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Abstract

kill one needs in almost any field — not part of a job description.As long as I am within the thick sandstone walls of my university, I know that this is enough. That I am respected, I am validated, I get good grades, I can have great conversations — I can belong.But the moment I step outside, the moment I graduate and start looking for a job, nobody wants to read articles written like academic papers. Nobody gives me a cookie for identifying the argument sand get what Hegel means. As soon as I enter the “real” world I will have a problem with being used to operate within a streamlined syllabus.<h2 id="718a">Academia is a kind learning environment</h2>And the world is not. Which mean that while in academia the connection between action and feedback, between work invested and reward earned is closely intertwined in a way it nowhere else is.For example, if I need to write an essay to get the credits for a class, I know that if I follow the rules set out by the professor, I will pass the class. I know for sure that when I develop a good argument, when I do my research, citate cleanly and correctly I will get a good grade. Yes, I need to work very clean and it is not easy. But I also don´t need to worry if my professor will be interested, if he would actually read it, because I know he or his research assistant will because it´s their job.In the real world, this is never the case. It does not matter how good what you have to say is. If it is delivered in a way that does not engage the reader, nobody will read it.I like to joke about how thinkers like Kant or Hegel would never reach the reputation they today have with their writing style and it´s true. In an age where the attention span of the average reader is eight seconds, it is not enough to write or say smart things. You also need to get the delivery right. To get read, you get to frame it in a way people are interested in.Getting a job is not part of the programThe point of an academic education is that you don’t learn a job, but a field. Which is a) knowledge and b) a lot of meta-skills highly relevant but only when applied in a broader setting.The problem we face with students who face joblessness is that we are given an education not made for the “job market”. There are job descriptions for engineers and software programmers and marketers, but not for historians and philologist and philosophers. We have learned a lot of meta-skills without ever having been taught how to make use — and money- from our knowledge.The problem with academia is that it does not teach you the most important skill you need with an academic education — the ability to work for yourself, think for yourself, work independent from the reward and evaluation you get for your thoughts, be creative and trust your working process and sell your competencies.Academia behaves as if the world does the same way. It creates the illusion that you can just keep doing what you are doing what makes you a successful student and be just fine.But truth is that the chances fo

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r staying in academia and getting a job there are extremely low and anyway not everyone who is passionate about linguistics wants to stay at university in the first place.It´s not that what we learn in university is not useful outside of it, but that how to make them useful is not taught there.I´d love to get paid for reading Hegel but I´m not and never will. I am getting paid for making use of my skills and knowledge to be helpful to others.Academia teaches you what you need to know, but not how to do itTruth is that once I graduate and leave university there will nobody be around anymore to give me cookies for reading and eventually understanding tough books.To make a living from my education, I need to learn how to make use of what I learned in university.For those of us with an academic education, learning to write papers is not enough. If you want to reach more people than the tiny population of students and academies, you need to learn how to write for a broader audience.If you want to make use of your ability to analyse texts, identify arguments and apply them to a larger problem, you need to start thinking and writing in terms of ‘normal’ people — aka not college professors.Most of all, you need to learn to work on your own.That does not just mean by yourself. Which is what you do at university. I mean, on your own terms, your own projects, with your own deadlines. Most important with your own reward structure.Studying and blogging shows me this in a brutal way. Though I am most excited about writing for the blog it is so much harder to put myself to work on an article than it is when writing for an assignment for university. Not because it is harder, but because I have such a hard time allowing myself to spent hours on structuring and writing a piece I will eventually start anew several times before publishing it to approximately 20 views.Some final thoughtsThe hardest part about an academic education in the liberal arts is that we never learn how to make use of it in a helpful, down to earth way. Academia itself is build upon a model that will never encourage us to trust in the importance of our thoughts when there is no professor around to give us approval.While in the rapidly changing world we live in an academic education is as important as it has ever been, it is not enough.I really believe that as a collective, we need the historians and sociologists and linguists and philosophy and literature graduates to just name a few.The most important skill for those of us with an academic education in the liberal arts is to know how to make him- or herself relevant. Which is not easy. There are no well paved ways for how to make a positive impact by using your academic knowledge in the real world.It’s just that nobody is going to teach us this. We have to learn it ourselves. Most of all, we have to learn to trust in our own relevance when nobody else is around to make us feel relevant.</article></body>

What Nobody Tells You About Academia

The skills most important for someone with a higher education are not taught in shool

I don´t mean to brag when I say that I´ve always been good at school.

It simply never felt very hard. Sure, I´ve messed up some classes and have to study just like everyone else, but it´s nothing I ever found hard to do.

Back then, it was kinda cool. After all, I was part of the kids winning the game. Now, it scares me.

To be good at school does not look like success anymore. It´s the dropouts, the ones who barely made it thorugh, the ones who never went to college. It´s the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Joe Rogans who make it in the ‘real’ world.

It appears as an unwritten rule that those who are bad at school often become successful in the most unique ways while those who always were good at it end up doing mediocre jobs.

How does that happen?

Are those who love learning really the dumb ones? Are the contents taught so irrelevant that those stumbling through it are better off because they spent their time with the interesting and relevant stuff in the first place?

I think that to a lage part it is because the skills most important for someone with an academic education are not taught in school.

