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I believe that having a college education is fine, however, I don't think it should be considered the only avenue to a successful life. I know too many people who attended college, and/or have a degree for a particular career, and they either left that career, or never got started in it. I have a cousin who spent five years of his life, getting a degree in forestry, and never used it. Not that getting an education is a waste, in and of itself, but I believe it's unfortunate that our kids are taught and pushed into thinking that if they don't get that degree, that they are a failure. If they do get it, many of them will start off their young lives in debt, paying off that fancy education. I like the idea of accrediting life experience and other forms of education. Obviously, of course, there are some fields that require a degree, such as a physician, (after all, most of us would prefer that our surgeon knows which end of the scalpel is which ), but, let's face it. College is a business, and they like to make money off of the people who walk through the front door. Not everyone wants to walk those hallowed ivy halls, and they shouldn't be made to feel as though there is something wrong with them, when they choose a different route for their life.
I could've used you about 3 years ago when I decided to transfer to a private school! Crap!
In todays job market is a College Degree a necessity? I don't have a Degree, but did go to college for a few years. My wife has a Bachelors Degree (Business/Accounting).....got it when she was 49 years old. She actually works in the Accounting Dept. for a company that requires it's employees to have a Degree to work in that department. Looking in two job websites on the Internet, I see a lot of jobs that do require a Degree.....at least a Bachelors.
My supervisor at work tells me that having a Degree is not necessarily a big thing. Yet, the company required a Bachelors Degree for his position and he his a Bachelors Degree in Business.
It seems to me, in order to get a really nice paying job, you must either have some years in College or a Degree.
Experience use to be the name of the game, but now????????
And, if you do have a Degree, do you use it? I have met a few people who have a Bachelors (even a Masters) and the job they do has nothing to do with the education/Degree they got.
Having a degree does facilitate the selection process during the first step of the review process from a manpower or human resource office point of view. As a retired USAF member, I found in the aerospace market that at least an AA and 20 years of experience get you to $60 to 100K per year.
The key for the new blood is to look at what is predicted for the next five years and get an AA and continue to stay updated on your skills. Experience is a plus, management and supervision another plus. Multi-task you better believe it...
One of the problems with having a Bachelor's Degree (or higher) and getting a nice paying job.......the number of hours you may have to work each week. Generally a Degree/good paying job equals more than 40 hours of work a week. That may fine if you are single, but if you are married, especially with kids, that Degree with long work hours can be a MAJOR "pain in the butt". Even though the wife and I don't have kids, when she sometimes has to work a 14 day during "end of the month close" in Accounting, I don't like it. And, she is on salarly......no overtime pay.
One of the problems with having a Bachelor's Degree (or higher) and getting a nice paying job.......the number of hours you may have to work each week. Generally a Degree/good paying job equals more than 40 hours of work a week. That may fine if you are single, but if you are married, especially with kids, that Degree with long work hours can be a MAJOR "pain in the butt". Even though the wife and I don't have kids, when she sometimes has to work a 14 day during "end of the month close" in Accounting, I don't like it. And, she is on salarly......no overtime pay.
The compensation on larger companies might not be as bad. As a salary member you might not get time 1/2 pay, but overtime is available a regular rate. One of the greatest benefits of salary employees is the Perks" that are associated. For example I'm offered a dental plan for for $105 per year for my family. My wife gets free eye insurance, medical is paid by employer. As a salary employee I get a pay raise yearly as a hourly employee is determine by the AWD.
I do have a friend that works for one of the top 10 companies in US and after 10 years of work the employee is bested with a retirement plan. In my case I got to pay for a 401K....
I do agree that you work an average of 50 hours per week. Every company is different and we must decide if the type work is worth our time and effort.
There's a difference between Exempt and Non-Exempt employees at many large employers. Exempt positions are usually some form of management or non-line salaried positions. Non-Exempt positions must be paid overtime and are subject to the protections of all labor laws and are generally hourly wage employees who are legally required to be given a set amount of paid breaks and paid lunch periods, etc., even during Overtime. If the time in OT passes...I believe it's four hours... they are required to be given a 15 minute paid break. Exempt employees are not subject to these regulations and may be required to work as long as it takes to get the job done, but they generally have more freedom during their work days as well. There are also Protected Classes, such as age (40 and above), military service, ethnicity in some cases, etc. While no one speaks of it publically, Human Resource Departments often keep these in mind when making hiring decisions, not because protected classes are harder to initially fire, but because they have more tools at their disposal if they decide to sue for discrimination for wrongful termination. That's why most employers go through a lengthy process of documentation and performance standards being applied equally by management to all employees so that they can point to a judge if need be that they treated all employees equally. In my experience, both exempt and non-exempt employees are given the same medical and dental benefits. Exempt employees tend to be given more vacation days or have more Paid Time Off awarded to them.
