When I grow up

I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up... and perhaps I still don't.

I know that I never had a yearning to go to university, and probably would have preferred some technical college or even trade training, if not for parental expectations. But I must say I am grateful to them, and certainly have never regretted the time or energy spent in obtaining my science degree, nor the extra-curricular good times I had during my years at Edinburgh varsity. Never-the-less, I do occasionally catch myself wondering if I'd ever voluntarily opt for this particular form of schooling again.

Perhaps the fact that I decided, following my final exams, to go immediately into the army to do my mandatory national service, rather than waiting for my graduation ceremony several weeks later, says it all. I was definitely impatient to taste life after university, after all, wasn't it a fact that my allotted span on earth was already one quarter spent by graduation day. Surely there were more important things to experience and accomplish in life than absorbing more book learning in preparation for it?

 Happiness is... not knowing the future.

During my business career I frequently had to hire employees, and latterly had the responsibility for filling our company's senior executive positions. While the respective educational qualifications of the candidates was always a primary consideration, over the years I came to believe that this particular score card did little more than indicate an ability to learn for, and write exams. Far more important to my assessment was their verifiable work experience, and my own gut feeling that their work ethic, attitude and personality would complement those of our corporate team and our objectives. Back in those good old days, many workers remained with an employer for a lifetime, and it was sometimes necessary to employ head hunters to discover executives who were happily employed elsewhere, but might be convinced to transfer if tempted with the right incentive package.

Obviously times have changed, and with them, the employment picture and strategies, not to mention the high-tech revolution that has overtaken most industries. It's an employers' market now, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. Because there is so great a choice, no doubt many corporations will be tempted to start their search with pre-determined high educational criteria, whether or not the job to be filled really requires a that degree of learning.

On the other hand, it is the candidate with the best education who will normally find his or her foot in the door first, so far be it from me to suggest that a good secondary education is not, at the very least, an effective insurance policy for job security.