Why Formal Education Is Beyond Degrees and Income: The Broader Impact
Inspired by The Forbes Article, I Share My Two Cents on The Power of Formal Education
Inspired by The Forbes Article, I Share My Two Cents on The Power of Formal Education
It’s not all roses and unicorns
Today I want to “talk to you” about a topic I am passionate about—formal education or school.
The reason for this is that school was always my happy place, and I will share with you why I liked it so much.
While my sister was a math & co. genius, I was “little trouble”—the one with the artsy soul and ideas before her time.
Truth be told, reading books and watching TV shows with “independent women” themes, plus coming from a family of strong and outspoken women, had an impact on this too.
Hence, by the time I started middle school, I had created my own opinions. And this all formed my “little trouble” character, who was not afraid to contradict the teacher’s opinion.
Regardless of this, I was always fond of the school; I didn’t mind doing homework and studying (mostly) nights before the exam, as I rather spend days reading non-obligatory literature books than learning for the literature exam on time.
“Harry Potter, I still find you more interesting than Anna Karenina.”
The point is—I got so much more out of the school than pure primary, secondary, and higher education. I got more of a “life” education by spreading my horizons and meeting different people from different parts of the country and, later on, different parts of the world.
Was it always an easy ride? — Well, no.
In between, I skipped the stories about the ocean of tears each time I progressed to an upper education level, as I thought the learning material was challenging and too much was expected from me. And stories of being constantly broke and doing lousy student jobs to pay for my studies.
But, in school, I found my friends for life and discovered the paths that formed me into the person I am today.
The one who doesn’t give up easily on goals and who can stand up for herself and others.
The one who can embrace the change with a different mindset and focus on finding solutions when things go wrong.
The one who discovered in university a whole data world and found her next happy place—or, better say, the most amazing place to work in.
I think you get the idea now why I am so pro-formal education—it was the place where I established myself.
Following my love for school, I get confused nowadays about two things in particular:
Ad 1: Seeing how various voices on social media platforms cast a bad light on formal education.
All this while trying to sell their consultancy or courses on topics like “How to Increase the Number of Followers” or “What School Won’t Teach You—How to Get Influence”, as this is the only measure of success today.
I do get it—everything is fair in business, and most of us are driven by impressions, reach, and likes.
Honestly, I think this is extremely difficult to obtain. Especially if you, like plenty of the intelligent people I know, have imposter syndrome. Posting takes courage and also requires a specific level of self-confidence.
As well, I have a clear understanding that everyone needs to pay bills. Sometimes it’s a matter of survival in a sea of content creators in the same niche. So, if someone’s job is to sell content for a living, they often contradict their past choices.
By this, I mean that most of them have a formal education, which shaped them in some ways to get where they are now. Even if it’s learning from mistakes on this path.
Ad 2: Noticing that more and more people around me are outspoken about settling for the “less” when it comes to educational goals.
And more and more people are openly questioning the choice of education of the people who have it, making them feel bad about it. Consequently, these people often stop speaking about their academic achievements and are not trying to encourage others to follow the same path.
Why would someone even work for a degree if you can get the same job with a bootcamp? Why would you even enrol in a Master’s after a Bachelor’s when you can get the same salary? Why would you even try to put in so much effort in Grad school and lose time when you can succeed without it?
I can’t dispute the truthfulness of the questions above. Moreover, all of this is highly likely if you live in a developed country and are well-off. Or you are a genius, and school is boring you. Or if you are someone who has an amazing startup idea, an established network with capital and school is just an obstacle on the road to building a business.
The only arguments I can provide now are in the form of several contra questions: If you are an “average Joe/Jane”, like most of us, why wouldn’t you get more opportunities in life with it? Despite all the cost-to-time drawbacks, why wouldn’t you get a formal education if you have both? Why wouldn’t you get this experience and challenge yourself? Why wouldn’t you at least try to understand how the system works and get something out of it?
Again, don’t get me wrong after these two notes; I do understand that formal education is (hopefully) a matter of choice and no one has the same path in life to get forward. As someone who has mostly positive feelings towards it, I can only share my views on it.
The bottom line is: It’s not all roses and unicorns on whichever path you have chosen. Wanting to get a formal education, regardless of its drawbacks, is something one does not need justification for, but rather encouragement.
Because of this, I aim to share my perspective and my “whys” to encourage others to get a formal education.
Moreover, I will focus in this post on the data workforce and share my past experiences on how formal education has a positive impact on the whole data team.
According to Forbes, Education is Still Important
In the intro section, I shared my thoughts on different opinions towards formal education.
However, I didn’t share my full motivation for writing this post in the first place.
I was reading recently a Forbes article titled “Education Is Still Important For Your Career: 5 Compelling Benefits” by Tracy Brower, PhD.
Education Is Still Important For Your Career: 5 Compelling Benefits
Having a degree provides a tremendous advantage for the job you get, the money you’ll make, the advancement…www.forbes.com
At first, I frowned a bit at the article title, and I asked myself quietly, “And since when was education not important?” Then, after reading the article, I understood that this article aimed to point out five concise benefits to possibly encourage people to choose it.
Because of this article and my two above-listed virtual and real observations on formal education, I decided to write a similar post.
But instead of sharing statistical insights, I will share with you personal impressions from the past twelve years of my career.
Here are my 5 pros for formal education:
#1: Formal education builds a foundation of credibility. 🗣️
Formal education isn’t just about the accumulation of knowledge; it’s about constructing a foundation that stands “against the doubts.”
Let me elaborate on this with one personal example.
