What I'm sharing with you is very
personal. The only reason I'm doing it is because you might be able
to relate to it and benefit from it.
I barely made it out of high school. In
fact, I missed twenty out of the first 42 days of senior high. School
for me was boring and I had few friends. We had owned our home in the
community since first grade but, because of my father's military
career, I spent a number of years overseas, so I never really bonded
with kids my age in town. I did fifth and sixth grades in a US Navy
school in Naples, Italy, and 9th and 10th
grades in a US Navy school in Sigonella, Sicily. The years in between
are when students form friendships (or not), when they work their
ways through the pecking order in school. I wasn't there, so in a way
I missed out.
This wasn't all bad, though, because I
was making friends in the community where I lived in Catania, Sicily,
not on a base. Even though I attended school on the base, my friends
growing up were Italian. I learned how to speak two dialects,
Neapolitan and Sicilian. I saw American made western movies in
Italian (how cool is that?), and swam in the Mediterranean Sea from
April to October. I went skin diving for sea urchins and basked in
the sun with my friends while we feasted on our catch.
Back home for my last couple years, my
siblings and I were fatherless, without guidance. We were latchkey
kids when that phrase had not yet been widely used.
High school is a tough time to be a
stranger. I had a different outlook on national and local events, and
that didn't help me socially. We were also on the lower end of the
economic food chain. So, while many teens my age drove new cars, I
got a ten year old Chevrolet, plain white and absent of any style.
I wasn't alone in being alone, though.
I used to hang with four or five other guys who felt estranged, too.
Since I had a car, I was elected driver. And drive we did. We spent
days in New Haven at Yale's Peabody Museum, one day at art exhibits
and another day with Dinosaurs. We had a great time until my wings
were clipped.
I was called into the principal's
office and told, in no uncertain terms, that if I missed one more
day, I would not graduate. I toed the mark for the remaining months.
You might think school is a waste of
time, too, especially if none of the classes hold any meaning for
you, and if you're not part of a social network like band, or the
football team, or the math club. You might be aching to leave it all
behind and start a new life. If you have to, I would understand.
Before you do, though, consider the
following.
Chances are, you'll not find a
decent job, and your ability to make a life for yourself is severely
limited. That's not true for everyone. Some high school drop outs
have gone on to be millionaires, even billionaires (I'll name names
later) but the odds are not in your favor. Not even close.
Math,
because it's linked inextricably to almost everything you'll do in
life, from managingyour money
(balancing a budget, paying your bills, saving money, making wise
purchasing decisions) to financial self-defense; building a home or
installing flooring, putting on a roof; calculating your commissions
as a sales person or the tip you'll leave the server at the
restaurant.
And, it goes beyond
that. In another chapter, we're going to talk about becoming rich. If
you think you can do this without math, think again. It may not seem
like you're using math, but if you don't understand exponents, you
won't get the underlying basics for the Rule of Seventy or the rule
of 72.
When I shared that
with students in my Imagine the Future weekend seminar at a
Detroit Public School, they got it.
What I marveled at
was the teachers who were there as chaperones. While the students
were running their calculations for an exercise I gave them, I
approached the teachers and asked them their thoughts about the day.
One of them said, “We never knew that!I can't believe how
much money I've lost over the last twenty-five years.” Other
teachers said the same thing. Once you know the rule, you'll
be decades ahead of most adults – maybe your parents, too.
English,
because your ability to communicate is at the core of your being.
You know this because you spend a lot of time thinking about
yourself, your life. You spend time supporting, encouraging and
motivating yourself or deriding yourself, telling yourself you're a
loser and will never catch a break. You'll sit in your quiet moments
wishing for things or figuring out how to get things you want.
You'll spend the largest part of your life thinking and talking to
yourself. Make sure you have the best tools you can have for this
important aspect of your life.
Just about anything
you can imagine or feel has been imagined or felt by others over the
millennia, and that's great news for you. To paraphrase an old song,
“When you're down and troubled, and you need a helping hand, and
nothing, nothing's going right..” instead of “calling out my
name”, reach out to the thousands of people who have gone before
and read or listen to how they faced what you're facing, and how they
handled things.
One thing you'll
notice right off the bat is how lucid their thinking is, how clearly
everything looks, once they discover their answers, their truths.
