Did you guys see that last night?

Man, I am sooooo glad they did it that way; and what was funny is that the HS grads threw the first punch.

I am so close to finishing up my Bachelors degree; I've been chipping away at it for the last 7 years on & off, but it's a pain in the butt when you're working 50-60 hours a week (Only getting paid for 40 though- *Management*). With lay-offs looming I killed myself the last two years and got my Associates. I was all over the place, changing my degree from Telecom to CAD, and finally to Business-Management. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. Today, I have 103/120 hours completed towards my Bachelors- but it's still slow progress- being a full time employee, part-time student, a father, a husband and being on-call. .

For years I've seen dummies (Lieutenants to Managers) get ahead because they had a "degree". They had no common sense, just a piece of paper that says they started & finished college. It doesn't speak to the caliber of student they were; it doesn't show if they truly worked, studied and learned anything, or if they crammed all night, passed the test and couldn't tell you anything about the subject the next day; just that they passed.

Don't misunderstand me; I'm all about making good grades too. I was a 3.5 student in High-School, I graduated with my AAS with a 3.8333 GPA, Magna *** Laude with Phi Theta Kappa- and all of that, but it's still not a Bachelor's. I've been working for 17 years, and I have a ton of work experience, but I still don't have the Bachelor's. I'm a better leader and manager than many of my peers with degrees in Management, Business Management, etc.; but I still don't have the degree. Not having a degree hasn’t held me back- at least I don’t think it has. But, in telecom your resume’ and qualifications must always remain fresh because you never know when downsizing will knock on your door. Looking on the job boards I see many jobs that have in the description (Degree-Required). I'm working on mine, not because I think I really need it; but because having one means a lot in corporate America and could prevent my “systematic elimination” from future job consideration.

I hope that enough executives in America watch this season of "The Apprentice" because I think it will teach a valuable lesson to corporate America. A college degree is not a guarantee or predictor of success. A person with a degree "should" be well-rounded, articulate- with better speaking and writing skills than a person without a degree; but in many cases they are not.

To everyone with a degree, I'm not trying to say you wasted your time getting a degree. If I thought that, I wouldn't be spending so much time trying to get mine.

To those without a degree, I'm not saying you shouldn't strive for it. What I am saying is that for years- too much focus has been placed upon whether you have a degree or not. I think many potentially great employees have been overlooked because their resume' doesn't show that they have a degree.

Graduates from HKU (Hard-Knock University) have as good of a chance at being successful in business as Joe Blow does, who graduated from UT-Austin or UC Berkeley. If given the opportunity.

My hats off to you Mr. Trump. Thank you for putting a spot light on this. Now, let’s see if the High-Schooler's can pull off "The Upset".

 

I saw all of it except the part where they went over how each did at the task (I was changing a diaper which took longer than intended). I got back in the room to see Trump congradulate them & tell them what they earned.

I've made it very far on just my high school education & only in the last few years returned to college to take some classes in my current field of accounting (at my bosses request & dime). So far so good (just got invited to join Phi Theta Kappa last semester), it is only making me a better employee & the degree at the end as well as on the job experience is only icing on the cake if I ever decided to venture onto new employment.

BTW, Todd did suck as a leader. He should have been in there training as well as puting at least 3 people on marketing (gotta have a swing vote person).

 

good thread. Im currently a business management major at CMSU over by Kansas City. Ive got around 73 hours completed now, need 124 i think to graduate. Im considering either a double major in Management/Marketing, or a masters in business management. Hopefullly it'll get me somewhere one day....

 

I enjoyed it as well and despite the fact that I have a BS in Biology, I work in a field where there are plenty of people with their PhD or working on it and they tend to think you are some sort of inferior scientist b/c you only have a BS and no aspiration to "earn" a PhD (never mind that you may be working towards a Masters degree while working full time). Intellectual snobbery does not sit well with me so I'm hoping to see the "Street Smarts" team beat up on their competition. I was lucky that I had the opportunity for a college education (not that it was free mind you ) but I say if you can get your foot in the door (especially in the field of business) w/o it, more power to you. There are theories that say that you go to college to prove to a potential employer that you can make a commitment and follow through and achieve a goal. If you can prove that to them without the college, great. There seems to be little that you can learn in college that you can't learn on the job and get practical experience at the same time. It was funny to see how much it bothered the college bunch when he said that the high school grads made three times as much money!

Good for you BigHersh, I really respect a guy who can bust his a$$ 40+ hours a week and go to school as well!

 

R U talking about the Donald Trump show????


Y-A-W-N

Reality shows are stupid. There's nothing real about them.....

 

agreed

 

this is generally true, however, trump is empowering the winners of these shows to run very large businesses in the world. theres nothing unreal about that. i think its also quite interesting to watch some of the mistakes that these "big-shot leaders" make. theres always something to be learned in the "do's and don'ts of business" in each episode.

 

It speaks to the character of man as well.

Last night, that whole "Never kick a man when he's down" adage went right out the window. It kind of turned into "Can you think of a better time to kick a man?"

As a manager or Project Manager in this instance, you are in charge. Now, if you have a person that can't be managed- like Danny was- then you either fire him, or you put him in a position to make a catastrophic failure (That you can cover); so the big-boss will fire him.

Todd was the PM, but once the first person took a shot at Danny, everybody pounced on Danny, except one girl. Then the lawyer put the spotlight on himself saying it was his idea to only train two people- so the three of them ended up in the boardroom. Todd also lost points by not being trained in what his people were doing. That's not to say you need to be as well-versed as your experts, but you do need to be able to speak the language, and jump in and help if need be. Nothing gives an employee more respect for their boss than to see their boss roll their sleeves up and help-out; when needed.

Danny's first ding against him was due to his "attire" not being up to corporate standards- the next thing you know, he was being called incompetent. He was being conveniently scape-goated by everyone; but that plan back-fired on Todd. Don and the co-execs nailed Todd because he could not manage Danny. I don't agree with that; some folks can't be managed by a certain management-style; and since it's clear that those folks have no fire-authority; why would they listen if they choose not to?

Some people you can "Set & Forget", other's you have to ride like a horse to get minimal output from them. In that environment, Todd didn't have that kind of time.

But, he has a lot of time now; now that he's "Fired".