From an employers perspective...can being a college dropout be a strength?

Question

What if the reason you dropped out wasn't because college was hard or because you were a quitter but simply because you saw it was a poor value and that it was possible, even preferable, to learn the needed skills in real-world environments.

(Because there are no 'apprenticeships' outside of college internships for white collar positions.)

Answer 1

I'd say it might look bad, but there's other factors.

Like for instance, how far along did you drop out? Did you get a number of credits already? You can just say instead of dropping out that you did *blank* number of courses in college towards getting your *blank* but now you're hoping for real world applications to put your skills to good use.

One thing I heard is that many businesses harvest students who haven't finished courses, the reason being that their knowledge is still very fresh. Some people get offered way more money to drop out than they did after graduating. So you can say you wanted to apply fresh knowledge.

So it's in how you spin it, but if you say you're a dropout, it looks bad, instead try "I was looking to apply my fresh knowledge to the work field" or not telling them at all.

Do not slam the college either("poor value"), it makes you look petty.

Answer 2

Paying the fees for studying in a college is like an investment and everyone expects profit from it. However if a guy/gal invests this money in some other aspect of life and earns a higher profit, it shows he has a good ability to manage his resources. And also the person has the ability to take a risk and not blindly follow what others do. Hence this can be one of the strengths.

So the employer should see what has the person done with that investment and decide upon that.

NOTE: This applies only when he is earning a higher profit. Even earning equal profit won't be of equal value as dropping out of college is usualy considered as a socail stigma.