finding career zen
Stories and interviews highlighting the unique challenges, failures, and successes encountered on the path to achieving career zen.
finding career zen
Does Your College Major Matter?
Join hosts Pete and Ricky on this episode as they tackle the pressing question: Do college majors matter?
Starting off, Pete and Ricky discuss a Georgetown University's recent study on the correlation between college majors and paychecks. Trust us, you don't want to miss this!
As a political science grad turned career chameleon, Pete knows all about degrees not guaranteeing jobs in their specific fields, and it's a story many of us share. This episode explores the pivotal decisions young adults face when choosing their academic paths, highlighting the impact of such choices on their financial and professional futures. It's a candid look at the tools and guidance necessary to navigate these waters and a must-listen for anyone concerned about the next generation's success.
Pete and Ricky also talk about how different disciplines have painted contrasting economic landscapes—from the sciences and tech to the arts and humanities—and what drives students toward one or the other. By highlighting the stark pay gaps from the starting line to mid-career peaks, they raise questions about education's role in today's society. They share how young minds can prepare for jobs that may not even exist yet and urge listeners to explore the changing dynamics of the job market and the emergence of automation.
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You're listening to the Finding Careers N Podcast. I'm Pete Newsom, joined by Ricky Byas today.
Speaker 2:Happy Friday, pete, I'm doing great.
Speaker 1:We're back for another show. This is a controversial one, I think, ricky, because we're going to weigh in and give some opinions and with some facts too, about people's choices.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's what you meant by controversial. I thought you was talking about the Bill's game last week, so that's not what we're talking about here.
Speaker 1:No, the only controversy there is whether Taylor Swift should be shown constantly every time Travis Kelsey does something and. I'm in the no crowd on that.
Speaker 2:Well, if that's controversial so be it All right. You know what, now that Jason Kelsey is part of the crowd, I'm looking forward to seeing Jason Kelsey go crazy whenever he's not playing.
Speaker 1:So you're okay with that.
Speaker 2:That was hilarious. You're just showing up.
Speaker 1:We're moving to Steve Dott. I just want to watch football. Ricky, I don't want to see Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2:I don't want to see that guy.
Speaker 1:I mean it's fine if he's in uniform, but I'm not subscribing to that deal. So I'm a big Ravens fan, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2:And I think I'm not alone with many guys across the country.
Speaker 1:I think there's a general battle being Probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, well, yeah. So I'm doing great, pete, considering that my Bill's completely lost. So, yeah, anyway, we're good. I didn't know you were a Ravens fan. I'll check in with you next week to see how you're doing.
Speaker 1:I am this weekend. I'm, you know, I need one of those bumper series. I'm a fan of the Buccaneers and anyone who's playing Kansas City. As long as they were dating. I like that, I like it. We are going to talk about something I will say is more important than then. Then then the you know who's dating in the NFL. But it is about someone's choices, and specifically the choices that someone makes when they go to college, and not whether they should go to college. It's a different issue altogether and we can and have talked about that. But this is about whether college degrees matter matter to your profession, matter to your financial life, matter to your future. So what's your?
Speaker 2:short answer to that question College degrees matter less now than when they did 30, 40 years ago.
Speaker 1:Not whether they matter whether oh got it, that's right. That's right. The choice of degree.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I don't think it matters. Pete At the majority. I don't. I truly don't think it matters. I've seen people in positions who do well in those positions, that have a degree that has nothing to do with what they're currently doing in their career. So I don't think it matters. Well the data.
Speaker 1:The data would would disagree with that. I will tell you. So we'll talk a little bit about a study from from Georgetown that was university. It just came out. They should know about these things and the the the math indicates that your your choice of major is going to have a big impact on your financial future and how much you're going to earn. So we we see lots of studies about whether a college degree impacts earning over time, but this is about the specific major and I I think that you know this is worthy of exploration.
Speaker 2:But that would only so. That means that these stats are only. It's only good if the people who went to school for a specific field are currently working in that specific field, right?
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's a generalization, right. There's exceptions to every rule, so you can go to school for one thing and end up doing something else. So let's just start there, because that is very common, right. We know that happens a lot. It happens to me. I'm, I'm, I have a degree in political science. I am not a political scientist. Okay, I don't work in politics and in fact when I was in a student night, I don't even think I paid attention to politics outside of the student. I was really in the student government. I think that's how I ended up picking that major. But I'm a in staffing, recruiting, you know, the career world of careers. Not, not, not, not a political scientist.
