Does a degree provide something that experience cannot?

Can experience compensate for the lack of degree?

It is an age-old debate and a question that will invite a variety of responses. What is the right answer? Probably the safest one is “it depends”.

A degree or higher is non-negotiable

• Some professions require professional accreditation or license. E.g., engineers, accountants, lawyers and physicians.

• People in the academic and teaching field would need to have some paper qualification to back them up before they can teach their students to do the same.

A degree is not a must

• Many companies offer on-the-job training such as retail sales, customer service, general administration and etc. We have heard stories whereby young and without degree sales professionals making big bucks while their peers are struggling to pass their first year in college.

Why employers prefer college degrees? Is it because they tend to associate characteristics such as the following with people who have degrees?

• Proof they know what they want and emotionally more stable – a candidate that does not further study is always viewed as a drifter.

• Proof of their intelligence, hence the ability to analyze and solve problems better.

There is some truth to the above observation. However, employers have to be careful when they list the minimum education requirements for a particular job. If it is based on “every company does that”, you probably may miss out a large pool of untapped potentials. The right thing to do is always to spend time to identify and develop the required behaviors, knowledge, abilities and skills for each position. Some competencies, surprisingly may not necessarily obtained through the process of getting a degree.

So, shall I get a degree or not?

Higher education is never something to be regretted by someone who had done it and looked back later. On the contrary, many would have lamented when they had not further their studies earlier.

Due to financial constraint or personal reasons, one has to stop immediately after high school and start working. Even though climbing the corporate ladder through rank and file or venture into your own business is a big possibility, gaining a proper degree opens up the mind to subjects that cannot be gained through experience alone. Thus, it is always good to keep learning and if opportunity arose, take up a part-time or online course.

Bear in mind, most companies would list possessing a degree as a pre-requisite for consideration of promotion to senior executive posts and above. In other words, a degree or higher qualification is your ticket to your career advancement. But more than that, it leads to self-actualization of an individual. Anyone who had done it will attest to that.