college

[Gary_C]

Mechanical Engineering. I knew the ME Dept. Head, went to high school with his daughter, and he once told me the deans of the top MBA schools were always pressing to get the engineering graduates to go to Harvard, Yale, etc MBA programs. He asked why they were not concentrating their recruiting on the Science, Humanities, and Liberal Arts graduates and they told him they liked engineers because they were taught how to solve problems better than the other graduates.

The truth is that higher education and especially engineering education only teaches you the tools and how to use them to solve problems. Some people do graduate and think they have all the answers but most soon find out they do not. It's a life long learning experience and it does not take a college degree to learn.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Unfortunately few, if any schools, teach people skills. In the military a smart young officer will respect and listen to his troops, NCO's and SNCO's. I always briefed every new junior troop coming in and told him just because we did something a particular way did not make it best and I welcomed his suggestions for improvements. If they made a reasonable suggestion I'd try it even if I did not think it would work just to show him we were listening. If it did not work I'd try to show him why not so we all learned from it.  If it worked I made sure he got the credit. I never wanted to take direct credit for someone else's ideas or efforts.My view was when I was turning out more Marines getting meritoriously promoted than others that it reflected well on me and my intermediate leaders too. 

   I had NCO's and SNCO's who were comfortable to come tell me on field exercises and in the office "Sir, we've got this. Why don't you go visit the colonel or something and we'll call you if we need you." And they were right - I was beginning to micromanage and things worked much better when I backed off.

   While not perfect and they do have problems too, military boot camp is one of the very best training grounds I have seem to force/train a disjointed group from widely varying backgrounds how to work as a team.

   In my civilian career many young engineers came to us with a very sound theoretical background but had trouble communicating their plans and changes to the people who had implement the change. Some did well but others struggled mightily.

[Roxie]

     While not perfect and they do have problems too, military boot camp is one of the very best training grounds I have seem to force/train a disjointed group from widely varying backgrounds how to work as a team.

 

That's how I've always felt about motherhood too.   

[Corley5]

College if nothing else changes your thought process.  You look at situations differently.  I've worked with/for more than one educated idiot.

[low_48]

I went to a technical school to learn mechanical drafting. I got into an industry job really easily with the Associate Degree, in 1974. I then spent the rest of my career being passed over by people that had a bachelor degree. I left that industry in 1989 to start my own business. That was way harder than I had imagined. I should have known since I was brought up on a farm, but I had to do it. After being on my own for 11 years, I hired back into the same company. They made me retest to prove my skills before making me an offer, despite the fact that I was a management employee with 15 years of experience when I left. Had I held a bachelor degree, I would have rehired through the professional side and not have to take any testing. It was a really good career, but would have been much more lucrative had I gone to school for 2 more years!

[Darrel]

In college, I learned to think critically.  That is the one thing that helped me most as a nurse and it still is. Problem solving is way more difficult if you can't think things through. Also, what I learned in the way of the plumbing of intravenous infusions has helped me resolve issues on my Wood-Mizer   

[Randy88]

I went to college and met and started dating my now wife, so you could say, I not only use my college experience but am still married to her.   

As for what else I learned and still use, it gave a different perspective on how others think and go about doing things, some good, some are not smart enough to pee holes in the snow, and that pretty well summed up the staff and facility.      As for students and classmates, I honestly never knew any human could consume as much alcohol as some of them did and still live, and still do to this day, quite an eye opener for some of us.

It also taught me one thing, do what you enjoyed doing and never think your not good enough, smart enough, wealthy enough or anything else, if its what you want to do, you have the ability to make it happen.   

Of all the things I ever took for classes, typing was the dumbest class ever at the time, but later turned out to be the single most important class I ever took, bar none.     Computers would have been nice, but I was in the worm hole that slipped through, there were none in school when I graduated and a few years later, computer classes were manditory to take.     

FWIW, in typing class in school kids got kicked out for using two fingers to punch key's, when my own kids went to grade school, they taught keyboarding and they kicked you out for using any more than two fingers in class to punch the keyboard, not sure that's progress, but different just the same.     

I'll agree totally that learning never ends, only upon death do you quit learning, and  the most valuable lessons are not learned in any classroom.     

[GRANITEstateMP]

I wish I would have stayed in the typing class in high school but at that time I thought it was useless and got my self kicked out of typing class and school the same day   I never thought I would  type anything in my lifetime was I sadly mistaken  ;D

  Ahhhh, typing class...  I wasn't looking forward to typing class.  We had the electric type writers in high school, not quiet up to puter's yet.  I was gonna drop the class, but then I walked in on the first day!  I was one of 3 guys and the girls were beautiful!  I actually made some good friends and became a pretty good typer.  Part of it maybe I'm competitive and wanted to type as many words a minute as I could?

  I went to a tech school and got an associates degree in automotive technology, specializing in Toyota's.  Part of the "class" was to intern at a dealership.  I did, had a great mentor (actually a shop full of them) and learned a lot.  My work was 10 minutes from school.  I worked when ever I didn't have class, or if I had more than a hour and a half break.  Most weeks I got at least 30 hours in at work, and all my classes.  I learned a lot at school, I learned to ask good questions, I learned problem solving, and I learned I hated working on cars!  I had to fall back on my degree once and actually turn wrenches, I didn't love it but it paid the bills.  I also met a couple friends between school and work that I still associate with.  I'm still in the automotive business, the parts side of it now, pay isn't as good but my body doesn't take the beating that the techs in the shops do.

  All and all it was worth it.  Tech school was a good fit for me, I didn't spend a mint but I learned a ton.  It cost as much to get my 2 year degree as it would have for me to go to 1 year at the state school! 

 

[TimRB]

Here in Silicon Valley, a degree in electrical engineering is enough to get you started, but once you're in, it's up to you to keep up with the technology.  After being retired for eight years, I doubt that I'm even qualified to get my old job back.  That said, the most important thing I got from my college education, and I'll keep it with me forever, is the ability to think like an engineer.

Tim