Until then, they're walking through clouds, or mud, unsure of
anything. That's how things go.
Notice, too, how
large their vocabularies are. That's important, because we need
words, lots of them, and of good quality to define what we're facing
and to help us determine the answers.
Go to
www.ted.com
and listen to the speakers. TED stands for technology, entertainment
and design. The speakers are from all over the world. Some of them
are your age – or younger.
Imagine that you're
one of them. You can be. You're bright, energetic, well-educated. You
have opinions. And, you might even be an expert in a field you love.
If not, you still can be. Imagine the pride of speaking to an
audience that values what you have to say, made up of people
who have their own stories to share. The connections you'll make will
enrich your life beyond belief.
One
man who comes to mind is African American actor, comedian and
activist Dick Gregory. He wrote an autobiography, titled Nigger*.
It was from him that I learned
the difference between being poor and being broke. I learned that We
were never poor but we were often broke. Broke is a temporary
condition. Today you have money, tomorrow you don't. But if you're
poor, you're poor all your life.
That
was immensely important to learn – because we were OFTEN
BROKE. I remember we were broke
on my graduation day. I stood proudly with my mother and older
brother as an announcer told the audience that pictures of the
graduating class, taken that day, could be ordered for later delivery
– for $1.75. Between the three of us, we couldn't muster the cash.
That day, we were broke, not poor – and a bit pained. The following
day I started work unloading eggs at the New England Farmers'
Exchange.
*Gregory
dedicated to his mother, who had passed. He wrote, If you ever
hear that word again, you'll know they're just advertising my book.
____________
My
mother was a terrific women. She was not well-educated like my father
and she would not have held her own in sophisticated discussions but
she knew what she wanted. She wanted college educated children –
and she got them, though, in my case, it took almost three decades.
My siblings were better at this.
One
morning in the middle of August, 1963, she rousted me from a sound
sleep to tell me we were going to nearby New Haven College, and that
I was applying for September admission. I had no plan for that but
the firmness in her voice made it clear the choice was out of my
hands. “This is what your father wanted for you,” she said matter
of fact. Now, we had not heard from him in months but it was not the
time to challenge her.
Applying
to a small, fledgling college just miles from Yale University is a
lot easier than you might think. An admissions officer looked over my
transcripts and said, “He'll have to take our entrance exams, one
in math and one in English. The next ones are on Tuesday and Thursday
night respectively.”
I took
the exams as directed. I passed math with flying colors. Not so,
English. I was accepted conditionally, but I had to take remedial
English.
I share this story for a number of reasons. Here they are:
In
1963, a full semester, fees and all, cost $400 for 12 credits
(that's four, three-credit classes) Today, a semester (now 9
credits) at the University of New Haven (yeah, it grew) runs about
$8,000.
Mind
you, my mother grossed
$42/week, and she spent $12 for taxes and $10 for cab fare. Imagine
trying to raise a family of four on $20/week. In 2015 dollars, that's
$160/week, after taxes, not enough in most places to cover the rent.
Consider
all the sacrifices my
mother made to get me into college. In addition to tuition and
books, there's car expenses, insurance, food and more (socialization
costs). All told, that's about $1200, for a woman grossing less than
$2200/year.* She pulled a lot of strings to fulfill her (my?) dream.
Five years later, my brother enrolled in UCONN. Two years later, my
sister enrolled in SCSC, both Connecticut state schools.
If I
had taken out loans, then dropped out, there were ways to get the
debt forgiven, the most severe being bankruptcy. Today's students
come into the workforce with an average debt of some $28,000. That's
more than many new cars! They cannot discharge it in bankruptcy. It's
a burden they'll carry for decades. It's a toss up whether going to
college was the right call for me. I wasn't ready. It may have been
better to get a job. So, be careful. A young person today, or an
adult trying to improve his résumé in hopes of getting a new job
and jump starting a career, has to look seriously at the severe
implications of loans. (See: Forget free community college – How
about free University?)
As
a point of reference, my mother's earnings of $2180/year is the same
as $16,780 in 2014. Poverty income for a family of four today is
$23,850. Even then, we were living well below poverty level.
Do
you really need college? Let's see.
