While the appearance of a calculus course in the curriculum of a technical program of study in university is certainly no cause for surprise, it is less clear why such a course might be offered at the college level. The usual idea that college programs should have job training as one of their primary objectives seems to pit any argument in favour of calculus in unresolvable opposition to the (somewhat uncomfortable) truth that there are very few professions that (actually, in practice) require a day to day working knowledge of first year calculus. In the first part of this short talk we will try to examine possibilities for a resolution to this apparent conundrum. With a somewhat clarified notion of college calculus, it will then be possible to address the difficulties faced by our students and some simple strategies that we can use to help prepare them for this journey. It is important to note that this talk is based on anecdotal evidence gathered from the speaker’s own personal career experience, and is therefore heavily speculative in nature.