Although I have had some pretty prominent jobs in my career – I only have a two year degree. I say that with pride because in my opinion – the best form of education is not what you learn in a classroom – but what you learn on the street.

I’m not saying that school is not important. I feel that everyone should get some form of a college education. What I am saying is that the people who spend their lives inside of a classroom rather than an office will have plenty of degrees to fill the empty spaces on their walls – but a pretty empty resume.

I say this from personal experience. Although I have not set foot in a classroom as a student since 1992, in the past eight years, I have learned enough about journalism, advertising, public relations and marketing to go from a part-time reporter to a Press Secretary on a two-year degree – and that two-year degree is in Radio Broadcasting. I attained the positions I had not through learning from a teacher – but from learning and studying from the people I worked with and dealt with on the job and in the street.

In my opinion, no professor, curriculum, or college could replace working in the field that you plan to choose a career in. Even an internship, which is a great way for a student to gain experience, is only a temporary taste of the “real world” – and then its back to the classroom. To really learn what it takes to be what you want to be, you have to work in it, not learn about it.

Think about this example. A person who goes to school to learn marketing will spend four years in college learning the supposed ins and outs of marketing – while during those four years, the jobs that are available on the ground floor are being taken up by others, and what the student is learning in school is becoming obsolete because new, fresh ideas are being implemented. Plus, when that new graduate joins his first firm, he may have learned about marketing – but what did he learn about office politics? How many contacts did he make in the industry? How well versed is he in the latest business trends? – and to think, the college he graduated from calls him “fully educated”.

I have been told to go back to school by my supervisor on many occasions – in fact, as a City employee – the Mayor’s office will foot the bill – no thanks. Despite the fact that I don’t have the time, the school I attend will not teach me enough to replace the time I take away from my life sitting in a classroom. So I will happily stick to having the world teach me what I need to know. Besides – the classrooms are much bigger.

So if you want my opinion, the best colleges in the world will teach you what they know about what you want to be – but if you want to learn everything – go to work.