Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations derfloh on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Masters Degree? 2
- Thread starter itteck
- Start date
"The importance of a college degree is downplayed more from individuals who don't possess one than from those who did attain the honoraries."
This is interesting. My husband also made this observance recently when we were speaking to my aunt's boyfriend. The entire family was suspicious of his claim that he had a degree from a highly prestigious school. When discussing degree's with him, he stated that degrees weren't really that useful. Which brings me to my personal belief that there are three types of thinking/people:
1) Has a degree and applied it well, therefore used their investment to their advantage.
2) The person who doesn't have a degree because they don't think it will "pay off"
3) The person I can't stand the most...the person who obatined the degree, but doesn't have a very good work ethic, so assumes that the degree isn't worth anything.
Just my $.02
This is interesting. My husband also made this observance recently when we were speaking to my aunt's boyfriend. The entire family was suspicious of his claim that he had a degree from a highly prestigious school. When discussing degree's with him, he stated that degrees weren't really that useful. Which brings me to my personal belief that there are three types of thinking/people:
1) Has a degree and applied it well, therefore used their investment to their advantage.
2) The person who doesn't have a degree because they don't think it will "pay off"
3) The person I can't stand the most...the person who obatined the degree, but doesn't have a very good work ethic, so assumes that the degree isn't worth anything.
Just my $.02
Bluedragon2,
A coincidence: I too have 14 years IT experience and doesn't have a BS degree neither.
In those 14 years, I've learned how accounting, financial systems, marketing & sales, manufacturing systems, and HR management work. Knowing these things, it helped me design optimized and easy-to-maintain system applications within an organization. I can confidently say that I know business better than any inexperienced BS graduate on any of the departments I mentioned.
A coincidence: I too have 14 years IT experience and doesn't have a BS degree neither.
In those 14 years, I've learned how accounting, financial systems, marketing & sales, manufacturing systems, and HR management work. Knowing these things, it helped me design optimized and easy-to-maintain system applications within an organization. I can confidently say that I know business better than any inexperienced BS graduate on any of the departments I mentioned.
That all comes down to the individual person. There isn't any formula that can say X degree == Y experience. People without degrees are automatically underdogs in the business world (most of the time) and that kind of challenge will often drive them to a high level of performance. There are also people with degrees that have intelligence far beyond my abilities.
The anecdotal evidence we usually see, however, is from the remaining group that, no matter their education, couldn't find their way out of a paper bag with a map and detailed instructions. Some of these people simply aren't capable, and that is unfortunate. The rest could if they wanted to, but are much more content to play dumb and let someone else handle the problem. That is even more unfortunate.
The first two types -- people who don't need and education to be successful, and those who are educated and have used their education for success -- are the people I think we all want to be and work with. The others are the ones we encounter that fuel this debate.
If you are in that first group, great. Go get your education and use it to your benefit.
The anecdotal evidence we usually see, however, is from the remaining group that, no matter their education, couldn't find their way out of a paper bag with a map and detailed instructions. Some of these people simply aren't capable, and that is unfortunate. The rest could if they wanted to, but are much more content to play dumb and let someone else handle the problem. That is even more unfortunate.
The first two types -- people who don't need and education to be successful, and those who are educated and have used their education for success -- are the people I think we all want to be and work with. The others are the ones we encounter that fuel this debate.
If you are in that first group, great. Go get your education and use it to your benefit.
- Status