It´s a problem immanent in the way academia operates — its structure in itself it at odds with what someone studying it needs to learn as soon as possible.

Those who are good at school don´t learn the wrong lessons, we are just not learning enough.

Coming to university made me feel like I could be part of something in a way I never did before. Not because I am especially smart or intellectually gifted, but because for the first time I felt like I belonged.

It felt good to get acknowledgement for all the time and hard work I put in reading difficult texts and condensing the arguments from them.

Yet the reasons why I feel so at home in university are exactly those I know are most at odds with what I actually need to learn if I want to ever make a living as a philosophy major without waitressing or completely switching fields.

The gap between academia and the real world

In academia, you are told what to do and how to do it and when you get it right, you are rewarded. And while the skills and the knowledge taught are incredibly valuable, the reward for having them will nowhere appear the way it does in academia.

Having great analytical skills alone does not pay the bills.

Understanding an argument and developing a valid counterargument is — although a skill one needs in almost any field — not part of a job description.

As long as I am within the thick sandstone walls of my university, I know that this is enough. That I am respected, I am validated, I get good grades, I can have great conversations — I can belong.

But the moment I step outside, the moment I graduate and start looking for a job, nobody wants to read articles written like academic papers. Nobody gives me a cookie for identifying the argument sand get what Hegel means. As soon as I enter the “real” world I will have a problem with being used to operate within a streamlined syllabus.

Academia is a kind learning environment

And the world is not. Which mean that while in academia the connection between action and feedback, between work invested and reward earned is closely intertwined in a way it nowhere else is.

For example, if I need to write an essay to get the credits for a class, I know that if I follow the rules set out by the professor, I will pass the class. I know for sure that when I develop a good argument, when I do my research, citate cleanly and correctly I will get a good grade. Yes, I need to work very clean and it is not easy. But I also don´t need to worry if my professor will be interested, if he would actually read it, because I know he or his research assistant will because it´s their job.

In the real world, this is never the case. It does not matter how good what you have to say is. If it is delivered in a way that does not engage the reader, nobody will read it.

I like to joke about how thinkers like Kant or Hegel would never reach the reputation they today have with their writing style and it´s true. In an age where the attention span of the average reader is eight seconds, it is not enough to write or say smart things. You also need to get the delivery right. To get read, you get to frame it in a way people are interested in.

Getting a job is not part of the program

The point of an academic education is that you don’t learn a job, but a field. Which is a) knowledge and b) a lot of meta-skills highly relevant but only when applied in a broader setting.

The problem we face with students who face joblessness is that we are given an education not made for the “job market”. There are job descriptions for engineers and software programmers and marketers, but not for historians and philologist and philosophers. We have learned a lot of meta-skills without ever having been taught how to make use — and money- from our knowledge.

The problem with academia is that it does not teach you the most important skill you need with an academic education — the ability to work for yourself, think for yourself, work independent from the reward and evaluation you get for your thoughts, be creative and trust your working process and sell your competencies.

Academia behaves as if the world does the same way. It creates the illusion that you can just keep doing what you are doing what makes you a successful student and be just fine.

But truth is that the chances for staying in academia and getting a job there are extremely low and anyway not everyone who is passionate about linguistics wants to stay at university in the first place.

It´s not that what we learn in university is not useful outside of it, but that how to make them useful is not taught there.

I´d love to get paid for reading Hegel but I´m not and never will. I am getting paid for making use of my skills and knowledge to be helpful to others.

Academia teaches you what you need to know, but not how to do it

Truth is that once I graduate and leave university there will nobody be around anymore to give me cookies for reading and eventually understanding tough books.

To make a living from my education, I need to learn how to make use of what I learned in university.

For those of us with an academic education, learning to write papers is not enough. If you want to reach more people than the tiny population of students and academies, you need to learn how to write for a broader audience.

If you want to make use of your ability to analyse texts, identify arguments and apply them to a larger problem, you need to start thinking and writing in terms of ‘normal’ people — aka not college professors.

Most of all, you need to learn to work on your own.

That does not just mean by yourself. Which is what you do at university. I mean, on your own terms, your own projects, with your own deadlines. Most important with your own reward structure.

Studying and blogging shows me this in a brutal way. Though I am most excited about writing for the blog it is so much harder to put myself to work on an article than it is when writing for an assignment for university. Not because it is harder, but because I have such a hard time allowing myself to spent hours on structuring and writing a piece I will eventually start anew several times before publishing it to approximately 20 views.

Some final thoughts

The hardest part about an academic education in the liberal arts is that we never learn how to make use of it in a helpful, down to earth way. Academia itself is build upon a model that will never encourage us to trust in the importance of our thoughts when there is no professor around to give us approval.

While in the rapidly changing world we live in an academic education is as important as it has ever been, it is not enough.

I really believe that as a collective, we need the historians and sociologists and linguists and philosophy and literature graduates to just name a few.

The most important skill for those of us with an academic education in the liberal arts is to know how to make him- or herself relevant. Which is not easy. There are no well paved ways for how to make a positive impact by using your academic knowledge in the real world.

It’s just that nobody is going to teach us this. We have to learn it ourselves. Most of all, we have to learn to trust in our own relevance when nobody else is around to make us feel relevant.