Quote:
Originally Posted by Mosbonian
I admire anyone who has taken the time out to attain their college degree, no matter in what discipline.
What I do find appalling is the following:
1) The belief that you must have a degree or your earning potential is limited. I may not be able to pull down Dr, Lawyer, Dentist or CEO money but I know many non-degreed people who pull down more money than CPA's, Accountants, and other degreed vocations.
2) The belief that having a degree makes you more capable of performing a function than a person with experience.
3) On the flip side, a person who doesn't have their degree bitching and moaning about having to work harder to prove themselves. It's the road we've taken....accept it, work harder to prove you are just as capable and overcome everyone's misconceptions.
|
My belief on degrees is simple:
The degree itself isn't what gives you the skills that make you capable of performing a function better than someone with experience. The degree is, however, a reflection of the skills you have outside of the piece of paper itself (notably the persistence to attain it and the commitment to improving your place in the world) and those skills may very well serve an employer better than mere experience.
Now, I agree that this isn't a universal truth; some degrees are just earned through daddy's money and some HS dropouts will work harder to improve themselves than I ever will. However, employers have to use the law of large numbers to make it easier on themselves. Overwhelmingly, the people that go after that degree are going to be more driven than those that don't. In a labor pool with an abundance of applicants, I don't have the time or energy to go digging for the outliers. If I play the percentages, I'm going to be better for it in the long run.
It's not a 'misconception' that you have to disprove if you don't have a degree. It's that you have to prove that you're the outlier to to accurate perception.