In some professions, an employer will accept three years of experience in lieu of a college degree, and in some professions they won’t. So, I would suggest that the most productive way to continue this conversation would be to provide one or more answers to the following two questions.
In what profession is experience treated as being as good or better than a degree?
How can you gain that experience and get paid doing it?
Three possible answers to the first question are journalist, restaurant chef, and computer programmer. Some corresponding answers to the second question should be obvious. A fourth answer to the first question would be political campaign operative. I don’t know of a corresponding answer to the second question for that profession. (Maybe start out in paid interest-group fund-raising?)
In some professions, an employer will accept three years of experience in lieu of a college degree, and in some professions they won’t.
Clearly, this is impossible in professions that are organized as powerful guilds, assuming the guild imposes formal credentials as a condition of professional licencing, which is the case for pretty much all high-status professional guilds.
Thus in computer industry one sees quite a few professionals of high rank and/or expertise without a university degree, but this is absolutely unimaginable in law or medicine.
professionals of high rank and/or expertise without a university degree, but this is absolutely unimaginable in law or medicine.
I believe you are wrong about law—at least in many states in the US. Though you certainly won’t become a partner at a top firm without college and law degrees.
I believe you are wrong about law—at least in many states in the US.
I stand corrected, then. (And I’m happy to see another example of historical vestiges that still have some life in them!) I was going by the Canadian regulations, which allow no such thing.
Of course, even in the U.S. it’s nowadays a rare thing, and as you say, it’s not a realistic path towards high status in the profession. Whereas in the computer industry, both Microsoft and Apple were founded by college dropouts (and the latter is still headed by one).
For anyone high up in a political campaign, I imagine one can volunteer quite a bit to work their way in. I also know someone who tried to do this by working as a local canvasser, but those are apparently low wage jobs with no clear path to advance up the chain.
In some professions, an employer will accept three years of experience in lieu of a college degree, and in some professions they won’t. So, I would suggest that the most productive way to continue this conversation would be to provide one or more answers to the following two questions.
In what profession is experience treated as being as good or better than a degree?
How can you gain that experience and get paid doing it?
Three possible answers to the first question are journalist, restaurant chef, and computer programmer. Some corresponding answers to the second question should be obvious. A fourth answer to the first question would be political campaign operative. I don’t know of a corresponding answer to the second question for that profession. (Maybe start out in paid interest-group fund-raising?)
Any other answer pairs?
Perplexed:
Clearly, this is impossible in professions that are organized as powerful guilds, assuming the guild imposes formal credentials as a condition of professional licencing, which is the case for pretty much all high-status professional guilds.
Thus in computer industry one sees quite a few professionals of high rank and/or expertise without a university degree, but this is absolutely unimaginable in law or medicine.
I believe you are wrong about law—at least in many states in the US. Though you certainly won’t become a partner at a top firm without college and law degrees.
Perplexed:
I stand corrected, then. (And I’m happy to see another example of historical vestiges that still have some life in them!) I was going by the Canadian regulations, which allow no such thing.
Of course, even in the U.S. it’s nowadays a rare thing, and as you say, it’s not a realistic path towards high status in the profession. Whereas in the computer industry, both Microsoft and Apple were founded by college dropouts (and the latter is still headed by one).
For anyone high up in a political campaign, I imagine one can volunteer quite a bit to work their way in. I also know someone who tried to do this by working as a local canvasser, but those are apparently low wage jobs with no clear path to advance up the chain.