Category: Education

A Promising Career Strategy for the Modern Teen

Gone are the days where it’s necessary to go into debt to start a great career.

What if, instead of going to a 4-year university, you did this:

  1. Pick 8 skills that can make you money.
  2. Study each one for 6 months.
  3. Get certifications if you need to, but focus more on finishing projects that showcase your proficiency in the skill.

Examples of the kind of skills I’m talking about: Photography

  • Copywriting
  • Programming
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Facebook Ads
  • Options Trading
  • Personal Training
  • Video Editing
  • Sales
  • Content Writing
  • Graphic Design
  • Public Adjusting
  • Interior Design
  • Hair Styling

…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The point isn’t to exhaust any of these skills or master them completely. It’s to get a base foundation in the skills so you can build on them later and make money using them.

By the time your peers graduate, you would have not 1, but 8 potential sources of income. By this time you probably know which one(s) you enjoy the most and can double down/ start making money doing something you love.

This approach also frees you up to get a full-time job while you’re studying if you choose to do so.

So you’re…

  1. Saving money on student loans.
  2. MAKING money while you study.
  3. Finding out what you love.
  4. Setting yourself up for future success.

We live in a world where Harvard and other universities have free online courses with certifications. Coursera and other platforms offer verified courses in practically everything. Even LinkedIn has oodles of resources and certifications.All of this is at the fingertips of the people who choose to leverage it.

Be one of those people.

P.S. Stay tuned. I’ll be writing more on this topic in the future!

Taken in 2018 in Atlanta.

Are We Headed for a Credential Market Crash?

Before I say anything else, go take a look at this student loan debt clock.

Last time I checked, the number was at $1,720,946,567,201. Scary, right?

Everyone knows the total student loan debt is a huge number. But something about watching that clock really makes it sink in for me. 

However, experts disagree about the implications of this debt.

Here’s one side of the argument: More student debt = more people taking out loans = more students attending college. Therefore, the student debt is a good thing because our population is, in general, getting a higher education than before. 

But there’s another side to the debate, illustrated well in a recent study by the Roosevelt Institute:

Although the country’s populace is becoming more educated, each educational group is becoming less well paid. This is a result of declining worker power, which allows employers to demand a higher level of educational attainment for any given job, not a broken link between workforce skills and labor market demands.

-Roosevelt Institute, 2018


What exactly does this mean?  Basically, we’re witnessing credential inflation. 

Yes, more people are pursuing higher education.

Which means more people have degrees. 

Which means the average value of an individual degree decreases.

As a result, many employers have implemented even more advanced education requirements on job applications.

In other words, jobs that used to require a high school diploma now require a 2-year degree. Opportunities you could land with an associate’s degree now require a bachelor’s, and the list could go on. 

This isn’t because jobs have changed. (Though some certainly have.) Most impacted jobs don’t necessarily require more knowledge or more years of study than before.

It’s because the value of a degree has changed. As more people earn degrees, they’ve become less useful differentiators on the job market. 

And there’s no sign of this trend stopping anytime soon. (Take another look at that student debt clock.)

So naturally, employers are responding by looking for different signals. In many cases that means advanced degrees. And in other cases it means foregoing degree requirements altogether.

While it’s still common to hear people say, “If I want to get a good job there’s no option other than college” that sentiment is less of a guarantee than it once was.

Which is exactly why I bring it up today. Because while the relative “value” of a degree continues to decrease, the cost keeps going up.

And that poses a new challenge for anyone on the job market today (especially those with little to no experience):

How can I stand out?

I’ve already covered one option people choose: even more school. 

Or there’s another option. You could forge your own educational path and create a different kind of signal altogether. 

Neither one is easy. Neither one works for everyone.

There are ways to avoid the debt. There are ways to bypass the dreaded “degree required” on job applications. And yes, there are ways to build a meaningful career without pursuing even more school.

It’s up to you to decide which works for you. Which will you choose?

(originally published as a Praxis newsletter. Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash)

The Innovation Called Homeschool with Lisa Nehring | Season 1 Episode 2

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Lisa Nehring has homeschooled for almost 30 years. She’s watched the world of home education change drastically: from people being thrown into jail for pulling their children out of school to today’s massive movement of homeschooling.

Lisa is the director of True North Homeschool Academy, an online academy for homeschool students. They feature live and pre-recorded classes, complete with interaction between teachers and students!

