Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Another thing to consider is that degree or not, everyone in any workforce starts out with no experience. It's either a matter of shifting your goals to obtain that experience where you can, then using that experience for entry into something better later on... Or selling yourself successfully.
The thing to understand is that an employer has very little to go on when interviewing a prospective employee apart from what's on paper. The rest is risk. An employer mitigates this risk by using your documented work history to investigate your history as much as is legally allowed. If you have no documented work history, this isn't possible. But there are exceptions, especially if the job you're applying for is in desperate need of your expertise and you're able to sell yourself and your knowledge without having to prove anything on paper. These exceptions are a very good chance to get the job you want without previous experience as long as you know A LOT about the job from schooling or undocumented experience and are able to sell it to the employer and make him/her feel comfortable with the risk of hiring you over someone else.

While it's important to have the credentials, it's equally important to get an employer to put trust in you, as a person, to be able to get the job done.
I go to school with a guy who's in my field who got a very good job without even having a degree or experience on paper, but he's had individual experience doing the job just in daily life and interest. He was able to sell his skills simply by having an interview with the department head, based on knowledge.
It's what it all comes down to. Knowledge of the field. On paper, it's proof... but knowledge isn't only knowledge if it's on paper. I just think it's important to remember that.

Originally Posted by pourmeanother

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.