Does Higher Education Make People Get Better Jobs and Life?

Author: Yuan-Jau Huang

In the present day, almost everyone would go to the school for education, although because of country difference, family financial situation, personal opinions, not everyone can get the same education level. Someone could get a college degree or master’s degree or even the Ph.D., however, some others can only get the high school degree or even the elementary school degree. Some people think the higher education can help them get the better life and job, some other people think that the higher education means nothing for them, it is just wasting their time; they rather use this time to start working or at least get some working experience. Therefore, in this paper, we are going to discuss “Does higher education can really make people get better jobs and life?”

Before we start, we need to know what is education? Education is the process of learning knowledge, values, skills and so on. To better help people to get the education, every country has their own education systems; from kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, high school, university to master’s degree then Ph.D. This is the common process of education level in the present day. Almost every country has the compulsory education based on their constitution, some of them are nine years compulsory education to secondary school, some others are twelve years of compulsory education until high school.

After the compulsory education, people could choose if they want to keep studying for college or they can choose whatever they want to do. Generally, most the people would keep studying until complete the college degree, once they got the college degree, they would either keep studying for a master’s degree or just looking for the jobs. There are also some people who just study until high school, because they either do not have enough money to keep studying for college or think that studying is wasting time, they could use these four years to get some working experiences.
So actually, does the higher education really help people to get better jobs and bring them a better life? In my opinion, this question really depends on the people. Some people really like and are really good at study, so getting a higher education is easy for them. However, some people are not good on the study and do not like to go to school, so what can they do if they want to keep alive? Well, the best choice for them is to work or learn some special skills. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no absolute right or wrong to get the higher education, because not everyone has the same condition to allow them to make the same choice. No matter what kind of choices that people decide, they just want to get a better life. In the literature review part, we will focus on how higher education affects people to get better jobs and life, and what is the benefit of higher education can bring to us.

In the present day, most of the people did go to college for the bachelor’s degree, some others even study one more step to master’s degree or even to Ph.D.; so there comes the question, “Why is the higher education so attractive to people? What the benefits that people would get from higher education?” After we understand the key point, we would know that why people want to go for higher education.

The first benefit that why people would like to go for higher education is because it would make them earn more money compared to if they just got the high school degree. “According to a national report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, high school graduates earn an average of almost $30,000 per year. Bachelor’s graduates earn an average of just over $50,000 a year. And those with a higher-level degree (master’s, doctorate or professional) average nearly $70,000 per year.” (Loveless 2018) So, we can see, in general, it is true that if people get the higher education, they would earn more than those lower education people in most of the cases.

The second benefit is that going to higher education means people can learn more advanced knowledge depend on your major and interest.” It also gives you the ability to exercise critical and abstract thinking. It helps you gain the capacity to express yourself both in writing and speech clearly and to make sensible decisions. These skills are quite crucial both on and off your job.” (Peterson’s 2017) Thus, it is another benefit that why people would like to get the higher education, not only strengthen people’s capacity but also help people know more and deep about the knowledge they are interested.

The third benefit for studying to the higher education is that people could have more opportunities and more career options to choose. Once they completed the higher education degree, there would have the diverse job waiting for you.” The academic and career skill credentials a college education provides often will help you to stand out among job applicants and peers that might be up for the same promotion. Additionally, expanding your skill set with a college degree can open doors to different aspects of your chosen career field that otherwise you might not get to experience such as research and development, sales and marketing, management and executive level positions.” (Centura College 2013) Of course, there are still more and more benefits of getting the higher education level, such as meet more and more future’s elite, job security, career freedom and get more resources for people themselves and so on. The higher education you get, the more opportunities of job you can choose when you graduate. Therefore, to some extent, getting higher education can really help people to have better jobs and bring them a better life in most of the cases. That is why we see more and more people want to get a higher education degree and get it as high as they can achieve.

Therefore, now we understand the benefit that higher education level would bring to us, and finally know why more and more people still like to keep studying to the Ph.D. However, to have a higher education level is not the only way to get better jobs and life. There are lots of cases that people do not have higher education but still become really successful in their career such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sheldon Adelson and so on. Although in most cases, people follow the rule to keep studying until college or even higher, but is that higher education really necessary for all people? I am not really sure of it, therefore, I did some survey question to my friends and let them help me to check if my hypothesis ”No matter what education level you are, if you find your own way, you can always become a success “ is right or wrong.
We would also see what other writers’ opinions and their scientific data to get the final result at the end of the paper. Through this process, we may better understand what the higher education level do has lots of influence of having better jobs and life. In my opinion, everyone could have better jobs and life no matter what education level they are, it really depends on people themselves, depends on how much hard work they would give to get those good jobs and life.

As our topic ”Does higher education make people get better jobs and life”, we mentioned before that it is possible that no matter what education level you are, you can always get the good jobs and life, it depends on how much work you going to give for your own life. In the next following paragraphs, we will discuss the ways that getting better jobs and life in both higher education level and lower education level. Also, through the survey that I did for 20 friends of mine, we will check if my hypothesis” No matter what education level you are, if you find your own way, you can always become a success “is right or wrong.

