Like… Literally any of it. I’m a software engineer and my degree didn’t have anything to do with software or engineering.
I’d have to really stretch to something like “time management” or “active listening” to find any connection, lol.
How frequently business leaders will ignore advice from experts and “go with their gut” instead.
Most of it. I went to college for Funeral Directing. School will tell you it’s an ancient and honourable job of serving people in a time of need. 50% of school is learning “the art” of embalming and the other 50% is rules and regulations.
In real life, embalming is becoming a rare option, so most funeral homes have one or two directors on staff who can easily do every embalming the business gets. The other directors are essentially just salespeople. Most funeral homes are now owned by a few large corporations who don’t run it like an honourable service but rather like a used car lot. These corporations have found every trick to skirt regulations meant to protect consumers and drive up prices while lowering quality of service.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed by the consumers, who will take out their anger and frustrations on the overworked and underpaid funeral director who are not in on the take. Directors are typically paid for 40 hours a week but are required to take on all clients who call. It’s rare that a director can handle every client a week in just 40 hours. All places I worked were severely understaffed and burnout was incredibly common.
I eventually got burnt out myself and switched jobs. I would not recommend funeral directing to anyone. College acts like you’ll be treated like a doctor or lawyer but they must just mean the gruelling hours because funeral directors get none of the pay or respect.
Are people embalming less because cremation is increasing in popularity?
Yes. The places I worked had about 80% of clients choosing cremation. I assume it’s mostly a cost decision. Cremation does not require a casket or a cemetery plot, which are two very expensive items.
Even if I could afford it I’d feel bad taking up the land.
I agree, it always seemed selfish to me.
Understanding benefits packages and basic labor laws.
Mostly the human factor in working in IT. It shows you have to manage systems and the larger concepts so that you can keep yourself up-to-date, but they don’t prepare you for how bad some people can be.
Workplace bullies.
Worst thing is when you don’t even realise when its happening to you. My manager did and moved me to another team after a few months…
I now work elsewhere with much kinder and nicer people in a much smaller team 😁👍 but sadly the previous bullying has affected my life quite a bit, as well as how I interact with my partner.
I’m a filmmaker. Allllllllll of it. What I really needed to learn is that the name brand of the film school you went to will ABSOLUTELY have a huge bearing on how high you can climb. If your film school isn’t name brand, drop out and start working in the industry instead. I went to art school and learned all technical aspects of filmmaking. If I hadn’t actually worked on set while I was in school, I’d be absolutely clueless.
In the end, I have come to realize that it’s who you know.
Lesson: if you go to film school, at least make it a name brand like NYU, AFI, USC, etc or you will basically be a carnie because those rich kids look out for the kids they went to school with and NO ONE ELSE.
Shitty management.
How often my patience is tested by corporate platitudes and meaningless work.
Employment.
The crushing pointlessness of it all.
They never told me I couldn’t get a job as a programmer. I just reset passwords all day.
All the meetings that either have no relation to your job or could’ve just been an email or text conversation.
People have “feelings”
