The Last Resort to Career Change: Going Back to School

It should be the last resort?!
What??? You may say, isn't that the first step?  Learning??

Yes.  But there are other ways to learn a new trade than by going back to school.  But that very expensive and time consuming step is the first thing many people take.  I highly suspect that advertisement is to blame, along with a hefty dose of fear.  Think about how inundated we are with continuing education ads.  It's important to remember that higher education institutions are businesses, and businesses need to make money to survive.  College marketers direct their efforts toward individuals confused about what they want to do, which mostly includes high school students, college students, people in their 20's, 30's, 40's,  50's and 60's as well as anyone on Facebook, Twitter, or the internet in general.  So I believe that covers... pretty much everybody.   I'd consider that a very expansive target audience, wouldn't you?

The fear comes from our inborn need to feel as smart and knowledgeable as the next guy.  It's all about the credentials! We feel a need to prove ourselves to colleagues that we are qualified to do our job.  But let's face it, our inborn talents can go a lot farther than any degree can provide.  For example, you may go back for an M.B.A., but unless you have the appropriate aptitudes for a given job or, most importantly the interest, you are not going to thrive in that position or find fulfillment stretching yourself beyond your abilities.  Sure, many want ads include "degrees preferred" in their descriptions;  however, want ads are not the only way to get into an organization.  Referrals are a crucial way to sidestep the gatekeeper at human resources who doesn't know you very well.

While I am a huge proponent of education's invaluable aim to further knowledge (I absolutely love learning), I know from the career trenches that going back to school (or even starting too soon as a recent high school graduate) can create a diversion to answering the tough but important questions of what makes a person tick. 


Many people look to continuing education as a means of delaying the career decision making process. 

In the time it takes to find schools with desired degrees and apply to those schools, they could be focusing more of their energy on looking at:

a) what they really want to do and are capable of doing by taking career assessments and
b) all of the alternate ways to get to where they want to go.

One alternative to going back to school is to partner up with another expert, someone who can complement your own expertise and experience.  For example, let's say you like the subject of drama and also enjoy helping people.  The natural solution is to combine the two and get a degree in drama therapy, right?  Well, yes and no.  While that might be a good option for some people it's not the only possibility. If you have a B.F.A  or M.F.A. degree and/or solid theatre experience you might try partnering up with a clinical psychologist or licensed therapist and offer workshops using some tools from drama therapy.  Of course, you would have to make sure you were above board in your collaborative work, but that is where a good clinician would have knowledge of regulations and ethics.   And while you may not enjoy being a drama therapist per se, you might enjoy using drama and therapy as tools in your career.  These are the important distinctions to figure out before embarking on a degree.

On the other hand, if you were to shadow a drama therapist and take the necessary assessments to find that it's really what you want and would be good at, then go for the drama therapy degree!  In the three years+ it will take you to obtain that degree and certification, you will want to take advantage of every ounce of confidence that it's the right fit for you.  Otherwise, those three years may either prove a waste of time and money or, at the very least, provide a lot of agony and confusion instead of an enjoyment and fascination with learning.

My bottom line to learning in an academic institute: enroll with as much self-knowledge and direction as possible.  Naturally, your goals and vision may evolve while you are there, but you will start with a strong foundation to build upon.