How are you Monetizing using your Degree or Certificates

[mrs.b]

That doesn't make any sense. The significance of the achievement of better pay is relative. If someone goes from making minimum wage to $10 an hour after obtaining a degree and another person goes from making $45k to $35k, I'd still say that the latter is doing better.

I understood what you meant, and you're right. Everyone goes after a degree for their own reasons. Some, like Upton, choose a degree for personal fulfillment with the knowledge it will downgrade pay scale. Others, like me, go after a degree purely for the knowledge to work with more confidence, and added job security. If you go after a degree for increased wage and opportunity, though, you expect something more than a few cents an hour and a need to job hop for any kind of upward mobility; that's why I would say some upward mobility - even a little bit - is better than someone who made a certain amount, got a degree with the expectation of increase, then had to downgrade. Success is something we measure by relative scales, and my measurement will differ from yours, so you are right.

Prior to the bottom dropping out of the economy, people without a degree had to slog through minimum wage jobs and small incremental wage increases to eventually get career experience to demand higher wages, but getting a degree was a means for young people to bypass that long and annoying trek. Unfortunately, since the employment market swirled the economic toilet, that shortcut is no longer there for most. I hate it for everyone stuck in that circle that shouldn't exist. If you make an investment in education, there should be a better reward...for both mid-career sorts as well as new entrants to the job market.

[sanantone]

Ironically, the degree I am pursing will never make me as much money as I make in my current job. I am a union electrician pursing either a history or sociology degree. Education is about more than the pay for me. One day I hope to attend graduate school abroad. The thought of doing electrical work for the next 20 years is horrifying.

I didn't get the degrees I got to make a lot of money; I just got them so that I wouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. If I could get a job just teaching history, I will be making a lot more money than I make now. I tried to get an associate's in computer science a few years ago, but found programming to boring and tedious. I probably would have had a much better paying job by now, but I wouldn't have been happy.

[clep3705]

Nothing.

I spent an enormous sum of money to obtain another degree to give me the knowledge, skills, and legal standing to do volunteer work benefitting people struggling to get by.

[mrobinson]

CLEP3705-Thats good not everyone can do that, would you mind clarifying "Legal Standing" I only ask because I am studying to get my AAS as a paralegal at my local CC. However I feel like I am not going to be able to depend on that for financial support. Therefore I may have to use my computer skills to make money on the side which was part of the reason I was asking people the question. I am one of those people that likes to have a backup plan for my back up plan.

[Dude]

College degrees don't guarantee higher income (and apparently they also don't guarantee that someone can spell properly, even though most browsers have spellcheckers these days, contrary to popular belief there is a difference between "fairing" and "faring", learn it if you want to get a real job).

People who are good at life will either get decent employment or start their own business whether they have a degree or not. A degree may give you an advantage to land an interview over those who don't have a degree if the applications are otherwise equal, but that's rarely the case in the real world. What happens a lot back in reality is that those who don't have degrees have actual practical experience instead which often far outweighs any college degree/experience. Would you rather hire someone who spend the last 4 years in college, or the last 4 years actually working in a position for which you are hiring?

It's a total myth, perpetuated by everyone who makes money off of higher education, that you need a college degree to make it in the world. How do I know? I legally came to the US a couple of decades ago without a penny, and without knowing the language. Today I work for an accredited college, earn a ~$70k salary + excellent benefits, and I still don't have a degree (though I may just clep out of 6 humanities credits to get a BA in General Studies since I have enough across the board credits to graduate).

The Bachelor degrees are pretty much useless with the only exception potentially being engineering degrees. The other degrees just don't teach students enough topics and skills that are relevant in the real world. I have hired quite a few people working for the University in the past 10 or so years and I have often hired someone with no formal education if they could demonstrate that they can do the job. In fact, I once fought the HR department over me not wanting to include that at least a High School diploma is necessary for the job. I insisted that High School wasn't necessary, what was necessary was knowing C#, .Net, and JavaScript. There is a skill test during hiring and there's an interview, for both it's totally irrelevant whether someone spend years of their life and thousands of dollars on a degree.

My advice to those who want a job is; Learn to program.
You can make a killing if you are able to tell computers what to do, and all the resources you need to learn those things are freely available online. If you spend your time learning a programming language and becoming good at it you will earn significantly more than these fluff BA degrees will ever net you.

