How important is a college degree?

[ducklite]

I'm in the process of writing an employment ad for the company I work for. Here's what I'd like to share...

Required Education/Exerience:
Related discipline Certificate from Technical School and one year experience; OR
MCSA certification and one year experience; OR
Degree in computer science and minimum one year experience; OR
Three years relevant experience.

My ideal candidate is #1, and #2 is my second. In all honesty, the one with a degree is my last choice. Why?

Because first of all I think they will want more money than they are worth (to this company), and will not want to pitch in as part of a team on non-I/T projects that sometimes we all have to help out with. (As an example, a few weeks back I needed to stick address labels on 1500 envelopes. Everyone in the office pitched in to help, even though the project had nothing to do with payroll, HR, AP/AR, or anything else they all work on.)

I also think that just because they've got a degree doesn't mean they've really got any "real world" experience. This job doesn't require knowledge of history or a second language, so much of the knowledge gained in "college" is useless to me as a hiring manager. I'd rather have someone who spent 18 months getting hands-on training on specifically the job I need them to do.

Anne

 

[nuke]

Why not just state exactly what you want? Experience & specialized technical certificate.

 

[paigevz]

Depends on the field (How important is a college degree).

Also, I think for this particular degree (comp sci), there are different types of jobs and companies. Some would rather have the degree to guarantee a certain knowledge base, and then train themselves for experience on the particular tasks they do.

I think the one assumption that because they'd been to college they'd be unwilling to do non-comp jobs that the office needs you may want to rethink. That would be more on personality, I think. There are many with college degrees that will do whatever a job needs, whether or not they were taught that skill in college, and some who don't go to college that would consider such a job beneath them. I think a lot would also come from their daily lives.........if they are the type that have always had others do such tasks for them, then they are less likely to think that's a good use of their time.

In my experience, (and I'm a teacher, so you KNOW what we have to do is not always what we thought we'd do in college) most people will do whatever the boss tells them to do.

Uhhh, I got off on rambling about the importance of the college degree and forgot to address what you were trying to get across..........sorry..........I agree with the other poster: just state experience in related field necessary and technical certification (or whatever term works best) preferred.

 

[Maleficent13]

Degrees CAN provide valuable knowledge and experience for some positions. Some, but not all. And I had often seen my last company discard all applicants without a Masters...for some reason HR thought this implied some kind of management skill...I can assure you it does NOT.

Basically, when I'm hiring, I invite all to apply, and then base my decision on the one most able to do the job...which does not necessarily mean they have a 4 year degree.

 

[Bob Slydell]

All the IT jobs I've applied for required some sort of degree. They were flexible on whether or not it was CS (mine wasn't) as long as you had enough experience. Actually, most employers I worked for liked that I had a business degree instead of a CS degree.

 

[mickeyminnie]

Having a degree of some sort, AS, BS, MS shows that you have the disipline to complete the requirements this is valuable in and of itself.

You can be a good worker without a degree, but having one, any one, is valuable, even a certificate course has this aspect to it.

 

[Feralpeg]

I worked for a large IT firm for 30 years. In the beginning, a degree wasn't important. The last ten years I was with the company, they wouldn't even talk to a person unless they had a four year college degree in the IT field.

Since IT people are very abundant now, companies can be very selective.

 

[ducklite]

Why not just state exactly what you want? Experience & specialized technical certificate.

Because I don't want to rule out a potentially perfect candidate from any of the other pots.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Having a degree of some sort, AS, BS, MS shows that you have the disipline to complete the requirements this is valuable in and of itself.

You can be a good worker without a degree, but having one, any one, is valuable, even a certificate course has this aspect to it.

Exactly! Someone who has spent 18 months to get a specialized certificate, or even taking the required courses and done the studying to get the MSCA (which requires a very demanding series of tests) has put as much into their career as someone with a AS or BS in computer science degree.

I should say that I'm not looking for someone with a Masters. I don't want or need that level of skill and knowledge for this position. In fact 90% of this position I know how to do myself, but don't have the time or inclination for it.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

All the IT jobs I've applied for required some sort of degree. They were flexible on whether or not it was CS (mine wasn't) as long as you had enough experience. Actually, most employers I worked for liked that I had a business degree instead of a CS degree.

Although I'm assuming those were mid-level or advanced positions, this one is just shy of entry level.

In all honesty, I know at least three people with no degree/certificate/certification who could do this job or learn the job in two days. But I want someone who is generally self-sufficient, and by requiring some level of education and experience it will give me at least somewhat of a guarantee on this.

