Dichotomy...

When I was a host at the college fair a while back, people asked me if Tech was hard. I was not about to lie to a 17-year old kid. I figure they get lied to enough already by teachers, parents, friends, etc. Anyway, I said, "yes, it's damn hard, frankly, it kicked my butt a lot of the time. But when you're accustomed to being near the top of your class, sometimes an ego-check is exactly what you need. And getting your butt kicked is what forces you to really learn and ultimately succeed rather than just skate by." They wanted to know if I thought it was all worth it and why I chose Tech. Recently I was looking at PayScale and the median income for a Tech grad was something like 87K this past year. Then today I found this article showing that my chosen profession has a current median income around 80K. That's why I chose Tech. Not because of greediness, but because of the respect that degree earns you in the industry and the level of preparedness and expertice that Tech provides (by constantly kicking your teeth in) translates into better graduates who make better working professionals (who are compensated accordingly). I think I'm going to print those things out and distribute them at the next college fair. Of course, I suppose I'll have to put a disclaimer on there that says, "if you don't love what you do, no amount of money will ever make you happy."

Posted by Rev. Adam on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 4:39 PM | Permalink