Oct

07

2011

“Applicant must have college degree”; overblown need?

by Skip

If you walk around the Right blogosphere, you will see a lot of folks talking about the "education bubble" – lots of folks who were told to go to college, took on lots of debt, and now are either unemployed or underemployed.  The overriding problem seems to be the overemphasis on the credentials to do certain work only if you have a degree.  This?  Not so much at this bastion of conservative thought:

National Review is seeking a receptionist for its New York City office. Position is full-time, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., starting in November, and includes some editorial responsibilities. Benefits are included. Applicant must have college degree. Please send résumé and cover letter to kmurdock@nationalreview.com.

Sure, am giving them a bit of an assist on advertising the position, but really, a college degree to be a receptionist?  Now, I have nothing against receptionists – there are some great ones that I’ve had the pleasure to meet and some I’d rather not meet or talk to again.  Let’s be serious, though – one does not need a college degree to answer the phone, do filing, track packages, do mail related packages, or a number of other tasks that receptionists often do.

Nor does one need a college degree to be a software engineer either!  Some of the best I ever met made it through high school and then picked up a keyboard for the rest of their lives.  College?  In a lot of cases, for a lot of positions, I do believe it is unneeded.  I remember posting (in here somewhere) about the Ivy League graduate who bemoaned that, after getting her degree in early childhood education, she’ll never be able to pay off the student loans based on the low pay.

 

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by Skip Murphy

Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom (and how Government is taking that away from us). My fight, from a Conservative (with small "L" libertarian leanings) and evangelical Christian perspective, is with the Progressives that are forcing a collectivized and secular humanistic future upon us. As TEA Party activist, citizen journalist (and pundit!), my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture again.

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  • http://weekendpundit.org DCE

    I’ve run across this problem with the director of our division. He seems to think that a degree is necessary in order to work within our engineering department. He seems to think we should all have Master’s or Doctorate’s to do the work we do. He bugs me about going for a graduate degree. I’ve told him I will neither waste the time or money. As I pointed out to him, he has two guys with PhDs and four guys with Masters. I also reminded him that I have three patents, all of which the company uses to make money, and I’ve just filed for two more, both of which the company will use to make even more money. Among his PhD’s and Master’s guys: none.
    One of our former PhD’s, now departed for consulting work, has told me more than once I have PhD level knowledge and ability, in some cases that it surpasses even his. All a graduate degree will do is provide me with is a piece of paper confirming what I know what I already know.
    Like a lot of techies, I am an autodidact. I learn it faster and better on my own rather than sitting in some classroom. (I suspect that were I to pursue the piece of paper, I could probably teach the very classes I would be required to take.) It also helps the MIT has their entire curriculum available online.
    This reminds me of something I saw on Instapundit: The question was asked “Would you rather have a degree from Princeton, but no real education, or a Princeton education without the Princeton degree?” Sign me up for the latter.

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