Too Educated

Are you too educated? Today on BGF, Ava and Tashaunda discuss whether or not obtaining multiple degrees and certifications throughout your life is necessary. They dive into possible interpersonal reasons behind continuing education. 

Do you think degrees are necessary? Let us know what you think on Instagram: @blackgirlflyofficial

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Website: www.blackgirlflyofficial.com
Email: hello@podcast2impact.com
Instagram:  @blackgirlflyofficial

:50 Necessity

1:28 Adult Validation 

4:48 Racal Implications

5:11 Higher education Tresshold 

6:23 Value the trades

7:50 Value of MBA and PhD

11:40 Business Development

13:12 Final Relections

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Transcript

Speaker 1 | 09;45;21;12 | 09;45;25;07 | Welcome back to another episode of Black Girl Fly. I'm Your Girl and Marie.
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Speaker 2 | 09;45;25;17 | 09;45;26;21 | And I'm Charlotte Dixon.
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Speaker 1 | 09;45;28;05 | 09;45;36;07 | Today we are touching on a very important topic. And girls, question is for you. Are you too educated?
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Speaker 2 | 09;45;37;09 | 09;46;02;24 | My answer is yes. No, I don't think so. Here's the problem with that statement, though. I think there's a difference between like what you would call educated, how to put it out there courtesy of black people going back to college. I'm tired of it. But to me, you got you got 18 degrees, 18 masters, 12 B, 16 certifications.
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Speaker 2 | 09;46;03;05 | 09;46;11;29 | Ma'am, it only is not that serious. I'm just I'm. I'm putting it out there unnecessary. I don't know what you're trying to accomplish.
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Speaker 1 | 09;46;14;10 | 09;46;21;24 | The avatar is Arab. It. Do you think it has to do with people's relationship status at all?
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Speaker 2 | 09;46;22;08 | 09;46;47;02 | No, I don't. You know what? I think I'm going to say? This is also about being controversial. But I think that when we become adults, people need a way to celebrate themselves. They need to feel like they've accomplished something. They need to feel like they're adding value. And I think that I mean, everybody says education's a good thing, so.
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Speaker 2 | 09;46;47;09 | 09;47;02;04 | Yeah, but what's going on? I'm going to go get some education. My job life sucks. I'm not getting valued at work with Smith, Keisha, Love and stuff. I had a man in three years. I to go get the application. I'm single with no kids. I won't go educate when.
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Speaker 1 | 09;47;02;11 | 09;47;09;12 | They make the pan very clear. Take these classes, get this grade or this day you will get this certificate.
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Speaker 2 | 09;47;09;12 | 09;47;13;22 | Like, Yeah, and everybody will celebrate you. Everybody will celebrate you because you did it.
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Speaker 1 | 09;47;14;11 | 09;47;19;29 | Yeah, that's a good point. It's coming from someone who's specifically addicted to education.
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Speaker 2 | 09;47;21;16 | 09;47;42;08 | So don't get it wrong, though. So don't be wrong. I'm not saying that you ever need to stop learning that. That is not what I'm saying. I just don't believe that the best way to learn is to go to a university, is to pay new people $80,000 dollars to get this certificate. We've come to a new age where everything is at your fingertips.
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Speaker 2 | 09;47;42;08 | 09;47;46;19 | If you want to learn anything in the world, it is not required. Sydney University.
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Speaker 1 | 09;47;47;18 | 09;47;56;29 | Yeah. Okay. With the new wave of the Internet, especially is literally at our fingertips. I mean, YouTube University on the Daily.
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Speaker 2 | 09;47;57;07 | 09;48;05;13 | Not just that, but Ivy League universities are cutting classes online for free. Like. Like.
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Speaker 1 | 09;48;06;10 | 09;48;20;23 | So it's not actually it's not actually about the learning is your whole point. But learning is out there for free. It's about the recognition that comes with it more.
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Speaker 2 | 09;48;21;12 | 09;48;21;25 | Yes.
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Speaker 1 | 09;48;22;03 | 09;48;25;08 | I have this entire essay. I'm pretty sure I told you about this, but.
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Speaker 2 | 09;48;25;08 | 09;48;25;24 | When I was.
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Speaker 1 | 09;48;26;16 | 09;48;32;14 | I mean, probably like 25 or so, I've literally been talking about going back for a.
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Speaker 2 | 09;48;32;29 | 09;48;37;21 | Writing and I'm like, Dude, don't try to get like a bachelors a masters.
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Speaker 1 | 09;48;38;29 | 09;48;40;19 | For at least ten years I've been thinking.
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Speaker 2 | 09;48;40;19 | 09;48;48;12 | About what you gonna do with it, what is when you get it, how do you expect to happen?
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Speaker 1 | 09;48;48;20 | 09;48;59;12 | I was still thinking about it because bit of it I can't read in that order because it's free. Like is free in my field. It's free. So it's not like it costs you anything.
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Speaker 2 | 09;48;59;19 | 09;49;00;19 | What about your time?
