Education delimma

[Rowan]

Aussie and NZ are sufficiently and increasingly different that you should feel free to disregard my advice because I don't pay attention much to domestic affairs over there. But how do student loans work for you? In NZ they're interest-free so they're some of the best debt you can have on your books. Once you've finished you're obliged to pay it back at 12c in the dollar (before tax) on all income earned over (something like) $20k per annum. That tends to balance well against your increased earning potential just for having a degree. I think it's a pretty damn good deal, and literally anyone can take it up if they want to. I say this while currently holding about $28k in student loan debt that I'm slowly paying back. Should be done by 2019 when I might, if house prices collapse, be able to afford a house too.

Theyre interest free here too I believe, and are paid back once you start earning over a certain amount.
Ignore house price inflation in Melbourne for now: yes it's going up fast now, but house prices are incredibly volatile. The faster they move up, the faster they'll come down. You want to move in when they're at the bottom of the curve, not when they're approaching the top.

From what I know about you, I'd skip university though. They're great for some things (law, science, maths, arts) but less so for others (trades, programming, entrepreneurship). You already work in IT, so how about learning web development? Around my parts there are good 12-week "boot camps" that aim to teach the fundamentals of web development, and then also help you to (or suspend course payments until you) find a related job in the field. Lots of employers are looking for junior developers because senior ones are expensive and development teams tend to work well with a healthy ratio of seniors to juniors. Basically it's a trade with good prospects, high pay, nice perks, no manual labour, limited time investment on your part, etc. Also remote work! I get to work from home 100% (save mega bucks in commuting and can live wherever). I wish I'd done this instead of university, I probably only use about 20% of what I learnt there. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I could be 12c in the dollar better off every week at this point. We all have regrets.

From what you know about me, I should skip uni? Why do you say that? Its interesting to see that you regret going to university and that you're the second person here to regret going. I might look to see if theres any IT courses that interest me and where I can go with it, but I feel the area of IT is unfulfilling for me, do you understand? Why do I feel inferior as an IT specialist?

There are similar things at trade academies (we call them "polytechnics" but I don't know if that term is international). Things like real estate agent training, some forms of accounting and autiding, hairdressing, etc. Things you can specialise in that often have a clear career trajectory.

We call them polytechnics too. So are you saying a uni degree is not necessary in order to gain knowledge? I feel like noone cares what you think unless you've studied at uni.

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Just now for example, I got called out to a classroom because the settings for the laptop connected to the projector was on 'extend' and the staff member didnt understand why she couldn't see what was on her laptop, on the projector screen. It was a simple fix of switching to 'clone display'. I went back to my office and got another call because the mouse stopped working (same staff member) and for some reason, she had the trackpad disabled on the hotkey function. Easily fixed.

But you see, some people might say its a great job because things like this are so easy, but its also so easy to see why I get little respect. Not just that, but seriously? Is this my life? fixing these kinds of problems? The thing is, I know I have it so good here. 5 minutes from home, decent salary (not great, but decent) and 3 months paid leave per year.

I want to study online but im put off of IT. I thought about doing psychology because its the only thing that interests me the most , as well as all the subjects that go along with it (biology, science etc) but it costs upwards of 25k per year with a minimum 6 years if you want to work in the field (why else would a person study , if not to end up working in their field of study).

any other ideas for me??