It is easier getting through most doors with a degree, but I sat as a hiring manager for my department for years and the process usually begins with a screener, who's usually a good-performing non-exempt employee doing a stint in HR, doing an initial phone screening interview. If the applicant passes the phone interview, he or she is asked to come in at a certain time for a personal series of interviews. Human Resource employees conduct the first interviews, and they screen for potential issues that may adversely affect the company down the road. If they choose to pass the person on to an exempt manager/s on call for interviewing that day, then the manager him or herself interviews the candidate with a pre-set interviewing sheet of questions. He or she may not ask the person to roleplay, and has to be careful to keep to the approved questions. However, that manager is free to test the person's knowledge of what the job description entails, ask the person about his or her prior attendance, pose hypothetical questions to the candidate to look for reactions, etc. If the interviewing manager decides it's a go, then he or she usually informs HR at that point and then informs the Senior or Dept. Manager about his or her impression of the candidate and possible areas to focus further questioning on, and then that Senior/Dept. Manager will interview the person. If that interviewing manager says no, then he or she tells the interviewee thank you and that HR will be in contact within two weeks (usually) and escorts the person to the public lobby, etc. If the person is passed on to a Dept/Senior Manager, then he/she makes the decision at that point. It's often a battle between HR and Management because HR employees are given hiring quotas and must fill training classes by certain dates. They sometimes pass on candidates that line managers get red flags on and decline and it can get ....heated!!! Degrees can help, but a resume with prior experience and gleaming references that checks out, along with a business-like and appropriate appearance, being well-spoken and articulate, and speaking honestly about issues like past attendance issues, etc. go a lot further in my opinion.
Geesh, I have an interview on Wed morning. I am a hard working employee, no matter which job I've held - from pouring coffee at Starbucks to hairdressing to being part of corporate America. However, I'm a very nervous interviewee, always have been. It's not my forte. I'm intelligent, I've very well-spoken, I'm very professional (in appearance, demeanor & attitude & I don't tell inappropriate jokes on the job beginning with "A priest & a Rabbi walk into a bar..."), but, I freeze with the simplist of questions, because I have whirling thoughts in my head Re: "normal" questions & questions thrown at me for reasons I could never figure out, about dates/facts/figures/why I left certain jobs/why I want this job/why I relocated so many times/why I feel I can work in a male-dominated field/do I think I'm too young to be a manager/why would a hairdresser turned IT employee be of any value to us/why at my now advanced age of 47 am I just applying for Admin Asst positions... Oh my goodness, I'm breaking out in hives!
Between reading all this, pouring thru my 2 books "Fearless Interviewing: How to Win the Job by Communicating with Confidence" & "Negotiating your Salary: How to Make $1K/Minute", trying to figure out where on bloody earth this place is located based on mapquest directions & just being down right interview nervous, I'm thinking my options are:
1. Have someone else show up for the interview who can communicate easier, can negotiate figures professionally/intelligently, is younger & doesn't fall into any HR "red light" categories (like me)
2. Lie about my age, references, work experience, huge resume gaps, former salaries
3. Cry & beg
4. Just be myself, forget all the info I've been reading because it's leaving me speechless & feeling like a deer caught in headlights
5. Don't prepare anymore at all & totally wing it
I'm thinking 4 or 5, but, as I've always been a rather poor interviewee, perhaps 1-3 would be better. Yes, I'm being tongue in cheek. Yes, I'm also being serious. And, sometimes I also don't have any idea, how any of us, have achieved anything at all, given all the rules (which don't seem to make the best of sense), red tape (which doesn't appear to be in anyone's best interest) & red flags (which border dangerously close to oh, so many types of descrimination). And, honestly, I can't count, without a calculator, how many co-workers I've had who were unqualified, break all the rules, have loads of red flags, were only hired because they "do" fall into a certain group & contribute nothing to the workforce, but have made more money than many of their hard working co-workers.