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Speaker 1 | 09;49;01;27 | 09;49;04;02 | That's the thing. That's the thing I can't just.
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Speaker 2 | 09;49;04;25 | 09;49;13;00 | Bring out of them hours. Put your hourly rate to it and see how much it cost you. I know you die. You the battery go. Me telling you go, man.
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Speaker 1 | 09;49;14;08 | 09;49;40;10 | But yeah. So anyways, I'm thinking about. But when I was about 25, I was telling a lady at my job this and she was, oh, she was a little bit older than me. I don't know how much older at the time. And she was like, Why is it that you want this degree? And I was like, telling her and she's like, What it really sounds like Is that your turn to get this?
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Speaker 1 | 09;49;40;10 | 09;49;45;26 | Because you don't think people see the value in worth in you without it?
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Speaker 2 | 09;49;46;01 | 09;50;14;13 | Now, now I do want to put that in something, though. So African-Americans, we have always been demonized, assumed to be stupid, walking out. So there's a lot of historical context for that particular thing. But what I found in practice and a little bit more serious is that getting the education doesn't actually change your circumstance beyond and there's a threshold.
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Speaker 2 | 09;50;14;13 | 09;50;15;10 | So I would say so.
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Speaker 1 | 09;50;15;22 | 09;50;17;11 | Yeah, there's a threshold in.
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Speaker 2 | 09;50;17;11 | 09;50;34;19 | Getting the undergrad degree. It is valuable. It is. There are studies that show that your your earnings over your lifetime increase substantially in the difference between having a high school diploma and a bachelor's degree. And I think that that that's fine.
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Speaker 1 | 09;50;35;02 | 09;50;41;18 | It has layers, though. Let's talk about it. Yeah, we're not talking about basket weaving. We're not talking about.
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Speaker 2 | 09;50;41;25 | 09;50;43;26 | Psychology, by the way.
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Speaker 1 | 09;50;43;28 | 09;51;14;27 | No psychology, no museum studies, no gender studies. We're talking about it's usually a technical tactical degree, Right. We're talking finance. We're talking engineering. You go, I'm pre-med. It's those fields that are typically a hard science, hard math, something like that that's going to be in the category. And you can change. We do a lot of identity, power, privilege work, Like you can change that trajectory of future generations by obtaining now.
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Speaker 2 | 09;51;14;28 | 09;51;38;01 | But I do think so. To that point, though, I do think that we undervalue some of this appropriate stature, but we undervalue the trades. So like when I say that, though, I mean you can go by the way, the trajectory of getting your CPA is not much different from objectively of you getting an electrician certificate. The answer salary about to say.
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Speaker 1 | 09;51;38;09 | 09;51;39;05 | Not the same.
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Speaker 2 | 09;51;39;15 | 09;51;50;16 | Like, but we don't we don't call that out. Right. Or even to to go a little lower. I'm going to put out there. Being a teacher pay is about the same much as an intimate person.
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Speaker 1 | 09;51;52;06 | 09;51;55;25 | And it requires you to get a master's degree in most states now.
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Speaker 2 | 09;51;55;27 | 09;52;16;11 | Yes. Yes. So like so what I'm trying to say is, though, is that we have to make sure that we're evaluating the opportunity. I think that you did something that was really cool. We we talked about the opportunity cost, right? We talked about understanding why you believe that you need to get that, because I think that that is fundamental in making the decision.
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Speaker 2 | 09;52;16;15 | 09;52;25;13 | And you might find that you really try to accomplish something else instead of I mean, this, right? Actually.
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Speaker 1 | 09;52;26;13 | 09;52;37;28 | And so this is a real scenario for me because like I've thought about getting MBA is I thought about getting these Ph.D. the pages actually still on the table.
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Speaker 2 | 09;52;40;05 | 09;52;41;21 | But with my math.
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Speaker 1 | 09;52;43;09 | 09;53;15;29 | Right? I mean, I would like to work through it live on the podcast right now if we have time. But the thing about the MBA, I talked to a few people who got MBAs, and the reason I wanted one is because I never learned anything about business in either of my degrees and now I'm running a business. And so there's a lot of things that a lot of mistakes that I made in running the business that I was like, Oh, I wonder if this could have been avoided if I had gotten an MBA.
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Speaker 1 | 09;53;16;13 | 09;53;49;01 | Long and short of it is apparently MBAs don't teach you entrepreneurship, but maybe the specific entrepreneurship programs do. But for me, I actually got my MBA from experience over these last couple of years. I'm like, I don't need an MBA because I know a lot of stuff now that I didn't know before. And I also learned new ways to get the information that I needed that doesn't require me to get a degree.
