Over-emphasis on degrees

[Geordie]

In my country, if one does not get a good degree from a good university, recognized by the civil service, then one will have a narrower chance of securing gainful employment - hence resulting in over-emphasis in degrees.

What do you think of it?

 

[Sherlock10]

Benjamin Franklin once said, ?The only certainty in life is death and taxes?. No college, which I know of, will guarantee financial success upon graduation. With employment you must consider factors such as supply and demand and the current financial market. Given the current economic condition of the world I would expect employment or salaries to decrease, at least for a little while. I have chosen to take a break from college so that I can make a better objective decision on what career I would enjoy, without wasting my money in the process.

 

[142857]

I started out in IT in the 80s through a traineeship - a degree was not considered necessary in those days.

Nowadays I do find that not having a degree somewhat limits my opportunities.

There some jobs where a degree is not particularly relevant or useful, certainly not as useful as practical experience, but where it is considered almost a necessity anyway.

 

[Droopy]

I'm being told by careers advisors that without work experience then a degree is useless. You need both but getting one without the other can be difficult.

 

[. . .]

I'm being told by careers advisors that without work experience then a degree is useless.

Yup, that's unfortunately the case most of the time.

 

[kasmanaft08]

I'm being told by careers advisors that without work experience then a degree is useless. You need both but getting one without the other can be difficult.

What I did was exaggerate the hell out of self-education/"volunteering/helping out others/school experience.
Also add any other skills, regardless of whether or not it makes sense for the job.
Doesn't always work, but it's worth it if you're already applying somewhere.
Just gotta be a good writer.

It is rather annoying, though I will agree. If you're completely self trained (and didn't attend a school) it's hard to exaggerate nothing. They kind of assume you did some internships for certain jobs and that should give you some experience, but unless you attend a massive university- it's not exactly fair game there. Entry level jobs (for anything) are always harder to come by than what they make you think, but they do exist. Sometimes you just have to do something semi-related and take advantage of it and apply other places meanwhile. There's also "networking" but Aspies have an obvious disadvantage in that arena, although there are methods if you dig around (like e-mails).

They certainly don't make it easy, but people gotta start somewhere.

 

[Geordie]

Absolutely, my countrypeople are crazy with degrees

 

[Geordie]

I started out in IT in the 80s through a traineeship - a degree was not considered necessary in those days.

Nowadays I do find that not having a degree somewhat limits my opportunities.

There some jobs where a degree is not particularly relevant or useful, certainly not as useful as practical experience, but where it is considered almost a necessity anyway.

Like Accounting, I guess.