Anne

 

[golfgal]

I think in your instance, a 4 year degree isn't required but your tech certification is. If you put in your ad that one of the qualifications could be a 4 year degree, you might eliminate a lot of people with the other certification from applying because they think they might be going up against those with a 4 year degree. Also, if you aren't paying top dollar for your IT person, the 4 year degree people you will get applying aren't going to be the best candidates most likely, they will be the ones that can't get an IT job elsewhere and is that the kind of people you want?

Most people looking for a job know that if you are only asking for 1 year experience, the pay isn't going to be top dollar too.

 

[Quinn222]

What and where is this job and how much does it pay? I'm qualified!

 

[Bob Slydell]

Although I'm assuming those were mid-level or advanced positions, this one is just shy of entry level.

In all honesty, I know at least three people with no degree/certificate/certification who could do this job or learn the job in two days. But I want someone who is generally self-sufficient, and by requiring some level of education and experience it will give me at least somewhat of a guarantee on this.

Anne

But are you thinking of this hiring being just for this job, or for a career with the company? Because if it's just for a specific task, then you could probably just get a temp for a certain amount of months that could fill your need. But if you're looking for someone who you'd like to see advance with the company, I still would look for someone with a degree, IMO.

 

[lsyorke]

While a degree shows a committment to a course outline, it doesn't show the ability of a person. I had a resume done a few years ago and the guy showed me a course outline from a recent college graduate who needed a resume. 80% of the courses were "into to " course. No continuity or progression towards a single field. I was told this "graduate" couldn't carry on a coherent conversation. So, while a degree is one aspect of a persons ability, it shouldn't be the be all and end all. Give me someone with basic knowledge and common sense and I'll train them to be the best in the area that I need them!

 

[ducklite]

But are you thinking of this hiring being just for this job, or for a career with the company? Because if it's just for a specific task, then you could probably just get a temp for a certain amount of months that could fill your need. But if you're looking for someone who you'd like to see advance with the company, I still would look for someone with a degree, IMO.

I need someone on an ongoing basis for basic day-to-day tasks. My plan is to hire someone on the "lower end" and bring in a consultant to work on major high end projects. While I do expect the person to grow with the company, I'm not neccesarily looking for someone who will eventually be the CTO, or even a senior manager.

It's a small company with a stable network and generally current work stations in place. I need someone to handle day-to-day network administration, software installs/updates, and hardware installs (new mouse/keyboard/more RAM/etc.) It would be great if I can find someone who's got some .ASP/.JSP experience who can work on the company intranet site as well--and I'd certainly pay more for that person.

Like I said, nothing that requires an engineering degree, and a job that's probably way below most BS degrees.

It's a good opportunity to get in at the ground and grow, with the expectation that middle management would probably be the mid-term goal.

Anne

 

[Laurajean1014]

It's not where you've been, it's what you know (and how to use it) is what's important. Academia has pressured big corporations to insist on hiring BS, MS, PHd candidates and big corps have not seen the huge impact academia had said they would.

 

[ducklite]

What and where is this job and how much does it pay? I'm qualified!

Just west of Orlando. PM me if you're in that area and we can chat. We aren't paying any relocation expenses, and prefer someone already in this area.

Anne

 

[CheshireVal]

These days, just about everybody is getting a college degree. It's really gotten to where it's just the equivalent of a high school diploma because it's gotten so common.

Whether it's important to you as an employer is up to you, but I wouldn't discount someone just because they have a degree. They'd probably be willing to work for a lot less than you think.

 

[ducklite]

These days, just about everybody is getting a college degree. It's really gotten to where it's just the equivalent of a high school diploma because it's gotten so common.

Whether it's important to you as an employer is up to you, but I wouldn't discount someone just because they have a degree. They'd probably be willing to work for a lot less than you think.

I'm certainly not going to refuse to look at resume's witha degree attached. but I want someone who's got a lot of hands on real-life troubleshooting experience, and that's not something that most college's are teaching--tech schools are.

Anne

 

[Bob Slydell]

I'm certainly not going to refuse to look at resume's witha degree attached. but I want someone who's got a lot of hands on real-life troubleshooting experience, and that's not something that most college's are teaching--tech schools are.

Anne

It's also my experience that with the tightening of the job market, there's not a lot of college graduates who aren't keenly aware that they have to have real life work experience on their resumes before they graduate, at least in areas where that means something, like IT. My DW makes a lot of hiring decisions, and while they require a degree (it's a CPA firm, so a degree is an absolute requirement), she'll certainly rank a candidate with a resume filled with work experience, even if their GPA is lower than another candidate.

They may not teach real-life in college, but they're certainly encouraging it with their students.