What I learned in school...
I worked quite a bit before I went back and finished my first degree. And people would always ask me what I learned? The answer is still "nothing that I wasn't familiar with before, but I did learn some good things here and there".
Well I want to re-phrase that. I think the biggest difference pre and post degree was not knowledge but how I was attacking problems.
Before my degree I felt like I had something to prove so I would be almost stubborn about figuring it out myself so I didn't give anyone the chance to say, "told you he didn't know." As if there was a problem with not knowing.
After my degree I was immediately open to more collaboration and even delegation to make sure the job got done correctly. Appearances mattered less than overall goal, and ironically I look better now.
So in short, a degree enabled me to say, "I don't know, let me find out," without fear and with confidence much faster than ever before.
I realized this the other day when I watched a co-worker struggle with another company's API. Instead of asking questions, which via email had a 10 minute turn around, he just dismissed the entire product after a couple weeks of tring to figure it out. I thought to myself -- I used to do that, I guess school made a difference there.
Well I want to re-phrase that. I think the biggest difference pre and post degree was not knowledge but how I was attacking problems.
Before my degree I felt like I had something to prove so I would be almost stubborn about figuring it out myself so I didn't give anyone the chance to say, "told you he didn't know." As if there was a problem with not knowing.
After my degree I was immediately open to more collaboration and even delegation to make sure the job got done correctly. Appearances mattered less than overall goal, and ironically I look better now.
So in short, a degree enabled me to say, "I don't know, let me find out," without fear and with confidence much faster than ever before.
I realized this the other day when I watched a co-worker struggle with another company's API. Instead of asking questions, which via email had a 10 minute turn around, he just dismissed the entire product after a couple weeks of tring to figure it out. I thought to myself -- I used to do that, I guess school made a difference there.