Young people are confronted with a multitude of life-shaping decisions in their lives. Perhaps, the most critical among them is that of
education
. Some hold that formal
education
offers little to attain professional
success
, while others believe that the value of
education
in career
success
is irreplaceable. The way I see it, pursuing
education
offers more than just the hard skills you need to perform well in a
job
and equips one more fully to attain
job
success
.
It is certainly true that an early
job
gives a person an edge over their peers who
first
choose to go through
education
. Those who choose an early
job
immerse themselves into the work environment and have more time to learn
job
-specific skills and knowledge, which allow them to climb through career paths in that or another field more quickly than their peers who enter the
job
fresh from university. The early
job
option is attractive because a person is able to attain financial self-sufficiency and devote more time to enhancing the
job
related-competencies by working with highly qualified professionals, taking skill-specific courses and attending different professional seminars.
However
, the option of having access to all of these, especially to high-quality ones, is available in a limited number of situations, and
thus
if a young person is misled to believe that he/she can attain it, it is highly probable that he will be stuck at a dead-end
job
with little prospect of growth.
Alternatively, young people who go through formal stages of
education
build a theoretical framework and a strong network of professional friends. The theoretical framework is important to join certain professions that require high levels of training
such
as doctors, lawyers and engineers.
This
framework is
also
critical for one to be able to create, innovate and enhance.
For example
, to become a good scientist it is important to understand the basic laws governing
this
or that field. A good physicist should understand the laws that govern physical objects both small and large.
Additionally
, the network that one builds while at college is hard to overestimate. It is no secret that professional
success
very often depends on how quickly and well you can accomplish certain tasks, tasks that become notably easier if you have connections in certain jobs or industries who are willing to give you a hand.
To conclude, while
first
-hand, hands-on experience is invaluable, it is unrealistic for young people to pursue under all circumstances, and college offers more than the soft know-how and basic competencies, it does so at the benefit of building a network of “useful” friends who may serve you the entire duration of your professional career.