Speaker 2:So I got my, my bachelor's in business and I have my uh master's in human resources and I actually I'm involved in both. Right, it's I. I am in human resources and I help businesses go from here to there. But, pete, I got a question for you, so why, if you didn't go into the political field, why did you pick political science as your major?
Speaker 1:Why does an 18 year?
Speaker 1:old do anything. My mindset at that age, my scope, was limited. I didn't have a whole lot of experience. I didn't know what I wanted to do. Now that's one of the things that we're focused a lot on, as you know, is helping young people make those decisions and giving them the right tools and information to arm them to do that. But I didn't have that. It was go to college, get a job.
Speaker 1:The in between, there was no one really focusing on that for me and I wasn't focused on that. So you could say and you'd be right that that's my responsibility. As I said a minute ago, my perspective was limited and I didn't have a great resource or tools to use to see all the different options. And even today, I think that, even though the information is all out there on the internet, if someone's willing to do their own research, they can come up with a lot of answers. There's aptitude tests. We have a recent blog listing the 10 most popular ones that we wrote, because we know that the information exists. But I don't think the people in charge of providing that information to those who need it most and so this isn't to take a shot at career counselors and advisors. I don't think there's a great process for students getting led down the path of making a choice. It's going to be right now.
Speaker 2:Now it's, I'm going to ask you a question and the answer to this question is going to answer what you just threw out there. Now, you went to college right after high school, right? So I did not. I went to the Marine Corps right after high school and I spent four years in that amazing environment and that cleared my vision of what I wanted to do, right? But I spent four years there, went all over the world and then came back and I was really clear about where I wanted my direction in life to go, and I really think that's important. That it's. I know it doesn't work for everybody, but I know for me that's the best possible thing I could have done because, like you said, at 18 years old, once you're done with high school, you don't know anything about life. What are you going to make a selection for?
Speaker 1:I mean you've gone from not being in charge of your, of your life, right, even if you're a child, up until that point where you leave home. You've had parents who direct you, guide you. You've had high school teachers who tell you what to do and you're locked into that setting. But then you go out and say make a decision, that's going to impact the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean really the rest of your life, because, even though you could say, because how you earn your living, how much you earn is, is going to stay with you until retirement, that's going to determine your lifestyle. And listen, it's not all about income, but that should be a consideration. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It, it, I mean. Why else would you go to college if not to put yourself in a better position financially in the future? Right, I, I, I don't know of any other reason to go to college than for that right. Well, I mean it's.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's that is it, it, it you know, learning to, to develop expertise in something, to, to gain knowledge that you can then apply to make the world a better place for yourself and others. I think it's most pure. Look, I'd like to believe that's why you're going to college but it is a good question, right? If you took a survey and maybe we should take the survey of of of you know a thousand, you know high school seniors and say who are planning to go to college, why, I would.
Speaker 2:I wonder what those answers would be, I think they might say no, because the way the world is today.
Speaker 1:Wait. The question is why are you going to college? Well, I mean, if they say no to that, that's a logical answer.
Speaker 2:Why do you want to go to college? No, okay, you need to go to college. Why, yeah, why are you going to college? Yeah, that's the question. I wonder why, why did you go to college? Right, why did you go to college? So honestly I so why did I go? I went to because I wanted to do that I wanted. I knew that the Marine Corps was not something I wanted to make a career of, because I didn't know if I was going to make it to 20 years right, and this was before the Second Gulf War happened. Right, well, operational and and doing freedom. So I don't I. I didn't know if I was going to be home to enjoy retirement, so I wanted something to put me in a great position to earn a really good living and not struggle from paycheck to paycheck. That, honestly, that's the reason I went to college.
Speaker 1:And, truth be told, I think that is why most people go to college. I think they're so, and that's kind of the point of this episode. If you, if you go to college for your financial future, then you should be making a choice in degree that it's going to lead to a good outcome. But what the evidence indicates, and what we know to just be true, is that there's a lot of degrees that don't really tie to financial security and and it's not going to help people thrive. So let's, let's back up a little bit to go forward and talk about the different types of majors. There's, there's hundreds, thousands of majors that exist, but they generally fall into a limited number of categories, and those categories are STEM, right, science and technology. There's business education, health, humanities and liberal arts, right, those kind of get blended together and, and what we're talking about, there are degrees in literature and writing and history and philosophy and then and then social sciences right, my political science degree was was in the school of social sciences at Florida State where I went.