My need
for a “real job” began in 1971, when I left the US Navy. The
economy was soft and good jobs were hard to come by. I took a job at
Grossman's Lumber, one of the original cash-and-carry lumber yards
(today's Lowe's and Home Depot). The pay was a $150/week salary which
included Saturdays. In effect, it was $2.92/hr. While it was nothing
to write home about, there were opportunities for aggressive
self-starters. Within a few months I was promoted to assistant
manager, with a nominal bump in salary. I looked at my options and it
was clear that my career prospects were limited without a degree.
Then I
caught a break. My brother-in-law, a super salesman in his own right,
arranged for an interview with his company, a manufacturer of
industrial chemicals. Talk about being outside one's element. I had
no training or education in this field.
I
interviewed with a genuine 'nice guy, Mr. Jerry Kastner, Assistant to
the President, and a friend of my brother-in-law. We had a great
conversation going. Then he asked, “What do you know about
chemistry?”
“Nothing.”
“Do
you know what pH is?”
I shook
my head.
Jerry
went on to explain that most sales people in the company had
backgrounds in chemistry.
“We
have a lot of PhDs,” he announced. He sat back in his chair and
waited.
We were
quiet for a while. It was my turn to talk but what could I say? I had
none of the qualifications most of their sales force had. I was
beginning to wonder why my brother-in-law had arranged the meeting.
Suddenly, I knew. I leaned forward to speak.
“You
say you have a lot of chemical engineers in sales, some with PhDs.”
“That's
right.”
“I
have one question. Can they sell?”
Jerry
sat back in his chair, a heartfelt laugh shaking his body
head-to-toe.
“No.
They get lost in the 'telling' and forget to ask for the order.”
We
agreed that I would start two weeks later to allow my employer
notice. I would start off in the lab as a sales trainee, doing
analyses, processing parts, getting to learn what my future customers
do every day. I would earn the same as I was earning at the lumber
yard but that was about half the going rate for average sales people,
so the opportunity was clear, and compelling.
I
remember the last few lines of our conversation.
“You
realize,” Jerry said with a smile, “in six months, we may not
like you.”
I
smiled. “Who knows, in six months, I may not like you either.”
I was
still there six years later, markedly better off than if I had
remained in the lumber business.
Today, a
person's chances of landing such a job are slim to none. It's
virtually impossible to get an interview. Everything is done via the
internet with computers scanning résumés and making the initial
decisions.
While I
was with the company, I took advantage of the GI bill to continue my
education. Even then, it took a long time to earn a degree. Looking
back, I had attended a number of colleges: New Haven College (now a
university, outrageously expensive), Lawrence Institute of Technology
(chemistry classes – finally!)
I was
with another company, a competitor in fact, and relocated to
Connecticut when I found the path to my bachelors degree, via
Charter
Oak State College, an external degree program, not unlike today's
online universities but with a twist. (Remember that name, and this
site:
http://www.charteroak.edu/).
A
counselor from the school met me at a library in nearby Meriden. She
told me she'd need copies of all my college transcripts sent to the
college for her review. She told me to include the courses I had
taken in the US Navy.
A few
weeks later, she called to tell me they would accept 98 credits.
Imagine that ! 98 out of 120. Now, I would need to take a course in
computers, two semesters of a language and any electives I wanted to
round out the rest.
What
happened next is important for you to know. There is a program
called CLEP (College Level Examination Program) that allows a
person to earn college credits for a subject just by passing a test
on it. I used this approach to test out of two years of Italian (six
credits, $39) because I had lived in Italy and understood the
language (more on this later). I read a book on Economics, took the
CLEP and passed (again, $39). I did take some courses, in computers
and finance in the conventional way (brick and mortar). Then, at the
tender age of 44, I had a bona-fide BS in Business Administration.
I didn't
get the degree as a career move. I was already firmly entrenched in a
good career, earning just under six figures. I did it because the
lack of a degree represented unfinished business. Six years later,
just months before my 50th birthday, I earned my Masters
in Management degree from a traditional brick-and-mortar college,
paid for by my company. I never would have done this otherwise. By
then, I had two boys in college. There was no way I could have
afforded it.
