There are a lot of ways to improve oneself. If you want to lose weight and get fit, you exercise and make sure you’re on the right diet. If you want to grow some muscle, you lift weights in the gym. If you want to have a super memory, you work on your sleep pattern and try to learn new things.
So how exactly do you get your first job to improve a career?
It doesn’t matter what job or position you currently hold, there is always room for growth, and that growth can be attained via education.
Many adults are going back to school in order to advance their careers, looking to higher education to help them get promotions, jobs in other industries, make more money, and generally achieve their career goals.
In fact, the numbers are pretty clear, workers aged between 25 and 32 earn roughly $17.000 more on average than their peers who only have a high school diploma.
Now convinced yet? In this article, we shall explore 5 different reasons why higher education can be your key to a better career.
- You’ll learn valuable new things
This is an obvious reason why anyone might pursue higher education. Pursuing a degree, whether graduate or undergraduate, equips you with knowledge and skills that can help you perform your work better. For example, if you would like to understand the business side of things at your company despite being an engineer, you might want to take a management or business administration program.
This knowledge can be both practical and theoretical. It’s not just stuff that’s cool to know, but also immensely useful in your current or future roles. The beauty of it all is that you can learn something new, even if you’re already in the senior-most position at your company. That knowledge can help you to broaden your range of skills and increase your experience.
- Your soft skills will improve
Going back to school has the added advantage of teaching you more than book knowledge. You can also learn important skills about interacting with others. These are known as soft skills. Soft skills include the ability to work in a team, communicate, think critically, and solve novel problems. Each of these skills will be of value to you, no matter what position, company, or industry you end up working in.
- It demonstrates to employers that you have a strong work ethic
Pursuing higher education when you already have an extremely busy schedule takes a lot of hard work and determination. In fact, many people give up halfway because of the sheer amount of work involved.
They get overwhelmed. If you can manage to do it, you are clearly demonstrating to current and future employers that you have a great work ethic.
At any rate, education is something that executives and supervisors always love to see. It demonstrates that an employee has a thirst to increase their knowledge – knowledge that could greatly benefit the company.
Showing management that you have a strong work ethic and are committed to improving yourself gives them lots of confidence in you, and they will be willing to give you more responsibilities to put that education to use. If they don’t, best believe there are plenty of employers out there would love to do it as well. At the very least, if you’re already in a supervisory or management role, being committed to attaining a degree demonstrates to you co-workers that you are a hardworking individual, and earns you that much more respect.
- You will have more confidence in your own success
Earning a degree is a huge step in the right direction. You have new knowledge and experience and you can now use it to further your career and generally improve your life. Apart from that, the extra soft skills can help you solve problems and communicate better, which can boost your confidence in being able to achieve your goals. With more confidence comes greater advancement in our career of choice.
In fact, studies show that there is a strong relationship between how confident you are and how successful you get. Even writing an easy essay requires a lot of confidence. Otherwise it’s a dauntless task.
- Your social network will grow
Having more friends can be a boon to your career prospects. When you go back to school, you will meet lots of new people in your classroom and school in general. You will interact with all manner of people from all manner of backgrounds.
This kind of exposure is valuable as it gives you the opportunity to meet people whose goals and interests are aligned with yours.
You may even meet people who are in a position to give you new career opportunities. Many of the co-founders of multi-billion dollar companies met while in college, so you never know. When you go to school, you don’t just earn a degree, but also a network.
Conclusion
As you can see, education is great for your career. By investing your own growth, you can catapult your career to previously unknown heights. Weights are good for your muscle. A diet is good for your health. Education is perfect for your career!
