I was the first generation of my family to attend college. Throughout high school (graduated high school in 2006), the idea that college was the answer to everything was everywhere. Go to college, get a degree, you&#x27;ll end up with a job. After seven years of paying high college tuition for a sub par education, I graduated in 2012 with a BA degree that was not in any demand, provided no real skills, and spent several years during and after college working in dead end retail&#x2F;customer service jobs.<p>I ended up teaching myself how to code and landed a very well paying career as an engineer with a huge passion for what I&#x27;m doing.<p>Here are the takeaways I have from having gone down this route:<p>+ Don&#x27;t go to college just to go to college. If you don&#x27;t know why you&#x27;re going, don&#x27;t go.<p>+ If you do go to college, don&#x27;t expect your major of choice to land you a job. If you know what you want to do in life, you should probably just go and do it on your own. College is not synonymous with landing a career.<p>+ If you go to college and don&#x27;t end up landing a job, more college is not the answer. A master&#x27;s&#x2F;graduate program is not the answer.