I have to get on the interviewing circuit here shortly too. I've taken a year and a half off and it's time to support America again. 2006 will be the first year that I receive no W-2 for earned income! It's time to work!
But for you Baltic_Celt, just do 4 and 5, and picture the interviewer naked within reason. Once he or she is nude in your mind, picture ridiculous knickers on him or her and you should gain confidence quickly
I have to get on the interviewing circuit here shortly too. I've taken a year and a half off and it's time to support America again. 2006 will be the first year that I receive no W-2 for earned income! It's time to work!
But for you Baltic_Celt, just do 4 and 5, and picture the interviewer naked within reason. Once he or she is nude in your mind, picture ridiculous knickers on him or her and you should gain confidence quickly
Mark -
Thank you for your support. The company I'll be interviewing with is very small & a welcomed change from the mega-conglomerates where I've always worked. Despite size (4 total people), they have an extensive website. Wanting to do my best, I dutifully explored their website. I just saw a pic of the guy who'll be interviewing me. From a woman's perspective, think Antonio Banderas' handsomeness, doubled.
Picturing him in any state of undress will not help my situation...
Good luck with your upcoming interviews, too... Baltic_Celt
FutureWork: College Degree Does Not Ensure Rising Pay
Interesting article.
Wage stagnation, long the bane of blue-collar workers, is now hitting people with bachelor's degrees for the first time in 30 years. Earnings for workers with four-year degrees fell 5.2 percent between 2000 and 2004 when adjusted for inflation, according to White House economists. It is a setback for these workers.
Not since the 1970s have workers with bachelor's degrees seen a prolonged slump in wages. These workers did well during the last period of growth, with average wages rising 12 percent from 1995 to 2000, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Although earning a bachelor's degree is still worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in lifetime earnings, on average, the recent wage slump has affected a substantial part of the work force. About 30 million Americans ages 20 to 59 have a four-year degree and no advanced degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Studies have found that wages for workers with bachelors degrees were flat between 2000 and 2004, when adjusted for inflation, while confirming the decline for people with undergraduate degrees. When wages for people with bachelor's degrees declined in the 1970s, the cause was a flood of baby boomers entering the job market. This time, economists say, much of the blame goes to trends familiar to workers with less education.
Off-shoring, which has shifted manufacturing and call-center jobs to Mexico and India, is increasingly affecting the white-collar sectors of engineering and software design. Companies have continued their long effort to replace salaried positions with low-paid, nonsalaried jobs, including part-time and freelance positions without benefits. Those positions make up nearly half of the 6.5 million jobs created since 2001, said Paul Harrington, a labor economist at Northeastern University in Boston.
Not all college graduates are faring poorly. Starting pay is up for business administration, marketing and accounting majors, but down for humanities majors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Compared with 2005, starting salaries for accounting majors rose 5.5 percent this year, while those for English majors declined 4.1 percent. However, some experts say wage stagnation could become a permanent fixture for the bulk of four-year degree-holders.
Harvard University economist Richard Freeman, in his 1976 book, "The Overeducated American," detailed the previous erosion of graduates' wages. Today, he believes that college-educated workers will continue to see their wages erode due to the global labor market. Moreover, the pressure will intensify as China, India and other off-shoring hubs develop their own glut of graduates.
Still, a college education can be a ticket to higher-paying jobs. College graduates earned an average $51,206 last year, while high school graduates earned $27,915, according to Census Bureau figures. Those with no high school diploma earned $18,734.
There was an article in The Canadian National post yesterday saying that there is a huge surplus of degree'd people in South Korea and no work to be had while skilled trades needed help. This is a global problem. I saw an ad for construction workers to build a housing complex in Moscow as well.
A degree has its limitations in the real world. It is needed for Doctors,Lawyers and the like. Actual useful education can be had at other schools. Alot of university class material is infotainment. There is a flood of short courses on line at a good price such as Universal class. These courses offer C.E.U.s and certificates. They have a practical use in getting a job.The self life of learned information is short too.
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), but, let's face it. College is a business, and they like to make money off of the people who walk through the front door. Not everyone wants to walk those hallowed ivy halls, and they shouldn't be made to feel as though there is something wrong with them, when they choose a different route for their life.
FutureWork: College Degree Does Not Ensure Rising Pay
