The Unprofessional World we live in...

I've thought about writing this particular entry for a long time... and since I'm bored today at work, here goes.

I've always known that I would go to college. It was never a question. My Mom had it instilled in me at the age of four that I needed to get good grades so I could go to college and be successful in life and it just was. There was never the option for me to not. And I loved school, so it was never a challenge. I knew that if I worked hard and got good grades, I'd go to college and be get a good job and make lots of money... haha... haha... ha.

No seriously. I thought that was the magic ticket. Good Grades = College = Good Job = Money/Success.

I also had this idea of grandeur that those illustrious careers held by all those college graduates were straight of the movies. Fast paced environment, uber professional, highly motivated, amazing companies with cool perks.

I've now been out of school for 3 1/2 years. Can I just say how wrong I was.

I graduated in December of 2005. We moved to Arizona at Christmas time and I had a job by January 4th. At an ad agency no less. SCORE! Yea, not so much. My boss was a NIGHTMARE and I immediately began to wonder, what the H is going on, this is not what this is supposed to be like, I worked my butt of to be here, why am I being treated like I'm stupid... This was more related to my boss than the job itself, but I digress.

Regardless, the last three years or so have taught me a few things.

1) Going to college will not make you rich... In fact, it will make you broke.
I went to school out of state. I went to one of the best Communication schools in the country and have a degree from the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication with an emphasis in Advertising. Meaning I had to learn all disciplines in Communication including the basics for broadcast, journalism, public relations, organized communication and advertising, but my main focus was advertising. This school has over 2,000 applicants to the school every semester and less than half are accepted. The ones that are not accepted after their sophomore year usually change to a "general education" major because by then, it's too late to refocus their studies. My advertising classes were HARD. I presented to actual company executives using actual budgets and actual campaigns that they then went on to select and use in the real world. It was intense... I loved it. My total education cost upwards of $110,000. While I had a lot of financial aid and scholarships, my portion of this was nearly $60,000. I deferred loans for a year, but now pay between $300-$500 EVERY SINGLE MONTH. For 20-30 years. Ouch. No one tells you that you will come out of college with more debt than you realized was possible. No wonder our youth are doomed from the start.

2) Going to college does not put you in front of the pack, it simply makes you eligible for the job.
Where you went to school and what you have your degree in mean NOTHING. As long as you can say I have a Bachelor's degree, employers don't give a crap! What do they really want... EXPERIENCE. What is the one thing you don't have when you're fresh out of college... EXPERIENCE. See my issue with this? How can you get experience if no one will give you a job??? No one tells you about this life dilemma in Sociology 101...

3) The "Professional" world doesn't exist.
You go through life thinking about working for these amazing companies and that the executives and employees of these companies must be so skilled and smart and have such amazing talents to be so successful. When in fact, these people have survived and thrived due to good luck and poor morals. These people are successful because they are good at deceiving people and tricking clients and consumers into thinking they know more than they do. I'm appalled on a daily basis at the lack of professionalism in the industry I'm in. I have no idea how some of these people have been working in professional environments for 20+ years and don't seem to have basic people skills. They can't write emails. They can't and aren't willing to learn and adapt to new changes in the industry and in technology. I'm baffled... daily.

4) Success is Luck.
You can work your pretty little butt off. All day and all night long. The man next to you can be lazy as a cow. But the boss man likes him. They're buddies. He gets the promotion. You don't. Such is life. It sucks and it's not fair, but I'm learning that this is more and more the case. And not just in my industry, this seems to be fairly common no matter your field... explain me that por favor.

Anywho, I think that's the end of my rant for now. Per request, I will be highlighting "Tips" every so often which will be inspired by my run ins with some of the aforementioned people. It should get entertaining. I have a few examples I will post about in a bit. :)