It’s May now and you’ve just graduated.
You post a picture of yourself holding a piece of paper and wearing a weird looking hat and black cloth that covers you from the neck down.
Your caption says “After 3 long years I finally did it. Master’s degree – check!”
Your aunt who like clockwork comments on every post within 20 minutes writes “I’m so proud of you! You deserve it.”
37 likes, 8 comments, and 1 of those new love likes from your aunt.
Three months, and four interviews later you’re “still figuring it out.” Maybe you’re working part time for your dad until “the right job comes your way.”
Maybe you even accepted a job that you don’t actually like.
This isn’t what was supposed to happen. You followed the script. Did everything they told you to do, and what do you have to show for it? 37 likes and 8 comments…
Why does this happen? Because the market isn’t proud of your degree. Only your family is.
School isn’t a place where you provide value to the market.
You know this because if you ask yourself, “who’s life is better right now because I’m in school?” the answer is “no one.”[1]
The only people providing value in schools are the professors. Even the value they provide is declining, because they’re supposed to transfer value to the market through you, and you don’t have a job.
Should You Go Back To School?
People often use grad school to hide.
I’m 27 and I hear tons of people my age say, “I need to go back to school.”
“I’m not qualified…”
“I need this degree, then I’ll be able to get the job I want.”
These are mostly excuses… a way to hide.
If we go to school, we can just keep following the rules, and do what we’re told.
School is easy.
We don’t have to go out into the world, and figure it out on our own.
Also, if we get our degree, and it still doesn’t work… We have an out. We’re off the hook.
It’s the scripts fault. More specifically it’s the fault of the person who wrote the script… the school, the government, whoever…
It’s easy to blame them.
But we have to ask ourselves, do we want an out? Someone to blame?
OR
Do we want a more fulfilling career? A job we enjoy? A happier life?
Most people chose the former. It’s the much easier path.
For the latter, we can’t just follow the script anymore.
The market doesn’t care if you work hard.
The market doesn’t care if you have your MBA, JD, or Masters in Finance.
Only your parents do. [2]
We don’t need more degrees or hard workers.
Did you make sure the person who built the screen you’re staring at had a master’s degree?
Did you make sure the chef at that restaurant with the amazing filet went to culinary school?
No… You didn’t.
Because you don’t care about their degree. You care about the product.
The good news is that since the market doesn’t care, we don’t have to go back to school.
We can making people’s lives better now.
The Hard Part
The bad news (it’s really good news:), is without school, the script falls apart.
We have to figure it out on our own.
We’re now on the hook.
If we fail, it’s on us.
Post-post Caveat: I write all this recognizing that if you’re aim is to be a doctor or lawyer, then you’ll probably have to go to school. My intention is to show that going to school is not an accomplishment in the market’s eyes.
- If you’re in med school/residency then you don’t count. That’s an internship/job.
- And some old school executives.