Lisa joins me today to talk about homeschooling. What’s the best thing to focus on as a homeschool parent? What are the pros and cons of home education? This episode is full of encouraging advice from a veteran educator.

Here are Lisa’s book/ influencer recommendations:

My Favorite College Alternatives (There Are a Lot of Them)

I wrote this post for the Praxis blog. Who would have imagined that so many alternatives to college would be available today?

This system can’t be fixed from the inside. The only way education will be truly reformed is when individuals begin to seek other ways of learning and recognize that the traditional method no longer efficient.

Check out my favorite college alternatives here!

The Skill it Takes to be Your Own Teacher with Madison Kanna: Season 1 Episode 15

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This week’s episode features Madison Kanna, a self-taught software developer. She has done a wonderful job documenting her learning process on her blog, madisonkanna.com.

“Find something that you would do even if you wouldn’t get paid for it.” -Madison

Topics Covered:

  • How Madison got started as an engineer
  • How she taught herself Javascript
  • The importance of building projects to show your skills
  • The value of documenting your work
  • How Madison used her documented work to land a job
  • How to overcome a learning curve as a self-educator
  • Tips for figuring out your own path of learning
  • Top skills needed for teaching yourself
  • Madison’s project with her sister Randall Kanna
  • Why you should document as a beginner, not just when you have mastered a skill
  • Madison’s favorite ways of documenting work (tutorials, Github, and blogging)
  • Madison’s tips for learning to code

Links:

 

Entrepreneurship vs. Schooling with Taylor King: Season 1 Episode 11

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Taylor King is a videographer and marketer who started his own company, Apple E-Z, at 17 years old. He left film school to pursue his passion outside the confines of the classroom. He specializes in creating vertical videos, which are becoming popular for brands on Instagram. One of his latest videos featured basketball star Anthony Davis! You can see some of his work here.

School puts you in a mindset where you’re waiting on that assignment. But that assignment never comes in real life. -Taylor

What is school teaching everyone? Is a standardized approach really the best way to prepare kids for life?
Taylor takes more of an entrepreneurial view toward education:

Life works by finding a problem on your own, and saying, “I’m going to find a solution for this.” And that’s when you get paid for things. -Taylor

He believes that running his own company compensated for the task-oriented schooling he received.

Meet other people who are likeminded, and learn from them. Taylor says this is the key to succeeding outside the traditional system.
When you’re not around passionate people, it sucks the life out of you. Be intentional about the people who you surround yourself with.

Links:
Taylor’s website: http://taylorking.co/
The Youtube Video I referenced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B1CLGek1nM&t=10s

Day 16: Musings on Everything is a Remix

Work copied: Pride and Prejudice Chapter 18
I loved Week 4 of Module 4 of the Praxis boot camp.
My favorite content was “Everything is a Remix” the series.
It challenged me to let go of the ideas that I hang on to and allow them to flourish in the world around me.
When we hang on to ideas that we believe we are entitled to, we squelch their creative potential in the lives of others.
More of my musings in the video below:

Intro to Montessori Schooling with Elisa Serrano: Season 1 Episode 8

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Elisa Serrano worked in a Montessori school for three years. Today she joins me on Educationeering to talk about her experience, as well as the theory behind the Montessori method.

Continue reading Intro to Montessori Schooling with Elisa Serrano: Season 1 Episode 8

The Grand Finale: Praxis

Praxis was in the news. Again.

About a year ago, Tucker Carlson featured Isaac Morehouse, founder and CEO of Praxis, on his show. (Here’s the first interview)

This month, Carlson ran a segment called “Is College Worth It?” 

 

In the first couple videos, he lays out the issues surrounding college today:

  1. Is College Still Worth It?
  2. Affirmative Action, College, and Unintended Consequences
  3. Are Our Colleges Leaving Our Kids Ill-Prepared?

 

The grand finale to the series was tonight’s interview with Isaac Morehouse. It was timely: Carlson’s first videos summed up the problems with college, and the finale provided a solution to the issues he brought up. Continue reading The Grand Finale: Praxis

From the Inside Out with Deborah Hinote: Season 1 Episode 7

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Deborah Hinote is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. She has more connections than many can hope to attain, and makes the world a better place for everyone she knows.

Continue reading From the Inside Out with Deborah Hinote: Season 1 Episode 7