Now,
let's talk about you. If there was proof that a college degree
would guarantee a career path, I'd be the first to encourage you to
look into it. But, there're a lot of steps between 'looking into it'
and 'doing it'. And, you should take those steps before taking the
plunge.
Here are a number of things to consider. First, why people go to
college. Here are some reasons. Maybe yours is among them.
Why
People Chose the College They Did
It
was close to home
It
was far from home
It
was what they could afford
They
received a scholarship
The
college had the best financial aid package
To
associate with the best and the brightest
They
liked the challenging environment
Ratio
of professors to students
Size
of student body
Ratio
of women to men
It
was consistent with their self-image
Their
closest friend was going there
Their
parents went there
It
is Ivy League
The
environment is not too taxing
Entrance
requirements were loose (They'll take anybody)
It’s
a great party school
It
has great sports teams
The
climate suited them
There
are corresponding reasons why people choose Not to go to
college.
You
have no interest in academic subjects
Other
interests are more important to you
You
don’t have the money
You’re
not ready to tackle the responsibilities
You
want to get a job instead
You
want to travel
Your
parents want you to
Everybody
in your school goes on to college
Vocational
training is faster and more meaningful
You
have more immediate concerns
It
doesn’t mesh with the way you see yourself
You
are not prepared emotionally or mentally
Don't
limit yourself to these two lists. Consider also the job outlook for
people with degrees by field. Here's the lists of:
Fastest
Growing Industries
Jobs
with the Highest number of Job Openings
Jobs
in the Highest Paying Fields
The
25 highest-paying jobs with the most openings right now
Yahoo
Finance By Julie
Bort
February
17, 2015
Who
makes more money, on average, a doctor or a lawyer? A product manager
or a tax manager?
No
25: Sales Engineer
Average
Base Salary: $90,899
Number of Job Openings: 5,508
A
sales engineer is the technical resource for the sales force that
helps them make sure bids and contracts meet the customers' technical
specifications.
No.
24: Business Development Manager
Average
Base Salary: $95,139
Number of Job Openings: 11,037
A
business development manager is a sales role that typically involves
both sales and marketing.
No.
23: Software Engineer
Average
Base Salary: $96,392
Number of Job Openings: 99,055
A
software engineer is a software programmer. Every company needs them,
from the tech companies building software to sell to others, to the
enterprises building apps for internal use.
No
22: Human Resources Manager
Average
Base Salary: $96,406
Number of Job Openings: 7,220
The
HR manager is in charge of things like hiring, benefits, and
training.
No.
21: UX Designer
Average
Base Salary: $96,855
Number of Job Openings: 2,010
UX
designers, or user-experience designers, are the ones who make sure
the product looks and feels good and functions in a way that is easy
for people to use.
No.
20: Database Administrator
Average
Base Salary: $97,258
Number of Job Openings: 9,041
A
company's database is among the most important bits of software it
owns, keeping track of customers, transactions, and inventory. A
database administrator runs it.
No.
19: Marketing Manager
Average
Base Salary: $100,229
Number of Job Openings: 14,179
A
marketing manager plans, directs, and coordinates the marketing of
the organization's products and/or services.
No.
18: Computer Hardware Engineer
Average
Base Salary: $101,154
Number of Job Openings: 1,264
A
computer hardware engineer designs computers and all sorts of other
electronic devices.
No.
17: QA Manager
Average
Base Salary: $101,330
Number of Job Openings: 1,689
A
QA or "quality assurance" manager performs tests to make
sure a product, service, or software performs like it should.
No.
16: Security Engineer
Average
Base Salary: $102,749
Number of Job Openings: 2,060
A
security engineer designs, deploys, and monitors systems that secures
a company's network, software, and other assets.
No.
15: Data Scientist
Average
Base Salary: $105,395
Number of Job Openings: 3,433
A
data scientist is a super-hot field right now. This person helps a
company find insights out of heaps of data.
No.
14: Supply Chain Manager
Average
Base Salary: $106,632
Number of Job Openings: 1,667
A
supply chain manager works with a company's vendors to buy parts,
materials, and supplies for building the company's products.
No.
13: Physician Assistant
Average
Base Salary: $110,871
Number of Job Openings: 43,678
A
PA sees patients and practices medicine under the supervision of
physicians and surgeons.
