As a student entering college(or trade school) or leaving as a graduate you'll embark some awesome experiences. One of the less heralded experiences that a student in develops extensively during school is research...which definitely continues on throughout life. As a matter of fact, most of life's experiences can be a research assignment in sone way shape or form.

Consider the first toy you wanted as a kid, one of the first actions taken was to find out where it was sold...even if you had your parents going from one store to the next. As you got older your research skills got better...you used your network of peers to assist with the attainment of the particular item you wanted. The same goes for school assignments...probably moreso now than ever before...if we are having trouble learning a subject we access the internet on our home computer or via our mobile device to gain a better understanding.

If we look at the institutions put into place for achievement or advancement...whether it be a school...workplace...in some cases a patient in a hospital we can become complacement with respect to navigatibg to where we want to be in life. Let's explore the 3 examples above in reverse.

Item 1: Hospital Patient
As a patient in a hospital once checked in for an ailment that requires a lengthy stay there is the possibility of being fed...clothed...and waited on around the clock. With to reason for the stay once checked in youre limited on the amount of research you can complete to assess whether youre receiving the correct information...or maybe bounce that medical opinion off an a friend who has experience in that particular area(if you have an experienced friend). Needless to say we can be very limited in that moment and even moreso if its a forced stay to really do outside research.

Item 2: Workplace
Getting a great job which enables you to take care of your family. Again there is a tendence to become complacent with the many amenities associated with various types of employment. Many times the only real outside research being completed is the research to resolve issues that may arise...most of the outside research applying to the place of employment as it relates to troubleshooting applies to the technical job functions. Many times there is some type of internal documentation or policy to assist with handling most other issue types. I wonder what that statisrics are for what percentage of an employees salary is spent at the place of employment to include travel to and from the place of employment. Lastly, how often do we assess if there's a true fit as time goes on within an organization and that there's a small gap with respect to the give take...whether advantageous or non advantageous to an individual.

Item 3: School (College/University)
For the most part college's do a great job of providing an avenue of higher learning. In some ways it mirrors the armed forces...in that you are provided with a place to stay...food...and a place to learn and grow...albeit in the military you receive pay and college the student or student's parent tends to foot the majority of the bill. The one main area as it relates to higher education is the need for students to look outside the walls of an institution for career growth. A student cannot depend on the university to be the end all be all for a student prior to entering the profesional workforce. I can only imaging how high the student loan debt would be to account for the additional use of extra resources. Of course colleges, can partner with outside entities but it is truly up to the student to really take their research outside of the walls of the educational institution to find out whats available to them as well as what will be most beneficial at the next stage of their life or career. Some students have already started going this route and are acheiving great success. That extra research allows students to find those diamonds in the rough.

Where do you stand on this topic?

Let me know your thoughts?