Alternatives to a University Degree

Assume you've already been accepted for employment. You'll find that regardless of your degree status, people will generally leave you alone until the time comes for a promotion or performance review. Then your degree status will be examined in detail and will become a factor in the selection for promotion. In your performance review you may find yourself with a long term goal for obtaining a degree, against which you'll be measured, of course.

It's surprising to learn that performance may trump a university degree. This is more likely to be true if you're not working in a licensed professional field like accounting, consulting, legal, or medical. In those cases, the need for a degree is dictated by the licensing requirements. But, in general if you are really good at your job, and you've shown an aptitude for the promotional spot you're trying to get, you have an advantage over the person that has a degree but only mediocre performance. The same holds true for professional and sometimes personal relationships. If your relationships are in good shape, you are more likely to be viewed as a team player, as someone who is amiable and as someone who will "fit in" to the new position.

But there is still one more advantage you can give yourself. The one other thing that is often more valuable than a degree, especially in the IT (Information Technology) field, and many other technical fields is Certification. You may find that in other industries there are similar credentials that can be obtained that will demonstrate a high level of expertise.

But you have to assume responsibility for your own certifications. You can study on your own, finagle company paid training or take classes on your own to boost your knowledge and skill in a particular area of expertise. Once you've achieved a level of expertise, you can take a certification test. If you pass, you're an expert -- it's that simple. I've seen many instances where certification has trumped a degree in computer science, especially in the area of programming and system architecture.

The more certifications you hold, the better off you are. You'll not only be in a better position for promotion, but you'll also find you are more likely to be hired in a new job. Many employers will overlook a degree requirement in favor of certifications.

Still, credentials aren't everything. You'll need to make sure you're in good shape on the performance issues. Good or bad, you'll find your reputation will precede you. And, really, you don't need to demean yourself, but don't neglect your relationships with your coworkers and the people you work for. Sometimes, that's all it takes.

Then vs. Now

I was a college dropout, but I started my career during a time when you could get a good job without a degree. You can still do that today, but it's a lot harder now than it was fifty years ago.

Computers were still in their infancy, and you couldn't buy a degree in computer science even if you were a millionaire. The closest you could come was a degree in mathematics or electronics, but neither really provided the training needed to program systems for business applications. Local University courses started to appear later on, which I took, starting with a course on Fortran, a programming language used by engineers. But the bulk of my professional education came from industry-supplied courses, most notably from IBM.

It was necessary to be a high school graduate to be hired -- after that, instead of educational credentials, businesses relied on aptitude testing. I took a programmer's aptitude test that evaluated my abilities in reading, vocabulary, logic, and math. That and a brief interview was the basis for my getting hired in the data processing department of a large automotive manufacturer.

Today, almost every ad for a white collar job suggests at least that a degree is preferred if not required. Many jobs that could be performed fifty years ago with an eighth grade education now require a bachelor's degree. These include jobs in bookkeeping, sales, and supervision. The jobs haven't changed that much, only the prerequisites.

There are still a lot of older folks in the workplace without degrees who are meeting with discrimination and having trouble finding a job. There are also many young people trying to find jobs without the advantage of a degree because of a lack of funds, family responsibilities, or other interests. They, too, are meeting with discrimination and if they are able to find a job, are being overlooked for opportunities and promotion.

In this blog I'll spout off about this topic and possibly help someone that struggles with the issue.

Jake