[sanantone]

College degrees don't guarantee higher income (and apparently they also don't guarantee that someone can spell properly, even though most browsers have spellcheckers these days, contrary to popular belief there is a difference between "fairing" and "faring", learn it if you want to get a real job).

People who are good at life will either get decent employment or start their own business whether they have a degree or not. A degree may give you an advantage to land an interview over those who don't have a degree if the applications are otherwise equal, but that's rarely the case in the real world. What happens a lot back in reality is that those who don't have degrees have actual practical experience instead which often far outweighs any college degree/experience. Would you rather hire someone who spend the last 4 years in college, or the last 4 years actually working in a position for which you are hiring?

It's a total myth, perpetuated by everyone who makes money off of higher education, that you need a college degree to make it in the world. How do I know? I legally came to the US a couple of decades ago without a penny, and without knowing the language. Today I work for an accredited college, earn a ~$70k salary + excellent benefits, and I still don't have a degree (though I may just clep out of 6 humanities credits to get a BA in General Studies since I have enough across the board credits to graduate).

The Bachelor degrees are pretty much useless with the only exception potentially being engineering degrees. The other degrees just don't teach students enough topics and skills that are relevant in the real world. I have hired quite a few people working for the University in the past 10 or so years and I have often hired someone with no formal education if they could demonstrate that they can do the job. In fact, I once fought the HR department over me not wanting to include that at least a High School diploma is necessary for the job. I insisted that High School wasn't necessary, what was necessary was knowing C#, .Net, and JavaScript. There is a skill test during hiring and there's an interview, for both it's totally irrelevant whether someone spend years of their life and thousands of dollars on a degree.

My advice to those who want a job is; Learn to program.
You can make a killing if you are able to tell computers what to do, and all the resources you need to learn those things are freely available online. If you spend your time learning a programming language and becoming good at it you will earn significantly more than these fluff BA degrees will ever net you.

I spotted a few grammatical errors in your post, but it's not your resume. I worked more years than I spent in college. I tried programming and found it boring. I'd rather rip my hair out than program for a living.

[Jonathan Whatley]

People who are good at life will either get decent employment or start their own business whether they have a degree or not.

The just-world hypothesis (or just-world fallacy) is the cognitive bias that human actions eventually yield morally fair and fitting consequences, so that, ultimately, noble actions are duly rewarded and evil actions are duly punished. In other words, the just-world hypothesis is the tendency to attribute consequences to, or expect consequences as the result of, an unspecified power that restores moral balance; the fallacy is that this implies (often unintentionally) the existence of such a power in terms of some cosmic force of justice, desert, stability, or order in the universe.

Just-world hypothesis (Wikipedia)

It's a total myth […] that you need a college degree to make it in the world.

I think everyone who participates here would agree with this.

The Bachelor degrees are pretty much useless with the only exception potentially being engineering degrees. The other degrees just don't teach students enough topics and skills that are relevant in the real world.

How do you suggest – in the world we live in now – an interested person should train to become a scientist? A health care provider? A teacher? An accountant?

I have hired quite a few people working for the University in the past 10 or so years and I have often hired someone with no formal education if they could demonstrate that they can do the job. In fact, I once fought the HR department over me not wanting to include that at least a High School diploma is necessary for the job. I insisted that High School wasn't necessary, what was necessary was knowing C#, .Net, and JavaScript. There is a skill test during hiring and there's an interview, for both it's totally irrelevant whether someone spend years of their life and thousands of dollars on a degree.

Does every other field work this way? How would you feel if the hospital taking care of you or someone you cared about hired their entire staff based on-the-spot skill tests and interviews, with absolutely no reference to degree-level education? I would be surprised if you even, in your hiring decisions, really treat college education, even in fields besides engineering, as worthless or nearly worthless except to break a direct tie.

[Dude]

Just-world hypothesis (Wikipedia)

Pretty sure you misunderstood what I was saying. Good at life doesn't mean being a good person, it means being good at understanding how to get ahead in life. It's possible to be a good person at the same time but that's purely incidental and not a requirement. If anything I was suggesting the exact opposite of "just-world". Life isn't fair, neither is it meant to be, it's merely an extension of survival of the fittest. Those who are fit for life will succeed whether they have a degree or not.

How do you suggest – in the world we live in now – an interested person should train to become a scientist? A health care provider? A teacher? An accountant?

