Is College Worth It If All You Care About Is Your Career?

We grow up and go through high school normally under the impression that college is the end goal. We see all these stories and movies telling us that college is amazing – and it can genuinely provide the best days of your life! You’ll meet loads of cool friends, create memories that last forever, and spend plenty of time partying. 

If you want or crave the college experience, it is always worth going. But what if all you care about is a career? College is pinned as this pathway to career success, but if you don’t care about the overall experience, is it worth going? We all know how expensive college is, so some people wonder if it’s worth the financial pain just to get a job at the end. 

This is, quite clearly, a complicated question to answer that varies depending on who asks it. If your sole reason for going to college is to forge a career path, here are some major points to keep in mind. 

Not all jobs need a college degree

Plenty of jobs make it a requirement to go through college and claim a degree. You can’t be a doctor without going to med school, and countless other careers place degrees as mandatory requirements. 

On the other hand, some jobs don’t need college degrees. Loads of high-paid jobs only require certifications or online diplomas. You could take a few cyber security programs online and gain the qualifications needed to be an online security expert, bagging a job in a sought-after industry with high pay rates. Or, you could get an online marketing diploma and learn how to manage marketing campaigns or implement new strategies. 

The point is: not all jobs need a college degree. Before you think about paying thousands of dollars for college tuition, consider if you can get similar qualifications another way. 

The average college course is three years

On average, you’ll spend three years in college roaming around campus. During this time, you hone your skills and learn new things. It all builds towards helping you get a job at the end – a job that is not guaranteed, by the way. 

If a job is your main reason for wanting to go to college, couldn’t you make these three years more productive by not going? That’s three years of active work experience. In this time, you could rise through the ranks at a company, earn multiple pay rises and develop actionable skills to improve your future job prospects. 

In other words, you may end up in a better position to get an even better job than if you spent three years in college. 

When all is said and done, college is a wonderful choice if you’re in one of two positions: 

1. You want the full college experience and are going there to enjoy new things and have a good time.
2. You’re choosing a career path that depends on a college degree

If you don’t fall into either category, college probably isn’t worth it. You want a job – you don’t care about the college experience – so maybe it’s better to simply find a job after high school.