Fake Degrees

[Jerseyprophet]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace ... rees_x.htm

OFN sure, but I don't remember it being discussed. There's two questions here;

- Do you think a degree is essential to your occupation? Aside from highly technical occupations like Nurses and Engineers - think about your job. Did you learn more in college or on the job? Could someone do a similiar job without the college background if properly trained on the job?

- Do you think that work experience SHOULD constitute a degree showing that experience as legitimate on a resume?





(This being said, I hold a BA in criminal law. I work in catagory management of a beer brewery - which is marketing. I have 0 semester hours in any business classes, other than business law (required for my degree plan) and am very good at my job. So does it really matter??)

[Lordwafik]

Wow you have a degree? I'm shocked :O



But um, as an artist, I think if you have the stuff, you should be hired, however people who haven't been to university and have no work experience either might not have any experience of a deadline, so university might not be teaching the actual skills you need to be employed, but it's teaching you life lessons.

[Dezzimal]

Well documented work history, well documented experience, highly relevant references > degree. But column A and column B together are best definitely.

[Skyylya]

Do I need what I learned to get my degree to do my job? No, but i'm sure there are aspects of it that help. Psychology Degree and i'm a financial consultant.

Would I have gotten my job without my degree. nope.


My employer's require, a degree. It doesn't matter what degree it is as long as you spent 4 years at a college and basically as someone said above learned the life lessons that come with college. What you learn at college isn't really what's important, most schools i think are liberal arts anyway and require a good variety of core classes in addition to your major/minor. The most important thing is that you have the patience to stick through something and have a least some amount of responsibility to handle your work load without getting to distracted, which is a problem for a lot of people.

To re-iterate. In most cases it doesn't matter what you learn or what degree you have so long as you were responsible enough to spend the time getting one.


From my standpoint if I were looking at hiring two people one with and one without a degree. The one without a degree would have to have one phenomenal resume and a lot of job-specific experience in order for me to consider them. To clarify I wouldn't take any jack-ass with a degree...as they would have to have other things in addition to just the piece of paper.

I think for most jobs, the most important part of the hiring process is the interview. But, you need to have somewhat of a 'wow' factor in order to even get the interview in a competitive job market, a degree isn't wow by any means, but it helps.

[Izzy]

Typical IT job ad:

IT JOB!!! APPLY NOW!!! ENTRY LEVEL POSITION!!!

MUST HAVE 3 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE MINIMUM!!!

How in the fuck is it entry level if you must have 3 years work experience...fuckers. I hate that I'm working in accounting when I went to college for IT. Fucking douchebags.

That being said, I'm always told that for the IT field, the shit you learn in college is maybe 5% of what you need to know on the job. So as an employer, I'd hire the guy with 10 years work experience and no degree before I hire the snot nosed kid with a BA in CS or IT that thinks he's God's gift to humanity.

[Demosthenes]

Typical IT job ad:

IT JOB!!! APPLY NOW!!! ENTRY LEVEL POSITION!!!

MUST HAVE 3 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE MINIMUM!!!

How in the fuck is it entry level if you must have 3 years work experience...fuckers. I hate that I'm working in accounting when I went to college for IT. Fucking douchebags.

That being said, I'm always told that for the IT field, the shit you learn in college is maybe 5% of what you need to know on the job. So as an employer, I'd hire the guy with 10 years work experience and no degree before I hire the snot nosed kid with a BA in CS or IT that thinks he's God's gift to humanity.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...m/fcc15e5e.jpg

[Norelco]

Typical IT job ad:

IT JOB!!! APPLY NOW!!! ENTRY LEVEL POSITION!!!

MUST HAVE 3 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE MINIMUM!!!

How in the fuck is it entry level if you must have 3 years work experience...fuckers. I hate that I'm working in accounting when I went to college for IT. Fucking douchebags.

That being said, I'm always told that for the IT field, the shit you learn in college is maybe 5% of what you need to know on the job. So as an employer, I'd hire the guy with 10 years work experience and no degree before I hire the snot nosed kid with a BA in CS or IT that thinks he's God's gift to humanity.

Well, in college when you're in the IT field, you should be doing summer internships at IT companies between your freshman and sophomore years, your sophomore and jr. years, and your jr. and sr. years.

