Personal experience. No experience equals no job. No matter how much education I have, without experience, very tough to impossible for an employer to consider hiring you. Unless maybe you are in the top 1 or 2 straight A student, then that is another story.

I ended up spending 6 months while job searching volunteering for experience in my field of study. Through that experience, I got a job. As mentioned above, co-op and networking, should be utilized if possible as those are opportunities to get the foot into the door.

:rofl:

Some careers require at least a(n) degree/certificate/education. Not a waste.

Others don't care and look for experience, so co-ops and internships are useful (sometimes you get unrelated ones...)

But you could also get experience on your own volunteering, pro-bono work, freelancing, self-learning, etc. Here, post-sec could be a waste. Depends on what you make out of your education and time and what you want to do.

Meeting all kinds of different people is what's been valuable to me.

You shouldn't need reassurance on whether or not you made the right decision to go to BCIT. You obviously chose BCIT for a reason. As a BCIT grad myself, I felt that it was the right decision to get me to where I am today.

Different strokes for different folks.

I'll never forget the head of the Tech program (who is an Eng) telling us about when he was doing one of those interview things they do with Eng grads, this E.Eng student comes in and is brilliant, but then one of the interviewers pulls out a resistor and asks the kid what it is (for you non-electrical people, that's the most basic electrical component there is), and the kid has absolutely no clue what it is because Engineers never touch anything.

I took an Electronic Engineering Technologist diploma program (2 years) then did a bridge program (summer of hell) which let me jump into 3rd year Electrical Engineering (which I hated and dropped out of). The reason I dropped out of Engineering is because there is ZERO hands on, the closest was taking measurements of a pre-built circuit in a lab every once in a while. I'm so glad I did the diploma then bridge because I still had my diploma when I dropped out of Eng, a bunch of my friends went into Eng but because the first two years are common they didn't find out that they actually hated their specialty (Mech, Elec, Civ) until partway through third year, at which point they're too far in to quit but they hate what they're doing.

Good points by everyone.

If you go to school, just to go to school, and you have no objectives or ideas on what you want to do, you will end up wasting your time and money.

This is how so many people end up with useless bachelors of arts, and then we have a huge influx of people capable of doing only 1 thing; becoming teachers (just go look at the teacher striking thread in the general chat forum).

If you are going to go to school for business, and plan to start your own small business, or go for accounting and actually follow through with it and get a job in that field, there is no doubt in my mind that your education will have helped you.

Now will it have helped you as much as just having worked that 4 years and gaining experience, I think that's a different answer for everyone.

In terms of trades, or technical programs like engineering, I cannot stress the qualifications and quality education offered at BCIT. I am a BCIT grad myself, and I am currently still attending prep courses there myself as further education.

During my tenure there I had people in my program with engineering degrees from countless post secondary institutions including UBC, SFU, and UVIC. These people simply could not break into the industry, and they came to BCIT to gain the applied background so that someone would actually hire them.

I was hired in my desired field, after only about a month of searching for my job. During that period I was actually offered 2 other jobs which I turned down, because they were BS.

While in my program I thought it was BS, and all the crap they were teaching me was old fashioned and that I would never use the stuff. Fast forward to today, and I realize everything I learned at my work was simply an extension of the base skills I learned in school. Without that background knowledge, and base skill set I would have been completely useless to my employer. Instead I am an asset and thats because my schooling trained me in various different facets, stuff that wasn't even the main teaching points of my classes ends up coming back and helping me at my work daily.

A friend of mine is a nurse and just had a major melt down because he couldn't deal with the constant dying and sickness of other people , it really takes a toll on you when you are around those kind of people everyday.

Post secondary can be a waste because who you are at 17/18/19 is completely different from you at 22/23 -- it's a bit of a gamble choosing a major/path at such a young age, you could get to 22 and hate it; then what -- start over?

Why not?

You spend 1/4 of your adult life at work ... Unless it makes the other 3/4 of your life substantially better (like big $$$, benefits, etc.), it's worth your time and money to start over if you hate your career.

The missus has a masters in anglo irish lit.

She has done well, really well, statrup well.

It's good to be an excellent mechanic, but being excellent to each other and forming a network is even better.

I endorse post secondary ed.

I agree with this. Went to BCIT when I was 19 and my mindset was not focused on my career/where I would be in 5 years.

Went back to BCIT a couple years ago after working for 5 years and I was completely different. I was there to learn and took any opportunity I could to advance my career.

In this day and age where people no longer start a job at 18 and stay there until retirement I think post-sec beats experience alone. I know several people who have gotten jobs without prior edjumacation, stayed at the same place for years and moved up and got internal training, but if they ever quit or get fired they are completely screwed because most of their experience is only good at one company. Especially if you leave there on poor terms, if your only asset is your experience with a company that you can't use as a reference then all I can say is good luck.