Working While Learning

A dead-end job is... well exactly what it sounds like. No hope for advancement, no hope for a pay raise, no hope for raising your skill level. There are many ways to get there. Sometimes what you thought was an entry level job that would lead to greater things, turns out to be a permanent entry level position. Some people are down on their luck when they receive a job offer and only accept it because they need the money that badly. Then the job traps them and they feel they have no way out. Some people graduate with a degree in something they thought would be profitable but turns out to be horrendously boring. Whatever the case, if you hate your job and really want a degree that will put you in a better field, here are a few ways to get that degree while working full-time.

1. Take the night shift.
At your work or at school. If your job has a night shift take it so you can take a few classes during the day. Or take the more classic option and go to school at night. Almost every college and university has late classes, even community colleges. This can be a nice way to fit education and getting a degree into your day. This becomes more difficult if you're married or if you have kids. Of course you'll want quality time with your family so you many only want to take classes two or three times a week. Naturally you'll be a little tired. Just remind yourself that a little fatigue is worth it. You'll soon be able to leave your boring low-paying job for a much more rewarding career.

2. Take class at home.
The old version of taking class at home was called correspondence courses. You had all the materials at home, you did all the reading at home, and you did all the assignments at home. You could even take quizzes and sometimes tests at home. Of course, this was largely based on the honor system. You had to be trusted not to cheat. You would mail or fax your homework assignments to your professor. These days we have a much more expedient way of doing this. It's called online learning. You can get your whole degree online, exams and all. The difficulties of this kind of education is that you have to force yourself to sit down without any distractions and learn. This can be very difficult if you have kids hovering around. Hand them off to the babysitter or grandma for a few hours while you further your education.

3. Learning for the sake of learning.
Some people just want to learn for the sake of learning. If you're one of those people who still reads all they can... particularly scholarly journals, you might be just interested in learning just to learn. If so, there are now dozens of universities that are posting lecture notes, streaming audio and video, even their whole curriculum for certain classes online. With all the materials online and open to the public it's getting rather easy to become educated and intelligent. Watching professor's podcasts of their classroom lectures may not get you a degree but it will certainly add to your overall knowledge base and skills.

Now go for it. Educate yourself.

Lectures, notes, test prep, curriculum online from many universities.