HR Bloggers I Like: Penelope Trunk

HR Bloggers I Like

There's a word wide web of helpful blogs out there I want to start featuring on this site. One of my favorites is Penelope Trunk's. She does a wonderful job of providing advice that is not only useful but necessary and unlike the crap I was fed in high school about going to college and how that impacts your career. She was one of the first people I ever heard indicate the importance of truly evaluating your return on investment in terms of school and career planning. Here's one of my favorite quotes from her blog,

"Colleges, especially the really expensive ones, think of vocational school as pedestrian. So they track how many students go on to get a Ph.D in Russian from Columbia, but not how many students get jobs."

There were a number of reasons why I chose to attend college. Money was definitely at the top of my list. In a previous blog post I stressed the importance of specialization. While this is true, I know I've changed career paths totally since college (and am very happy that I did). College is great because it helps you during this time of personal growth and exploration. That being said, do you really need to go $100,000 in debt for this type of experience? Hell no. Since some of us don't have the luxury of mommy and daddy paying our bills, some sound of advice would be to consider a vocational program at a local junior college. Here are a few benefits to this idea:

1.  You get hands on training that will make your more marketable (immediately, not ten years from now).


2. If you choose to get a four year degree, you can transfer and have most of the prerequisites completed at a fraction of the price.


3.  You'll be able to do a lot of personal growth and development as well and possibly make a more informed decision when you you get to a four year college. 


I'm all for personal growth and planning for the future, but I want you to be able to pay your bills in the here and now as well. Vocational school is absolutely not pedestrian. When making decisions about higher education, don't rule them out. In some ways they might be a better option for you today.

Penelope Trunk has a fabulous social networking site called The Brazen Careerist. It's a great place to seek out career related advice and should definitely be added to your career development and job hunting tool box.

How has your opinion about vocational training changed since graduating from college? If you haven't gone to college yet, what are your views about vocational training?

Stop Searching For a Job. Find a Career,
Kimmy B.

P.S. This blog post is written by someone who is only two years removed from college and definitely feeling the need for both personal growth in the future and practicality for today.