Is There a Point to Finishing a Degree After 40? (interviews, college degree, employers)

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by LizfromtheBronx

My question is pretty much the thread title...here's some more context.

I'm soon to be 40, am currently well employed in as stable of a role as one can ever truly predict. Currently on an upward trajectory and a promotion to an Associate Director/Director level role is on the horizon within the next year or so. I have a solid resume, have been working nonstop since I was 19, and am very employable. My salary has increased more than 50% in the last 5 years, and I expect to match that in the next 5.

I have no doubts that if something were to happen to my current position, I wouldn't have a ton of trouble finding a new job - I'm in NYC and in healthcare advertising project management. Lots of different paths I could take from here, and a wide network to connect with for new opportunities.

I currently have 57 credits toward a bachelor's degree. I've gone back several times and completed a few courses, but the interest just hasn't been there to finish. I enjoy learning, but in a less structured way. I'm very intelligent, and understand that the degree could provide value to my personal development, but am starting to wonder if it'll provide any real ROI professionally.

When my current manager and I were discussing my goals at the beginning of the year, I mentioned maybe putting something in there about finishing my degree. She looked surprised and said she didn't realize I didn't have one (she's who interviewed me when I joined the company) - and said that since I had a solid resume with tons of relevant experience that she probably just didn't bother looking for it, since it wasn't an entry level role.

I've always said I was going to go back and finish....but now I'm starting to think there's no point. Earlier in my career, I may have needed it, but now I believe my experience speaks for itself. Am I kidding myself in thinking this?

To be clear, I can afford to go. I'm just not interested in putting in the time it would take to complete part time - probably at least 3-4 years. I used to want the personal satisfaction, but there are a lot of large life goals looming in the next few years and I'm trying to prioritize. The other goals are much more important to me.

I'm also semi-limited in what schools I can/will choose - 27 of my credits are from UOP and should transfer. The other 30 are CLEP credits and CUNY (City University of NY) schools have for the most part stopped accepting those. SUNY (State University of NY) still accepts them, and there's a school nearby that I could attend. I refuse to pay for a private school unless I have some sort of tuition reimbursement, which my company currently doesn't have - they're in talks to introduce it within the next few years though. I'd prefer to attend a brick and mortar school over another online program.

Hit me with your thoughts

Quite honestly forty isn't that old, and you've at least two or more decades of employment to look forward to, and you don't know where your career/profession will take you.


That being said right or wrong today many employers want to see a four year degree regardless of previous experience. It is just how the workplace is moving these days where even secretaries, assistants and receptionists are required to have a BS or BA degree.


Case in point know plenty of nurses who graduated from AAS programs decades ago and now in their forties, fifties and beyond are being told (or forced if they want to keep their jobs) to go back for their BSN. This and or those looking for promotion and or other career moves are told they need that four year degree to even be considered.

[LizfromtheBronx]

Originally Posted by ApePeeD

You may want to get it.

In case you're fired and need a new job.

Because you don't have a degree.

Unless I'm interpreting your post incorrectly....suggesting that I'll get fired for not having a degree....that I never claimed I had...is a little bit much. Just sayin'...

[parentologist]

Get it. There will soon come a day when you need to apply for a position, and they won't even look at you without a BA. The reason that she was surprised that you didn't have one is because she's surprised that you were able to get that position without a BA, and that if anyone had noticed that you didn't have one, you WOULDN"T have gotten that position. Just take a course or two every semester (3 semesters a year), and eventually it will be done.

[ceiligrrl]

congrats on all you have achieved!!!!
Tonight I heard that right now 70 percent of Americans do not have college degrees. Though you have strived to thrive, & succeeded wonderfully, I do worry about our ability to compete in this very very small world now, these global economies are ratcheting up the demand for high technology jobs. We have candidates from foreign countries working at UNC research jobs that you think could be filled by Americans but that is not the case! No wonder almost 7 million jobs are out there with not one qualified person able to fill them. How will we keep up with other developed countries? Heck, Chinese kids sometimes commit suicide if they can't get into the very limited higher education universities!!!!