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Speaker 1 | 09;53;49;14 | 09;54;19;17 | And so I feel really settled about that decision. But the Ph.D. is different, and so it maybe is not different, though, because I thought about it in two ways. I could grow my expertise in my company, like I could lead research projects and fund them through the company and do all of these things. But I still wouldn't be eligible for certain grants and things because I don't have that formal training.
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Speaker 1 | 09;54;20;16 | 09;54;42;04 | On the flip side though, you can just hire somebody who does, right? You could still do the same stuff and not dedicate the three to 5 to 7 years. I know somebody. It took them ten years to finish that degree. And so I think that's part of the struggle. And then it is for me. The other part you're talking about like, do I just want the doctor money?
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Speaker 1 | 09;54;42;06 | 09;54;53;12 | Like, no, I just want that because I know that sometimes having it can get you into certain rooms that you would not been able to get into. So I don't know.
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Speaker 2 | 09;54;53;23 | 09;55;17;03 | So I do think there's value to that last statement you made, though, that you are right. Sometimes there's value to having it on your name. Now I want to make sure. So I brought that up because I think that's still the same question stands is why do you want it? If your answer is, it'll get me to this room to give me the ability to do this thing that I couldn't do without it.
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Speaker 2 | 09;55;17;15 | 09;55;40;13 | I think that is perfectly fine and and a justification if you can rationalize the return on investment right. I think that is a perfectly sound way. But if you're also that Bobbitt or what you just said is that my organization this it would take you 20 minutes to put up a job request to write to you that need.
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Speaker 2 | 09;55;40;20 | 09;56;04;03 | And so I do ask that question. And then even as a business owner or in that scenario where you need that accolade to get there, what if you could outsource that accolade like so? And now I'll speak to this where I heard the same that was a long time ago that says that the best entrepreneurs are people who know how to put the right people in the right role.
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Speaker 2 | 09;56;04;21 | 09;56;22;27 | And it's not necessarily about them having all the skills, but it's about them hiring. The right people make things happen. And so I just I think it's the same exercise. It's the same exercise of evaluating why it is to want it. And there's another mechanism, a cheaper way, a more efficient way, a more synergistic way.
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Speaker 1 | 09;56;23;06 | 09;56;39;09 | To do it. Yeah, Yeah, I think that's totally right. I agree really 100% with that. I think the other other phrase that I've struggled with because in my business is that the CEO's.
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Speaker 2 | 09;56;39;09 | 09;56;40;03 | Role.
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Speaker 1 | 09;56;40;09 | 09;57;07;20 | Is business development, right? And business development means like making sure that money is going to still continue to come into this business because businesses eat money so fast. Right? And there are few different ways to do business development. A lot of ways that, you know, I think the modern day entrepreneur does that is by being the face of their company, right.
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Speaker 1 | 09;57;07;20 | 09;57;39;18 | And like being the face, being in spaces to draw attention, to draw awareness to what they're doing in their company, and then funneling the traffic that way. So I've not wanted to do that in my business. Like pretty intention really. And so I think that is that's causing a little bit of this, I think, conflict for me. But I think having a Ph.D. would help in that scenario, right, For people who want to get into certain rooms.
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Speaker 1 | 09;57;39;18 | 09;58;08;23 | Right. And there are certain rooms that I think that I will want to get into. The question is, do you need to get into those certain rooms and listen to the other episode we talked about with about earning your man like the other question is, do I need to grow my business so big, right? Like maybe it's actually find the size it is and I don't need to go into those rooms, but if I want to, that means a completely different size of business.
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Speaker 1 | 09;58;08;23 | 09;58;17;10 | And so I think there's a lot of nuance to this. I do not have an I don't have an answer landing from this, but you certainly gave me more to think about.
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Speaker 2 | 09;58;18;15 | 09;58;24;28 | Having you answer. But the answer is, is that education, more education is not always the right answer.
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Speaker 1 | 09;58;25;21 | 09;58;51;04 | Yeah, yeah. And I think many of us are not doing it for the proper reasons. And so but there are some benefits I think, that we uncovered in this conversation. But it requires us truly strategic analysis of the scenario. And in most cases it's not going to be the case though. Yeah. Girl, you too educated. That's the answer.
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Speaker 1 | 09;58;54;04 | 09;58;57;12 | Anything else you would like to lay on the people?
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Speaker 2 | 09;58;57;18 | 09;58;58;21 | I think that's good.
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Speaker 1 | 09;58;59;08 | 09;59;05;05 | Until next time you. I am you girls. And he's Nicole. And I'm Shannon Dixon. And we are black girl flag.