Chaz Austin 
Dr. Chaz Austin, Ed.D.ย has worked as a career trainer for clients all over the world for the past 20 years. He has been a guest on over 25 podcasts in the past year, has over 35,000 followers on LinkedIn, and wrote and teaches a series of three courses for LinkedIn Learning:
- CREATING A CAREER PLANย https://goo.gl/IFMDCj
- SUCCEEDING IN A NEW JOBย https://goo.gl/lYxRSH
- TRANSITIONING OUT OF YOUR JOBย https://goo.gl/YtWBkr
The courses have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, and each one has a rating of 4.7 (out of 5.0) based on over 3700 reviews.
He is also a TEDx speaker who said, โWhen I work with my clients, we always start at the end: whatโs your goal? And my personal goal is to find a university willing to do a pilot study of my program, which involves training college students on the business side, in how market themselves and monetize their education. It consists of a MANDATORY series of courses, beginning freshman year, thatโs embedded into a traditional college curriculum. I know from experience that my program works. And then, my LONG TERM GOAL is to have it adopted by every college and university in the United States.โ
Dr. Austin has presented papers to: the National Association of Women MBAs, the Association for Business Communication, the National Council for Workforce Education, the Society of Educators and Scholars, the International College Teaching and Learning Conference, and the Global Conference on Leadership and Management, among others.
He holds a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University, and has been a college professor for over 20 years.
Dr. Austin has authored three books on self-marketing, treating yourself like a business and behaving like an entrepreneur. His latest book, from which the following is excerpted, isย โHow To Find Work for the Rest of Your Life,โ and can be purchased on Amazon
Determine the Value of a Degree
In the 20th century, a degree was the primary, default marketing tool needed to find work. In whatโs become a freelance workplace in the 21st century, degrees are sometimes necessary, but are now insufficient. A degree guarantees nothing, but in some fields, you need to have one to get to the starting line. If they work or want to work in an industry where a degree is useful, my students and clients often ask me whether they should pursue yet an- other degree. Usually my answer is yes. In certain fields (like education), the more degrees you have, the more options you have. But if youโre on a career track where degrees are useful and/or required, youโll need to choose whether that particular degree is worth the time and money youโll invest to earn it. And unfortunately, there may not be a direct correlation between your investment and the results.
When you buy a car, you know what youโre getting. You can choose the options you want and know ahead of time what it will feel like to drive it and how it will perform. The results of an education are more indirect. I paid approximately $70,000 for my doctorate. I canโt actually measure the return on that investment, however, because itโs indirect. Was it worth it?
Absolutely. Can I tell you the specific results? Not exactly. I can say that since earning my doctorate, I have more intellectual rigor, am paid better for my work, and have enjoyed teaching and publishing opportunities that I would not have had without it. Have those new opportunities paid back the $70,000? Yes. But โ those opportunities were only partially a result of my becoming DOCTOR Austin. The relationships Iโve developed, the experiences Iโve gained, and the accomplishments Iโve achieved during the many years before I earned my doctorate, how I leveraged them, and my ability to market myself have all contributedโ and continue to contributeโto my success. I canโt tell someone who is thinking of getting a law degreeโand with it, a debt load of perhaps $100,000โwhether itโs going to be โworth it.โ What I can advise is that before you enroll in a degree program, you should decide if this degree will help you to manifest your passion in the world. In other words, donโt get a law degree just because you can make more money if you have one. Donโt have it be a default step because youโve hit a wall in your career of choice (say, acting) and youโve heard and/or read that lawyers make a lot of money, even though youโre not particularly interested in the law. Instead, do your research. Talk to people who already work in the field and find out from them whether they think it would be worth your time and money. If youโre just graduating college and donโt want or are afraid to get into the workforce, donโt get a masterโs degree just because you donโt know exactly what you want to do. Instead, get to work. Find some kind of a job and give it a few years. You may find that you didnโt need an M.B.A. after all. You might discover that you like working in art restoration, so the degree you need is an M.F.A. Or maybe youโll learn that you didnโt need a degree at all.
And if youโre graduating high school and want to be an auto mechanic, getting a bachelorโs degree doesnโt make a lot of sense. Repair shops hiring mechanics donโt value them. What youโll want to pursue is your ASE certification. If youโre a carpenter, youโre guided by the mantra, โmeasure twice, cut once.โ You can use this idea whenever you consider furthering your education. Research as thoroughly as possible before you commit your time or money to a certificate/degree/license, so you can determine if it will provide a reasonable return on your investment.
โHow To Find Work for the Rest of Your Life,โย and can be purchased here:ย https://shorturl.at/XXWMY
Subscribe to edCircuitย to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.
