Diploma 'arms race'

[grauwulf]

rickyjo: I think it depends on what you're after. College can be a wonderful learning experience, but it can also be in the way. Most people on this board, I suspect, are already in their job doing what they want to be doing so it's just a matter of having the paper.

Story time with Grauwulf! I was recently offered a job at a large contractor company with the initials NG. I told them upfront that I was "expecting my degree in May of this year" but somebody ticked the "has a degree" box (not me) anyway. I was made an offer at X dollars. When I pointed out the error and noted that while I expect my degree in May I do not currently have it. "No Problem! we'll just correct that." They did correct it. They also lowered the offer by about 25% (for the same position). I said no thank you.

So, what does this tell us?
1) there is a real value to having a degree. In this case many thousands of dollars.
2) the employer places no (or very little) faith in the degree. They still offered me the same job.
3) people are afraid to think for themselves. If somebody stopped to think they would realize that this is just stupid, but they don't. They don't want to be responsible for taking action, so they follow the guidelines set down by HR. HR has no clue what it takes to be a good engineer so they assume that in order to be 'good' you 'must have a degree'. End of story.

marianne202: I don't think that more 'education' is always a good thing. More knowledge, absolutely. If I spent all of my time acquiring academic knowledge I would develop tacit understanding.

Just a point of view.