is a degree everything its made out to be?

Question

is it the passport to job security and wealth

Answer 1

What kind of degree? College or graduate? If it's a college degree, then no, it is not the passport to job security and wealth. More people have college degrees now than ever before. It's not an "edge" and provides few opportunities for you to apply knowledge to real situations. A graduate degree often requires some work experience, applied learning and at least puts you in a niche or a profession, i.e. it gives you that edge and defines your skill sets. Still, a grad degree is probably not the passport to job security and wealth, especially if you have horrible interpersonal skills. Strong social skills could be a passport of sorts. . . .

Is job security and wealth so important in this lifetime? Happiness is more important to many people. Changing jobs and making less money than "so-and-so" doesn't mean you can't live a happy life. Love, family, friends, leisure time and laughter are grossly underrated by the mainstream. It's also sad that people with wealth don't share it--they could help others by giving.

Make the best of your situation, even if you didn't have the opportunity to get some kind of degree. Some people can carry an educational debt load; others have the privilege of having parents who can fund their education. Many people don't have wealthy parents and have too many expenses to take on educational debt. Just don't become cynical and bitter because you don't have the degree you want. It will only hurt your ability to progress. I know of too many self-pitying pisants who belittle the degrees and/or hard work of others...just because they had more resources.

Good luck.

Answer 2

A degree is not necessarily everything it's made out to be. It depends very much on the school you attend and the degree you take. However a degree is the standard which people use to guage intelligence and potential.

A degree should be and is a shortcut to knowledge. Many professions require that you have degrees before you can join them e.g. Medical, Legal, Accountancy. You can't get certain jobs without degrees. For example if you want to work in a leading Merchant Bank as a trader you will normally not be able to get a job unless you have a business degree - quite often an MBA. Then where you get a degree can have a bearing on how successful you will be in landing a job. For example a degree from Harvard or Oxford is going to be more impressive than a degree from a lesser known University. Also a first class honors degree or graduating Summa *** Lade is more impressive than merely obtaining a pass.

So a degree is not necessarily all its made out to be but it will open doors and it can be a passport to job security and wealth. It may be more difficult to get these things without a degree but it's not impossible and many people have done just that.

I don't believe that a latin phrase which includes a different spelling of come is blanked out!

Answer 3

Well it depends what you think, or what people believe it is made out to be.

If you believe a degree, trains an individual to carry out a certain level of academic work, to a certain standard, on topics of inquiry that are useful to the establishment providing said education, then you would be right and a degree would be made out to be everything that it is.

But i think your question alludes to the idea that a degree, somehow tells the world that a person is intelligent, an independent thinker, someone with autonomy and in that case we would be wrong. The education system itself acts as a filter, to weed out the people who think too independently, because independence and autonomy do not correlate to job security and wealth in this world.

I'm not sure there is such a thing as job security in an age when our future is so uncertain, i for one, don't know how useful degrees are going to be when nuclear fall-out occurs, or environmental catastrophe hits us.

I think a degree used to mean much more in real terms, of learning and expanding the mind than it hold today. The goverment want 50% of people to have in their goals, why is that, why is a labour government trying to groom the masses into the middle class?? Because there are hundreds of thousands of non philanthropic management consultancy firms and the like that will snap up graduates like that and pay them ridiculous amounts of money to seel their souls to the devil and absolutely NOT think for themselves, and then you wonder why these people put so much time and resource into their education which was supposed to liberate them from the shackles of poverty, but only swaps the material impoverishment for the poverty of their mind, intelligence and humanity.

Why? Well there's an industry around educating people now, more corporate investment, specialist schools. The arms trade would suffer if british universities ceased to exist, whilst we're destroying the county we got universities from (Iraq). With all this education, why is humanity dumbing down and repeating their mistakes, surely true intelligence should protect and defend the sanctity of human existence, not aid its demise!

Answer 4

It's not an automatic ticket to success. However, you will find that there are many jobs that require a degree, and companies will not consider experience in lieu of a degree. It's actually kind of crazy, but a person with 2 years experience and a degree in a non-related field can have a better shot at a position than a person who has been doing the same job successfully for 15 years.

Answer 5

Depends on what happens after getting one and if this meets an individual's personal goals / ambitions. Unfortunately, the time when someone could learn for the sake of learning has long gone and "lifelong learning" seems to have fallen by the wayside. In the UK the majority of students are now leaving their degree courses heavily in debt and in need of job security.

In certain instances it does pay to have a degree as it shows you have the capacity to learn, have organisational skills and can work independently. However, my advice would be to network as you do your degree and get relevant work experience in the field you want to work in - even if this is on a voluntary basis at first. Don't leave everything to the last minute.

Answer 6

I don't know about the wealth part, but in my field the difference in pay between those with a degree and licensing and those without is about 20 bucks an hour, and those with higher degrees get more money than the base salary. like everything, it depends, but generally I'd say, yeah, a degree or professional licensing can open doors.

Answer 7

No it certainly is not, believe me. In fairness i suppose it really dpepnds on what degree you get. I got a BEd (hons) Music in 1998 as it has been as much use to me as a chocolate teapot. The only thing i can do with it is teach music. I wish i had studied computer science or business studies where the options would have been greater. Nowadays though, if your a self-employed builder or joiner (or have a 'trade'), that is where the big money is to be made. I feel i wasted four years of my life studying, and i'm certainly not on a good wage whatsoever.

Answer 8

There's a real big dividing line in life in the real world. Those who have a degree and those who don't. In a lot of companies, you aren't even considered for a lot of jobs without one. In a lot of social situations, you'll be asked "Where did you go to school?" And they don't mean high school. This will be followed up by a question about which year you graduated.

Answer 9

I think having a degree doesn't necessarily mean you are any more capable of doing a job than someone without a degree. I think experience counts for so much more.

Answer 10

Yes, afraid so.

Not always the specific knowledge you gain but the organisational, communication and presentational skills are a real plus.

You tend to mature a lot during those 3 or 4 years too.