MBA=Assured jobs? Not so sure about that.

I was on vacation in Kerala last December, a state in the southern part of India, when I truly realized why thinkers and philosophers were cribbing and whining so much about this thing called "education inflation".

We were driving past the country side, on our way from the airport to our hotel, when my dad started making conversation with the taxi driver. 

As the taxi driver told my father about his family and home, I tried to catch a nap. But my attention was suddenly back to the conversation when I heard the word "MBA". 

Yup. This is what our world has come to. The once celebrated MBA degree, has officially become a piece of paper. 

OUR TAXI DRIVER HAD A FREAKIN' MBA.

We were driven to our hotel by a man who had an MBA.

A man with an MBA, puts on a white uniform every morning, to drive families like mine to and fro from the airport to the hotel. 

Since I was too confused and tired to think straight at the time, I ignored this mind boggling discovery, and indulged myself in a nice long nap as soon as we got to the hotel. 

But as we walked around our hotel grounds the next morning, talking to people, and interacting with some of the staff, we realized that the taxi driver wasn't alone. There were all kinds of people with college degrees doing blue collar jobs. People who had spent at least 16 years educating themselves, were now doing jobs that had nothing to do with what they studied. More than that, the jobs they were doing didn't even require them to read or write. 

This state of Kerala, which has a 99% literacy rate ,has a large population of MBAs who drive taxis and engineers who wait tables at local restaurants. 

So if this is what a college degree is worth in a state where everybody is "educated", what will happen to us in a world where everybody has a masters degree? What will happen when our scientists invent robots who can do that cooking and cleaning? What will happen when the self driven car gets commercialized? 

Its really easy to get a degree and then a job that pays you regularly and assures a roof over your head. Maybe its time to start thinking differently. Think of learning, and not getting grades. Think of exploring the world beyond what school or college teaches you.
In a world where everyone has fancy degrees, actual merit and ability are what will really count.