What do you think is most effective?

[LaraK]

A lot of schooling or a lot of experience?

 

[Bluestars]

Although a good education is important, I believe it means nothing without experience. I know a very wealthy person who only has a high school diploma and has earned everything he has. He is the most intelligent person I have ever met.

I think experience leads to understanding and knowledge. You can read all you want about poor people in Africa, but until you go there I don't think you could ever completely understand. There are many things I learned by doing them instead of having them taught to me.

So, I would say that experience is more important than education. However, I think an education with experience is the way to go.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Well, if I was looking for an employee and one candidate was well educated with training, and one had real experience, I'd hire the guy with experience 10 times out of 10. A formal education would help a person get an interview with me, but that is it.

IMO, the "college education" has become over-rated. Universities don't hold to the same standards that they did in previous generations. They are just trying to make money. It just doesn't take much effort to get a degree, today. Even Harvard has been criticized for its horribly low failure rates.

Still, showing that you are dedicated to self-improvement is important.

There are many elitists out there who believe that those without a degree are less worthy than those with a degree.

I am saying all this as an educated IT Director. I have seen all sides of this, and college graduates simply do not impress me anymore. Give me a kid with a great work ethic every time. I'll teach him...

 

[LaraK]

What I find amusing is the person with lots of education and no life experience who thinks they know everything.

 

[suzimar57]

a combination of the two, education and experience, for balance

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I think there needs to be a good balance between the two.

Also, education to me doesn't just mean formal schooling. It can also mean someone who reads and learns outside of school. Most people who talk to my dad wouldn't even know that he never finished high school. That's because he reads more in the newspaper than just the sports page.

 

[LuvOrlando]

An education provides knowledge.
Life experience provides wisdom.
A great personality can move mountains.

Someone with all 3 is unstoppable.

 

[Disney Doll]

I think a combination is the most effective, but I also think that some people are just idiots, so no amount of schooling or experience will help.

 

[Anewman]

Obviously a combination.

Depending on the career the balance can vary greatly.

For some jobs all of the life experience in the world will not make you qualified, and for some jobs there are just things you cant learn in school.

 

[Carly_Roach]

For some jobs all of the life experience in the world will not make you qualified...

Name at least three jobs where 20 years of experience doing that job still doesn't make you qualified unless you got a degree 25 years ago.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

Well I voted "neither". I worked for Washington Mutual and they had 30 employees in their credit training program. We were the first group to go through it. 15 were existing employees that had been nominated by their managers to go to the 6 weeks of training and 15 were recruited fresh out of college with at least a BA in Business. Most of the college graduates had absolutely no common sense and could not problem solve at all. But there were also experienced employees that had learned very little even though they had 10 or more years experience.

I think you either have it or you don't. I was told many many times that all a college degree shows is that you are trainable...

 

[Cool-Beans]

Experience is the best teacher.

But if you have no experience, reading about something is better than nothing.

I bought two wire shelves to hang in the "pantry" where I keep all kinds of crap. I read the directions, followed the directions and spent two and a half hours hanging the first one. I got mad, I was swearing, at one point I was so upset I almost cried. It was a major pain.

When DH got home, I told him a little about it and he asked if the drill was still down there, picked up the second one - didn't even take his coat off! - went on down and had the thing securely and straightly planted on the wall in eight minutes.

I watched him start. I offered him the directions. He waved them off. He did it all wrong (according to the directions, which it turns out were wrong, which is why I had such a hard time with it - I was trying to follow them), but he knew what the hell he was doing.

I knew how it was supposed to be done...he knew how to do it.

 

[Mr Man]

I voted for life experience. Sure, formal education is a part of this life experience.

I think formal education gives you a structure to use when learning (and happily let's your prospective employer know that have the minimum required skillset when getting your first job). But, that is about it. Life experience is where you apply this structure......and then begin adding to your knowledge base.

I learned much more outside the classroom than I ever did inside.

I also think that any day you don't learn something new, is a wasted day.

JMO

 

[Cool-Beans]

From Conan O'Brien's Commencement Speech to the kids graduating in 2000...

What else can you expect? Let me see, by your applause, who here wrote a thesis. (APPLAUSE) A lot of hard work, a lot of your blood went into that thesis... and no one is ever going to care. I wrote a thesis: Literary Progeria in the works of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner. Let's just say that, during my discussions with Pauly Shore, it doesn't come up much. For three years after graduation I kept my thesis in the glove compartment of my car so I could show it to a policeman in case I was pulled over. (ACT OUT) License, registration, cultural exploration of the Man Child in The Sound and the Fury...


So what can you expect out there in the real world? Let me tell you. As you leave these gates and re-enter society, one thing is certain: Everyone out there is going to hate you. Never tell anyone in a roadside diner that you went to Harvard. In most situations the correct response to where did you to school is, "School? Why, I never had much in the way of book larnin' and such." Then, get in your BMW and get the hell out of there.


You see, you're in for a lifetime of "And you went to Harvard?" Accidentally give the wrong amount of change in a transaction and it's, "And you went to Harvard?" Ask the guy at the hardware store how these jumper cables work and hear, "And you went to Harvard?" Forget just once that your underwear goes inside your pants and it's "and you went to Harvard." Get your head stuck in your niece's dollhouse because you wanted to see what it was like to be a giant and it's "Uncle Conan, you went to Harvard!?"

On the one hand, it doesn't count for much. On the other hand, if you hadn't read O'Connor or Faulkner and didn't know about the theme he's referring to or understand the word "progeria", it wouldn't be as funny. If you hadn't spent countless hours working on something that seems like a life or death kind of paper...only to realize that it has no practical use for you at alll... Well, you wouldn't get the joke as much as someone who had. So, it's nice to have that book lernin. Even if all it ever does for you is help you "get" the jokes, or understand a literary quote when someone throws one out - worth it.

But I'd take experience every time.

 

[Anewman]

Name at least three jobs where 20 years of experience doing that job still doesn't make you qualified unless you got a degree 25 years ago.

Try reading the entire post...

In some fields you would not be doing "that job" for 20 years if you did not have an EDUCATION to begin with, but you are free to disagree and take part of my post out of context.

 

[Forevryoung]

This is close to my heart right now-

I'm "fresh" out of a master's program (last May) and there have been many clients who balk at my lack of experience. Several of them have gone so far as to have me removed from the case. (In not so nice ways)

My field is huge and every case is 180 degrees different than the next. I will never know it all. But I come to the table with new ideas, new knowledge, and a passion to reach the goals before me.

The best thing that 4 months of experience has given me is the confidence that I can do this. Without the 6 years of education (which included 400+ hours of supervised experience in the final 2 years), I wouldn't be able to gain the real world experience.

I'm glad that my boss gave me the chance to gain the experience. Hopefully, experience doesn't impact my passion and excitement.

And my thesis is 110% applicable to what I am doing right now- without my thesis work, I wouldn't be so darn sure that what I'm trying to provide my clients with is going to work!

 

[Tine731]

Try reading the entire post...

In some fields you would not be doing "that job" for 20 years if you did not have an EDUCATION to begin with, but you are free to disagree and take part of my post out of context.

 

[rayelias]

What do you think is most effective?'A lot of schooling or a lot of experience?

One who has a lot of schooling might suggest that the question would have been properly phrased as, "What do you think is MORE effective?"

However, I personally believe that experience is the better teacher.

 

[Anewman]

New question...

Why do we not consider 18 years(1-12+6) of SCHOOLING to be a "life experience"?

I wanted my daughter to dorm, for the experience not just the education.

 

[C.Ann]

Definitely experience..