They Lie...

Let's talk about how and why the professional education programs lie to us... they promise to teach us valuable professional skills such as FinTech or Compliance... and in reality, they are almost like madrasas and mostly teach religion.

A few examples first:

• One of my great friends, let's call her A., worked for a BigTech company?for almost 15 years and recently took a sabbatical for family reasons.?Her formal education was over 20 years?ago, so she decided that maybe before?going back to the workforce, she needed a refresher and signed up for another Master's degree.?Her school literally told her that she needed this because otherwise, she would not be able to compete with the 30-something-year-old recent graduates. A is doing great at school (obviously), but her education is mostly focused on memorizing theoretical concepts and solving case studies based on examples?and circumstances that are at least 10 years old. Just so you know, this thing costs 60k USD a year.
• B. (also a?friend)?recently started her own consulting?company. During her first year running her own business,?B.?was building?projects pipeline,?hiring people,?figuring out administrative formalities, and barely sleeping?4 hours a day, however, she nevertheless signed up for a very expensive compliance certification program. When I asked why, B's response was "I don't need the knowledge because their focus is mostly on banks and insurance companies and large institutions,?but I want?the diploma, just in case someone asks... It's good to feel I?completed it and I'm proud that my grades were higher than those of much younger students." That program was about 40k EUR.
• C.?decided to branch out from FinTech and answered her calling,?so she signed up for a multi-year formal professional education in the field of social services. This certification is not strictly needed to do what she wants to do, and she does not particularly agree with the principles and overall approach that is propagated by her educators.?She finds it to be outdated, too rigid, and not efficient. However, C. is hesitant to quit the program because she feels there is no other "tested" way how she could enter this area and start doing what she wants to do.

Do you know what all these cases have in common? – the lack of confidence and not being fully able to trust yourself and just go and do what you want to. None of these programs or certifications prepare for a profession or guarantee any kind of success. Quite opposite –?not only do they leave out?essential skills (risk-taking, learning how to ask for what your want in terms of salary and other resources, critical thinking,?handling exceptions, and relationships with your stakeholders), they actually include bad or outdated or irrelevant examples and promote those examples as a norm.

If you ask me, these programs attracted my friends at a time when they felt most vulnerable, undergoing important changes in their lives, and lacking confidence. The schools exploited these vulnerabilities and extorted a lot of money out of people without offering any real professional skills in return. That's why I am suggesting that they acted more like opportunistic madrasas or even cults.

Don't get me wrong – I completely understood my friends and (reluctantly) supported their choices because those were their decisions.?That's what friends are for. However, if we are honest about the cost/time and the benefit of these programs, it was not worth it. What was even worse, my friends told me that one of the possible benefits they hoped to get out of these programs was networking, but what ended up happening is that they did not want to have anything to do with the other participants. Everyone was just too busy going on about their own lives, the educational process was too time-consuming and overloaded with unnecessary formalities, and the overall goals and aspirations between my friends and their peers were a mismatch.

I do invest quite a lot of money in courses and programs, and I am a member of two paid masterminds. The difference between formal educational programs and the people I prefer to learn from is that I followed my current teachers and mentors for a while and I see them as role models and not just teachers or professors. They are practitioners of a particular craft or know-how and have built their businesses around the skills they teach. But most importantly, I am attracted to their personality and charisma almost as much as I want to learn a particular skill set from them.?

Frankly, if the real problem is a lack of confidence, imposter syndrome, learning to deal with greater uncertainties, and trusting your guts, it's not a question of a degree or a certification or more knowledge. It's simply recognizing that sometimes we face fears, and learn how to do the things we want to do regardless.

People often say "but Yana, it's so much easier for you to do this than for me because you are so confident..."

All I can answer is that being confident does not mean I don't have fears or that I am never afraid of anything. I constantly put myself in harm's way by trying new things and experimenting with new projects. I constantly see what can go wrong.

Confidence does not come from a classroom, diplomas, or when other people compliment you a lot. I view confidence as a muscle, and you train this muscle by overcoming adversity and uncertainty, flying blind for a while, and going after what you want even when you are scared and unsure if this thing is ever going to work.

So, if you are currently in a position where you are contemplating a new degree or a certification or another educational program, and you know deep inside that you are doing this not for the actual knowledge and more as a result of lacking confidence,?it could be that you need a good mentor much more than memorizing a pile of books or scripts.

Depending on when you read this, my mentorship program may still be open for new applicants or closed and only accepting people on the waitlist, but please do reach out and let me know if you are interested to learn more!

Enjoy listening to podcasts instead of reading? –?Tune in to this episode?here!