No.
12: Product Manager
Average
Base Salary: $113,959
Number of Job Openings: 9,918
A
product manager helps run the teams that design and market a product.
No.
11: Pharmacist
Average
Base Salary: $114,715
Number of Job Openings: 9,160
A
pharmacist dispenses prescription medications and provides
information about those medications to patients.
No.
10: Tax Manager
Average
Base Salary: $114,966
Number of Job Openings: 3,622
A
tax manager handles accounting and tax handling functions at a
company.
No.
9: IT Manager
Average
Base Salary: $115,642
Number of Job Openings: 17,161
An
IT manager runs manages a company's technology infrastructure.
No.
8: Analytics Manager
Average
Base Salary: $115,725
Number of Job Openings: 1,408
An
analytics manager performs business and financial analysis to help
the company measure its success and predict its needs.
No.
7: Lawyer
Average
Base Salary: $120,424
Number of Job Openings: 5,520
A
lawyer represents and advises people, businesses, and government
agencies in criminal and civil litigation.
No.
6: Solutions Architect
Average
Base Salary: $121,522
Number of Job Openings: 3,530
A
solutions architect designs and engineers complex software or
computer systems.
No.
5: Finance Manager
Average
Base Salary: $123,534
Number of Job Openings: 9,224
A
finance manager helps a company strategically manage its money so
that it can finance its business needs.
No.
4: Software Development Manager
Average
Base Salary: $123,747
Number of Job
Openings: 2,249
A
software development manager is a project leader for software
projects.
No.
3: Software Architect
Average
Base Salary: $130,891
Number of Job Openings: 3,229
A
software architect designs complex software applications.
No.
2: Pharmacy Manager
Average
Base Salary: $131,099
Number of Job Openings: 1,787
A
pharmacy manager oversees and manages pharmacy operations.
No.
1: Physician
Average
Base Salary: $212,270
Number of Job Openings: 7,984
A
physician examines patients, prescribes medications, and treats
injuries and illnesses.
Note
the Following:
Only
five of the categories had demand for 10,000 or more people. On
average, that means 200 jobs per state. There's a good chance that
you could get into a career where you enter the market with a degree,
a repayment plan and no job in the field. Don't take my word for it.
Go to your local Starbuck's or Panera and ask the workers if they
have degrees, and what fields their degrees are in.
Search
Law School Grads suing their alma maters.
There are some pretty upset legal wannabees with
debt and no jobs.
Consider
timing - For
the last few years the demand for engineers in the oil and gas
industry has been very high and, as a result, pay has been terrific.
Then the slowdown of 2015. They're out of work now, and their degrees
don't match the open fields.
Consider
the Schools that Advertise – You
might see the ad where a waitress in having a bad day, and the ad
goes on to say that there's a great need for paralegals, or
healthcare workers. They cite numbers like 30,000 job openings (over
the next ten years).
Let's
do the math: 30,000/10 years Hmmm...
that's 3,000/year; sixty jobs
per state on average. That makes it a little realistic. Then,
factor in how the
industry changes. The skills may be a lot different in five years,
so your training
may be obsolete. Even engineering grads find the skills they left
college with won't hold up in five years. Hmmm...
Do you notice that Number 1on the list Greatest Number of Jobs is for
Sales Clerk? The second is for nurse, a high-stress career with
reasonable earnings which requires a two year RN degree (more on that
later). The rest of the jobs barely require a high school diploma.
So, if these jobs don't require a degree and those that do are few in
number, a red flag should go up.
Red
Alert! Don't go after a degree because of the
money. It may not be there.
An
example: Do a search for newly minted lawyers the people who got
undergrad degrees, went on to law school, passed the bar in their
respective states – and are now working elsewhere. Many are
baristas at Starbucks.
out
too many graduates for too few available jobs. Less widely
appreciated, however,
is
that the lawyer glut appears to be much more severe in some parts of
the country
than
in others. There's nowhere in the United States that new JD's have it
especially
Let's
say you want to be a family doctor. Check out the burgeoning growth
of walk-in clinics staffed by Nurse Practitioners, those people who
are more than qualified to cover 90% of the common ailments for
which you used to go to a doctor – for a lot less money.
