here, it looks to me like every job on the manufacturing plant floor above the level of Rosie the riveter and Lunchpail Dale. These are the ones that work along side and daily direct the activities of the union workers. Includes some of the more specialty type plant floor positions. Pretty much the lower levels of management that report to the business degree people. These people are the ones responsible for actually implementing the corporate policies such as 5S, ISO9000, GMP. But isn’t “machine operator” listed? That is Rosie the Riviter and Lunchpail Dale. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479/62 "2017-05-29T17:28:49Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > There you go! It sounds like you just hit college at a bad time in your life. College definitely isn’t for everyone, and it needn’t be right after HS, either. In fact, I think most people would benefit from a break between HS and college to get a taste of the real world. Or, as they do in some countries, start with an apprenticeship (could be blue collar or white collar) in your junior year of HS, where the idea is that you slowly transition from school to work instead of 100% school directly to 100% work. That latter method, which is what most of us do, makes no sense at all except that it’s the easiest to manage, administratively. But the system should work for the people, not the other way around. > > That last post was sort of a 180 deg turn from your OP. I agree, a gap year doesn’t have to mean traveling the world on your parents’ credit card. You can work in crappy jobs that don’t need a degree and see what serving coffee/burgers while standing on your feet for eight hours a day feels like. A lot of people I met at university had come straight from school, and it was also the first time they’d lived outside of their parents’ house. Just basic chores and cooking were strange to them, some were outside of their protective bubble and probably terrified. They all chose to live in the halls of residence and just formed a new bubble to live in, thereby experiencing a lot less of the life than was available, and getting a lot fewer positive (and negative, but the rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia sort those out ;)) experiences overall. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479/63 "2017-05-30T01:24:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > But isn’t “machine operator” listed? That is Rosie the Riviter and Lunchpail Dale. Machine operators in the plants I’ve worked in are\*\* responsible for the entire machine\*\* line, not just one specific task. They are the ones making sure Rosie has the correct length and tensile rivets and she has set her riveter to the correct tension. They remind Dale to stack the boxes in the correct pattern while facing the logo out on the pallet. They set the machine speeds, enter the running parameters or modify the recipes and do the shift reports. They can write and interpret the SOPs and they are also able to do every job on the line if they are any good. I don’t know why a 4 year degree is needed for that but it was on the list. I guess it would matter on the complexity of the machine and the number of stages along the line. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479/64 "2017-05-30T02:23:38Z")
I was thinking of situations where one machine is the whole line. For example, I think of a summer I worked at a plastics plant. I would stand or sit at a molding machine, open a safety gate, take out plastic parts, close the safety gate, press a button to close the mold and inject the plastic, start over again. (I would also inspect, trim, box, and seal the box. Other people would take away the sealed boxes and still others refill the hopper with plastic pellets.) That isn’t considered to be a machine operator, what with operating a machine? ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479/65 "2017-05-30T03:42:24Z")
OP, I spent almost 22 years as an Air Force Avionics technician and I got my B.Sc (mostly Geology and Physics) through a LOT of Distance Ed and Continuing Education classes on my own. If I had had the discipline and maturity that I lacked then I would have done it the way you did, and likely resented it because I was totally focused on getting an Engineering degree to be a pilot, and for which I was totally unprepared. Once I realized that I really liked geology and concentrated on the courses I wanted I went from a .96 GPA when I left university to over a 3.5 in my remaining courses. The humanities electives were some of the most interesting ones I took (and passed). I loved the skills I learned in the military and between them both I have learned to love learning for its own sake. I think you really need to have a hard look at what you really want to do and do it with the right attitude. You’re young enough that you can’t fuck it up bad enough that you can’t recover. FWIW, I highly recommend two books for you to read that have been revelatory for me and might help you: [The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck](https://www.amazon.com/Subtle-Art-Not-Giving-Counterintuitive/dp/0062457713/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1468352752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=subtle+art+of+not+giving+a+fuck&linkCode=sl1&tag=entsblo-20&linkId=a81bfe2b59e0df18b29f6d08a6c2db00), and [The $100 Start Up](https://www.amazon.com/100-Startup-Reinvent-Living-Create/dp/0307951529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496115530&sr=8-1&keywords=the+100+startup). My next career is looming, and I’m taking steps to get it in gear. Best of Luck. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479/66 "2017-05-30T10:44:34Z")
What I do for a living has nothing to do with what I majored in. In fact, I was discouraged to do what I do for a living because “that’s what your grandparents did”. It was something I’d never considered (because, higher education) but fell into during an unemployment spell, discovered I was good at it, so there you go. That said, I’ve never regretted my education nor my degrees. I’ve always been a learner. My idea of heaven is a huge university where I could major in whatever I want whenever Ii want and therefore be a perpetual student 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-found-my-college-education-to-be-worthless/787479.md?page=3)