College Degree vs Bootcamp vs Online Program vs Self Study vs Certificate (WHICH ONE?!?)

So this is a question that I get all the time. Shane, should I do this certificate or go to that boot camp? Or should I go to college or take an online course? Or should I study it myself? And the answer to these questions is always the same. Gently tap the like button because it solves all of your problems. No, but all kidding aside, it depends on several different things, like your situation, your background, the career you're trying to go for, etc. And saying one of these is better than the other is almost like saying a hammer is better than a wrench. If you have a nail, a hammer is going to be a great tool to use for that nail. And if you have a bolt, you're probably going to need a wrench. Different ways of getting educated are going to be better for different situations. And in this video, I'm going to explain the differences between the different types of education. And I'm going to show you how you can decide for yourself which one is best for you based on your unique situation. So the main options for getting educated or learning a different skill or trade for a career that you're trying to go into are going to be college degrees, boot camps, online programs, self-study certificates, on the job training, internships and apprenticeships. And a lot of the time you might use a combination of these things in order to get into your ideal career. So let's cover each one just in case you're not sure exactly what they are. So first one is going to be a college degree. This is the most common method for getting educated here in the United States. And typically people will try to get a bachelor's degree, which takes on average 5.1 years. This is also a very expensive method of getting educated, as it typically costs about $80,000 and you go $40,000 in student loan debt. Now, the United States has this weird system where everybody seems to think that education is synonymous with college. Other countries in the world tend to not have this problem, including Switzerland, where college is completely free, yet only about 20 to 25 percent of people end up going. In the U.S., on the other hand, college is very expensive and 70 percent of people go. So we are the weird ones, but this is slowly changing. Now, don't get me wrong, college is still amazing for certain careers. And I've covered that extensively on this channel. But there are many careers out there where there are much better alternatives in order to get into them. Next, we're going to talk about boot camps. And these popped up in the early 20 teens in response to the massive amount of need for people who could do coding. Right. People who are software developers. Coding was a highly sought after skill that had more and more demand every single year, yet colleges were not able to meet that demand. And this is very common. Whenever things rapidly change, colleges are like old dinosaurs stuck in the mud and they're almost never able to adapt quickly enough. Since then, many other types of boot camps have popped up for other in-demand careers such as tech sales, data analytics, digital marketing, etc. But there are some other problems with boot camps as well. First of all, not all of them do a good job preparing people. And that's one of the reasons why I've actually never recommended a boot camp on this channel. I have recommended boot camps and private consultation sometimes, but I've never felt comfortable recommending a boot camp on this channel just because they're typically very expensive. And we'll get to that here in a second. So a lot of them don't do a good job. And second of all, out of the ones that do a good job, a lot of the time they won't do a good job after a few years. So they essentially will do a good job for a few years, build a reputation for being a really good boot camp. And then when they try to scale, when they try to add a bunch of new different programs or they try to add a bunch of new instructors so they can take on a bunch of new students, they end up losing the quality. So there's boot camps that used to be amazing like five or six years ago that are actually really bad now. And the third thing is they are very expensive. Boot camps typically cost anywhere between five and thirty thousand dollars. And they take anywhere from a few weeks all the way up to a year. Fourth, the value that they used to offer, which was the ability to learn with a cohort, a.k.a. other students in person, which makes things a lot more social and makes it a lot more easy to learn difficult tasks, oftentimes isn't available anymore because of everything that happened in the world. Pretty much they all went online, yet most of them kept their same prices. So they were charging like fifteen thousand dollars because they had all that infrastructure and they had to have all those people to take care of the infrastructure. But now that it's online, they don't have that infrastructure. They're still charging like fifteen thousand dollars. So the value of boot camps, in my opinion, have definitely gone down. Still, this is a good option for some people that reach out to me in certain careers, in certain situations. For instance, I interviewed William on my channel. William is a immigrant from Brazil. He moved to the US. He had a background in health and specifically kind of like IT infrastructure health. And originally he wanted to go to college. But we kind of realized that that would take a very long amount of time for him to be able to actually get a job and start making money. So originally I tried to get him to go to kind of like an accelerated program. But unfortunately, we couldn't find one that accepted him. So we decided to go the boot camp route and we were able to get him a software developer job in less than six months. Next on the list, we're going to talk about online programs. So these are very, very similar to online boot camps. I mean, they're pretty much