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University/College
calenlass:
So out of curiosity, what sorts of jobs is uni supposed to be preparing us for? I mean, what job out there requires 40 hours of extra stuff on your own time? I know English professors have to be published every few years to keep their tenure at some schools, but I can't think of anything else that requires this sort of personal dedication and sacrifice outside of the workplace. Office bitches don't usually take anything home with them, and neither do mechanics, or airline pilots, or computer analysts, or restaurant managers, or Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or any sales or retail or food-service job I can think of. So what, then?
evilbobthebob:
I find university a slightly depressing prospect because of this. Mostly it seems to be preparing you to become a researcher/lecturer in the field you study, at a university. Of course this is only likely to happen if you go all the way to a doctorate. :|
In fact at one university I visited, a professor there had originally been a student, and never left. He's been there for over 40 years.
Barmymoo:
I think in theory it is meant to be learning for learning's sake, but obviously people are very career-driven. It depends what you're doing; I'm taking law so there's an assumption I will be a lawyer (in which case of course I will have a lot of work to take home with me), and if you do medicine then ditto, lots of hours. For less specific subjects I guess it is about study for its own merits.
Lunchbox:
My manager is on a holiday in LA right now and still instantly replies to the millions of inter-office emails we cc him in on. But I guess that's just him, and not really a requirement of his job.
jhocking:
--- Quote from: calenlass on 20 Oct 2009, 14:29 ---So out of curiosity, what sorts of jobs is uni supposed to be preparing us for? I mean, what job out there requires 40 hours of extra stuff on your own time? I know English professors have to be published every few years to keep their tenure at some schools, but I can't think of anything else that requires this sort of personal dedication and sacrifice outside of the workplace. Office bitches don't usually take anything home with them, and neither do mechanics, or airline pilots, or computer analysts, or restaurant managers, or Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or any sales or retail or food-service job I can think of. So what, then?
--- End quote ---
Well three responses. One, it varies a lot by the field of study. For example, what evilbob said is kind of true of a lot of fields of study (eg. Art History.) There are other fields like, say, business school which are more directly about training people to excel in office employment. What you think this says about the various fields of study is a different matter, but there you go.
Two, while it is true that your average office bitch isn't continuing to think about work outside of work, it is also the case that nobody considers "office bitch" a desirable end goal for a career. As for airline pilots, computer analysts, restaurant managers, or (especially!) software entrepreneurs (and remember, while once they became mega-billionaires life become a lot different for them, at first Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were hungry software entrepreneurs,) they most certainly are exercising a great deal of personal dedication and sacrifice outside of the workplace. I can't imagine a restaurant manager (again, here I'm thinking of something more demanding than simply a manager at TGI Friday's) who doesn't love the restaurant business and spend huge chunks of time constantly learning new things about their business, keeping on top of the latest trends in their business, networking with other people in their business, etc. Guess what? They probably aren't doing all that while actually at the restaurant.
Finally, studying at university isn't supposed to be job training. A lot of people think that it is/should be for various reasons (some good and some bad) but the fact remains that it is not job training, anymore than the point of making everyone study algebra in highschool is because everyone is going to use algebra on their eventual job. If what you want is job training, well that is what vocational schools are for (and community colleges, which is why Obama's administration has been pushing community colleges as a key to getting our economy moving again.) University study is not about job training and more about things like developing your breadth of knowledge and enriching how good you are at thinking and reasoning. Again, what you think of how well they accomplish that goal and how necessary that goal even is is a different matter.
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