Is college worth it?

Once we have passed a certain point in our lives, a little reflection on the past becomes natural. When the sailing becomes rough, the tendency to ask What if...? becomes strong as well.

So it shouldn't have surprised me when a friend half my age asked me as we headed back to our Northeast Philly homes late one night, "If you could do college over again, would you?"

Actually, my friend had a good reason for asking that question, for he was about to do just that.

My friend is a late twentysomething who got into a top-drawer university after graduating high school. He never completed his studies because he found his major did not sync with his interests and because he found work that paid handsomely without a bachelor's degree.

Some years later, he decided to leave the corporate life in order to pursue his art. His talent is immense, and his poetry alternately profound and witty, but it hasn't put much bread on the table. So now that economic reality has bit, he is reassessing what he can do going forward to cease being broke all the time.

Finishing that degree is one of the options he is weighing, hence the question.

I told him, "Absolutely! But I would do some things differently this time around."

While I think that we value brainwork too much and manual work not enough, there is no denying that getting a college degree is the best thing one can do for one's career, and getting an advanced degree is even better. Bachelor's degree holders earn on average nearly double what high school graduates earn, and advanced degree holders earn three times as much.

Moreover, thanks to the spread of continuing education programs, it is now never too late to start college, or even start over. For instance, my friend will likely pursue a different major than the one he chose the first time around once he returns to school. Many colleges and universities offer programs that working adults, or adults looking for work, can take on their own schedules, and distance learning programs let them pursue their degrees from the comfort of home, while on the road, or wherever they may be.

What I would do differently were I to do college over is pay much closer attention to the college-career link. Forging that link involves more than choice of major: at the undergraduate level, it also involves things like participating in certain extracurricular activities. Adult learners can mirror that behavior by tending diligently to professional networking opportunities with both fellow students and contacts "off campus."

Going back to school, or going for the first time, can also help keep job seekers focused and disciplined, which helps with staying on the path of the seeker. So maybe that What if...? question might not be just idle speculation - it could be the jumping off point for a successful second act in one's life. If you are thinking about starting over with a new career, you might want to start by exploring the educational options on PhillyJobs.com.

By Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is a veteran freelance writer, editor and public relations professional who lives in Philadelphia. Besides blogging for PhillyJobs.com, he has written for numerous publications and websites, would be happy to do your resume, and is himself actively seeking career opportunities on Beyond.com. Check out his LinkedIn profile and read his other posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com.

Refashioning the local economy - and yours

In a previous post, I opined that one big reason why Philly remains the nation's fifth largest city is because this city and region have a diverse and resilient local economy, whereas Phoenix, which everyone from the Census Bureau on down expected to pass us but didn't, relies too much on a single industry and is thus vulnerable to boom and bust cycles or shifts in the industry. This week, I realized that the same could be said of Detroit, a metropolis to which pessimists often compare this one. That city rose on the strength of auto manufacturing, and when its manufacturers shrank in the face of global competition and changing labor markets, so did it. But the same could also have been said about Boston by a visitor there in the 1940s. By then, the textile mills and factories that made New England prosperous had all departed for the South and beyond, but the computer revolution that would remake and revive the region's economy had yet to begin. Likewise, when I arrived here in the early 1980s, this city still had not gotten over the hollowing out of its diverse industrial base. Even though the seeds of its rebound had already been planted many decades earlier, few locals who I knew at the time could have even predicted that some two decades later, we would be talking about the "eds and meds" as a regional economic powerhouse. And yet they are now the main pillar supporting our local economy, but they're not the only one. We also have strengths in professions such as law, the hospitality sector, and service industries, among others. In fact, we even still have manufacturing around here, though some of that has been bought dearly in order to keep assets such as the Naval Shipyard alive. All this reinforces my earlier argument. Because we have historically never relied on a single industry or sector to keep our economy humming, we have been able to find new strengths to build on after the old ones weakened. This sort of renewal process can take place at the individual level too. While many of us have a dominant set of skills, and would do best in jobs that make use of that skill set, most of us either have other skills we can develop or adapt our strong skills to other purposes. Continuing and adult education programs like the ones you can find in PhillyJobs' Education section can get you started down the road to retooling your personal economy to take advantage of changed realities. There's no time like the present to get started. By Sandy Smith Sandy Smith is a veteran freelance writer, editor and public relations professional who lives in Philadelphia. Besides blogging for PhillyJobs.com, he has written for numerous publications and websites, would be happy to do your resume, and is himself actively seeking career opportunities on Beyond.com. Check out his LinkedIn profile and read his other posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com.

Back to School

Recently, I completed a short stint as a substitute teacher at a local school that specializes in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Most of the students there were enrolled because they wanted to attend an American college or university, something none of them can do without a very good score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). But there were some who were there simply to learn English so they could advance in their chosen careers as scientists, engineers or diplomats.

I was there because enrollments were up and classes were oversubscribed. A colleague explained it to me this way: "When times are tough and jobs are hard to find, people go back to school."

It's not a bad idea. Going back to school while jobless lets you freshen and update your knowledge in your chosen field - or even learn a new one if you would like to expand your employment horizons. Community and technical colleges offer many programs geared towards specific career paths, such as nursing, hospitality and restaurant management, or retail, and the better ones often have ties with employers that can give you a leg up on jobs after you graduate. If you attend an adult learning program at a four-year college or university, you may also be able to use the services of the school's career planning and placement office to identify career paths and jobs you can apply for after receiving your degree.

If you're in management, or considering becoming part of it, a number of area colleges and universities offer programs in organizational dynamics that can help you understand the "biology" and "sociology" of corporate hierarchies. One such program is Penn's program in organizational dynamics, one of the oldest and most respected in the region.

Many working adults find the flexible part-time schedules offered by for-profit career colleges like the University of Phoenix meet their needs for staying up to date on their skills on their own time. Job-seekers can also take advantage of such programs. A number of institutions, both nonprofit and for-profit, also offer degree programs you can complete online for the ultimate in flexibility and convenience.

For Pennsylvanians who are collecting extended unemployment compensation benefits, enrolling in an education or training program meets the job search requirements for filing weekly claims.

The Education Index at PhillyJobs.com contains links to hundreds of college and university programs geared towards working professionals. It's a great place to start your search for education that can help advance your career - or start a new one.

By Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith has been blogging for PhillyJobs.com since 2010. In addition to launching award-winning newspapers and newsletters at the University of Pennsylvania and Widener University, Sandy is a veteran writer whose articles and essays have appeared in several local and regional media outlets, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia CityPaper, and PGN, and on several Web sites. He is also an active participant on several discussion boards, including PhiladelphiaSpeaks.com, where he posts as “MarketStEl.” He has been supporting himself through a combination of freelance and part-time work and unemployment compensation since early 2009 and is himself an active job-seeker. Read more of his posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com and follow him to Beyond.com for more job opportunities.