In my experience, there are some employers who flat out refuse to consider you if you don't have the degree they want. It has absolutely nothing to do with your

In my experience, there are some employers who flat out refuse to consider you if you don't have the degree they want. It has absolutely nothing to do with your qualifications, skills, or ability. I contacted one employer about a job which I believe I was qualified to do; on the phone, they asked me, "do you have such-and-such degree?" I said no. "We can't hire you then." And that was it. Another employer I worked for asked me to physically bring my degree in so they could photocopy it for their records. Another employer officially had a policy that all "engineering" jobs be filled by people with at least a bachelor's degree, but management had promoted some qualified folks without degrees into those roles. Eventually HR changed those people's positions to a different title, because they "couldn't be an engineer without a degree"... though they continued to do the same work they were before. But neither a degree nor lack of a degree actually means anything in terms of ability to do the work. I've seen people who held a degree (or two, or three) and were pretty clueless about their work. I for one think the whole idea of demanding a certain degree is ridiculous. Demanding certain experience makes much more sense. But it's easy to check for a degree, and hard to verify experience. With all of the non-traditional means of learning available today, I don't see how demanding a degree will be a sustainable employment practice, but then again, I don't understand why it's been going on for as long as it has.