Do You Really Need a Four-Year Degree

Do You Really Need a Four-Year Degree Do You Really Need a Four-Year Degree In 2013, the pay gap between college graduates and everyone else reached a record high Americans with four-year degrees made 98 percent more per hour on average than people without a degree did.But college degrees still arent the normonly 46 percent of people ages 25-29 had completed an associates degree or higher as of 2015. Plus, it seems like everywhere you look, someone has a side hustle or is dabbling in entrepreneurship, which brings up the question Do you really need a four-year degree?There is no perfect one-size-fits-all answer.However, it is important to look at the benefits of obtaining a four-year degree. When youre debating whether a degree is right for you, ask yourself three questionsWhat do you want to do? What is your ideal job?Do you want to create something for yourself, or would you rather work for someone else?What degree(s) does your chosen field require? Is there aminimum level of edu cation that you must attainin order to be successful in the field?What Do You Want to Do?This question is harder to answer than it looks, butit is the basis of determiningwhether or notlage you need a four-year degree. Figuring out what you want to do will help you understand the kind of education your chosen path requires.For instance, if you want to go into a creative field like art or music, you might be able toforgo the four-year degree in favor of a program that truly enhances your abilities through a nontraditional route. On the other hand, if you want to go into a STEM field, you most definitely need a four-year degree.Do You Want to Create Something for Yourself or Work forSomeone Else?Figuring out whether you want to create your own company or work for an established organization can help determine the amount of schooling youll need. While a four-year degree can bebeneficial in both instances, it will most certainly allow you to obtain higher wages if youre working for some one else. If youre working for yourself, you can probably get by without a four-year degree.If you are trying to breakinto the corporate world or at least start out there a four-year degree will give you the foundation you need to obtain the kind of job(s) and salaryyou desire.What Kind of Degree Does Your Chosen Field Require?Once youve determined the path you want to take and/or thejob you want to obtain, go online and do some research. What kinds of degrees do your future coworkers hold? Do the jobs youre aiming for now or in the future require certain credentials? If so, what are the steps to earning those credentials? Do you need a minimum amount of education?The point is, some career paths require certain degrees. Look into this now to avoid problems down the road.So Do You Need a Degree?While there are people who can get by withouthaving a four year degree,having one will almost always benefit you. Furthermore, obtaining high-level jobs in almost any field will require at least a bachelors.The bottom line is ifan employer has to chose between you without a degree and an equally strong candidate who has a degree, they will almost always go with the degree-holding candidate. And, as mentioned earlier, degree-holders earn almost twice as much as their non-degree-holding counterparts. A college degree will not only help you learn more about yourself and your industry, but it will also allow you to earn more than your peers.If you have the opportunity, earninga four-year degree will benefit you in many ways, both socially and in the workforce. If you feel atraditional college education isnt for you, try exploring other options, such as online or community college classes.Ultimately, a college degree is not 100 percent necessary, but it will make your life easier in the long run. Why not just go for it?Michele Lando is a certified professional resume writer and the founder ofWrite Styles.

Here is how you can banish mommy guilt at work

Here is how you can banish mommy guilt at workHere is how you can banish mommy guilt at workLast weekend I attended my first grandchilds first birthday party where I was awestruck by two things 1) the grace and poise of new moms today and 2) how in 30 years our culture has not evolved to lessen what I call Mommy Guilt.I was dumbfounded by how well put together all the new mothers were. They were vibrant, gorgeous, abundantly warm and loving without over compensating or being overly protective. I remember being tired, worried, and protective. I did not hear one complaint. I heard vulnerability around if they were making the right choices and a lot of support for each other.A discussion began around breast feeding how long to do it, how to do it and go back to work, will there be time to do it, how will I get enough sleep and breast feed, will there be a distributions-mix at work to pump.. Friends weighed in on the merits of the right amount of time to do it, the right breast pump, ho w to make it work, what materials were the best.I sat there and watched the faces of the new moms drop two stories just thinking about going back to work and breast feeding. I heard one say, I dont know if I can do this again with my second child. I could hold back no longer and found myself blurting out. Girls you are amazing No guilt. Do what works for you. They laughed with a sigh of relief.Whose guilt is this anyway?This conversation reminded me of the Mommy Guilt issue du jour when my children were born whether or not to have natural childbirth. I remember the first question people asked after the birth was not how the baby was. It was, Did you go natural the whole time?As if having your hormones skyrocket out of control, getting by on only three hours of sleep at a time, having afull-time job, not wanting to leave your baby and having your tummy look like a giant vat of Jello isnt enough, now new moms have to measure themselves against what our culture says you SHOULD do to b e a good mom.You are enough.New moms hear this YOU ARE ALREADY A GOOD MOM You are already enough just the way you are. Motherhood is hard enough. No guilt. Husbands continue to be very supportive of your wives. Remember what the flight attendants say, Put the mask over your nose and mouth first. Ladies, you cant be at your best for yourself, your baby or your marriage if you are exhausted. Period.As a new mom you are at a crossroads regarding Mommy Guilt so take your stand now because it just keeps building. Soon you will hear of a mother putting her pre-school child in an early reading program and youll ask yourself, Should I do that? I succumb to this ridiculous expense even after the first-grade teacher told me it was a waste of money and time. Let her play, she said. All kids catch up when they get to school.How do the distractions align with your values?Then there will be dance lessons, and karate, and sports and everything else. How do these activities align with your family values? Do you even know what your family values are? If not, sit down with your spouse and define them so you have a gauge to measure extrinsic distractions against. If your family values are Independence, Free Thinking, Family Traditions, Personal Development, Compassion, and Servant Leadership why would you give up attending a traditional Sunday night family dinner to take your child to a random wertzuwachs? Or send him to an expensive sports camp when hed rather play the violin then baseball? Just because the massesare doing it is not a good reason.Then there will be the home room mothers who will become like territorial Piranhas when it comes to the class parties. I remember showing up to take avideoof a Valentines Day party where the feeding frenzy moms told me, We are in charge of the party. I agreed and told them I just wanted to take movies since I couldnt be there for the parade. They insisted that I leave. I ignored them and made sure not to get any of them on film. I thi nk that annoyed them the most.Make a choice before guilt chooses you.My message to new mothers is this The world will continue to send you messages on how you are supposed to be. It has been doing that since the beginning of time. If you dont define the kind of mother (leader, friend, spouse, colleague, daughter) you CHOOSE to be you will fall to outside distractions that you fashion as standards. Make good choices and leave the rest behind.And if that means you want start weaning your baby before you go back to work or limit breast feeding to before and after work or any other schedule that works for you it is OK Really. Plenty of healthypeople walking the earth were not breat fed for six months.And if you want to continuethats OK too.You make good judgments. Dont doubt that. You wouldnt be where you are if you couldnt make good choices. Just continue. You are awesomeMaryLeeGannon, ACC, CAEis an executive coach and corporate CEO who helps busy leaders get off the treadmill to nowhe re to be more effective, earn more, bemore calm and enjoyconnected relationships with the people who matter while it still matters.Watch her FREE Master Class training on Three Things to Transform Your Life and Career Right Now atwww.MaryLeeGannon.com.

