I Never Used My Degree After College

(Huff Post)

It’s the sad truth. Instead of going into marketing, which was the word plastered over the front of my Bachelor’s Degree, I went into writing instead.

It wasn’t until after college, of course, that I realized marketing wasn’t what I thought it was. Most job postings for positions in “marketing” turn out to be sales jobs. They just dress up the rhetoric to make it seem like you’ll be doing something else.

So, after figuring out that the only good marketing jobs were getting taken by people with MBA’s, I decided to switch up my strategy.

Oh, and “good marketing job” simply means a position dealing with branding, advertising, and overall marketing strategy — not picking up a cell phone and calling a list like a robot.

I realized after college I hadn’t the faintest idea what marketing was. I read the books, I did the case studies, and I got good grades on all my tests, but marketing wasn’t what I was passionate about, nor educated in!

How the heck could I decide what a good marketing strategy looked like? Especially for a mid-sized company spending thousands on their marketing budget every year? It just seemed like so much responsibility. Wasn’t there someone there that could teach me? Like, in the trenches?

Some would argue that’s what my degree is for. To that I’d say: It’s one thing to read words in a book, and another to create an entire marketing strategy.

Hell, I didn’t even know what I was passionate about by the time I graduated. The only thing I really liked doing was drinking copious amounts of vodka and hanging out with my best friends. And no, I wasn’t part of a frat.

But I reckon this situation is similar to many other people.

I didn’t use my degree for one second. You know how I know? Because of the two jobs in fast-food that I got directly after college — that’s how.

Now, you could take this story negatively in a variety of ways, but I urge you not to do so. My story is a weird one. I gained credibility as a writer basically out of thin air. I learned SEO, journalism, and content marketing all on the fly — by actually doing it.

If I can do it, so can you.

So if you’re about to graduate, recently graduated, or been graduated for a long time and think your degree is worthless, don’t worry. There’s more to the story.

I think the words “Bachelor’s Degree” at the top of your resume count for something — even though everyone has them these days. I could’ve accomplished everything I have without a Bachelor’s Degree, but having it certainly made me more credible as someone with command of the English language.

Here’s the lesson:

A degree isn’t the end. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish without one, out in the real world. It’s a whole new game out here. Soon you’ll find that anything goes if you’re willing to work hard and learn the ropes.