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Originally Posted by Freebase Dali
It was a statement about people's general propensity for assuming that any degree is better than no degree. While compared to an ex McDonald's employee applicant, sure.. it's better. But the point I was trying to make is that for a real career that actually requires real knowledge and not some arbitrary English degree for a job that requires you to know more than how to communicate your own language effectively, it's actually important to have knowledge of your field. In degree form, that's great. Most of the time it's required. But not some random degree that has nothing to do with anything.
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We're in agreement on random degrees not guaranteeing any job, we don't need to beat that anymore. However, by and large yes a degree is better than no degree. On a person-to-person basis that is not necessarily true... There will be high school dropouts who get hired for certain jobs over college grads, and there are certainly other factors that come into play. Looking at the big picture, though, yes, a degree can yield better, higher paying jobs. One big point I wanted to make is that I'm not going to get caught up in some anecdotal evidence of one person's cousin (or was it sister?) working at a Starbucks after college. That happens all the time, sure- but on average it is not the case. Statistics show that degrees lead to these higher positions, better salaries, etc, so obviously that little piece of paper deserves more credit than it is being given here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freebase Dali
Who are you comparing the degree holding person to? A convicted felon McDonald's employee? Some random guy with no work experience and who dropped out in the 3rd grade? Or a multitude of other applicants who also think, like you, that all you need is an arbitrary degree to stand out from the rest of the crowd? What, you think you'll be the only applicant who has an arbitrary degree and all the other applicants are just regular Joes with nothing beyond a highschool degree and a winning personality?
Think in reality for a second. You're not going to ever be lucky enough to go into a job interview with a one-up on everyone who's already applied just because you have a degree. If you thought that, you're either applying at Burger King or you think you're the only guy to ever go through college. Now, I know you said you know that you have to have a degree that's relevant. Which is true. But if you knew that, you wouldn't have even brought up having a degree as some sort proof of being able to handle college for 4 years as some sort of qualification for being hired. This pretty much tells me that you think the piece of paper itself is what's valuable in principle... which I totally disagree with and I think that's pretty obvious with what I typed above.
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I am thinking in reality. I would hedge my bets that if you had 50 qualified applicants with a high school diploma and 50 qualified applicants with a college degree applying for the same job - whether that be burger flipper, CEO of a fortune 500 company, coal mine worker, engineer, teacher - that it would be 70/30 hiring in favor of college degrees. All things being equal. Yes, I'm talking about a piece of paper- but it goes beyond just ink, paper, and a dean's signature... It's everything that it represents.
Just to go along with your side for a second- this does tend to create a fallacy, where students think that just showing up to class, making the minimum grades, and walking towards grabbing that diploma is going to guarantee them a job. It works both ways. "C's earn degrees" is not a great outlook, but one I see all the time. So, yes, tons of college students have coasted through with the wrong mindset, and then reality sinks in after graduation that they aren't ****. However, it's unfair to lump those guys in with the students who come in with a drive, a desire to learn and gain real experience that is going to work in their favor down the road... That same how you don't want to lump a convict Burger King employee in with a skilled worker with a GED.