Recruiting expert Alena Vladimirskaya explains why more and more people prefer special education to higher education, and tells what makes a working person happy.
To understand the reasons for the popularity of special education, it is enough to look back and analyze the crisis trends in our country. Let’s honestly answer the question: who was the first to leave work during the crisis? That’s right — those who are engaged in strategies, development, new directions, innovations. Things, of course, necessary, but in the understanding of the layman — meaningless and ephemeral.
Indeed — how many of the bystanders, if you approach them on the street and ask such a question, will be able to tell what the specialist responsible for development and new directions does? Representatives of these specialties were the first to lose their jobs.
Let’s look from the other side. Whose position during the crisis was the most stable? Those who have a real specialty, those who do real work (and not necessarily a person with a special education). Accountants, dentists, private kindergarten teachers, ordinary workers who are now in great demand and earn much more than the same marketers. All these people are much better protected during the crisis and remain in demand after all the crisis shocks. They rarely lose a job, and if they do, they find a new one fairly quickly.
People have finally begun to appreciate and pay for real, understandable, and most importantly, well-done work.
Professionalism is valuable again
Many people say that small business in Russia is dying: they say, if not today, then it will die tomorrow. This is not true. Everything is fine with small business, it just moved to another segment — from IT-technologies to a more “real” sphere. The number of farms, chains of mini-stores, private kindergartens and schools with in-depth study of the English language is growing. And everywhere people are needed who know how to work with their hands, because the founders of the business themselves are now those who know how to work with their hands. And this is natural. Luckily, we’re going back to the scenario we once had and then got lost, but stayed in Europe and the US. This scenario is about the value of manual labor and good skills.
I really like to tell one story on this topic. It’s about happiness.
One day, my husband and I flew to the United States, left the airport and decided to rent a car. The choice was huge: a whole series of car rental offices, very different. And the most ridiculous one seemed to us, in which they offered to rent Cadillacs. On the one hand, it’s great: you’re in America, sit in a Cadillac and rush along Route 66 from one coast to another with a breeze. You fly into the sunset, and your hair flutters in the wind … Like in a movie. On the other hand, where are we, and where is the Cadillac? This is completely irrational, it is much more reasonable to take the most ordinary car.
And now I see a pink Cadillac in a huge rental window. And I tell my husband: they say, we just arrived, the mood is excellent, let’s go in, I’ll take a picture (am I a girl or not?). “Okay, come on, but we won’t rent it,” the husband replies. Naturally, I agree: I am a sane woman, we will not rent, of course. We go in, and there is a seller. Probably 56-58 years old, huge, pot-bellied and incredibly cute. I don’t remember his name, but let it be Jim.
Jim sees me taking pictures and starts telling me about this Cadillac. But not as a car, no. He perfectly understood why I went in and what I see in this car. He starts painting us all these pictures: the road, freedom, pink Cadillac… All this incredible driving from the movies. This is the dream of a lifetime, this happens once, and this is where the real America is.
The expert has knowledge in a narrow area, and if he continues to improve his skills, he will not face the “curse of age”
My husband and I came to our senses only when we left the rental with a signed contract to rent a pink Cadillac. As soon as I moved a little away from what happened, I returned to Jim with one question. “Okay,” I say, “we will not return the car back, since we already rented it. But after all, we didn’t want this at all and didn’t plan it, but you managed to convince us. Jim, you are a true genius! You are so old — tell me why you are still an ordinary car rental salesman near the airport with such talent?
“You know,” Jim replies, “competitors are constantly trying to lure me away, then bosses are trying to promote me to director. And I don’t need it. I don’t want to sit and move papers. I love to sell. So I feel real money, real buyers. And I feel good. I know the whole industry respects me. All of them, colleagues from neighboring rental offices, come to me, tell me how cool I am, and ask me to teach me how to sell. And all this together makes my happiness. And I don’t need another.»
I hope the idea is clear.
I also suggest thinking about how the career of managers and experts is built. The expert has deep knowledge in a very narrow area. And if he continues to improve his qualifications, deepen his expert knowledge, then his demand only grows over the years, and the “age curse” does not threaten him. But with age, a manager finds himself out of work (unless, of course, he moves to the level of a supermanager): he is simply knocked down by younger and “greyhound members of the pack”.
A classic case is the story of a famous make-up artist who is taken by car from the Moscow region to the largest theaters and film studios. They carry it carefully, blowing off dust particles and generally protect it in every possible way. A person is over 80, and no one else can do historical make-up like that.
This is a clear example of why special knowledge is more expensive and valuable than any MBA. And although I do not deny the importance of higher education, it seems to me that it is special education that will guarantee people a stable piece of bread and butter for many years to come.