This really hits home for me because I often wonder if college was a waste of time and $ and could discuss this subject like polotics. Here's my view from the design and hot rodding industry.
I work for Speedtech Performance as the marketing and graphic/ visual design guy. I have 2 degrees, one in car design and one in Street Rod Fabrication. I have really mixed feelings about my school experience and school in general. I was 26 when I started the car design degree and went back to school at 40 for the fab degree. I thought about Wyotech but it was 3x the tuition I paid for the smaller school I attended. The professor that teaches where I went helped develop the hot rod program at Wyotech, and told us ours was way more hands-on application and learning, so at least I made a good choice there.
My struggle with design school was that I didn't learn everything I wanted or hoped to. I had been married and had 2 kids by the time I graduated, so I had to work through most of it too, cut down on my studio time and opportunity to perfect my skills. The professor was a little worn out too and should have retired but nobody from industry wanted to take a pay cut to come replace him. A couple years after I graduated he retired and the program got nixed. What I got most from that degree was a college experience, I met my wife, I learned what good and bad design was (although I think much of that is innate, lots of graduated "designers" haven't a clue) and I apply the things I did pick up to my renderings like the ones below. When I graduated my skills were short of getting hired in Detroit so I got into graphic design locally as a career and did hot rod project renderings on the side. $35,000 in tuition to make $12 per hour and 6 years later I was at $15/ hr. The occasional renderings were play money so that I could actually have a small degree of a hobby. Yippee.
When the economy tanked in '09 I was jobless because the company I was with went under. I was going to go back to school to learn about web design which was part of the graphic design program of a local private college. When I went and toured the campus I got to see works from the current students, many of which were the level I was at in 7th grade art class. I spent an hour visiting with the professor and realized my skills were above what she could teach me. It was clear this school's "Come earn a great career as a graphic designer!" agenda just pumping out computer program jockeys that didn't know how to create good design. After running away from that I decided to go to a hot rod program at another local school. The first year of the 2 year fab program was straight collision repair /body and paint. Classes were large because many of these 18-20 year old kids wanted to go into that field. Time to practice was near non existent in labs with an instructor available so class lecture time way out weighed what you could do hands on. That bothered me a lot. The kids that weren't serious, just taking up space and getting in the way bothered me a lot too. After lab time the professor was "off the clock" and always gone or off working on side projects of his own. I learned a lot of theory but didn't have time to practice. My 2nd year in street rod fab was amazing! I learned so much, and we only had time in class to scratch the surface of what my professor could have taught us, he was incredible. I had about 3-4 hours a day after class to work on my car with the professor right there if I needed help. There was only about 12 students in the program so he could work with each of us individually. We had all the typical high end rod shop machines and equipment at our disposal and the experience would have been like being in the Ring Bros shop with them there to do on the job training. I posted what I was doing in class on forums and had a a good paying job lined up half way through the year and went to after graduation.
My teenage son thinks college is a joke, and sees zero benefit to go. All the freeloader liberal millennial whiners on social media that think their opinion is fact aren't helping that attitude. But, he has a point, almost anything he wants to learn he can find on the internet for free. His real skill is video editing and production. with no desire to go to school he's overwhelmed on how to developp and market himself to find a career doing it, so for now he's working as an entry level worker at a small body and restoration shop. If he went to school he would still learn new skills, learn discipline, and have opportunities to make contacts that can lead to a good career in the field. He's reluctant though because he doesn't see the value of the cost and all the time wasted sitting through things that are irrelevant or below his skill level. So he goes to work and disassembles and sands cars for barely above fast food pay instead. I agree with his reluctance but think he'd be better off to go to school anyway. I don't discourage his current job either though because he's at least learning some skills and I see it as a temporary thing while he "finds himself". I understand, I did the same and that's why I started college at 26 instead of right after high school.
At Speedtech we make suspension parts but also have a full build shop, all of which are $100K + Pro Touring ground up car builds. In this industry, most shops that do nice work don't want to hire recent college grads because they don't have experience, and the companies don't have the time or budget to pay two people to do the same job- either the greenie needs a mentor spending a lot of time teaching him or the mentor has to fix what the greenie messes up. The recent grads, unless they had really good hands on and problem solving skills to begin with, might be much better off finding a little shop, one that's owned by a seasoned guy who's willing to train to pass on the skills and keep the industry alive when he's long gone. Even so, the recent grads will only make $12-$15 an hour (from what I've seen) and they mostly think they know it all because they have a degree and get insulted by that type of offer. When I was talking to potential rod shop employers I heard again and again "you didn't go to Wyotech did you?" They would say that was their experience after trying out several WT grads- no real world skills and no humility. Of course there were those few with talent that graduated with a decent career ahead of them
At least from what I've seen in my personal experience in what you could call services industries, college is a real catch 22 and almost not worth it, especially with all the free info available on the internet. Those with real innate talent and skill in the first place will grab the good jobs. But in graphic design, pretty good chance you won't get hired without a degree on your resume. Unfortunately experience dictates whether you eat Ramen daily or get to afford KFC once in a while. In hot rodding, it's a tough market, mostly only those with talent and who have proven themselves, with or without a degree, will more readily get hired.
My brother in law went to school to become a doctor and I understand he's fairly good at it. He and his wife whine all the time about how they don't have much money and school loan payments are quite large and burdensome. I call BS because with the same size family as ours they live way better and do way more than we can afford to. Maybe I should've listened to my gut feeling when I was a young teenager, and become a dentist instead. At least I would be able to go to Olive Garden once in a while. lol! 😉