Speaker 1:But then the next question is what do those qualify you to do? And you can, you can point to some majors in sciences and healthcare and engineering, right, if you go to school and get a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, you're qualified. You're on the path to be an electrical engineer. Right, it's very easy. If you go to school and get a degree in political science, then I'll pick on myself with this You're not qualified as a political scientist. When you dissu when you graduate, in fact, I would argue you have very base level knowledge of politics and and the science thereof when you graduate and that doesn't really translate into a job. It doesn't translate into. You know much in way of economic. You know benefit.
Speaker 2:But that begs the question, right it's. That's why I like the idea of the survey. If you give the surveys today, why are you going to college? What is the reason? If it isn't for financial gain, right, and if it isn't for an 18 year old to set themselves up for the rest of their lives, why would they ever pick a degree that would put them at the bottom of that financial list?
Speaker 1:That these are individual questions to be answered right? I think a lot of it does come down to the guidance they're receiving. Not looking forward, this is not. You know, there are a lot of 18 year olds who are anomalies with this right, who have a good feel for what they want to do in a passion for something, and they're and they're thinking of their future. But, as a general statement, the younger you are, the harder it is to think of the long-term impact, unless someone is giving you the tools to do that. Right. You live in the moment. We know that's what young people do. Right. They live for the day and I don't know that the right questions are being asked. The right things are being considered.
Speaker 1:What is your aptitude? Right? What is going to be valuable in, not just today, over time and these things are changing rapidly right, with AI and remote work and all the shifts that are happening with technology and just society as a whole. Right now, jobs that existed, that looked promising even as a college freshman, some entire profession is completely just in the past year or two. So, looking forward, anticipating to use a sports analogy, anticipating where the puck is going right the hockey analogy not where it is, today is more important than ever. So let me show you a graphic real quick. If you're watching, this will make sense to you. If you're listening, I'll just explain it. And this is from the Georgetown study that says not all bachelor's degrees are created equal. So if you look at the entry level, starting compensation from a STEM major 43,000 to arts, humanities and liberal arts at 29,000, right out of the gate.
Speaker 1:What a massive difference. And that gap doesn't close. I mean, that's the rest of the story. Those who start ahead are going to stay ahead, generally speaking. I mean, look, you can. There's exceptions. I won't keep saying that we're talking playing the odds here, looking at the data and the data very clearly indicates that your choice of major is going to significantly impact yeah, but I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:It's exactly how you said, early on in your life, early on in your career you're not really thinking about that financial impact in the future. Now, some people do, some people do. And now I want to jump on something you just said, because I know it depends on the person, how the person is guided. It also depends on the person grew up. If you grew up in an environment where your great great grandfather was a doctor or a union steward, guess where you're going to be? Maybe a doctor or a union steward, unless you want to be the black sheep of the family, right, but but it's, it's. You're right. I don't think students or people at 18, not that they don't have the right grasp I don't think they don't have the right guidance from mentors to put them down the road of what they need to be thinking about 25 years later. Well, we're trying to bring light to that.
Speaker 1:That's that's that's what that's what this is all about. So here's another graphic, If this is, showing the lowest paying majors in education, arts and the social work fields that we just showed were the lowest starting points.
Speaker 1:Now, keep in mind this is not a. This is not a. This is mid career. Mid career not starting. Early childhood education $39,000. That's the bottom of the list. And you and you look, and that's an appealing major to a lot of people, right? I mean, who doesn't want to help children with education? What a noble thing. So let me let me just go on record and say I'm not saying this is how it should be, far from it. What I'm saying is this is how it is and that's the. That's the world we have to pay attention to. That's reality. So sure, 42,000 mid career, 42,000 mid career it's a really tough way to to to live, ricky. It's really a 42,000 isn't a lot of money in in in our, in our world?
Speaker 2:I repeat, but then you would have to guess or you would have to assume that if somebody goes in into those, those type of fields like early childhood education, you're not going to go in there to be rich. So you're going in there for a different reason than financial gain. You're going in there.
Speaker 1:It's a difference between being rich and being you know, I don't even think that's a big difference and yeah, that's my point All yeah.
Speaker 1:That's my point. So so, so back it up even further. You go to college, right, and we, if we, if we believe and we'll cooperate on this theory to some degree that you go to college to benefit yourself financially, right, they're your profession and you choose one of these degrees and career paths, you're not accomplishing your objective. In fact, you could argue, I would argue, that you're making it even worse by going to college in the worst way.
