St. Louis Business Journal
Adult learners need a sense of direction to get the most out of education

By Anna Navarro

November 2002 - "If you don't know where you are trying to get to, it doesn't matter what road you take." -- Cheshire Cat to Alice

That bit of advice couldn't be truer when it comes to education. In economically precarious times, many people who lose their jobs return to school as a way out of their predicament. This can be a good strategy when it is guided by a sense of direction. But what many don't realize is that education, by itself, is not enough to attain career success and happiness.

Solo, project-based endeavors lend themselves to flexible hours. For example, writing, or developing a computer program can be tackled on your own schedule. Your commitment is to deliver a completed product on time; how you get there is up to you.

I know that because I have been a career strategist for over 20 years and I work every day with people who have gone to school, gotten A's and made big financial investments in degrees only to discover they don't like or aren't good at the fields they've pursued. When you are 22 and graduate with few responsibilities, you might have the luxury of experimenting with a career path. But most adult learners need their education to start paying off right away.

So to paraphrase my feline friend, first figure out where you are trying to get, then education will be much more likely to have a positive payoff in your career. You can head out in a general direction, but ultimately you need to get more focused. This will prevent you from wandering aimlessly and wasting precious time, energy and money in school.

Sandra was a regional sales manager for a company with $10M in revenue. She had worked her way up to this position over 20 years, starting as a secretary. She had only a high school degree, and was pushing 50.

She started working with me the year before the company was sold. Early in our work together, it became clear that Sandra wanted to stay in the business world. She liked the challenge and the setting. But she also realized that with no degree, and experience confined to a single company, getting a comparable job would be difficult.

We concluded that she probably needed to get an undergraduate degree and an MBA to improve her chances. Fortunately, her severance package was large enough to pay her education and living expenses while going to school if she downsized her lifestyle and took a heavy class load.

But this was just the beginning of our work together. She needed to figure out what direction she wanted to go in after graduation if she was going to make the most of her education. A solid academic foundation was not enough. It was also important to develop contacts that would help her get a job once she completed her degree.

Further explorations helped her decide that she wanted line responsibility. That eliminated human resources, an area that was intellectually appealing. International business, another area of interest, she eliminated because she had pre-teen children and couldn't travel much.

In time, marketing began to surface as the area of greatest interest. It was familiar to her because of her 20 years in sales. But marketing encompasses such a vast array of options that we needed to continue to refine her direction.

As Sandra continued to explore options, two areas appealed to her - direct mail and market research. Both would use her two favorite skills - the ability to work with numbers and writing.

By the end of her first year in school, Sandra had settled on market research. This decision allowed her to do most of her papers and projects in her chosen field. She also did her internship and practicum in market research -- both with agencies (where she most wanted to work) and with corporations who hired agencies. The hands-on experiences helped her verify that she liked the daily work.

Sandra earned a Master's degree in business, but by graduation, she had much more than a degree. She also knew which firms in town did what kind of work, knew people in most of them, and had done some real market research projects she could talk about in interviews and list on her resume.

Within a few months, she found an excellent job in a growing market research firm. She liked the work and was good at it. And she also had many contacts in other companies, so her advancement wasn't restricted to the company with which she started.

Even if he won't wipe that grin off his face, the Cheshire Cat makes a good case for starting any journey with a destination in mind.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that trains independent career strategists and consults with individual clients.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.