Also, when an IT advert says something like "need x years of experience" they're willing to bend on that. Nothing is written in stone.

[Skyylya]

Typical IT job ad:

IT JOB!!! APPLY NOW!!! ENTRY LEVEL POSITION!!!

MUST HAVE 3 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE MINIMUM!!!

How in the fuck is it entry level if you must have 3 years work experience...fuckers. I hate that I'm working in accounting when I went to college for IT. Fucking douchebags.

That being said, I'm always told that for the IT field, the shit you learn in college is maybe 5% of what you need to know on the job. So as an employer, I'd hire the guy with 10 years work experience and no degree before I hire the snot nosed kid with a BA in CS or IT that thinks he's God's gift to humanity.

should be noted that something like 5-10 years experience in the field you're trying to get into is different than 5-10 years of hopping around from job to job. 5-10 years in one job, and applying for that job I would probably consider over a fresh degree. 5-10 years at 5 different jobs in 2 or 3 different fields I would not.

[Cephius]

Typical IT job ad:

IT JOB!!! APPLY NOW!!! ENTRY LEVEL POSITION!!!

MUST HAVE 3 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE MINIMUM!!!

How in the fuck is it entry level if you must have 3 years work experience...fuckers. I hate that I'm working in accounting when I went to college for IT. Fucking douchebags.

That being said, I'm always told that for the IT field, the shit you learn in college is maybe 5% of what you need to know on the job. So as an employer, I'd hire the guy with 10 years work experience and no degree before I hire the snot nosed kid with a BA in CS or IT that thinks he's God's gift to humanity.

should be noted that something like 5-10 years experience in the field you're trying to get into is different than 5-10 years of hopping around from job to job. 5-10 years in one job, and applying for that job I would probably consider over a fresh degree. 5-10 years at 5 different jobs in 2 or 3 different fields I would not.

Experience is definitely more valuable in the IT field than probably in any other. Just because technology advances so fast, the stuff you learn in college is already outdated by the time you get your degree. The hardest part is getting your foot in the door really. I was lucky enough to land an internship which then hired me later. After talking to everyone in my department they either A, do not even have a degree, or B, have a degree in something completely unrelated to IT. As long as you can do your job that's all they care about. You have better chance to land an IT job if you were one of those kids who grew up messing with computers and have developed a familiarity with systems. I've learned more in 6 months than I ever would have learned in school, just because nothing can replace live hands-on experience with people who already know their shit. If people still hire IT employees based on degree rather than experience, it's their loss.

[Norelco]

Experience is definitely more valuable in the IT field than probably in any other. Just because technology advances so fast, the stuff you learn in college is already outdated by the time you get your degree.

Computer Science theory never really gets outdated. A person who has completed a 4 year CS degree should have the knowledge to pick up a language or a new concept fairly quickly because they understand the intricacies of the science, as opposed to a person who learns programming from the other direction by using only a single language (see: VB scripters).

Nothing I learned in college is outdated yet. We were permitted to do our project in any language we chose so long as the professor could get a copy that executes.

[Daydreamer]

I really agree with the guy who said it really just matters that you have a degree, and not what it's in.

I am going to be a chef and go to culinary school after I graduate from college this spring. This is a job that doesn't really require a university degree, however there is no way I would ever not have gone to college if given another chance to redo things. After thinking about how much I learned about the world and life and just random things in the past 5 years is just unreal. I am a completely different person (in a good way) with a vast amount more knowledge than I had when I graduated high school.

[BRP]

Concerning Artists, signed artists should get funding from their studios to go through college as mandatory. They are doing the same thing for sports and they should consider the same for the music industry. The same idea can be applied to other occupations as well.

[Shuemue]

In the UK, a degree traditionally isn't seen as training for work in that field, it's simply an indicator that you're able to work at that level.

[Atlasion]

In the UK, a degree traditionally isn't seen as training for work in that field, it's simply an indicator that you're able to work at that level.

This is a very good way of describing UK degrees.

For social sciences, the amount of people who actually go into a job in the field of their degree is less than 50%. Employers are looking for competent people to fill higher job slots, degrees are a very good indicator for that.

