A Different Road To Work, Bypassing College Dreams: Is a College Degree More Important Than Experience?

Exactly. A degree gets you interviews with employers who would round-file your resume without it.

I would say that a college degree accentuates experiance, depending on the field we're talking about.

I have known people that got a degree in something and hated their job. I have known teachers with a passion to see children learn and not a piece of paper to hang on the wall. In fact, the best teacher I know doesn't have a degree but she pours her whole heart into her students.

Kind of depends on your interests in life. If you want a white collar career, a college degree is essential. If you like to work with your hands, there are plenty of trade jobs out there that will give one a pretty good living.

A college degree tempered by reality and seasoned with experience is invaluable.

In the long run, a college degree is most important if you want to get a good job.

You can't teach experience.

Work smarter, not harder.



Now, having said that, thanks for not giving a 3rd choice here.



I would have said that it depends on what you want to do, but "college" also includes 2-year programs as well as 4, and that it also includes technical and trade schools as well as apprenticeships for plumbing, carpentry, electrician, and so on...



Nothing wrong with experience, but it will take you only so far in today's market, especially with the lack of manufacturing and industrial jobs and building/construction work going to a work force that is less educated than in years past.

Both

Recruiter: "We're looking for someone that has more experience."



You: "Well that is what I am looking for... to get more experience."



Recruiter: "I'm sorry. But we can't hire you."

Catch-22:

You can't get a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job.

"And the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round..."

and the sad fact that this catch 22 is all reality these days

At the end of the day! College or school, we still need the hands on experience!

Pay us to go to College, and it would be a better world.

Having a job without a degree sucks ,no seriously

Damn tricky to get a job on just qualifications.

Everyone hiring wants exprience now.

Experience always trumps a little piece of paper....ALWAYS.....

So...you're willing to go to a non-educated but "experienced" brain surgeon for your surgery because (your quote) "Experience always trumps a little piece of paper....ALWAYS....."

Okay.....

NICE SPIN. Bet you felt good after that one. Pat yourself on the back for me. You could have just pointed it out instead of being a smart ass though.

You must not visit very many doctors.

Work with them every day my fine but wrongly assuming sir.

As someone who has hired many people over the years, I can honestly state that experience beats a degree in most cases. I enforce degree requirements when I can, but the candidate with the best experience wins.

A degree gets you past the resume screening clerks in HR, but that's about it. If you find a way to contact the hiring manager, degree requirements can sometimes by bypassed. HR will hoot and howl, but when push comes to shove, the hiring manager calls the shots.

In this economy, employers can get degrees, experience, and perfectly aged (30-something) workers. These people are experienced (but not too expensive) and unlikely to become a burden on the employer's health insurance. Everyone else is just wasting their time.

But I can't get a job anywhere without a degree so yeah....

Nothing more than a scam to keep you indebted to the man.

College is a scam today.

college degrees have always been about learning more and more about less and less.

sadly the vast number of people teaching today are self selecting and are moving farther and farther to the left. It is just a reality that those who are dreamers about utopia tend to be those who dont do well in the real world of working in business that desire to pay for that sort of thinking

at this point a college degree is a 75.000 piece of paper that for half the college grads would be more useful as lining for a bird cage

Without a college degree, the best jobs I could get interviews for paid $19K a year. With a college degree, I interviewed for jobs starting at $35K with full benefits.

That bird cage lining doubled my salary...

of course ... I do not doubt that. my comment has to do with so many degree mills where the people really are no more qualified than those who have a degree where they actually have a skill (like being able to work with their hands and minds)

Well it depends. Both are important. But for a significant amount of jobs you need a degree before you can even enter the field and start gaining experience.

Now, it depends on the job. If you're trying to be a Medical Doctor then of course BOTH are very important. But the vast majority of jobs you can learn on your own or on site with a little help from co-workers and a more open minded employer. You can buy books to learn just as much or even more than college can teach you. The point in a diploma is just to validate you know the material, but the cost is phenomenally high just for that. Meanwhile, people in other countries only pay about 1k/annually for college, get a diploma and come here and take the highly paid jobs.

So, one could buy some books and become an electrical engineer...that's rich...really...or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a teacher, or...well, what do you really mean?

It simply doesn't work that way. Not for MOST careers...imagine your accountant just bought a book one day and ...hmmmm...

I think there should be an answer for both, because you really do need both to succeed. I know transcript kiddies who didn't work while going to school and now have a piece of paper that shows they learned something that they never applied. I know working class guys who didn't go to school while starting their careers; they're now are stuck working 50 hours a week to take home a paycheck that will allow them to cover the bills because they aren't marketable to any other industry save the one they pigeonholed themselves into. I worked full-time and went to school full-time; you can bet your ass in the fact that concept alone makes me very desirable to employers before they ever looked at my qualifications. Would I have preferred to have the "college experience" where I got to get drunk and have promiscuous sex on a nightly basis while I was a young adult? Perhaps, but I would've also had to move back into my parents' house with my tail tucked between my legs because as soon as the recession took hold, no other employer would want to take a chance on someone who had such little business experience. I'm glad I did both because I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't.

It really depends on your career choice. A lot of STEM jobs like medicine have college requirements or expectations. If you wanted to be a vet, per say. You need a PHD to pass the certification tests and experience isn't as necessary as it seems to be in other careers. If you want to be an IT guy experience and certifications are the more important.

In my field, I've seen a lot of kids coming out of the woodwork with degrees but shoddy work and no handle on the industry's best practices. Plus, I've seen people do incredible work with no college experience whatsoever. I personally worked hard to get where I am before I even thought about college. I only started going because finding a job without a degree is IMPOSSIBLE. Having a portfolio and demonstrable working knowledge will always fall second to the guy who barely got by to get his Associate's Degree.

It shouldn't be necessary to have a college degree, but employers don't mind making it so because it keeps people from modest means from finding work.

Society dictates that we should have the degree, although experience out weighs it all, it is just a piece of paper that says we did this many hours, read these books, were tested on these books and we passed - Knowledge is beneficial to us all, and to impart knowledge is paramount - but what's the point of knowledge without the experience, and experience is knowledge.

The end-means of a college degree is a job.
There is no point going to college for something you're already doing.

But training to get the experience is important too. Footnote : You get your hands on tools & equipment that you cannot afford. Me : I got behind a Real Broadcast TV Camera used in studios.