Speaker 1:Now, that's what we're talking about today, but, but maybe, maybe the way to phrase it in this context is if you decide to go to college, you should consider the degree and how it's going to impact your financial future, because you're paying to go to college.
Speaker 2:I, I, I agree. Right, when you go buy a car, you don't just buy one, you test drive them, you take a look at different dealers where you're going to get the best deal. This should not be any different. But I think again, it starts at high school, it starts at college and it starts at home. I, I agree with you. We are asking the wrong questions, we are, we are having the wrong conversations. Right, because and I've heard counselors say this I've heard counselors say you pick whatever your heart desires. I'm like, wait a minute. Right, if I want to be a Lego master, right, I don't know if that's going to bring me any money, right, unless I come out on the show. Right, and that's what my heart desires. Right, look, I'm a Star Wars fan, pete. Right, I could be a Star Wars fan as a career. That's not going to, that's not going to sustain a living, and I don't know who would marry me, right, if that was my goal in life.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you already got someone to marry you despite your Star Wars obsession, so I think that's okay.
Speaker 1:So, okay, let me, let me show you what, let me show you one more graphic that that sort of supports us and then we'll move on. And that is where we're going to talk about, like which you know mid-career for the different groupings of of degrees right, call it. You know schools that you could go to that we mentioned before. So STEM mid-career 76,000 average versus teaching and serving Again what. There couldn't be a more noble profession than teaching young people right that this is wrong. Wait, wait, it's real.
Speaker 2:It's wrong because it should be more.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me phrase it differently, not the way it should be. This is how it is. That reality can't, shouldn't be ignored, but it is ignored and I think that's Something that we try to change. So the difference between if you're a STEM major mid-career, you're making seventy six thousand dollars if you're a teacher.
Speaker 2:So let's pause for a quick P. Let's because if we're thinking about and and you alluded to that earlier if we're thinking about, let's have the right conversations About college. That would help people in the future. If STEM is hot right now, do we have data to show that it's gonna continue to be hot five, ten, fifteen years from now?
Speaker 1:I think there is certainly a lot of data and I won't say data right. There's a lot of projections based on where the world is going, where we believe it's going, and these things are. You know their estimates, we know that they're not until they happen, but you know all of the data, or all of these do show that stem Degrees are going to be why?
Speaker 2:I ask right? Because 20 years ago If a kid was to tell the council or their parents I want to get a degree and to make video games, there would have been left that right and today that's a really good profession. People make a lot of money doing that. So I guess what I'm saying is, when you start doing these studies, when you start having these conversations, don't think about what's hot right now. You really have to take an analytical view of what the future is going to look like, where this country is going and what's going to be hot Later, because it's gonna take you some time for you to get the education, to get the experience, for you to be competent in the field that you're in. You just have to make sure that whatever it's it's, it's it's it's the biggest paying Not paying but paying career now is gonna continue to do so later on like what's obsolete now that 20 years ago was relevant. I'm trying to think here now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, what's operator now operator?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a telephone operator 40 years, over 50 years ago, an elevator person right, and in 20 years from now, I don't think we're gonna have uber or cabs, because it's all gonna be automated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of manual labor that's been replaced by automation. We know that AI right now is replacing a lot of knowledge work. That's probably the biggest thing to pay attention to, and but we, you know, so we have to make decision. We should be making decisions based on all of the knowledge, yeah, that's available to us today all the data, all the expectations, predictions, what's happening and Do you think, where do you think, that guidance is coming from today, if it's coming at all?
Speaker 2:today, I think a counselor's advice is less relevant than what it was before, because right now, students have access to a lot more information outside of school and they get to see online, they get to see in YouTube and and sometimes it paints are a false picture of success. Yes, yes, I've heard what in the past couple of months two kids, two kids that my, my, my ten year olds are friends with. They want to be a social media influence when they grow up. What the heck is that? Right, I mean, and I'm sure that there's a degree for that.
Speaker 2:But I think right now we have to be as adults, as as mentors to young people coming into the workforce. We have to be really deliberate, really careful on the advice we give and we have to be thoughtful about what advice, what road we put them on. And that's what I'm glad we're doing this episode, because that's what we're looking to do Right now. Right, be thoughtful about what you want to do going forward. I just wish this kind of rationale was live and high schools and colleges and at home Right, because that's the biggest influence right over at home.
