Are degrees really that necessary?

Good Morning Everyone, active duty military guy here who's making a career change from healthcare to IT. I don't have a degree in IT/IS/CS, but I'm seeing it as a requirement for even entry level jobs. I'm planning on getting my A+/Net+/Sec+ over the next 90 days, and I'm hoping that will be a viable substitute in place of an actual degree. What are your thoughts on this? Any hiring managers willing to chime in? Thanks in advance and have a great day!
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If you're going to just do certs though, I'd consider also grabbing some equipment for a home lab and tackling some projects with that. You might find some value in actually working with equipment along with your cert studies, and it'll give you something cool to talk about in an interview.
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Some areas are more "strict" than others - have higher requirements.
If you already have a degree and/or background in medical, I'll say it's probably unnecessary for you in total for now as it stands.
Go for the Net+, get a Cisco cert or two, and apply to medical providers. You "should" be a shoe-in ... I know you would be in my area.
You still have to interview well and have the right experience.
If you have no college degree at all, then it might be harder to find an entry level IT role.
Get tbe CompTIA certs you listed and you should be able to find an entry level IT role.
--Alexander Graham Bell,
American inventor
I would go read Bryan Caplan's book "The Case Against Education" it provides a nice overview of why employers like to see a college degree on the resume, despite the fact that none of the classes are really relevant to the job in question. It all has to do with what Caplan calls a signaling model.
They will pay us more, if we can get through all these classes with boring and irrelevant information. I'm doing my Associates Degree currently and will graduate in less then 11 months, but I'm not at all excited or have high hopes for any better prospects depsite this. I'd like to see some results after i graduate but I'm not all that hopeful.
The good news is I will be debt free, and I will have gotten more certs at my current job. So its not all bad.
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Exactly. There are numerous employers, including the one I work for now, that require a degree just to get your foot in the door. Experience is almost always better, but...acquiring that experience can become quite difficult for many jobs. Obtaining a degree has never been easier. So, unless it's purely a financial reason, enroll somewhere, especially if you're entry-level, looking to break into the industry.
While a degree may not be essential for some jobs, degrees can help gauge appropriate reading, writing, and comprehension levels for numerous intermediate to advanced positions. If I'm an employer, I expect a person to be able to communicate above a seventh grade academic level (seventh grade is about average for Americans---meaning, plenty of people are actually below that level). To me, degrees prove you have discipline. If a person can't follow-through on 2-4-6 years of education, can you really expect them to complete projects that are equally as long? Doubtful.
Either way, how does a 22 year old demonstrate the necessary discipline to enter into a STEM field? Without experience or degrees, you just have to take their word for it. The risks outweigh the benefits. Thus, this is the reason why many employers require at least some form of post-secondary education. The position I'm in now requires a bachelor's degree. The degree screening process is at least partially responsible for the highly capable people I work with.
Are degrees always the answer? Certainly not. But, I would never say degrees are ridiculous. A good portion of modern society is being driven by those possessing degrees.
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You mentioned this:
"Either way, how does a 22 year old demonstrate the necessary discipline to enter into a STEM field? Without experience or degrees, you just have to take their word for it."
I would say certifications would be a great way to display competence in a certain field. For programming or graphic design, portfolios would be a great way to display competence in a certain field.
You mentioned this:
"If a person can't follow-through on 2-4-6 years of education, can you really expect them to complete projects that are equally as long? Doubtful."
I would disagree with you here as well. 2-4-6 years of employment in the field and working on similar projects at 8 hours a day, 20 days a month, for 12 months a year would better prove discipline than 1 hour a day per subject plus homework for 8-9 months out of the year. Perhaps this is just my opinion from seeing too many recent degree grads trip up frequently when entering the workforce.
You mentioned this:
"Are degrees always the answer? Certainly not."
I certainly agree with this. I will say, certifications aren't always the answer either. I have seen "paper warriors" in this industry that seem to be able to cram and memorized certification questions, but not be able to practically apply their knowledge in the field. Also, not all job experience is equal either.
sorry_not_moose, you mentioned this:
"I don't have a degree in IT/IS/CS, but I'm seeing it as a requirement for even entry level jobs."
I'm certainly not a hiring manager. I do agree with the majority opinion on this thread that it depends on the organization and job for which you're applying. I'm seeing the same thing in terms of there seems to be a lot of requirements for degrees for a lot of these organizations for even entry level roles without consideration for experience or certifications. It's frustrating to me because it's by enlarge not the right approach by industry to achieve their goals. It is what it is, not what it ought to be. That's just my $.02.
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Whenever that happens, you're going to wish you had a college degree on top of every other potential leg up you could get compared to others.
What are you going to do when your résumé comes up against a person that has certs, degrees, and experience? Some IT degrees allow the person to obtain all the certs by the time they graduate. See WGU.
That is ultimately the greatest obstacle---your résumé being compared to other résumés. Much of this comparison process happens automatically by scanning keywords. Meaning, you won't even make it to interviews, purely based on the keywords missing from your résumé. HR offices, everywhere, are already using that kind of software.
And, even companies that physically review résumés, HR looks for keywords as well. Did you really think someone is personally reading all the content in each résumé, in a stack of a 150 résumés? Résumés that don't have a degree listed on them go straight to the trash (at least for many jobs).
There are 11.5+ million people working in technology in the United States. Competition for the higher paying jobs is stiff. As others have stated, it really depends on the job and the employer, but...there are still tens of thousands of employers that require at least some college. In my opinion, it's just too risky to one's career to skip college. Diplomas have never been easier to obtain. My advice? Enter a program. Obtain a degree in something you love.
Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
Here is the lesson: https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/index.htm
The other issue I see is the government at the Federal and State level are over-promoting STEM education and these PSA commercials give the impression that you won't amount to much in life if you don't receive a college education.
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I agree with your statement regarding STEM, but they are just looking at growth and seeing that we both need more folks and it is “easy” to recommend because folks tend to make decent money.
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https://www.ups.com/us/en/services/resource-center/earn-and-learn-program.page
https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-college-achievement-plan-frequently-asked-questions
https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/06/04/walmart-adds-14-tech-degrees-certificates-to-live-better-u-college-offering-expands-debt-free-college-to-high-schoolers-and-creates-graduation-bonuses
Others: https://www.estudentloan.com/blog/10-companies-will-help-pay-college