When I first got into my career of choice almost 10 years ago now I started to make a realization when applying to jobs. The requirement for a batchelor’s degree would always lower my confidence in getting a callback for the job. I was going to school at the time but instead of skipping over those jobs that required a bachelor’s degree I decided to apply to them instead. I mean, worst they could say was no, right?
I realized that the more I would apply the more callbacks and job offerings I would receive, even though I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree. The requirements were put there to weed applicants out. Eventually I dropped out of school entirely and never even received my associate’s degree (I only have a HS diploma). I started an entry level job in my field and started to gather some experience. Over time I would gather more experience in my field and I would apply to jobs that required even more experience than what i had, they also required a bachelor’s degree. On the applications I would always say that I had a batchelor’s degree. I started to feel bad because I was lying about the fact that I had a degree. I also had it stated on my resume. But i was always confident in my ability to perform the job functions required in the job description so i would shrug it off and keep applying.
Then one day I came across a chart online similar to this one that basically says, a bachelor’s degree is equivalent to four years of experience working in a field. By this time I had about 6 years of experience. After I read that I stopped feeling bad about putting it on my applications and resume.
To this day, almost 10 years later, I have still never been questioned or challenged on the fact that I have a bachelor’s degree in my field. I have never been asked for proof of my degree, contact from the school, or validation of any kind from a job including the job that I currently work for.
My point behind this post is that degrees are way more pointless than we think. Jobs only say they require these to weed out applicants and deceive. I say, use their same tactics of deception against them. Don’t let the “associates/batchelor’s degree + 4-10 years XP” or whatever bullshit get you. If you’re confident in your abilities to perform the job functions being asked just fucking send it.