Speaker 1:So Well, parents, and I'm guilty of this, I won't speak for you, but that it's very common for us to Give advice and in guidance and mentorship, based on our limited perspective too. Now we're looking at this because of the business that we're in, but otherwise I probably wouldn't be thinking too much about these things. Right, I would give guidance. It Was comfortable to me and my own experiences where we're trying now to look at this from a macro standpoint, right, and I can tell the kids, my kids, that I, I don't want them to do what I don't know you do, I want them to. You do n't. Okay, absolutely not. No, I know I want them to find. When we talked about the concept of Iki guy, of course, and some career counselors don't like this. They say it's unscientific, and I was even told not too long ago by a college guidance office director that we shouldn't be encouraging young Too much out there.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think the opposite, right, but that that you should find something that you're interested in. Okay now, so that's the easy part of this. I want to be an X, right, I want to have some of pick some obscure degree and that's a different show With it that could list all the just degrees that are meaningless in the professional world, right? What we're talking about today really is the choice you make is going to impact your, your financial, the financial outcome you know for your professional career, right, but find something that you're interested in. That's huge, and I do encourage my own kids to do that, even if it takes time. Spend as much time as you need to. You have a long runway.
Speaker 1:If you look at your, you mentioned 40 years of working. Well, doesn't it make sense to Invest as much time early? Yeah, set yourself on the right course for that, right, we all rush to get out there. I have a 20. My oldest son just turned 22 and For the past couple of years he's I know he's felt pressure to arrive at this Decision, and knowledge of this is what I'm supposed to do and really want to do.
Speaker 2:We have an experience right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's self-imposed, it's not coming from me. But you, you look, I felt that pressure when I was at age. I felt I'm, I need to get out in the world and produce, and the clock's ticking and you can. You feel that way, but reality is you're, you're, you're young, right? Let, like you, take as much time, invest in at your education. I Don't expect it just to come to you. You have to work for it, you have to put forth the effort. That's different. But find something that you really want to do Now. That's not the only part of the equation. That would be nice if it were, because then we wouldn't be having this discussion. Find something that you have aptitude for. Find something you're good at. Now that's harder, right, I want to be a pro basketball player. Well, I can only jump two inches and I'm not fast. Nope, not going to happen.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you this. So I'm thinking about myself, because, while you're saying that, I'm thinking because no, come on. See, you killed my dream man.
Speaker 1:You killed my dream.
Speaker 2:No. So when my son he's 10, he and I have conversations now about what he wants to do when he grows up. Right Now, he wants to be a video game. He wants to design video games. That's why I know so much about it right now. All right, let me help him down that path. But I started thinking what if he came to me and says hey, I want to be a standup comedian, that's what I want to do? And the back of my mind I'm going to be like that's a hard thing to really make good money on, right, because I'm thinking about his future, but at the same time I don't want to kill his dream, right, I want to be as supportive as possible with his dream.
Speaker 1:He's 10. Yeah, he's young, yeah, but then I don't know if you know of Dave Chappelle's story. Are you the best comedian alive today? All right, A lot of people think that I'm in that camp. He started at about that age. He was a teenager, going to open my standups and performing how many. My question would be to your son what are you willing to do about it? If you say it, but don't back it up with action, well, that's a good way, that's tough. But if he says I'm going to dedicate myself and I think you're using this example of standup comedian as hey, this is sort of an unlikely thing to actually happen.
Speaker 2:It's hard to just do it there. Really hard yeah.
Speaker 1:It's hard wrote, but I would be so proud of that and I would feel that what a gift if you really know what you want to do and you're willing to put yourself on the put it all on the line and go all in. To me, that's what we're talking about. That's the goal of you know, find something that you're willing to be the absolute best you can be at and dedicate yourself to it 24-7. Well that's my point. No, I'm at. No, no, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 2:But my point with this is is that back in the day, I'm thinking the wrong advice is given to students early on, our children is because the parents are not thinking about what they want to do. The parents are thinking about how they're going to be financially stable, going on, you know, going on later in life.
Speaker 1:Well, fear we're afraid of. You know, right, we're making decisions on fear. And yes, as a parent, you should lay out all the pros and cons the best you can, or help your child, you know, have exposure to all those pros and cons. Great, you want to be a stand-up comedian? Here's the stats.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you want it. Here's how it typically works out. How bad do you want it?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, how bad do you want it. And are you funny?
