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I agree. I say all of this as someone making over six figures working from home in a situation I could have never imagined myself in ten years ago. I needed my
by tjr225 7y ago
I agree. I say all of this as someone making over six figures working from home in a situation I could have never imagined myself in ten years ago.
I needed my degree; but just to get my foot in the door. I didn't learn much during the process itself other than to recognize the meta fact that I had to do it to get out of my current situation.
This would have been a real problem for me financially if it didn't work out the way it did because I wouldn't have been able to get out from under my(and more so my wife's) student loan debt.
It should be useful and I think it can be, but that was not the experience that I had.
- titanomachy 7y agoIt seems that a lot of people feel their degree was not useful. My studies were definitely far removed from what I now do for a living. However, I have not met (except on HN) any successful "knowledge workers" without a degree. I'm sure there are many factors contributing to that: smarter people are more likely to pursue degrees in the first place, companies may ignore otherwise good candidates since they lack a degree. But another possibility is that many of us underestimate the skills we learned in pursuing our degrees. Certainly many people obtain those skills in other ways, but it's impossible to know if I personally would have.
- drunkpotato 7y agoI did not have a degree in the sciences but I did minor in computer science. I think my degrees are very valuable. It could just be response bias: people happy with their educational experience are quietly satisfied, those unhappy are loudly unsatisfied. Would be my guess. Online responses are not a great sample of the real world.
- organsnyder 7y agoI'm very happy with my degree (a double-major in CS and music). But even though I make my living working as a software developer, I appreciate my music education more.
- tjr225 7y agoI feel that I have a lucid understanding of the lack of skills that I learned during my undergraduate program- that is exactly why I am frustrated with my experience.
- randomdata 7y ago> However, I have not met (except on HN) any successful "knowledge workers" without a degree. Aside from hearing the odd person tell a funny story from their college days (which, I might add, does not guarantee that they successfully attained a degree), I don't think I've met anyone (except on HN) in the last decade or so where scholastic background has even come up in conversation. It was something to talk about when we were young and being fresh out of school was news, sure, but as I get older the conversations have moved on to more pertinent topics like homeownership and children. Nobody really cares to talk about something that happened so long ago that people born back then are now in college themselves. So, I am rather curious as to how you would ever know? I cannot even begin to see if your assertion holds true within my professional peer group as I have absolutely no idea if any of them have degrees or not.
- watwut 7y agoPeople around me talk about not just current issues. They talk about own childhood, elementary school teachers, sports club they have been to, what they did with friends, previous jobs. So college comes up too. Plus if you are hiring it is in cv. Moreover, the older we are the less interesting new things we have to tall about. We work and then go home to children. And there is often not much else engaging to talk about. So people talk about past.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoThe management caste won’t allow it. They invested, therefore you must as well.