How does education help you to find a steady job?

Hi Diamond.
I agree with the answers already provided but would like to add one other value of education that I don't see mentioned yet. The ability to learn is important, but the ability to think for yourself and reason based on what you know is just as important or even more so. Education gives you the tools. You are building your toolbox by taking particular courses. How you stock your toolbox is up to you and where you need to make your plans. Finding the correct job that fits your personality, goals and desires will depend a lot on whether you have the proper tools to accomplish that job. Use your high school time to explore and get as many tools as possible. Challenge yourself to think about how these relate to each other and how they apply to you. Seek guidance from your councilors since they have access to tools that will aid you in discovering what you are good at and help point you in the right directions. No one from the outside knows you as well as you do, but by being honest with teachers and councilors, they can assist. Don't limit yourself to the "3 R's" (reading, riting and rithmatic) as once professed as the function of schools. Seek out things that are exciting to you. School newspaper/Band/Choir/sports. These teach teamwork which is a critical success factor in business. They also teach attention to detail and persistence. Don't evaluate the subjects for their face value, but look deeper at what skills they are really teaching and determine if you enjoy those skills. Working with numbers in math: do you enjoy the repetition and how they relate to each other? Do you enjoy taking real life situations (word problems) and putting them into mathematical terms? These are characteristics needed for Finance, Accounting, Engineering and multiple IT and project management roles in business. Do you like Science? If so, what kind (physical, chemical, social, biological, medical, etc.)? They all require an interest in problem solving, investigation, inquiry, willingness to try new things and a willingness to help others. So often, High School students take the things they are learning at face value and they cannot see the applications in the real world. Don't limit yourself to seeing just those items, but think about the deeper values these courses teach and seek out those that appeal to you. Even social studies and history were considered useless when I was going thru High School, but curiosity, research and analysis of events were key take-aways from those courses. Business needs folks with all types of skills. Focus on the ones that you are good at and enjoy. Often, the job you get will not actually require the skills you think are most important but because you have the deeper abilities of being able to think, reason, analyze, persevere and complete tasks, you will get the job. Hope this helps. Good luck in your learning.

A completed high school and college education helps you get a job in a few ways. 1) It shows that you're able to finish things. 2) It teaches you to learn, 3) It hints at your abilities when you have no other experience.

A fellow was building a highway. He had more candidates than he needed so he selected only those with a high school degree. The road was finished early and under budget. Was that because of his crew or because of his personal expertise? He believes he succeeds because he hired people who complete things.

I honestly can't recall anything I learned in high school or college that I used in real life but I did learn how to learn. I have worked with people who are always looking for "paint by numbers" jobs where everything is explained and the job is simple. Those people struggle to move up the ladder because they can't adapt and frankly those jobs are disappearing.

I think the real importance of college experience to an employer is to show what you've done and give an indication of your worth when you don't have the necessary experience. Nowadays it seems employers are looking for candidates who have exactly the necessary experience at another company so your internship will be as important as your college courses.

As to form and function, each job has company-specific aspects: who to contact, the template, the business system used. You cannot prepare for these as they change from employer to employer. But the basics of learning and applying a skill transcend companies. Learn to learn and you can do almost anything.

Every employer wants to hire people who add value to the business -- no matter whether the business is a school, a factory, a church, a sports team -- employees have to add value to any endeavor. So to have a steady job you must be able to add value to meeting your employer's goals. Education allows you to be able to add more value because of your increased knowledge in the areas needed for success in your occupation. The key is to find what areas of study or discipline you find interesting and that challenge you to learn more and more about them. This could be science, philosophy, medicine, theology, and on and on. So, right now, at this point of your education spend time and effort to learn about a wide variety of areas and activities so you can begin to find out the things that are most interesting. Once you know that you will be able to explore careers in areas that use those skills and begin to focus your education to develop them. The key is to find the job that matches your interests and skills so well that you'll never have to "work" a day in your life. Every day of effort will be challenging and fulfilling such that you look forward to the next one. I've had jobs where I watched the clock every day to see how much linger I had to be there and jobs that were so challenging and fulfilling that I never asked how many hours do I have to work. Watching the clock is drudgery; the other job is fun. As the saying goes, "Find a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life."

Good luck on your search -- it's worth the effort to fine the answer!

Hi Diamond,
good question. From personal experience, I would disagree with your statement that education "basically gives you a layout of how a real job works." I would contend that only a job (or internship) could teach you how a real job works--at least in terms of form and fashion. None of my courses have actually prepared me for the work setting in terms of "form and fashion." What education does do is provide you with knowledge and skills that will help you in your jobs. As I see it, here is the distinction. Suppose that you are asked by your boss to analyze something. The actual analysis is what education prepares you for. Communicating with your boss about the progress of the project is form and fashion, and that can't be taught by education. It can only be learned through observation and experience. I hope this helps!