Get High at Work!

Your college degree is worthless!

Written by

Kevin Sandlin

in

That’s what retired talk show host Neal Boortz told me this morning (on the radio). Specifically, he said my degree in English is equivalent to one of those “BlahBlahBlah Studies” degrees. Ouch. But it made me think of two things, the first of which is the subject of this post. Follow up tomorrow.

What learning is important in today’s digital economy?  Hint on tomorrow’s post: it’s digital expertise, in various forms.  But for today, my English degree has never served me better than it does right now.  Think about it. You can communicate like this:

sum ppl thnk they cn alwys use txt 2 tlk 2 any1 lol

Or you can communicate in language that anyone – not just my 13 year old daughter – can understand. There’s nothing wrong with texting, so please don’t get me wrong. I’m so very much in agreement with Jeff Hilimire that voice mail should die a rapid death. However, whether you’re a back end Java developer or a social marketer or the leader of your company, the one thing that everyone has to be able to do is communicate in writing.

  • How many emails do you send every day?
  • How many times do you tweet each day?
  • How many times do you update a project status in Google Docs, MS Project, or Basecamp?
  • How often do you update your startup’s investors and advisors?
  • What do you write on your Instagram posts?
  • Do you run your company’s blog?
  • Do you respond to and engage with your customers on social media?

Every one of these – and this is just scratching the surface – instances requires good communication skills.  I majored in English because I intended to go to law school. Didn’t work out that way (I went to B-School instead), but my ability to write is even more valuable today than it was when I was writing and editing the first edition of the CWNA Study Guide.

What did you learn in college that you’re actually still using today?

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