I'm
not saying you should not go to college. That's not my call. You must
decide. But, you should go into your future forewarned and forearmed.
That, my friend, is up to you.
Understand,
too, that colleges are businesses. They have something to sell:
degrees.They need consumers - students of all ages - so, they have to
market themselves to attract new applicants. The higher the dropout
rate, the larger the number they must admit. Sometimes, they will
mislead people a bit to accomplish their goals. Here's one way they
do it:
You
see an ad for programs in a field that interests you. You learn that
the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts the need for 50,000 new jobs
over the next decade. FIFTY THOUSAND JOBS! Wow, that's a lot! But
wait. Divide 50,000 by 10 years; that's 5,000 jobs per year on
average. Now, there are FIFTY states in the Union. Divide 5,000 by
50; that's 100 jobs per state. The school that's advertising will
graduate 50 students/year with degrees in that field. Three other
schools in the area (at least) offer similar programs with similar
degrees. Perhaps ten schools in your state are vying for the same
students, citing the same stats. Hmmm? You do the math.
NOW,
who's carrying the debt for the degree?
You?
Ouch! Your college loan payment may be as much as your rent.
Your
parents? They're closer to retirement than you, how's that going
to impact their 'golden years'?
Even
the government is disingenuous when it comes to education. As much as
we'd like to believe that a degree is the path to success, the
government's own Bureau of Labor Statistics says the opposite.
One
last thing to consider. OK, two.
First,
the best paying fields are in industries clustered under the label
Advanced Industries -- aerospace, automotive, computer sciences,
biologies, etc. This category of work accounts for some 12 million
jobs in a nation with about 134 million workers. Job trends in this
category are FLAT going forward. The supposed 'jobs' may just not be
there!
Second,
two nations your parents and I never much considered competitors,
China and India, are on track to graduate some 400 MILLION students
with STEM degrees. That's almost THREE TIMES our entire workforce.
Add to that Brazil and Russia, then Europe and the rest of Asia. What
do you glean from that?
So,
what's a body to do? First, if you're intent on getting a degree,
consider the following:
Do
NOT look into for-profit colleges, like the University of Phoenix
and others. They charge a lot more than much better public colleges
and universities and their graduation rates are in the 6-9 percent
range. Low quality, outrageously high price.
Second,
consider mastering a foreign language. The primary reason for
this suggestion is demographics. The world is getting older. Almost
all nations are experiencing period in which the elderly will far
outnumber the young. Think what this means. Each country will be
coming up short in regards to their work forces. And the young will
be paying taxes to support their aging parents and grandparents,
while working longer hours at lower wages.
This
is not so much an issue in the US because we have a reasonable
approach toward immigration for the educated, especially those who
were educated here. Having said that, these very students are in
demand globally. So, whereas at one time graduates would happily stay
in the US, take citizenship and raise American families, fewer
graduates are doing so, to some degree because they're concerned
about the social climate.
So,
why not attend university in a country you really want to live in,
for free, where you can expect to make a life if for no other reason
than the country needs you – and the culture is more agreeable than
that in your own country.
Red
Alert!
Don't go after a degree in a specific discipline, like accounting or
business, because the jobs are there and they pay well. Consider a
liberal arts education where you are challenged to think,
to challenge
yourself, to
make a case and defend it; to stretch your mind beyond what you've
learned to date; to learn to express your thoughts, and maybe
discover in the process that you've changed your mind. The rest of
the subjects you can master with ease. You can easily master the
mechanics of accounting or other such mundane subjects, like
marketing on the job.
Clusters
There's
an old adage that says Politics and Real Estate are local. What's
also true is that industries cluster. This is important for you to
understand, so let's look at it more closely. If you're going to
build your future doing something you love, look closely at where
people are doing it. Detroit is known for cars, and LA for movies;
Silicon Valley thrives on Technology, and Boston on Medical Devices
and Financial Services. To make it easy for you, I include below a
graphic from the guru himself, Professor Michael E. Porter.
Note,
there are only a dozen or so clusters, each specializing in a number
of disciplines, some of them competitive with others. Boston is big
in Education and Knowledge Creation but so is Pittsburgh, PA, and
Raleigh-Durham, NC.