Top 7 Leadership and Management Skills for Engineers

Top 7 Leadership and Management Skills for EngineersTop 7 Leadership and Management Skills for EngineersLeadership and management skills for engineers are quite different from your non-technical leadership skills. For one thing, engineering has many different sub-fields. Some are interconnected with each other and most of the time the skills needed are correlated with each other.Skills necessary for todays job marketAfter graduation, engineers have acquired many different skills from their schools, but is that sufficient?Especially when we know having experience is the more significant part of the picture for the employer, bedrngnislage education or knowledge.This is why having good or great communication, leadership and management skills is absolutely necessary in todays job market.1. Juggling tasks as a managerManagement can be broad as it involves tasks to keep everything organized, on time, and efficient. In becoming a manager one must be competent at organizing, planning, estima ting, and communicating, documenting, prioritizing, self-management, disciplined, assessing and mitigating risks.It also involves interpersonal skills, resolution of conflicts, mentoring and coaching staffs. These are just some of the skills involved in management and it applies to all engineers in this role.These skills are vital but of course, not everyone can be good or great at all of them. Engineers, especially the engineering managers must be able to communicate and speak in a common and simple language that both clients and engineers alike would understand. It is important for them to have good communication skills in both oral and written, and their manners play a big part here.2. Communication skillsBecoming a manager doesnt only involve communication skills, it also includes responsibility for your kollektivs mistakes.Engineering managers must be able to correct them and ensure that the error wont happen again, which also includes making sure that delays and extra budgets allocations are being reported.Consistency is vital in becoming a successful manager, without it, kollektiv members will have a hard time following instructions if there are inconsistencies.3. Delegation skillsAnother skill that is part of being a great manager is the delegation skills, since a manager is handling teams and groups of people, delegating tasks is important.This involves assessing the staffs strengths accurately in order to delegate the appropriate tasks.4. Leadership foundation and accountability are skillsHaving a strong foundation for your leadership skills is also important for polishing your management skills.Engineers who find themselves responsible for leading teams and projects are often involved with managing many tasks and are accountable for many final results and outcomes, as they could be working with many suppliers and customers.Management focuses on ensuring that the work is done while leadership is more of an interpersonal skill but on a different level .5. Interpersonal skillsLeadership is about directing people to new places and influencing them to obtain positive results.Becoming a leader involves being persuasive with integrity, solid interpersonal skills, ability to develop trust and gain respect from others, knowing how to prioritize, being a team player, and building consensus.Being persuasive is necessary for improving processes continuously, empowering team members, attracting new clients, having good emotional intelligence, encouraging teamwork, helping other proactively, developing new leaders by supporting them and encouraging them to become one.Leaders must be willing to make sacrifices, being a visionary and strategist, acting on intuition, building strong relationships and always leave a legacy.Although not all leaders have all these skills, in order to become a successful leader one should work on achieving every characteristic of these skills.6. Ability to recognize what is needed to executeGreat managers and leade rs should fully understand the needed competencies in order to execute projects and objectives and to delegate the necessary responsibilities to those in their team who are fit for the tasks.As for the team members, they should be open and honest about their level of interests, regarding the opportunities and the said responsibilities.Leadership and management skills are part of an engineers job description so avoiding it is not an option. When managers delegate tasks and responsibilities, the team members are expected to communicate any issues and concerns that may arise on the delegated assignments.7. SensitivityOn the other hand, managers must be sensitive to those issues and concerns to make appropriate adjustments. In this part of the process negotiation between a manager and the team members is important. This is part of the leadership competencies.In some companies leading and managing a team or a project is the most important part of the job and in cases like this, continuou s development of ones leadership and management skills is a high priority.Along the way leaders and managers must be able to learn and practice newly acquired skills as it can strengthen them in becoming a more successful engineering leader or engineering manager.Heres what to do to improve your leadership and management skillsIf youre interested in continuing your engineering career into a management or leadership-oriented role, try the followingTake some time to review the skills listed above.Choose 5 skills you think youre not good at including those that you feel you can further develop this year.Write down those skills and place them at your workstation or desk so that you can see them every day.If you are struggling to find out how you should develop a specific skill, consult with your manager, mentor or career coach so that you can have a step by step plan to follow. Good luck