Of course, employers still take previous work epxerience into account. So what exactly do you mean by work epxerience consituting as a degree? Are you saying people should get a degree just because they've worked in a certain role? That would seem completly unfair for those with proper degrees.

[Trichocyst]

These days a degree is required for pretty much every job worth having and a lot of jobs that aren't worth having. I know a warehouse that only hires people with a degree.

I have a BFA in writing for film and television. Without it I would not be working at NFL Films. I have learned more here about film production than I ever attempted to learn at school but without an accredited degree in writing I would not have been considered in the first place. I see them both as seperate building blocks that will eventually formulate into a career. I'm still not sure if I'll end up working full time in sports media or if I would consider moving to Los Angeles with my degree and work experience, but I'm open to expanding my skills.

That being said, education is important, but you don't know shit until you're actually in a career.

[SephYuyX]

Degree = a paper that says you can stick to something for a few years and accomplish it. Most business' dont care what you get a degree in, they just want to know you got a degree in something to prove that youre not a quitter.

[Osede]

well, degree is good to have. Even thought they might not provide the knowledge of the field you gonna work in, but at least you got the basic knowledge and idea about your major. I'm still very glad that I did took the Design and Process course in my Aerospace degree, it was one of the most fun class and the class I learned most.

but damn since 911, almost every company won't hire international workers in that field



edit: If you really to get into your major, get a master degree or higher

[Shuemue]

Degree = a paper that says you can stick to something for a few years and accomplish it. Most business' dont care what you get a degree in, they just want to know you got a degree in something to prove that youre not a quitter.

Yeah it shows you're not a dick and that you can meet a deadline etc

[Khamsin]

newspaper ads

They don't have much space for those ads, so their degree requirements are probably assumed as typical and not included.

As for me, I think the best use I got out of my degree was familiarity with the field, some basic calculations (like finding points on a parabola), the nature of some materials, and that it's virtually required if you want to go anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. Pretty much everything I actually do on a daily basis was learned on the job, minus the stuff they already assumed you knew (i.e. familiarity with the field, terms, standard references, etc.) I'm a licensed civil engineer, and was originally hired with just a degree and no experience. After 4 years experience, ABET accredited degree (in civil engineering), and an 8-hour exam that I took at the end of college to become an "engineer-in-training", I was qualified to take another 8-hour exam for my professional license which I recently did.

However, you can still get there without a degree or that first exam. To get your license, you need a nominal 12 years of experience, however the first exam credits you 4 years, and a degree another 4, leaving just 4 years of actual experience before you take the second exam for your license. But if you have 12 years of experience, then you can just skip all that and apply directly for the license exam.

But wait, there's more! How do you get 12 years of (qualified) experience (performing engineering work under supervision of a licensed engineer) without a degree? Well, the typical route would be to start as a drafter or technician (which isn't qualified experience) and be with a firm long enough for them to start trusting you with some easy engineering tasks that do qualify as experience. So in reality, it'd take longer than 12 years.

I know the OP says "aside from...engineers", but since we're talking on the scale of 10+ years of experience being worth a degree, it's still possible, even for engineering, to do it without college in about that time.

[Neosutra]

Degree = a paper that says you can stick to something for a few years and accomplish it. Most business' dont care what you get a degree in, they just want to know you got a degree in something to prove that youre not a quitter.

This only applys to degrees such as Business/Fine Arts, or any other degree where you leave the college with no additional skills than when you entered.

Quite honestly, and I know it may sound insulting, but I never took a non engineering/science class in college that I didnt find to be intellectually insulting or just blatantly obvious. While I am not saying business majors or fine art area majors are stupid (often quite smart), I just cant imagine spending that much money and really getting nothing out of it. (Cue argument on "i got alot out of my degree" from a business major working at Macys).

Funny car tag:
Eng B.S. How does it work?
PHS B.S Why does it work?
ACC B.S. How much does it cost to work?
Art B.A Would you like frys with that?

College is a great place to get well rounded and learn alot about the world, but if you dont get a skill out of it, it will do you very little toward getting a job.

As a physicist/engineer I use my degrees -every- day at work.

(if you want to ask who is 'happier', thats a different question lol)