Obviously some fields require formal education due to professional standards which are applied, but it's worth considering that you simply cannot become a physician racking up credits at WGU or some such. The degrees offered by the higher ed institutions that allow you to test out of a lot of courses or have some easy going attitude when it comes to taking your money and providing you with a passing grade are not graduating people with degrees in molecular biology or similar fields.

I do agree that IT is one of those fields where what matters is whether you can do the job and not whether you have formal training for that job. I also agree that the same standard doesn't apply to some other fields. At the same time you'd be hard pressed to find a B.A. degree where one can seriously argue that it's worth the time and money invested in it.

[andrewtn]

Dude - I'm not sure who you are preaching you message to. If it is just a rant then I think we get it. This forum is filled with people that AREN'T spending tens of thousands on a degree. Most of the people here are using the options available to get their degrees for the least time and effort possible. As a newcomer to the forum you'll be told that you can get a degree in ~1 year and ~$5,000. I think it would be difficult to argue that the RIO isn't there in this case. Statistically it is fact that those with degrees will make far more in their lifetimes for having the degree than the few thousand dollars it costs. If your point has to do with those private school degrees that cost $100k plus and strap young people with tremendous debt then I don't think you'll find anyone to argue with you here.

I don't have a degree and I've been making + 6 figures since I was 27. I'm almost 32 now. Hell, when I was 21 I was making ~40k and I bought my first house. Thats in the midwest where the cost of living is pretty low so its good money. You don't have to tell me a degree isn't necessary because I know, I've lived it. I guess that makes me good at life but that doesn't mean a degree doesn't matter at all.

I guess I just really don't get the point of your message. Sure, a degree isn't for everyone. Sure, simply having any degree isn't going to cause a drastic change in most cases. Regardless of our personal success stories it doesn't change the fact that a degree is a basic requirement in many (not all) professional positions and if one can be had for a few thousand dollars it is probably worth it. In my case I'm knocking out my degree to ensure that the lack of a degree doesn't limit me in the future. I'm also completing my degree for the personal achievement of having done it, setting an example for my children, and because my parents believe in the value of it and really want it for me.

There is an aspect to your original post that I support. I see too many coming out of college with general degrees that end up working retail jobs. Degrees in marketing or communications seem common to those I know in this situation. What I would like young people trying to decide on a degree to know is that simply having a degree doesn't cut it anymore. There was a time that with any degree you could find work and a decent wage. Not now. If you aren't established in a career I would recommend an engineering or science degree in a specialized field where the degree will provide you with a definable, marketable, in-demand skill. Computer programing is a great example. At my job we hire computer programmers fresh out of school (no experience) in at 40-50k a year and we have to fight out competition to get them. The guys and gals coming out of school knowing how to program Java or C have a skillset that is very marketable and highly demanded in the workplace. On the other hand I know people like my brother in law that have bachelors degrees in business admin from good schools but can't land a decent job.

[scorched]

I agree with andrewtn.. I don't have a degree but have been in 6 figures since 1998, starting 2 years after my military service all without a degree.

My reason for getting a degree has nothing to do with elevating me necessarily, but instead just ensuring it doesn't eliminate me from future jobs.
And I can't figure out why your even on this forum. You come in these threads and just do nothing but throw hatred and act like your some big shot. Clep your 6 credits and move on.
You even tried hijacking my thread with your opinion on IT certs, which I didn't ask for, I asked if certs would apply to prior learning assessments.

So admins forgive my sins.
But while your all warm an cozy with $70k a year and "good benefits", put this in your pipe an smoke it. I get a check for $7k every 2 weeks as my base salary($6965.23 to be exact). I make in 20 weeks what takes you a year, then add on my $18K a quarter in MBO's, $15K a year in stock, $3K a month expense account, 30 days paid vacation, 10 paid holidays, 5 sick days and a ZERO deductible health insurance plan for the whole family, plus I have $1M in life insurance. Lets not talk about my 401ks and stocks I have, people would come hunt me down. Then I have consulted to the fortune 100 and the US largest agencies on everything from laptops to high performance computing platforms, and "big data" systems. And in the last 5 years, I have stood up many so called fully automated "cloud" environments, I am even sick of the word cloud. I am not even as close as you, to a degree, but I have done so much beyond your 10 year "accredited college" job thats its a joke. So please save your comments of how knowledgeable in IT you are and take your grammatical corrections elsewhere.

We are on this forum to be helpful to each other, give encouragement, and just be kind to fellow humans in this crazy world, where to some who are not as fortunate as you or I, that a bachelor degree does indeed make a difference.