Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thepeel]

Perhaps an answer to the question of why so many Canadians in Korea?..

[khyber]

Being married to a former manager and having a father who has performed MANY MANY job interviews, there is one thing that should be said:
Possessing a degree tells employers that the interviewee has the wherewithal to work and the dedication to finish her project (though it depends on the job).

I'm not sure I'd agree with that sentiment outright, but that's what they've said to me.

[mindmetoo]

[jinju]

I agree with mindmetoo...college is just the beginning. Get you degree but pick up skills along the way. if you are great at something but dont have the degree you will beat out those with the sheepskin at the end anyway.

[thepeel]

It would have been nice had I picked up some skills in the expensive crap-shoot that was university. I only have myself to blame, but geeze, what a waste of money.

[jinju]

I agree. For me the Biochem degree I got was basically 4 years of wasted time. I was good at science, though never passionate about it. having a father who was an inorganic chem professor, I suppose it was just a natural thing to do. I regret that now though, and if I was to do it all over again I would pursue a totally different major.

[thepeel]

[jinju]

[Adventurer]

I don't regret getting my degree and a teaching certificate in social studies. I wish I did a lot earlier. I would study business or economics for graduate work. I think it is okay to have a liberal arts degree if you plan on going to law school or you combine it with a degree in business. You can get a decent job with any degree if you have good people skills, and you are presentable. You may not make a ton of money. That is true. However, some of the richest people never got a degree.

[mindmetoo]

To speak more to BJWD's bolded point: one of the problems in Canada "college" is synonymous with "High School for older losers". You simply DON'T go to college if you have some grey matter affixed to the brain stem. College of course teaches important skills being filled by immigrants: welding, plumbing, etc. If you have a skill, plus brains, plus a university degree, you can go very far. You won't have to work in the trenches for long. My friend is a chef. He got his BA first, went to George Brown and got his chef's papers. He didn't stay in the kitchen for long. At one point the head chef at the Royal York listed him as one of the upcoming chefs in Toronto.

As Korean parents can't accept something other than SKY for their kids, Canadian parents make the same mistake about a university education, I think.

[Poemer]

The title of this thread ecapsulates the problem nicely, and it can be summed up with one brief question, namely: What does a liberal arts degree have to do with a job anyway?

The whole theory behind the comprehensive course of study is to create a well-rounded individual, a rational, informed citizen of the world. For years nobody expected to be able to get a job because they were educated. People expected to get jobs because they were trained for them, or because they had connections.

The poor trained; the rich had time to "better" themselves before moving on to their appointed station. As the dividing line between rich and poor became more blurry, "education" became a magic word, a great equalizer.

The fallacy of this notion is becoming quite obvious as more and more people see college as some sort of magic doorway into a middle class lifestyle. The system of college education has become caught between two worlds, it clings tenaciously to the idea of creating better people, while at the same time selling the more attractive product of a future career to potential customers. It dedicates itself fully to neither task, and so, it accomplishes neither goal. Colleges graduate students who were neither passionate about, nor personally invested in their areas of study and so failed to learn what "lessons" their studies offered because they saw them as only a means to an end. But, soon after graduating they discover that their degree isn't the magic piece of paper they thought it would be.

If you are going to college to secure your financial future you are kidding yourself unless you study in a very few select areas. If you go to college with the intent to study in an area that you find intellectually stimulating for the purpose of widening your perspective you'll find plenty of programs that suit you.

For most college applicants other avenues would be better worth exploring, but college is too magical a lure to resist.

[Kuros]

[postfundie]

I did sociology and history and I have mixed feelings about it..On one hand if I were rich it would be great just to take history classes for the rest of my life. Also the sociology stuff wasn't so bad and I ended up working in the Social work field for 2 years after school....One the other hand I wish I would have studied something much more practical..I 'm making up for it now so alls well that ends well...

[igotthisguitar]

While not by any means wealthy, i'm on the whole quite healthy & happy.

A lot of it i suppose boils down to a question of the state of one's values, vision & ability to find inner peace.

[Manner of Speaking]

It seems to me that there is a deeper structural problem: Canada has an economy that (IMHO) promotes jobless economic growth. I don't think the (only) problem is having too many university graduates; I think a big part of the problem is that job creation is considered of secondary or marginal importance compared to maximizing profit.