When I started working for a company as their first-ever data professional, I needed to prove my knowledge beyond my technical skills. This means that functional data pipelines and data models with a self-service analytical layer were not enough.
In addition to the technical work, I created a data roadmap and developed methodologies for new data products.
One of the methodologies was the creation of a customer loyalty program that would also serve to target customer segments.
After investing weeks in methodological development and guiding my colleagues with the development concept, I was holding the presentation with valuable discoveries. At the end of the presentation, I had a business colleague ask me: “Ok, but where did you “find” this approach?”
And my answer was prompt: “In ScienceDirect, almost a decade ago at Uni, when my professor told me to write a paper on it.”
The sound of silence followed this, and I somehow gained credibility at this moment.
There were plenty of other similar moments when I was able to back up my decisions with the scientific approaches and methodologies I acquired during my Uni days.
One thing you need to understand is that if you work with the data and try to convince people to use your insights for the decision-making process, you need to be prepared for the interrogation process that will test your credibility and credibility of your results.
It is not sufficient to simply be capable of coding; one must also comprehend the reasoning behind the proposed actions and development steps.
Having personally interacted with numerous work situations where business colleagues were questioning the data team’s approaches, I can attest to the fact that the strong academic backgrounds of individuals enhanced the whole team’s credibility.
#2: Formal education cultivates a culture of continuous learning. 🧠
I know, you probably now think: “Not again. One more who is talking about the importance of continuous learning.”
— Yes, one more.
Because in the data world, where new technologies are emerging, you don’t have a choice but rather embrace continuous learning.
When it comes to adapting to constant changes in development approaches and services, formal education equips you with a discipline of learning that becomes second nature.
What I have noticed is that, except for the ease of acquiring new knowledge, a low level of friction goes hand in hand with this trait.
You start to view almost every learning challenge as an opportunity to grow. In addition, on this road, you serve as a positive example for your peers and team members who are embracing the same attitude towards learning.
And I can easily state that the culture of continuous learning is not only visible through professional growth and business benefits but also through personal enrichment.
#3: Formal education enhances collaborative synergies. 🤝
I have had one saying for a while now:
“Keep your data engineers close, but your business colleagues even closer”.
I am joking, of course. Up to some level.
The truth is that the data world thrives on collaboration and business perspectives. Or, let’s be more precise, different business perspectives.
Formal education will prepare you to navigate different viewpoints, work in teams, and articulate ideas.
Whether you like it or not, at Uni, you will be challenged to acknowledge different views to deliver your team projects. You will sometimes get communicated opposite guidelines from Professors vs. R&T Assistants (khm, I was there and I was that), and you will need to deliver the work by acknowledging both. You will need to communicate these guidelines to your student team and, later on, with collaborative synergies, develop a proper methodological framework to acknowledge different requirements. The process would not be complete if you didn’t need to present your results to the whole class.
So, from managing the development challenges to delivering the expected outcome(s) and presenting them, formal education will prepare you well.
Believe me, the data world is the same.
The above-provided example is not only an academic exercise, but it’s one of the many trainings that will equip you with the fundamental skills for handling complex data tasks in the workplace.
It will help you with methodologies for managing often challenging and unclear business requirements and how to cooperate closely with business colleagues to deliver impactful outcomes. And impactful outcomes will foster a collaborative environment.
#4: Formal education equips you with toolsets for change adoption, problem-solving and critical thinking. ♟️
I know this will now sound like a clique, but in my (almost) 13 years of experience, the only constant was the change itself.
Change is a scary thing for most of us, and being kicked out of our comfort zone is, well — uncomfortable. New ideas by company innovators sometimes introduce ground-breaking changes in our working environments that are not simple to adapt to. However, embracing them often accelerates business time-to-value.
What is powerful about formal education is that it equips you with the toolsets for adapting to change. Not only this, but it also shows you how you can lead the change.
It gives you methodologies for creating new ideas, questioning findings, and further improving processes.
Both in life and work, having the proper methodological and structured approach to problem-solving and possessing critical thinking skills for problem evaluation will help you adapt to change more easily.
These toolkits will make you a valuable team member who will be able to contribute “more with less” (less effort, less time) to common business goals.
#5: Formal education fosters emotional resilience. 🏋🏼
Last but not least, it's about becoming fully comfortable with uncertainty, learning from failures, and building self-acceptance and self-confidence along the way.
Resilience is important in the workforce today. It allows you to approach problems with a balanced mindset and express your emotions wisely.
Formal education provides a simulated environment where you can experience and learn from failures in a safe setting.
The short-term exposure to the (hopefully) small levels of stress during the exam periods will make you more resilient to the pressure in the work environment. In addition, navigating successfully through periods of exam stress will result in a higher level of self-esteem.
Except for being a place that helps you build a sense of accomplishment, formal education is also a place that offers support systems. By this, I mean that often you will be able to find peer groups that have similar interests or different mentorship programs.
And this is exactly what will prepare you the most for the workplace, where you will be able to tackle various challenges more easily.
Conclusion
It’s never easy to share your two cents on a topic like education. It’s a complex topic, filled with different viewpoints, where discussions easily get emotional.
One thing is for sure: this won’t change quickly, and it will continue to be a matter of individual choice, possibilities, and/or aspirations for something different.
Regardless of all the contradictions, I hope that formal education will continue driving positive change, ignite a passion for growth, learning, and innovation, and lead everyone to a more resilient self.
Thank you for reading my post. Stay connected for more stories on Medium and Linkedin. 🤝