Businesses
cluster for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a large
cohort of people trained in those fields. Most of them received their
educations from local colleges and universities, (MIT, Boston
University, Cambridge; Carnegie Melon and more).
Note,
there are only a dozen or so clusters, each specializing in a number
of disciplines, some of them competitive with others. Boston is big
in Education and Knowledge Creation but so is Pittsburgh, PA, and
Raleigh-Durham, NC.
This is not the only graph on the site. Please check them out.
Note,
there are only a dozen or so clusters, each specializing in a their own disciplines, some of them competitive with others. Boston is big
in Education and Knowledge Creation but so is Pittsburgh, PA, and
Raleigh-Durham, NC.
Businesses
cluster for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a large
cohort of people trained in those fields. Most of them received their
educations from local colleges and universities, (MIT, Boston
University, Cambridge; Carnegie Melon and more).
Then,
there are the companies that hire graduates from them, and the
research they co-ordinate with them. Don't overlook the social
aspect of clusters, of meeting and working with people with similar interests and life goals,
hopefully smarter than you in some ways. Once you've decided on what
knowledge you'd like to pursue, make sure to pursue it 'where the action is'.
As
you scan the graphic, it will not surprise you that there's a good
chance you're going to leave home to pursue your dream. Look at it as
the chance to grow, to expose yourself to new 'everything' (new
cultures, new ways of thinking, new subjects beyond your specialty.
It boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Let's
take that one step further. Let's look at the clusters globally.
Why
would you do that?
You'd
do that because it's in your best interest to be marketable in as
many places as possible. While what you love to do may not offer any
opportunities where you live, chances are that your knowledge and
skills are in demand.
Consider,
for example, the opportunities for English majors. Sure, there's a
need for teachers, but the forecast is well under 1% per year through
2022. But English majors have a lot more options than that. English
majors are writers, copy writers, ad copy specialists, movie script
writers and so much more. If you love to travel, expand your courses
to include courses in teaching English as a second language. The son
of a friend who has always succumbed to wanderlust has taught in
Japan and Brazil. As I write, he's on assignment in Germany. Imagine
his worldview, having immersed himself in so many diverse cultures.
Scientists
are in demand around the globe, too, so you're not limited to one
community or one state. The world is your oyster. One way to prepare
for your adventure is to study the language(s) of the country(ies) in
which you'd like to live. Don't limit your language experience by
believing that English is the common language in many professional
science communities. It is, but the people with whom you'll work are
multilingual. And, as you travel the countryside, most of the people
you'll encounter do not
speak English. One last point; if you have a fairly good command of
the language, you're a leg up on all those Americans who never took
the time. You'll get more invitations to people's homes, to attend
events no one else would even know about.
Learning
languages is easier than you might think. If you study Spanish,
you'll be pleased to know that you already know thousands of Spanish
words. Don't believe me? Read a copy of Madrigal's Magical Key to
Spanish. Here's an example: How many English words do you know that
end in 'or', like actor or factor or doctor? Surprise! They're
Spanish words, too. How many words do you know that begin with 's',
like 'special'? Add an 'e' to the beginning to make 'especial'. See
how much you already know?
Japanese
only had about 80,000 words when Americans first interacted with
them. There were no Japanese words for 'beer' or 'toilet' – or a
myriad of other words. So, the Japanese adopted them, with a twist.
Beer became 'biru'. Toilet became 'toiletu' (pronounced toretu
because Japanese pronounce 'l' as an 'r'. The Japanese vowel are
pronounced softly, like Spanish and other Latin-based languages, so a
word like ABE would be pronounced Ah Beh.
While
it is difficult to learn and master the written Japanese language,
speaking it with some fluency will open many doors, more than you
might imagine. Mastering the written language, and the subtleties
within it can increase your value, too.
Important
Questions
Here's a limited list of questions you
should answer for yourself. Once you've asked them aloud and answered
them, you will own them. Over time, you'll encounter them again, and
your answers will be different, because you'll be older and have had
more life experiences. You'll read the same questions but you'll
interpret them differently. You'll hear them in a different context,
as an older adult, as a parent, as an employee or a boss or an owner.
Read these questions, consider the answers. Write them down. Then,
revisit them five years from now, and again after a decade. See how
you've changed.
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