My younger sister has it all figured out.
Don’t tell her I told you that.
She went to college to study accounting straight out of high school. After less than a month of looking for work, she found a steady job in a great accounting firm. She’s debt-free and can move on to other jobs or go back to school with ease.
Be like my sister.
Or be like my friend Steph. When everyone else was headed to university, she made the difficult choice to go to college. She got great work placements in the summer, and now has full-time government work with the environment ministry. She actually started a university degree, but they hired her when she was only halfway through it.
Eventually, she can go back to university to finish it while still getting paid.
Did I mention that she, too, is student-loan free?
I went to university. I went twice! And I have a great job. But there was a misconception when I was in high school that it was university or nothing. If you wanted a good paying job, you had to go to university. College was seen as second-place.
This simply isn’t the truth. Employers are looking for people with real, useful knowledge that applies to real jobs. Often, that means going to college and learning a skill.
However, there’s an easy way to tell if your university program will give you real skills. An engineering program will get you a job as an... engineer. A nursing program will get you a job as a... nurse. A teaching program will get you a job in... teaching. Get it?
My history and politics degree gave me fun summer jobs. My journalism degree got me a job in... journalism!
Be smart about your education. Know that both college and university will offer you amazing opportunities. Deep down, though, it’s the program that counts.
