Essay Example on Education: The Backbone for Achieving Success in Life

There was a constant emphasis that education was the backbone to accomplish success in life. If you do not pursue it, they refer to you as a failure or an outcast to society. For the longest time, the only form of achieving education is going through formal schooling by sitting down in lectures, passing exams, acquiring high school diplomas, and securing undergraduate or master’s degrees. Once you achieve it, the individual can then proceed to get employment or start on an entrepreneurial venture. It is a common belief for many people across the world. Many believe that without undergoing formal schooling to attain an education, there is no way you can achieve success in life.

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Having these constant reminders since childhood from my parents and teachers, I had maintained the same mind-set and feel that formal schooling is the only way out to achieve success. However, it was not until last summer that my attitude and feelings towards the importance of education and school changed. I had a personal experience that made me rethink as to whether education is the only way to make it through life.

To start with, I applied for an internship program to work on during the summer to gain some experience in accounting for over three months at one of the best accounting firms in my hometown Lavin and Associate. It is a well-known tax and accounting firm offering both tax and accounting services to institutions and individuals. At first, I was reluctant to apply for an internship as I thought having not enrolled for my Bachelor's yet, there was no way I was going to get the position. Most of the highly reputable accounting firms require a bachelor and in other extreme cases require masters even for unpaid internships (Slayback). However, I noticed that it was a qualification for the program and therefore decided to try my luck.

During my interview for the role, I enquired from the interviewer why a college degree was not a requirement when applying for joining the firm. He highlighted that in recent years, the organization had followed suit the practices of one of its peer accounting firms, Ernst & Young. The organization had conducted a study in 2015 and found out that there was no correlation between previous success in education and future outcome in subsequent professional performance (Reddy). Academic qualification through formal schooling did not necessarily reflect that the candidate is an ideal candidate. The firm applies numerical exams and online strength assessment tests that also encompass character questions and emotional intelligence to gauge the ability to candidates are right to join the organization (Havergal et al.).

Also, once I started working during the internship. I realized that there was very little application of what I had learned in school. First, there was the automation of most processes. At the click of a button, the system would generate reports and outputs with little or no manual intervention. I was left comprehending as to why I had spent so much time in school learning all theoretical concepts in detail and nowhere to apply them in my career. When I enquired from my colleagues, most informed me that very little education relates to the workplace. In their experience, education only gives the theoretical knowledge on a skill needed. One has to learn how to gain and use knowledge and skills, make errors, and understand how best to implement the skills when performing the job.

Additionally, I noticed that just like in my school education, I sought perfectionism in performing most of the tasks assigned to me. I would get stressed pursuing to be perfect in the execution of the roles and consequently burn out quickly. It slowed down my learning process as sometimes I would make errors that if I had asked for assistance or clarification earlier, I would have learned quicker. Upon assessing myself, I realized that it is a similar approach to my education, and that contradicts how learning should be. It should be about trying something, making faults, repeating the task until you master it (Eva). However, education does not give room for mistakes since anything short of perfect is unacceptable. Learning through schooling becomes unenjoyable and can cause stress or depression in extreme cases.

Also, I learned that majority of my colleagues were still paying their student loans. Most of these debts were overbearing since the current cost of living and interest accumulated over the years was high. I was left questioning if schooling gives us freedom or does it makes us slaves of the system. Lastly, looking into the pay for most of the graduates from formal education in the firm, it was less than even those who were school dropouts venturing into entrepreneurial ventures in the outside world. As compensation does not match expectations, most graduates become demotivated in performing well or have no desire to continue learning.

Having gained this experience and knowledge during my internship, my attitude and feelings towards education have evolved massively since then. Contrary to the common belief, I no longer believe that education is the only step to success. I am more open-minded to try other ventures if education fails. I understand that there is no mutual exclusivity between the education received in school and life skills. It can only give me the foundation for acquiring success. It is upon me to take personal initiative to learn and gain skills that help attain success.

Works Cited

Reddy, Shreya. “Ernst & Young Removes Degree Classification from Entry Criteria.” Simplilearn.com, Simplilearn, 17 Oct. 2018, www.simplilearn.com/ernst-and-young-remove-degree-classification-from-entry-criteria-article.

Havergal, Chris, et al. “Ernst and Young Drops Degree Classification Threshold for Graduate Recruitment.” Times Higher Education (THE), 16 Feb. 2017, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ernst-and-young-drops-degree-classification-threshold-graduate-recruitment.

Slayback, Zak. “Ernst & Young Doesn't Require Degrees -- Why Do You?” LinkedIn, 2015, www.linkedin.com/pulse/ernst-young-doesnt-require-degrees-why-do-you-zachary-slayback/.

Eva, Dr. Amy L. “Why We Should Embrace Mistakes in School.” Greater Good, 28 Nov. 2017, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_we_should_embrace_mistakes_in_school.