Finish Your Education as Soon as You Can

It was coming up on time to retire after 17 years of service. I had a little less than three years to go when I finally realized that I would not be staying in the Air Force until they threw dirt on me. I did a little checking and found out that guys who had a college degree did much better than guys who did not. Now, I had heard this was true but I didn't really believe it. I thought that if you were really good at what you did, that a good job would find you. While it would be very nice if that were true, that is not the way it works.

My next stop was the Base Education Office. I wanted to find out how I could complete my CCAF degree and hoped that I had not wasted too much time. It turned out that there was this wonderful thing called the College Level Examination Program. (CLEP) All I had to do was take a series of tests and I earned my AA. It was pretty easy because I had taken promotion tests for years and I already had more than half the required courses because of military training. I did have to take a couple of standard classes ,too, but that also played into part two of my plan.

With the CCAF done, my next question was, "What's the quickest way to get a BA degree?" The nice lady told me about Columbia College and something called a BA in Independent Studies. It was basically a program that accepted whatever upper-level course was available. I decided that was the ticket because I had so little time.

I took upper-level classes in history, English, psychology, sociology and business. Unfortunately, I did not finish my degree before I retired, it took me another two months.

It all paid off, though. I landed my first civillian, professional level job shortly before I retired. Because of the education and my military job experience I doubled my military salary. I then tried to help a friend o f mine get a job at my company. He outranked me but had not pursued education the way I had. He did get the job, based on his military experience and electronics knowledge. But, he also earned $10K less than I did for the same work.

Lesson learned: Get your education before you seperate.

Second lesson: If I had not screwed around all those years and earned my degree in Electrical Engineering instead of Independent Studies, I would have made $25K per year more than my buddy.

Finish your education as soon as you can!

Do it while you're still on active duty, if possible!

(Submitted by Mark Jacobs)

Comments

[John Bill]

Dear friend,

Realy it is very useful post , Accept my sincere thanks and appreciation

John Bill

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http://www.dirking.net

Jobs , companies , real estate , engineers , petroleum company

[Adam Guennoun]

This is true. When I separated from the Crops, I earned my BS degree in Computer Science and I am now pursuing my MS/MBA at the University of Maryland while enjoying a full time job in my field of expertize.

Knowledge is POWER!!!!

Simper Fidelis,

Adam-- ERERER