the same. They do basically everything the same. And if you can find a good online program, this is my current favorite method for getting into a career. And the reason for this is because the online programs have much lower infrastructure costs. And so therefore, they tend to charge a lot less and they get very similar results to what boot camps get. Now, online programs are typically going to range from about a hundred to a thousand dollars, and you can do them at your own pace, whereas boot camps are much more expensive and you typically have to do them during a certain period of time. Next, we're going to talk about self-study. This is basically where you just look at free content on YouTube or, you know, you go to websites like Free Code Camp or the Odin Project if you're trying to learn software development. Now, this method is great and it should be a part of everybody's learning. But with that being said, the success rate that I have seen and many others have seen when it comes to people who attempt to do self-study and only self-study is less than five percent, much lower than pretty much any other method on this list. Now, I think this is great for certain personality types, people that are disciplined. They don't need a lot of structure because they're very self-directed, but really not something that I recommend as a zero to hero solution most of the time. Next on the list, we're going to talk about certificates. Now, I'm a huge fan of certificates from a value standpoint. You know, you can spend something like a hundred or two hundred dollars on a certificate that gives you a good puncher's chance of landing a job or at the very least, it significantly increases your chance of landing it. Now, a lot of certificates are not going to be your all in one zero to hero solution, but they might get you like 80 percent of the way there, which at an incredibly low price point, like one hundred to two hundred dollars can oftentimes be worth it. Now, certificates really offer two pieces of value. The first one is the actual information that the cert is going to teach you. And second, how recognizable or respected it is to hiring managers, recruiters or business owners. Now, to be honest with you, the second one is more important, even though it's totally silly. There's many cases where there's a certificate A and a certificate B. Certificate A is a much better cert. It just teaches you so much better than certificate B. But certificate B is more respected. So that's the one you're typically going to go with. It's totally silly. It's actually ridiculous. But that's the one that I typically recommend is the one that is more respected. Next, we're going to talk about on the job training. And in this particular case, what I mean is going straight into the workforce right after high school. So, for instance, you might start an entry level role right away after graduating from high school. Maybe you even start it while you're still in high school. Then you get on the job training and you work your way up to different positions within the company. So I actually had a friend who did this in high school with customer service representative. He actually started working as a customer service rep while he was still in high school. Then he worked his way up through the company. The next job after customer service rep was he was a customer service rep manager. Then he pivoted to a different company and became a manager of that company. And then he pivoted to yet another company which was more prestigious. And he became a manager there and he was making well over six figures. And he did all of this without ever attending a single class in college. Now, this method is somewhat limited. There's not that many jobs you can do this with. And I also think this method is much better used if you combine it with other things like self-study or certificates. Next, we're going to talk about internships. And a lot of the time, if you do really well in an internship, you might get a job offer from the company. Now, sometimes internships are paid and sometimes they're not paid. Sometimes they're part time and sometimes they're full time. But this can be a really great opportunity for you to get on the job experience because I think you learn the most when you're actually working. And if you do a good job, you might get a job offer from the company. But even if you don't get a job offer, it's something you can put on your resume that's really going to set you apart. Next on the list is going to be apprenticeships. Now, these are very similar to internships. Now, this typically lasts anywhere from a few months to a few years. Now, if you do a good job here, it's possible to get a full time offer from the company as well. Apprenticeships are almost always going to be paid. Now, apprenticeships are more commonly seen in the trades, but we are seeing them in other industries as well. For instance, Praxis is an apprenticeship program that lasts about one year. And typically they prepare you for jobs in the corporate world. And Praxis is designed to, first of all, help you decide what careers are best for you and then help you land that first entry level role. All right. So next, we're going to kind of talk about all of these. And I'm also going to rank them in terms of how fast they can help you to get a job. So online programs, super fast, all in one affordable solutions. I've been consistently seeing certain online programs that I've talked about on this channel, getting people jobs in a month, two months, three months, very quickly. Certificates are next. Now, certificates, typically it depends on the career path and stuff like that. They'll get you about 80 percent of the way there. But a lot of the time, there's some other stuff that you're going to need to brush up on as well. For instance, I really like the Google Data Analytics Certificate. It's great if you want to become a data analyst. And it might even give you a shot of getting