I think the main reason one should get a college education is because, well, it's just i believe it's very important to be the best version of yourself, & being in a class w/highly diverse opinions, cultures, backgrounds is so darn necessary in such a shrinking planet. I taught, my students were all on probation, parole, suspended & were NOT bad kids, they were kids living in bad situations. I often had 7th-12th graders in my class. I taught all subjects. I stressed clear writing skills, vocabulary, American History & World History which often opened the door to discuss economics, a subject most kids don't get until college. My salary was so low, I had to have 2 extra jobs in order to raise my kids, but again, working with that specific population was more satisfying for me than working with the more motivated kids.
I am not an elitist who believes you are only deemed "educated" with college. Not at all. I know great-grandkids of former slaves who worked in tobacco fields from the time they were 6 years old here in Narrowlina, & I know their grandmothers who sharecropped, raising sometimes as many as 12 children. Some of the smartest people I have ever known, but they had no opportunity born in such stultifying poverty. I met the nicest man in Virginia who never went past 5th grade, he was 93 years young, but what a thinker, reader he was!!!! He read 2-3 books every week, was an amateur geologist &astro-physicist, self taught on banjo, guitar, mouth "harp", drums. what a guy!!!! I adore Bill & Melinda Gates who pay outright for first generation to be college educated kids. I believe community colleges, that often turn out our first responders, nurses, counselors are the backbone of higher education. I want more opportunities for everyone to get a formal education because there IS a thing as a beautiful mind, carefully trained, able to clearly think, cull all the weeds of misinformation away, know where truly reliable data exists. i also now volunteer as an English as a second language instructor, have helped over 200 immigrants in the last 12 years study for their naturalization exams. I am still in touch with over 50 percent of them, each one has gone on to develop wonderful careers, have productive lives here. I am so proud to be a part of that, especially now that I live in a state that has banned ALL Syrian refugees from ever entering this state. SO shameful. I think any education past the rudiments of 12th grade, affords a person to become a better version of themselves.Education is an achievement in life. Sure, there are those who will cite that other statistic that those with a college education will, in their lifetime with a specialized career, earn more than 1 million dollars than drop outs with no higher education at all. I don't think money should be the main consideration. I went to one of the most challenging private liberal arts schools in America and I am darn proud I stretched myself in an environment totally alien to me, it made me a better person, a more embracing of diversity person. It really matters that one learns to get along with many different people who are not a clone of yourself. I wish you continued good luck in your life and hope your already beautiful mind becomes more luminous and lovely

[jobaba]

If you have serious aspirations of maxing your salary in your current career by advancing, then get it. If you're that serious, then give yourself every advantage.

If you have any doubts that this is the career for you, then don't get it.

If you're somewhere in between, then I'd say ... don't get it.

BTW, if you ever do get laid off, then you'll get tuition paid for or unemployment benefits and maybe both and be able to knock off the degree in a very short time.

[HappiVanderer]

My opinion is that you will regret later not finishing it now. I would finish it just to have that extra security and I strongly advise you to go a cheap route but with a real university.

[my54ford]

Originally Posted by LizfromtheBronx

My question is pretty much the thread title...here's some more context.

I'm soon to be 40, am currently well employed in as stable of a role as one can ever truly predict. Currently on an upward trajectory and a promotion to an Associate Director/Director level role is on the horizon within the next year or so. I have a solid resume, have been working nonstop since I was 19, and am very employable. My salary has increased more than 50% in the last 5 years, and I expect to match that in the next 5.

I have no doubts that if something were to happen to my current position, I wouldn't have a ton of trouble finding a new job - I'm in NYC and in healthcare advertising project management. Lots of different paths I could take from here, and a wide network to connect with for new opportunities.

I currently have 57 credits toward a bachelor's degree. I've gone back several times and completed a few courses, but the interest just hasn't been there to finish. I enjoy learning, but in a less structured way. I'm very intelligent, and understand that the degree could provide value to my personal development, but am starting to wonder if it'll provide any real ROI professionally.

When my current manager and I were discussing my goals at the beginning of the year, I mentioned maybe putting something in there about finishing my degree. She looked surprised and said she didn't realize I didn't have one (she's who interviewed me when I joined the company) - and said that since I had a solid resume with tons of relevant experience that she probably just didn't bother looking for it, since it wasn't an entry level role.

I've always said I was going to go back and finish....but now I'm starting to think there's no point. Earlier in my career, I may have needed it, but now I believe my experience speaks for itself. Am I kidding myself in thinking this?

To be clear, I can afford to go. I'm just not interested in putting in the time it would take to complete part time - probably at least 3-4 years. I used to want the personal satisfaction, but there are a lot of large life goals looming in the next few years and I'm trying to prioritize. The other goals are much more important to me.

I'm also semi-limited in what schools I can/will choose - 27 of my credits are from UOP and should transfer. The other 30 are CLEP credits and CUNY (City University of NY) schools have for the most part stopped accepting those. SUNY (State University of NY) still accepts them, and there's a school nearby that I could attend. I refuse to pay for a private school unless I have some sort of tuition reimbursement, which my company currently doesn't have - they're in talks to introduce it within the next few years though. I'd prefer to attend a brick and mortar school over another online program.

Hit me with your thoughts

Not worth it for me.. I'm out in 8 years.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by markjames68

The sad part is that a “secretarial school” actually brought you something practical. A degree often doesn’t impart applied knowledge particularly useful for the workforce.