Speaker 2:I mean it's funny looking. That's just where it happens.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, but you know and this is reality has to set in. Like I said, I want to be a pro basketball player. Well, I'm not good at basketball, so it doesn't matter how hard I work, there's limitations that have to be acknowledged, and that's the second part, right? So it's what do you want to do? What's your aptitude for it? And then, what is the world value? Right? Does the world need stand-up comedians? Well, it needs some, not a lot. That's an important part there.
Speaker 2:That's something that, throughout this entire 29 minutes of recording, we have not touched on. What does the world value now versus what's the world going to value later on? Because 30 years ago, nobody knew what a social media strategist was, nobody knew what a social media manager was, nobody knew what an app was, an app developer, right? So that's what the world value is today, right? So I guess that's what we're saying, pete. What we're saying is it's in order for you to make a decision on what type of degree you're going to go for, if you're going to go for one at all, you have to figure out what the value of that degree, of that skill set, is going to be in 20 years. Not five, not two. 20 years, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's hard to do. This is all hard, it's all easy stuff and it's illogical to some degree. Right, the world values education, the world values teachers, but the financial? But you can't draw that financial equation to it, right?
Speaker 2:It doesn't value it. It doesn't value it financially.
Speaker 1:I mean well right, that should value it. It doesn't value it financially. There's some contradictions in all of this. You have to go into it with your eyes wide open hard thing to do at a young age. I hate to use the word should, right, because whether you should or not is irrelevant to what actually happens, and this doesn't happen enough. So you make a great point. You need to look in the future, but there has to be some method by which you can do that, and we currently are today.
Speaker 2:Something Josie and I were looking at. We went to Europe last year, right, we went on the cruise to Europe and we fell in love with Barcelona. So you know, when you go to a place and you fall in love with it, you're like, oh, I wonder how much it would cost to live here. We started thinking about it. So my wife is a registered nurse. She's a nurse case manager Now a nurse here, which is considered in the health industry. Right, you could be making mid-career anywhere between 80 to 130 thousand dollars a year. You know how much that is in Spain 30 grand, 30 thousand dollars in Spain. Right, it is a different world out there, right?
Speaker 1:Because they don't need nurses. There's. No, it's a mean, because it's generally a subplot. It is.
Speaker 2:Over there, remember, over there it's the medical field is socialized, right. They have social medicine over there, right? So that's what I'm saying If you're somebody who, you may think about moving somewhere else in the future. You got to make sure that the skillset that you're dedicating your time and effort to in college is also transferable outside of the US borders, Because more and more people are leaving the US and now you got to think globally. The Internet, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are making the world smaller, right, Smaller right. So you got to think about the borders beyond America and just really try to map out your life as best you can. I think that's what we should say Think about your life.
Speaker 1:And we've. This seems like it's been sort of a bad news message in many respects, but here's a different way of looking at it, or an additional consideration, rather your major doesn't necessarily translate into your profession and what you're going to be doing and your financial well-being. It just what we're really just talking about is that major may not lead to those opportunities at all and you may end up in a completely different place, right? My own example, being the easy one to talk about, is what I do has nothing to do with my college major. And you could argue and this is where I struggle a little bit that well, I learned things that translate right, that were still valuable critical thinking skills. That's always the go-to. You learn critical thinking skills, hi, betty. I learned critical thinking skills when I had to pay my own bills, right, that's when I learned critical thinking skills not when I was in college, I learned how to have a good time.
Speaker 1:I learned how to beat the system. I didn't take it serious. I would love to go to college now. There's so much that I would like to invest in it from a knowledge standpoint. So I think in many cases college is wasted on. The people who were there say that for me. You can you do if you. You don't have to, you're not pigeonholed.
Speaker 2:And Pete. And here's the thing right, because to me I would. I don't think I would have taken college as seriously as I did had I not joined the military right after high school. I think if I would have gone to college right after high school, I would have just partied Like a lot of people do today, right Party, and I wouldn't have taken it seriously. But I I saw what life was like and I'm like whoa, I have to do this right. So that's why I'm a big proponent If my son comes to me and says hey, daddy, I don't want to go to college right away.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, papa, what do you want to do? I'm going to guide you somewhere. You've started businesses. You go work somewhere, learn to trade, go to the military. But you got to do something to kind of part. You know to, to, to, to start that spark, light, that fire in you. But I can't tell them how to do that right. That's why, because I've met, I've got a neighbor who's hell bent on making sure his kids go straight to college. Uf Gators, baby, that's what they are right after high school, right, and that's all he talks about. But I'm like, is this your dream, or is this their dream. I mean, let's have a real conversation about who's dream. This is right. You don't know if they want to do that, and I know he's like Ricky. Look at them every every Saturday during college football. They're all dressed. I'm like, no, you dress them Right, they're just following your league, right.
