We’ve long been told that education is key to obtaining success in life. This is very true of course. The more educated you are on a certain subject or subjects, the more doors will be opened for you to walk through. Having said that, success doesn’t always equate to something monetary.
Just because you have an advanced degree in social work, that isn’t necessarily reflected in an inflated salary. Social workers don’t make a lot of money, no matter how many diplomas are hanging on the wall.
Too often we hear about people saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt making $40K a year. The payoff in the job market doesn’t always equal the effort or cost to obtain multiple degrees.
Is this fair? Well, I tend to think it is. America is referred to as a land of opportunity for a reason. We all have the opportunity to make the choices that we do. This includes the choice to attend a private or public school, assume student loan debt and pursue the degree we believe will help us attain success in life.
When I decided to change careers, I looked into whether it made sense for me to pursue a career as a historian. As mentioned in past articles, I have a passion for history. If it were up to me, I’d resign myself to reading 1-2 books a day on the subjects that interest me, write about them and perhaps provide a lecture for anyone who’d be inclined to listen.
History is what I’d like to do. I quickly found out it’s not what I should do.
I already have an undergrad degree so I researched the cost of an advanced history degree. Although I could find several that were affordable, all of them were cost prohibitive when I began to dig into the long term prospects of a potential history career. It didn’t make sense to spend $100K on a graduate degree in order to start out making $30K a year.
It’s a hard pill to swallow for sure. Shouldn’t you always pursue your dreams, regardless of the cost? No. No you should not.
There’s nothing wrong with pursuing your dreams if you know what you’re getting yourself into. A willingness to make short term sacrifices in order to achieve long term success is both necessary and crucial prior to moving forward. I’m not willing to make those sacrifices for both myself and my family, therefore, I didn’t move forward.
Monetarily, I”m better off working in the gift shop of a historic battlefield rather than placing myself in a debt hole that I’d be unable to dig out of for years to come. The $15/hour I earned would be mine, free of any burdens, payments or stress.
This is an extreme example and I’m by no means saying we should all get jobs making $15/hour. This is barely enough to live on, especially in our post Covid hyper inflation world.
What I’m saying is, if you want to be a police officer, teacher or (in my case) historian, do your homework. Understand that you won’t get paid as much as you most likely deserve. There are quite a few jobs that fall into this category and these are only a few examples. Putting yourself in a mountain of debt to make $50-60K for the remainder of your adult life may not be the best choice.
I’m not being a downer here. This isn’t a column about giving up on your dreams. I haven’t given up on mine yet, I’m just being realistic about the next steps I should or shouldn’t take given my age, family obligations and future earning potential.
Facing hard truths as an adult can be hard.
Realizing your dreams have turned into your biggest nightmare is harder.
