I’m been thinking a lot about my future lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve had it with blue collar work. I want more out of life than living paycheck to paycheck. For sometime now, I’ve been hearing that college degrees are worthless nowadays so thought about getting Comptia certifications (A+ and then Sec+) and working remotely. But then I thought about if AI will make those certifications obsolete. I know that “AI taking jobs” is a bit of sensationalist reporting but I do have legitimate concerns. I then thought about going back to college for “advance” careers like computer science and/or electrical engineering; more specifically, a bachelor’s degree.
What I want to know is this: would returning to college, especially for a tech-oriented degree, or will it be a waste of time and money? Should I pursue an alternative like certs? Thanks in advance.
That’s a life question that involves a lot of factors.
I will say that:
Generally-speaking, having a college degree in the US is financially advantageous.
While the younger you get a degree, the larger the return (since the longer you can use the skillset), unless you’re close to retirement, I’d expect an engineering degree to be advantageous; these tend to have strong returns.
I think that it is unlikely that AI will kill demand people with bachelor’s degrees in computer science and/or electrical engineering in the near future. Probably one day there will be human-level AI, and that if it does it’ll have much, much broader and dramatic impact on the world than just those degrees, and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Heck, AI has increased demand for some people with a skillset relevant to AI.
If you asked me, with what limited information you’ve provided, to just say “yes” or “no”, as long as you’re committed to completing the degree, I’d say “yes”.
EDIT: For 2022:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/college-majors-with-the-best-return-on-investment