I am sure every student ever has thought, at least once, “What is the purpose of this?” while sitting in class. (And most likely many times).

The topic seemed so incredibly random, you could never imagine how it would become applicable in your career.

And those math problems you were solving seemed way more complex than anything you’d expect to encounter.

“Why am I reading Shakespeare?”

“Who cares about calculating triple integrals?”

Questions I asked myself, many a time. (I can assure you that I haven’t yet had to calculate a triple integral).

Since entering the workforce, I have learned that there is a lot of truth to these thoughts that myself, and all other students, had daily. There is so much material covered in every class we take, and while we are expected to memorize and become experts at it for those four months of the semester, most topics don’t ever come up for us again.

In college classes, some effort is made to work on so-called “real life” problems, particularly in engineering, which was my field of study. However, most of the problems I solved involved very specific circumstances, and I could not see the broader scope of where we might encounter the problem in our careers.

Even though most of the material I learned in college I did not expect to need again after graduation, I can (somewhat) understand the purpose of it all. It is important, in any field, to learn the basics and the background. Whether it is engineering or writing or biology, there is inevitably going to be more information that doesn’t stick with you and that you don’t use than there is information that you will use for the rest of your life.

But we can’t just go straight from our high school level of knowledge into being great in a career. College provides us with a base of learning, and the general abilities of analysis, problem solving, creativity, etc. that will be important in any career. There is some information you absolutely need to know to enter a field, but the rest of what we are required to learn is there to provide us with a solid foundation.

The foundation is where college learning stops- solving math problems and doing engineering calculations can only take you so far. At some point (probably after graduation), actual real-life experience (read: at a company) is necessary to build on that foundation, and to give you an idea of how the knowledge you’ve gained can be utilized.

I am currently working as an engineer at a civil and environmental engineering consulting firm, and I work in their water department, focusing on water distribution.

What does this entail, you ask? Well, I design new water mains to replace old and failing ones. I also work on projects involving construction and renovation of pump stations.

Did I learn about either of these things in college?

No.

Shocking, right?

Well, not entirely. Engineering has so many disciplines that four years of classes could never hope to cover everything you might encounter in the workforce. And this is not unique to engineering.

Truthfully, I am grateful to be learning and encountering so many new topics at work. It is incredible how much common-sense learning comes along with working on projects that will be constructed or come to fruition. I am three and a half months in and I already know so much about water mains and the steps required to design one. All that knowledge is being stored in my brain and will come in handy time and time again for similar projects.

And that foundation from college has been incredibly important, especially when I first started. I didn’t know anything about water mains, but I had solved so many problems throughout college that I had a large arsenal to work with as I began solving new problems at work.

The fact that the work that I do now has a direct impact on communities (and actual people!) brings it to a new level as well. It has purpose and importance, and while it can be stressful thinking about how mistakes can create a devastating impact, I have faith in what I’ve learned. (Plus, there are many people with more experience above me to check my work).

Yes, not everything you learn in college will be applicable to the rest of your life. But there is still a purpose to all of it. That purpose is not necessarily, say, because you need to know how to calculate a triple integral; instead, it is that you know how to solve complex and multi-level problems.

So you can take what you learn in college with a grain of salt, and remember that in a broader sense, everything you learn will follow you through your career.