When a HR filter asks for a degree there is no “but wait, I have the equivalent and more”. It’s binary.

Degree inflation is a real thing. The reason I’m so high on the option I took is it puts one over on the system - the one which has people taking out tens of thousands of dollars in loans and taking 4 years. Maybe great for an 18 year old but no so much for a 38 year old.

My oldest son is nearly a teenager and I’m going to see if he can get an associates degree done by this method by the time he starts college. At worst it reduces the cost and timeframe somewhat.

I agree. Where I worked, using CLEP was actually a way to move forward without a degree. They had something back then called the Junior Management Evaluation, which was a test that could make people in the clerical and maintenance ranks eligible to apply for the lowest management positions. To take this evaluation, you either needed a college degree or X number of years at the company coupled with a set average score from three of the General CLEPs, one of which had to be English. I took the CLEP and did the evaluation exam, which included a written presentation, defending a decision on how to manage an employee who'd violated company policy on sexual harassment (mid-80s, mind you!--I fired him, which they said was a bit harsh but accepted my logic), and then you were given another situation on which you had to make a decision and sit before a panel of three actual upper management staff who threw questions at you about your decision.

Anyway, I passed it and after six years of secretarial positions, I moved into the lower management ranks and then just moved forward over the years. It was never automatic--I learned how to do and took on responsibilities above my pay grade when the chance came up; for example, if someone went out on maternity, or someone else left, etc., and I presented my strongest skills in situations where they were someone else's weakest.

But it all comes back to NOW, you need that piece of paper to be looked at, and it doesn't always matter exactly what the piece of paper says. One of the high-level managers in the budgeting department had a degree in Bronze-age Archaeology.

[Propop]

If you are going to go into student loan debt to attain a degree the answer is....NO...! In fact, many companies are starting to bypass degrees altogether. Here's some information I came upon that is quite interesting:

Even large companies are changing the way they are hiring and not requiring a degree:

"At many companies, having a college degree is simply the price of admission for landing a job. A Bureau of Labor Statistics report released in June 2017 found that occupations that typically require some type of post-secondary education made up nearly 37% of employment in May 2016. The most common requirement was a bachelor’s degree. But some labor experts say it’s time to toss degree requirements except in situations where they’re necessary. Many of the degree requirements demanded simply aren’t necessary to do the job. Degree inflation–requiring a college degree as hiring criteria for a position that doesn’t require it–is making the U.S. labor market inefficient.

"Research estimates that by 2023, some 40 percent of student loan borrowers will default. And waiting in the wings for new employees is a line-up of companies that have crossed off college degrees from their list of requirements. It’s a line-up that extends into Silicôn Valley even.
Take G00gle, for instance, whose former SVP of People Operations, Laszlo Bôck, feels that strict college degree requirements could lead to employers overlooking some of the best minds out there.
“When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings. And we should do everything we can to find those people,” the New-York Times quoted Bôck as saying."

The increasingly tight labor market, where leaders are scrambling to find talent, may force them to take a more inclusive view, considering people who are trained through community college programs, formal and informal apprenticeships, career program partnerships with community groups, and other job-training programs.Companies job postings now are suggesting “college degree or equivalent work experience. Except for specific jobs where a targeted, accredited degree is truly required–such as a certified public accountant or attorney–“we do not have a mandatory, company wide higher-education requirement for working at Penguin Random House U.S.,” she says. These companies include Apple, Google, IBM, PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Ogilvy Group, Penguin Random House, and others. Degrees don't have the value like they used to. "

"A couple of decades ago, a high school diploma was sufficient to get a job in journalism or business. Now a bachelor's degree is required. Where a bachelor's degree was sufficient to get a job in research, now a master's degree is required. Where a master's degree was sufficient to get a job in university tutoring, now a PhD is required. The number of people gaining master's degrees has doubled from the early 1980s to the late 2000s. The PhD, once a niche qualification for the few, has become the definitive qualification of what it means to be an expert today. That's three to six years of debt, without any increase in wages at the end of it."

The rules of the game are changing and a college degree "ain't what it used to be." You shouldn't feel guilty about not having a degree as many of the worlds entrepreneurs and richest individuals either didn't go to college or dropped out. In addition, colleges are becoming liberal enclaves where "people are not educated they're schooled." However, if you want to take a course on the side, like an online course, do that. Or perhaps your local community college has some free courses? Other than that, you're doing fine....keep going as you are....! Good Luck!

[TamaraSavannah]

Let me see....finished my first BS at 23, needed that to get into the Navy. Finished my second at 39, I think since I was running out of time of my catalog. Finished my first MS at 43, my second MS at 49.



The basic point is.......never stop learning.