Bachelor's Degree: An Unnecessary Path To a Tech Job

[DEAD7]

"A study of New York City's tech workforce found that 44% of jobs in the city's 'tech ecosystem,' or 128,000 jobs, 'are accessible' to people without a Bachelor's degree. This eco-system includes both tech specific jobs and those jobs supported by tech. For instance, a technology specific job that doesn't require a Bachelor's degree might be a computer user support specialist, earning $28.80 an hour, according to this study. Tech industry jobs that do not require a four-year degree and may only need on-the-job training include customer services representatives, at $18.50 an hour, telecom line installer, $37.60 an hour, and sales representatives, $33.60 an hour. The study did not look at 'who is actually sitting in those jobs and whether people are under-employed,' said Kate Wittels, a director at HR&A Advisors, a real-estate and economic-development consulting firm, and report author.. Many people in the 'accessible' non-degree jobs may indeed have degrees. For instance. About 75% of the 25 employees who work at New York Computer Help in Manhattan have a Bachelor's degree. Of those with Bachelor's degrees, about half have IT-related degrees."

 

[Chris.B]

True.

In this company most of the brilliant programmers/Network engineers are without a degree.

I keep telling people...programming/IT is best learned by self study.

Once you have the "a ha!" moment you are on your way.


Reason why a degree may not be needed is because by the time you are done learning a technology for 4 years in college...it would have been obsolete when you get out.

So if you are not a dynamic person who wants to keep learning, IT is NOT for you.

 

[Yapdatfool]

Had I known this in 03' I would've never went to college.

 

[acri1]

I have a Bachelor's degree and I work in a tech job, and most of the people in my position do too.

The requirements may not say you need a degree, but realistically in this job market there will be enough applicants with degrees that your resume will probably get 'd off GP by HR if you don't at least have an associates.

 

[无名的]

So you're telling me I don't need to spend 2 years finding myself by partying nonstop and taking general education courses that do almost nothing for me, plus 2 years of very surface level information and unpaid internships that are forms of slavery, rarely translating into meaningful employment?



Old people went to college and were often the first in their family to do so. It was more selective. It meant something. The degree has been devalued and is way too expensive today. As the old people responsible for hiring die off, hopefully college as it stands today, will also die.

 

[Isaiah Bradley]

this anti education campaign needs to stop. Whether you are in school or not, self-study will/should be apart of your routine
The "Bill Gates have no college degree, so hey, college is worthless" rational is BS

 

[Isaiah Bradley]

I have a Bachelor's degree and I work in a tech job, and most of the people in my position do too.

The requirements may not say you need a degree, but realistically in this job market there will be enough applicants with degrees that your resume will probably get 'd off GP by HR if you don't at least have an associates.

At Intel in portland, there's a MIT dinner/conference/resource events where all the MIT grads that work there get together and network and plan on recruiting MIT grads. Why am I adding this info, to provide perspective on the existence of levels in the IT world and the programming world, just like there's levels to other industries. These top tech programs are not losing applicants, nikkas are craving for that education, network access, and brand for a reason

 

[Liquid]

This is why I switched to communications tbh. The programming world is always changing, you have to learn on your own to keep up.

Keeping up with that on your own and have another degree that can help you out in the field is the way to go IMO.

 

[h2o_proof]

So a lot of companies want you to have minimum 5 years experience in your field, and often times fresh faced kids straight out of college with various tech degree's just don't cut it. I started on the ground floor at my company (no degree) and learned very quickly that the guys with the tech degree's, while having good intentions for the most part, don't appreciate the larger scope of what it is they actually do.

I took it upon myself to learn what they do, how they like for tech support/change requests/builds to be requested or scheduled and I made myself useful as an intermediary between either the tech guys and customer service or the tech guys and the actual client to get my foot in the door.

I now manage a group of IT associates and am responsible for coordinating SDLC phases, quarterly migrations, escalations, application life cycles and future enhancements as well as a bunch of other administrative type stuff. I recommend to anyone trying to get into a tech related field to understand the the larger scope of any industry that interests you or for which you can find work in and work your way up. In my 15+ years in the work force in industries ranging from courier to food service to multimedia to healthcare to HR, one thing remains constant. IT people are very robotic, have poor written communication skills, they don't like to keep documentation up to date and they only do what you tell them to, nothing less nothing more. This is not a shot at all IT people cuz there are some good ones out there, but generally speaking.

My advice to anyone coming out of school with a tech degree is to also get PMO certified, companies love that, I know it's one of the first things I look for in new applicants as well. Of course there are those of you who are destined to succeed and have a career path already in mind and none of this applies to you, for those people, ignore this post.

 

[JT-Money]

IT people are very robotic, have poor written communication skills, they don't like to keep documentation up to date and they only do what you tell them to, nothing less nothing more. This is not a shot at all IT people cuz there are some good ones out there, but generally speaking.

About the only good thing about working for the Federal government was learning the importance of documentation. The reason most IT pros refuse to properly document their work is fear someone else could easily do their job. Most believe the only way to become indispensable to a company is to hoard information from everyone else. But all it really does is make the department inefficient and disorganized.

 

[h2o_proof]

About the only good thing about working for the Federal government was learning the importance of documentation. The reason most IT pros refuse to properly document their work is fear someone else could easily do their job. Most believe the only way to become indispensable to a company is to hoard information from everyone else. But all it really does is make the department inefficient and disorganized.

THIS

I try to do at least a couple lunch-n-learns each year focusing specifically on this, or the 'gatekeeper' syndrome. People like this I automatically know that they are not trying to move up and I try to phase them out because it's toxic, but it's the nature of IT.

 

[无名的]

this anti education campaign needs to stop. Whether you are in school or not, self-study will/should be apart of your routine
The "Bill Gates have no college degree, so hey, college is worthless" rational is BS

What about the "I graduated with a liberal arts degree and all I got was this decade of debt" T-shirt?

Saying higher education in the traditional sense isn't necessary is not anti-education.

 

[Chris.B]

So you're telling me I don't need to spend 2 years finding myself by partying nonstop and taking general education courses that do almost nothing for me, plus 2 years of very surface level information and unpaid internships that are forms of slavery, rarely translating into meaningful employment?



Old people went to college and were often the first in their family to do so. It was more selective. It meant something. The degree has been devalued and is way too expensive today. As the old people responsible for hiring die off, hopefully college as it stands today, will also die.

no degree is tough to get in but once you get in...experience>>>>>>> degree in most cases unless there is a management position involved.

You think companies will waste money to train you when they have an experienced person hit the ground running?

I'm not saying degrees are bad but in this field of technology I'm starting to see a trend where people who do not upgrade their skills but rely on their degrees end up at a dead end job or complain that "IT is not for me".

 

[h2o_proof]

this anti education campaign needs to stop. Whether you are in school or not, self-study will/should be apart of your routine
The "Bill Gates have no college degree, so hey, college is worthless" rational is BS

I think either extreme end of the spectrum is crazy, but overall people should do what they are passionate about, college or no college, it's all about self discovery on your journey to financial independence.

 

[Takerstani]

I know someone who started out making over $40,000 with only a trade certificate in an un-related technical field, no experience except fast food..working for a cable/phone company.