We mentioned before that with the higher education, in general, you can earn more money than lower educated people, learn more advanced knowledge than other people and have more opportunities and more career options to choose after you graduate. Of course, there are also more and more benefits you can get through the higher education level.” You also learn more subtle, but equally important, skills. These so-called “soft skills” include strong abilities in areas like communication, teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving. Each of these talents can add value to your organization, wherever you are.” (Walburg 2018)

Some other example of benefits we can get through the higher education level would be getting more confidence for ourselves.” By gaining additional skills in communication and problem solving and achieving your goals, you can also increase your confidence. And studies have shown that greater confidence leads to greater career advancement.” (Walburg 2018) Once we have more confidence in ourselves, we are closer to become a success than others. Another example of the benefits would be growing our own social network.” You have the opportunity to interact and meet with fellow students who may come from a variety of professional backgrounds. In being exposed to a broader professional network through continuing your education, you can get to know people who may be in similar situations as you or have been in the spot you’re in and have continued to advance their career” (Walburg 2018) Those networking may help you in your future career, and we should take seriously about the benefits it will bring to us.

On the other hand, what about those people with lower education level? Does it mean there is no future for them since they do not have higher education level? Of course, it is not, there are lots of jobs they can do without a higher education degree, such as maintenance worker, waiter, postman, farmer, taxi driver and so on. We should understand that there are lots of jobs do not require lots of professional knowledge, so people with lower education level could do those jobs. In fact, not every person with a lower education level does not want to keep studying. Some of them are because of financial problems, healthy or some other issues that make them could not keep studying.

Although lower education people may not have professional knowledge like higher education people, they save those four years compare to the college student. In these four years, they would get more working experiences than the college student. We should know that when lots of college students graduated, the first job they got do not have any relationship with their major. Studying in school and working in the workplace is really different, sometimes, people may need to learn new knowledge for their first job. Therefore, compared with those higher education people, those people with lower education but already started working earlier than they could have a better life. So, the people with lower education could also get a good job and life compared with those higher education people, the only difference for them is the way they go for success is different.

After looking so many researchers from other writers, we could do the survey which I did for 20 of my friends. In this survey, it has ten questions related to our topic” Does higher education make people get better jobs and life” I will list those question first, then show the result of each question in the following paragraph.
1. What education level you are having?
2. If you can choose, what education level you want to achieve?
3. Do you think higher education will give you better jobs and lives?
4. Do you think that the lower education people would not have good jobs and life?
5. Do you think higher education will give you a better salary than lower education people?
6. Do you think that the lower education people would always work for those higher education people?
7. Which do you think is more important, higher education level or working experience?
8. If you are the managers, will you hire the person who has three years of working experience, or a graduated college student without any working experience?
9. Do you agree that higher education is not the only way to become a success?
10. Do you agree that no matter what education level people are, if they find their own way, they can always become a successful person?

For the first question, 20% of them are master’s degree, 70% of them are bachelor’s degree, only 10% of them are high school degree. For the second question, 20% of them want to get the Ph.D., 60% of them want to get the master’s degree, 20% think a college degree is enough. For the third question, 80% of them agree that higher education will give them better jobs and life, others disagree. For question four, 65% of them disagree that the lower education people would not have good jobs and life, they think they can still have it if they work hard. For question five, 85% of them agree that with higher education, it gives you a better salary than lower educated people. For question six, 60% of them agree that the lower education people would always work for those higher education people, others disagree with that. Question seven, this question is the controversial one, 55% of them think higher education is more important, other 45% of them think working experience is more important. For question eight, 95% of them will hire the person who has three years of working experience rather than the graduated college student. Question nine, everyone agrees that higher education is not the only way to become a success. For the last question, everyone also agrees that no matter what education level people are, if they find their own way, they can always become a successful person.

Through the survey, we can see that in general people think higher education is still more important, that is why most of them choose to keep studying to have better jobs and life in the future. However, it does not mean that those people with lower education level will always be the bottom of the society. They still can have good jobs and life if they work hard and do the thing what they really good at. Education level does not mean everything, through personal efforts, everyone will have a chance to become a success. Therefore, in my opinion, I believe this survey proves that my hypothesis “No matter what education level you are, if you find your own way, you can always become a successful person” is valid in this case.

In conclusion, it is true that with higher education, people may have more chance to get better jobs and life and become a successful person. However, there is still possible for those lower education people to become a success. Because they started working earlier, when those college students graduated, they may already become a manager or even start to do their own business. Although, in most lower education cases, they do have less chance compare to higher education people, because lots of jobs do require the college degree or even the master’s degree. Therefore, compared to higher education people, it is true that people with lower education are not competitive. But always remember, to judge if this person is the success or not is not dependent on how high the education they achieve, but what social status they are. Therefore, to have better jobs and life do not really need people to have higher education, it depends on how much work you do for yourself.

Reference
Centura College. 2013. How Does a College Degree Help Your Career?
http://centuracollege.edu/blog/how-does-a-college-degree-help-your-career/

Loveless, Becton. 2018. Benefits of Earning a College Degree. https://www.educationcorner.com/benefit-of-earning-a-college-degree.html

Osborn, Peter. (2016). Do College Grads Really Earn More Than High School
Grads? https://www.cornerstone.edu/blogs/lifelong-learning-matters/post/do-
college-grads-really-earn-more-than-high-school-grads

Peterson’s. 2017. The Right Choice: 5 Reasons to Pursue a College Degree –
https://www.petersons.com/blog/the-right-choice-5-reasons-to-pursue-a-
college-degree/

The Economist. 2014. Is college worth it? https://www.economist.com/united-
states/2014/04/05/is-college-worth-it

Walburg, Ellie. 2018. Five Reasons Why Education Helps to Advance Your
Career at Any Level. https://www.cornerstone.edu/blogs/lifelong-learning-
matters/post/five-reasons-why-education-helps-to-advance-your-career-at-any-
level