Everyone graduating college at one point or another wonders whether the school they attended will have a significant impact on their career. The answer is that in 99.9% of cases, the college you graduated from will not make you any more or less successful, nor will prevent you from achieving any goals.
The only time a college degree dictates your career potential is when you let it. After college, companies are not concerned with your degree. They are preoccupied with your professional growth, your reliability, your autonomy and career progress.
Where many get confused
A degree will never stop anyone with drive from reaching their goals. If humans invented the airplane and the internet, you can get the job you want.
However, the university you went to can prolong the journey there. For instance, if you want to be a hedge fund manager and you didn’t go to a top-tier school, you are going to have to spend a few years proving yourself.
It’s reality, but should not be a deterrent.
Unfortunately, many recent college graduates don’t pursue certain careers because they feel that the school they graduated from won’t allow them to get a job in that field straight out of university.
In some cases, they are correct; employers won’t hire students from certain schools for particular jobs. But, it doesn’t mean you give up. Rather, you start a year or two behind and there’s nothing wrong with that…especially when the race will last 40+ years.
The best way to prevent your degree from having a negative impact
If you feel that you didn’t go to the best school that you could have, the number one remedy is to set very firm goals as to what you want to do with your life and meticulously map out the steps you’re going to need to get there.
While your route may contain more hurdles than someone who graduate from Brown, they all end up in the same place.
Just make sure that once you set the goals, never give up and do everything in your power to make sure you achieve them. The constant action and forward progress will have you thinking about your degree less and less.
If this makes you feel better
1. Bill Gates would give up his $147,000,000 house for a college degree.
2. Going to a Tier 1 college is not a prerequisite for buying a Range Rover.
3. A college degree can only influence you as much or as little as you let it.
