That’s why there’s a difference between book smart and street smart. Working on both matters. It’s a competitive world out there. You’re right, a degree doesn’t guarantee you a job, it probably did back in the day that’s why older generations wanted kids to go to college. Hence the competition.

Like it or not. This is essentially what comes with living in a capitalist society. My parents always told me growing up to learn a skill. Doesn’t matter what just like it and keep getting better at it. And that’s your fallback. It’s definitely help led me through lots of industries and careers. But I couldn’t have done it without a combo of hustle and study. All of it, the study, the networking, the interviews IS the work. There’s no “end”. So you gotta find some joy out of the process otherwise it’s hard to be happy in life.

I loved getting better at what I did. I would constantly work on or talk to folks on how to get better and how to get a job from what I did. My only goal was to get a job even slightly close to my industry and drop retail work. Once I got that I set a new goal, but all in the name of getting better at my craft and learning new skills to complement it. That involved going back to university in my mid, late 20s.

I never saw it as my career. I just wanted to get better at the few things I like doing and hustle to learn how to get paid for it. Then how to get better again and get paid more for that. Money came naturally because people do want to pay for passionate skillful people. But lots and lots of struggle along the way. Not trying to undersell that. But it was still fun and worth it when you have people by your side in this journey.

So on getting a degree, the most important thing I got out of it was making friends.