CAN YOU ADVANCE WITHOUT A DEGREE?
by Darrell W. Gurney, CPC, JCTC, RScP
A Permanent Success National Career Coaching & Search Partners

How important is a degree in advancing your career? The answer is as important as you make it. Having a hard-earned degree is a plus-not having one is not necessarily a minus. However, it is helpful to know what you may encounter without a degree, particularly in an "assisted" job search involving headhunters who are unwilling to handle non-degreed job seekers. This hurdle is simply erected to cull those individuals less likely to be "placed" or considered less "marketable" to client companies.

Recruiters receive so many resumes every day that they focus on ways to reduce the stacks. Unable to be all things to all people, they isolate candidates most desirable to their clients. However, this doesn't mean an individual without a degree is more limited in opportunities than someone with one (or many). It comes down to a) how good you are at what you do and, b) how badly a company wants you. If you are a sought-after commodity, degreed or not, even recruiters will be pounding on your door.

Education doesn't end with a degree. One's first degree is simply a degree of "preparation,"… preparing for entrance into the school of life. In this school it's not just the paper on the wall that determines one's career success but rather, one's degree of advanced placement in particular "life skills." Calvin Coolidge referred to some of these when he said:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "Press On" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

Two cases in point:

1. I know of a non-degreed Senior Account Executive who was hired by a start-up dot.com a year ago at a base salary of $90K with bonuses to $150K. Prior to that, as Vice-President of Sales for a software solutions integration company, she earned $130K. What she had is what Webster's Dictionary defines as "chutzpah"-"supreme self-confidence: nerve, gall." She also had people and social skills. Of course, these qualities are essential in sales…but success in any field requires certain non-book attributes such as these.
   
   
2. I know a Hollywood studio Vice-President of Development. In academic terms, she possesses only an AA degree. In "life" terms, she has several Ph.D.s and earns well into the six figures.

Keep in mind, if you happen to be blessed with a degree or two, such worthwhile academic accomplishments-along with other requisite "life skills"-will take you as far as you choose to go. If not, fear not…simply focus on those qualities of successful living that inevitably translate into career growth and happiness. As a professional recruiter who has placed many individuals in corporate America, I have seen those developing themselves academically as well as personally go on to achieve very fulfilling careers.

About the Author: Darrell Gurney