Mediocrity Rules

Part of the problem with getting hired when you don't have a degree, but have plenty of experience, is that the menial functionary to whom your resume goes in the human resources department has a degree, and is on the inside of the whole structure. Like any bottom-of-the-totem-pole group member, he or she is not interested in opening up their club to a whole group of new blood, so they're more than happy to consign your resume to the bottom of the heap.

Without a degree, you give this faceless minion a convenient excuse to protect his fellows from your drive and experience showing them up. The truth is, they'd rather have a dull tool with a degree than someone who has the fortitude and real intelligence to make their way without a sheepskin crutch breaking doors open for them.

Mediocrity rules the roost, and it's not interested in having anyone come along to rock the boat. With a life-experience degree to supplement your track record, you can slip in under the radar and blaze a path that will leave those in your wake wondering what hit them.

Can you imagine being in a human resources department and not hiring Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer? The simple fact is that in the monolithic business climate today, he wouldn't be considered for even an entry-level job at a company like IBM or Dell because he doesn't have a college degree. Imagine that.

Another problem those of us without a degree face is the new employee. Here we are, doing a great job and succeeding, and some fresh-faced youngster fresh out of the local college is hired to be our new boss. To compound the insult, we get to train the new hire, imparting the benefit of our years of real work experience, so the rookie can in turn become our boss and of course show us the "right" way to do things.

How many times have you had to help some rookie unlearn the misconceptions drilled into his soft little skull by a professor with little or no real-world experience in what he taught? "Those who can't, teach," is an enduring maxim because it is by and large true. Tenured professors don't compete with anyone, and thus are under no pressure to ensure that their knowledge and skills are still sharp and relevant.

So you're stuck training a young man or woman who, even if they are well-meaning and intelligent, has most likely been taught outmoded concepts or methods that have little or no use in the real business world. Of course after you train them, they'll be making twice your salary, and by the time the next office holiday party rolls around you'll be lucky if they can still call you by name.

Unless you get a degree, you'll continue to make it easy for those doing the weeding to cast you on the reject pile rather than give you the respect and consideration your experience deserves

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