Getting an Unconventional Education

My last post featured on Brazen Careerist drew tremendous ire from a commenter named Alexis. I appreciated her point of view as it brought to light that my column may have been grossly misinterpreted by readers. Though her tone was puerile and unnecessarily vindictive, I got where she was coming from. (There were lots of other supporters though, Thanks!)

To summarize a few highlights from Alexis’ comment:

I always find it fascinating when I read arguments by people who say that you don’t really need a college degree…most often made by people who have their undergraduate degree…no one is knocking down the door of Joe at the gas station…let me give you a wake up call: the world without a degree is not wide open with job possibilities. Those statistics about earning more and doing better in life are there for a reason.

I agree that experience is important and there should be more than test scores and grades to determine a candidate’s worthiness, but if you think for one second that the working world is going to throw out this whole “degree required” thing, you’ve lost it...the next time that you decide to elaborate on what people do and don’t need from your place of privilege, think about the mom who works three jobs and rides the bus to school with her children and wishes to God she had a degree so she get a decent job.

In my defense, I said people may not need a degree to get ahead. I chose may as a modifier because I’m clear that the current belief system overwhelmingly values someone who has a degree regardless of their course of study, which I believe is a mistake. I used myself as an illustration of how preposterous it all is. My degree was 100% irrelevant to my job, but everyone felt better I had one, despite the fact that everything I needed to know I learned on the job and taking qualifying exams. Notice I didn't say that one doesn't need to learn anything.

And while I don’t think that the 'working world is going to throw out the “degree required” thing' any time soon, the great thing is I'm free to think it’s total bullshit. Certainly a headhunter is not going to pluck Joe at the gas station for a gig at IBM, but if Joe enrolled in an IT course or two in his free time (I'm not talking full-blown degree enrollment) and began as a bottom-feeder somewhere, it's entirely possible for him to work his way through the system and get a kick-ass job down the line. While statics support that a degree would get him there sooner, I'm arguing that it shouldn't be that way.

A possible solution would be to encourage hiring people who've taken a small amount of highly specialized training or a few choice college courses to appropriately match a job's most-needed attributes. This could reduce the burden of getting a four year education simply to be well-rounded at considerable expense and questionable value.

Furthermore, to be perfectly clear, I’m not speaking from a place of privilege, but of fear: I’m one of the people who’ve been scared shitless in life into thinking that getting a degree is the ultimate safety blanket. I've gone through life scared of losing everything, because it's already happened once. In fact, I don't need to think of the mother in Alexis' example. My own mother has struggled enough, thank you very much.

If Alexis would like, she could read about how my mother was held at gunpoint while the FBI seized our personal property and how I've held 3 or 4 jobs simultaneously since the age of 15 and have paid for all my education. But of course, Alexis wouldn't be interested in getting to know me, she prefers hurling unsubstantiated invective.

As an added bonus, since I'm being accused of being unfit to lead by example, I thought I'd offer several legitimate examples of people I know personally who have gotten ahead in life without conventional educations.

Mr. X – got his undergrad but got a C in every class, passing by the skin of his teeth. He enlisted in Vietnam, won a Purple Heart, yet came home without a penny to his name. He had no place to live and slept on porches until he could afford rent and one garish polyester suit from a second-hand store in which to go to work. He started at the bottom of a company and worked his way up. He is now a multi-millionaire with 3 homes in 2 states, has buildings named after him, scholarships he personally funds in addition to philanthropic work; his charity is leading to some of the most progressive research in neurological disorders.

Mr. Y – got his degree in a communist country and came to America a penniless immigrant. Not surprisingly, his degree was useless. He began working at the bottom of a trucking company while living with his fiance’s parents. Not knowing anything about truck repair, he told his prospective employer he was a fully trained truck engine repair technician. When they told him he could begin the next day, he bought a manual at Sears and memorized it. Within 4 years he owned a fleet of his own trucks and subsequently began his own business which grew to multi-millions in sales.

Mr. Z – never got a degree, enlisted in military service straight out of high school. He was also a Vietnam Veteran. Upon returning home, he busted his butt at various entry-level jobs and only took a few college-level courses to gain specific industry knowledge along the way. He is now Vice President of a thriving company.