a job just on its own. But typically you have to do some self-study or maybe take some online programs as well in order to land that first entry level job. Next on the list is going to be self-study. It can get you a job relatively fast, but it's very, very unlikely. Next on the list is going to be a boot camp, which is kind of like an all in one solution. Typically, they can get you a job in somewhere between six to 18 months. Next on the list is going to be on the job training, which sort of doesn't count because you already got a job. And I put it kind of lower on the list because it's very limited in terms of the jobs you can actually land. And then internship and apprenticeship are the same. And then lastly, college degrees, 5.1 years to land the job. All right. Next, ranking them in terms of your chances of getting a job on the job training is pretty much 100 percent chance. But again, very limited the types of jobs that you can do. Apprenticeship has a very high chance of getting you a job. Internship also has a very high chance of landing you a job. College degree has a very high chance. Boot camps have a very high chance. Online programs are pretty good as well. Certificates have a decent chance, but typically you have to supplement them with other things. And then last on the list is going to be self-study. Now let's rank them in terms of cost. So on the job training, you get paid, right? You get paid for years. Apprenticeship, you get paid for years. Internship, you might get paid and it lasts months. Typically, self-study is free, but it takes a long time to get a job and your chances are pretty low. Certificate, it might cost 200 bucks and, you know, might be able to get you a job in a few months. Online programs, boot camps typically cost between five and thirty thousand dollars and they typically get you a job in around six months or so. Sometimes they can take up to 18 months, though. And then finally, college degrees. Eighty thousand dollars takes about 5.1 years to finish it. However, I will say there are some competency based universities or accelerated universities where you can get a degree in like one to two years. So it's one thing that I kind of recommend quite a bit on the channel. Now, next, we're going to go ahead and rank them in terms of value. So online programs, like I said before, probably the best bang for the buck right now. If you can find a good online program that is going to teach you how to get into a career, that is phenomenal. Certificates are also a great value. They're typically not going to get you all the way there. But if they get you 80 percent there or they give you a good chance of landing the job, definitely worth it. On the job training is always good. Apprenticeships are great. Internships are great. Boot camps can be good in certain situations. Self-study is good from a value perspective in terms of money, but it's going to waste a bunch of your time, which time is actually more valuable than money. And then finally, at the very end is going to be a college degree. It can still be good sometimes, but it's very expensive and it takes a long time. Next one on the list is barrier to entry, which is basically how hard it is to get accepted to one of these. So self-study, very easy to get accepted. You can do that very easily. Like you can literally open up another tab right now and start studying. Online programs, very easy to get into as well. Certificates, very easy, very cheap. Boot camps, pretty easy to get accepted. College degrees. Apprenticeship programs can be a little bit difficult to get accepted into. Internships also can be a little bit difficult. And then on the job training is very limited. Very hard to get an entry level job that's actually really good. Now for the overall ranking. Online programs are number one. They're just phenomenal. Certificates are going to be number two on the job. Training is number three. Apprenticeships are four. Internships are five. Boot camps are going to be six. College degree is seventh. And then self-study comes in dead last. However, this all depends on the type of career you're trying to get into and your own personal situation and goals. So, for instance, online programs, I really like tech sales and digital marketing for careers. For certificates, I really like data analytics. For on the job training, customer service representative is great there. For apprenticeships, trade careers are amazing. Boot camps tend to be really good for people who already have a lot of work experience and they're trying to transition into a different career and they just don't have enough time to go back to college. So here is my opinion on the percentage distribution of which one you should go to in an ideal world. So in an ideal world, I think 20 to 30 percent of people would go to college in order to land a job. About 10 to 20 percent of people would do boot camps. 20 to 30 percent of people would do online programs. Zero to 10 percent of people would self-study. 20 to 30 percent of people would get certificates. 10 to 20 percent of people would do on the job training. 10 to 20 percent of people would do internships. 10 to 20 percent of people would do apprenticeships. But really, it would probably be a combination of a bunch of the above. In terms of which career path I'm seeing people get into incredibly fast and they're getting really good job offers for like 70, 80 thousand dollars in their first year, that is going to be tech sales. And it is an online program called Course Careers. You can check out that online program. They have a free training, which I will link down in the description, as well as the pinned comment. And if you decide to use the service, I have a $50 off coupon code as well, which I believe is Shane 50. And you can check out my entire playlist of people who have actually gone through Course Careers or recommend going through Course Careers. I'll put that right here and I will see you in the next video.