“I just want to keep learning.”
This is what I hear a lot from women when we talk about their career aspirations. Don’t get me wrong – learning is a great thing. In fact, it’s critical to growth at work and in life.
But I have had countless conversations with women who want to get another master’s degree or a PhD or take yet another course or certification. I suspect the long list of credentials makes us feel competent and confident.
But can too much learning be a bad thing? Can it become a crutch?
It absolutely can when learning for learning’s sake holds us back from going for it. When hiding behind more certificates and acronyms prevent us from gaining the real experience we need to ascent to higher levels and earn more.
More formal learning is not paying off
Let’s first look at how education in general has paid off for women. And when I say, paid off, I’m talking about money. It is well documented that the return on investment from education is lower for women than it is for men. Here’s a few examples.
For the 11th year in a row, women earned a majority of doctoral degrees awarded at US universities in 2019 according to The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).
Yet the gender pay gap persists and women are underrepresented in senior roles.
In Canada, 73% of 25-34 year-old women had a tertiary qualification in 2020 compared to 56% of their male peers according to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.)
Yet the gender pay gap persists and women are underrepresented in senior roles.
In fact, among the 25-34 age group, women are more likely to have a tertiary degree than men in all 38 countries that are members of the OECD.
Yet the gender pay gap persists and women are underrepresented in senior roles.
We cannot educate ourselves out of the gender pay gap. We cannot educate ourselves into senior leadership roles.
Last year the Women’s National Law Center published a disheartening report. Women at all education levels experienced a wage gap. Women earn less whether they have no high school diploma, a high school diploma, or a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Moreover, when women earn a Bachelor’s degree, they still only make about what men with an Associate’s degree make ($61,341 and $61,100 respectively)—and men with only a high school degree but no college education typically make more than women with an Associate’s degree ($49,661 and $45,813 respectively).
Of course, education is valuable and necessary, and we won’t stop pursuing it. But more education is not leading to more pay or more senior leadership opportunities. So why do we continuously seek more and more formal learning as we work? And does it pay off in the long run?
The Hay Group highlighted learning for learning’s sake in its study focusing on performance and career paths and found that both high-performing men and women had a strong orientation toward achievement. However, for women it manifested more as a lifelong focus on continuous learning which did not necessarily lead to proactive career management: women were less deliberate in their career progressions than men and still had a way to go in driving specific efforts toward a goal. The study described the thought patterns of women as a generic desire to learn, grow and build capabilities. What’s needed instead, it argued, is a purposeful thought pattern: intentionally create opportunities to learn a specific skill and gain exact experience to earn a particular position. I wholeheartedly agree.
Do you rely on the credential crutch?
Do you think that if you just get a few more letters behind your name, you’ll get that big job? Do you believe that if you just take more courses, get another degree and do really good work you’ll be tapped on the shoulder? Are you certain that knowledge outweighs experience? If so, you may be plagued with the credential crutch.
Ask yourself these questions when considering your learning goals.
Do you need to learn a technical skill to do your job, keep your job or advance in your job?
Are there formal requirements or credentials that are keeping you from transferring into a new career?
Will your carefully considered personal vision be achieved with more formal learning?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then pass go, collect two hundred and register away.
How about these questions?
Is the course or certification a means to shore up confidence before taking on more responsibility?
Are the credentials required only to live up to your own high expectations?
Is the learning endeavor a way to put off really going after your goals?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask yourself: are the money, time and effort involved really worth it? Have you showcased the amazing talent and skills you already possess? Are you using learning as a crutch when you already have exactly what you need in that big brain of yours?
It’s time to toss the crutch and stand on our own merits. It’s time to go for the experiences that will truly make a difference to your career and advancement.
Ditch development and seek experiences instead
You can fill your head with knowledge, but until you apply it, it really means nothing. Gaining specific experience is what’s required to advance.
To this end I say, ditch the development plan! It’s time to make an experience plan.
Most people take stock at the end of the year and say, “What do I need to develop to get better at the job I’m doing?” Maybe it’s taking a course, reading some resources, or meeting with a mentor. Contrary to what you might think, these kinds of development plans do little for your future, little to become your future ideal self, little to challenge your sense of self and build your confidence. The readiness to take on new daunting tasks, projects or roles is built over time from continual small stretches. That builds confidence for what feels like bigger bolder stretches.
Think instead about an experience plan. What experiences do you need to have to truly grow and develop? What seasoned stakeholders do you need to interact with, what presentations do you need to make, what meetings do you have to get into, what projects do you need to be after? How can you get real-time learning that not only helps in your current role but builds capability for future roles? How can you gain experiences that fuel a love of stretching, instead of hiding behind a book or course in a comfortable zone of incremental learning?
Before you go on the lookout for your next course, certification or credential, first squeeze out all the development, insights and knowledge you already have.
Next remember that there are less credentialed, less experienced and less intelligent people than you out there doing it already.
Put down the crutch and make a run for it.
