Education versus experience.

In the beginning there was only experience. Wisdom was obtained by doing and learning thru action. Over time, man began sharing life lessons and educating others. What evolved were teachers and doers, leaders and followers. Then along came education.

1939- Business executives, who do most of the hiring, were less impressed than hopeful parents by a college diploma. Some 42% of them favored a high-school graduate, only 29% a college man.

2012- Those on both sides of this debate would agree that success in the classroom, combined with experiential education through internships, is the best of both worlds for “real world” preparation.

2013- It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk

Below are quotes I have seen or heard more often than not:

Keep aside experience, a firm of high caliber shouldn’t hire anyone without a college degree minimum, period! An academic degree is not merely a testament of theoretical knowledge or technical skills but more an emblem of intellectual maturity and conscientious and rational decision making.

“College graduates are just more career-oriented.”

“Going to college means they are making a real commitment to their futures. They’re not just looking for a paycheck.”

“It’s a buyer’s market for employers.”

 “You know, if we had someone here with just a G.E.D. or something, I can see how they might feel slighted by the social atmosphere here,” he says. “There really is something sort of cohesive or binding about the fact that all of us went to college.”

No matter our education level, we must grow. I have long been heavy in experience and light in education. But with the changing tide I have quietly been working on a degree to remain competitive in today’s workplace. Yesterday the standard was a High School Diploma, today the Bachelors is almost the new minimum standard to be considered for a salaried position. Tomorrow is already showing signs of additional credentials and Master level work to advance in a career.

Today more than ever it is critical to not only continue learning, but to be able to document said learning in the form of a degree. Unless of course, you invent the next “flux capacitor” that makes education and time irrelevant.