Speaker 1:So I mean I guess this is for parents out there.
Speaker 2:Right, it's, yes, it's good for you to be proud, it's good for you to have your kids follow in your footsteps, but kids are vulnerable, they're really vulnerable. So I think it's better for you to take a step back and, instead of driving the career car, you let them drive and you just the GPS, let them put in those corners and you get them there the safest, most efficient way possible. That is the best thing we can do as parents and the best thing we can do as mentors. And let's let me talk about mentors not just in college, not just in high school work as well. You've got some senior leaders at work who can give young professionals who don't have the thing at home to be able to help them, guide them in the right place. So and we have- we.
Speaker 1:that's a bring up our podcast. We did on that. We did a podcast about mentorships. So check it out, listen to it.
Speaker 2:You give a lot of Henry agrees he's behind you.
Speaker 1:He agrees, he's. Yeah, the dog is enthralled. But here's the last piece of advice that I'll give on this note is on zen gigcom and we'll link this in the show notes. We have the most popular career aptitude or career personality tests I mentioned earlier. We'll link those. Some are free, some, some you have to pay for, but worth exploring so you can start to think about these things. Right, and listen. As a parent of four, I'm not even though I spend a lot of time thinking about this and, yeah, I'd say I have some level of expertise in this space.
Speaker 2:You've been there, you've done this for my old career, you can stop and company owner.
Speaker 1:but my kids don't want to listen to me. They don't think I know what I'm talking about. You know I'm dad, they're right to them. So send them into, you know, don't. Don't rely on your own knowledge, your own biases, you know, for these things. Get some independent perspective on this. These tests are quick and easy and a lot of people rely on them very heavily and the quality of them. I'll let you, you know, make those determinations for yourself, but we'll, we'll link that, you know, or you can just Google it career personality tests on zen gig and we have 10 real quick, growing up, whether you want to be so growing up, whether you want to be.
Speaker 2:once you got to adulthood, what was your first?
Speaker 1:love in career. It wasn't a recruiter. I didn't dress as a recruiter for Halloween, as I often said. That's a good question. I really, I really don't know. I would say probably the earliest memory and this is going to sound cliche but I loved football and I had pictures of football players all over all over my room and big Minnesota Vikings fan Okay, got it Huge Vikings fan. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my room was purple with Viking stuff over, yeah, but that's about as much, yeah, otherwise yeah.
Speaker 2:I just want to be a football player.
Speaker 1:What a shock right An American football player.
Speaker 2:Growing up, I wanted to be a pilot.
Speaker 2:I was in through all with aviation and through all with that. I wanted to be a fighter pilot. So bad and I. I had my mind set I'm going to go to, you know, high school, college and then be a pilot. And then one Christmas that was 13 years old, uncle came to me and said you know, so I hear you want to be a pilot on my get. You're blind. You can't be a pilot with glasses. You do this. I'm like all right. He said it, just like that, right. And I'm like completely shot my dream. He was right At that point in time. You needed to have 2020 on correct division. So okay. So five years later, I joined the military, I'm in the Marine Corps, I'm on a ship and I run into pilots. I have glasses. And I asked him I'm like, excuse me, sir, so it's so. I asked it's like, oh, that was years ago. Now we got. Now we have all kinds of equipment that you could. You need 2020, but it's okay if it's corrected.
Speaker 1:I'm like, dammit, uncle Dino right Dream was killed unnecessarily so that said.
Speaker 2:That said people if you have a nephew that has an amazing dream, right, Don't kill that dream. For that nephew, man, Let me tell you, do not kill it. Technology will advance for whatever limitations he may have at that point.
Speaker 1:That is such necessary advice to tell adults don't crush your dreams. Perfect, and Jeff, if you need to hear that, you need to move on, all right, well, thank you for listening. Rick, you think he was always drive safe. We would love for you to rate us five stars, if you could. That would be awesome, and yeah follow your dreams next week. Perfect, thanks, clegg.