Do You Use Your College/University Degree?

[Frequitude]

Hard technical skills, no. Soft skills like problem solving, work ethic, and team work yes.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

You are right. I am in IT as well and I found most of the skills and knowledge I need is either from training courses the company sent me through or from Google searches.

The university degree I got helped me get an alumni discount on insurance and I don't even know how much it saves me...

Saves you a little but not a lot. Alumni is the bottom of the group insurance discounts

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Coach

Can I ask why?

Minimum qualifications of the management positions dictate as much. When the min quals are for a masters, you need to have that degree.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by New Era

Minimum qualifications of the management positions dictate as much. When the min quals are for a masters, you need to have that degree.

phew thank #### I don't work for you company.

[para transit fellow]

My degree is outdoor leadership. I use about half of it everyday now that I work for a non-profit as executive director. The part I don't use is all the biology courses as my degree was through a kinesiology program. I do use the biomechanics / kinesiology study of human movement from time to time -- which surprises me to this day as they were the classes I really hated

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Undergrad degree in Philosophy and English? No.

Law School degree in, um, law? ...Still no.

Okay yes, I couldn't be a lawyer without going to law school, but realistically 90% of the useful stuff you learn is learned on the job. Honestly I've often thought my philosophy background has served me better to help think things through.

A law degree teaches you to think like a lawyer.


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[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by blankall

Also a lawyer. Definitely use the legal research skills I learned.



Overall, law school needs an overhaul though. It should be more like a trades school, where hard legal skills are learned. Currently, you just touch on actual legal skills tangentially during course work.



The law school profession more or less acknowledges this, but continues to use law school in a gate keeping function. Law school is more about demonstrating your work ethic to potential employers than it is about learning.

I hear what you are saying, but law firms are for teaching the actual legal skills.

Law school is to give you the basics and teach you to think like a lawyer.


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[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

phew thank #### I don't work for you company.

We consider ourselves blessed with that fact as well.

[jmac98]

It’s been mentioned in here already, but oftentimes a degree simply shows dedication and commitment to ones future with a supported ability of a willingness to put the Effort and investment in on their own accord. When sorting through resumes and interview scores, the applicant with a post secondary backing shows investment in themselves. While anyone can be willing to be trained on the job, people with a resume that shows post secondary regardless of the field always have a leg up when all other aspects remain relatively equal as it supports not only their willingness to learn but also their ability to be successfully taught.

While a degree may not directly correlate in terms of the content transferring to a role, you are still picking up valuable components like critical thinking, alternative learning approaches, and general knowledge often transferable to any role.

Beyond that, many people have to be reasonable when considering if their degree is used in their job or not as some people select a major then on their own accord don’t pursue the field. The fellow who started this thread for example says he took theatre management but realized after there weren’t a lot of jobs in that field. It’s not really fair to lay blame on not using your education directly in your line of work if you yourself select something then don’t pursue the field. Not picking on the thread starter here, just using his experience as an example. To reinforce though, his post secondary experience almost surely aided in support of his application to his job regardless.

Edit: technical theatre. Not theatre management. Apologies

[blankall]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

I hear what you are saying, but law firms are for teaching the actual legal skills.

Law school is to give you the basics and teach you to think like a lawyer.


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Fair enough...but I learned to think like a lawyer within the first year of law school. The last two years of course work were less useful and mostly just consisted of memorizing obscure laws that I will either never use or can easily look up.

Law school should have a more trade school-like design, where you are trained to think, write, do research, provide submissions, etc... instead of tangentially learning those skills via course work, the actual content of which you will use very little.

Once again, law school shows more about your character. If you can stick out 3 years of law school (on top of the undergrad you've likely already done), you can probably deal with a lot in the office.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by New Era

Minimum qualifications of the management positions dictate as much. When the min quals are for a masters, you need to have that degree.

You work in government?

[troutman]

I don't think I would have had the same level of adventures, friends and romances outside of university.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by peter12

You work in government?

I did. The same expectations exist in many verticals like government, education, healthcare, and the private sector. There are jobs where minimum qualifications are set and you must meet that minimum level, and graduate degrees are common requirements at certain levels or in certain jobs. In some industries you can't get in without those degrees.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by blankall

Fair enough...but I learned to think like a lawyer within the first year of law school. The last two years of course work were less useful and mostly just consisted of memorizing obscure laws that I will either never use or can easily look up.



Law school should have a more trade school-like design, where you are trained to think, wright, do research, provide submissions, etc... instead of tangentially learning those skills via course work, the actual content of which you will use very little.



Once again, law school shows more about your character. If you can stick out 3 years of law school (on top of the undergrad you've likely already done), you can probably deal with a lot in the office.

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

Law school should not be a trade school.

You will learn those skills based on what area you will eventually practice in once you begin your articles.

I didn’t need to memorize anything in law school, all our exams were open book.


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[timun]

Originally Posted by blankall

law school should have a more trade school-like design, where you are trained to think, wright, do research, provide submissions, etc...

:d

[Coach]

Originally Posted by New Era

Minimum qualifications of the management positions dictate as much. When the min quals are for a masters, you need to have that degree.

Can I ask why? Why does someone who is a built in manager at your company due to their work ethic, experience and likely good report with the staff need any extra education? What are they going to learn in a management degree that they haven't picked up working in a real business environment under (presumably) competent management?

I get that the minimums are just part of it, but somewhere someone put that in. It can be taken out, no?

[peter12]

I have never heard of a graduate degree requirement in any sector outside of government or higher education. Definitely never in the private sector.

[Johnny199r]

I use my law degree in order to be a lawyer. I use what I learned from my English degree far more as a lawyer. Lots of people in my profession have terrible writing skills.

[para transit fellow]

Back in 1980, I took a career counselling course. First thing we covered was that our group memebers could expect to change our careers an average of seven times in our working life.

The fact I only use half of my degree right now fits fine with that prediction.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by peter12

I have never heard of a graduate degree requirement in any sector outside of government or higher education. Definitely never in the private sector.

America