I currently hold an Associate’s Degree and work in hospital administration. Through talking with my professional coworkers, some have agreed that someone with little or no post-secondary education could probably learn and do their job within a reasonable amount of time.
Thus I ask: given that I have half a Bachelor’s Degree and a good head on my shoulders, could I successfully learn and do your job which requires a Bachelor’s or professional degree? Why or why not?
You could eventually learn to do anything given enough time, but you won’t be doing my job any time soon.
Do you know the friggin’ difference between it’s and its? More importantly, do you care about the difference?
You’re good to go.
You can’t do my job without a license to pratice law. You can’t get a license without passing the bar exam, and you can’t even sit for the bar exam in this state without a law degree from an accredited law school. You generally can’t get in to law school without a 4 year degree…though there may be some exceptions. So, no, you can’t do my job without more education.
This. And even if it were possible, it would still be really tough to do self-taught, as the multitude of Stoid threads has shown us.
Nope. Even if you know a metric buttload about European History, American Government, Economics, and Debate, you still have to have the paperwork to be able to teach in the public schools. And believe it or not, there are actually things that need to be learned in Education classes. Not many, but a few.
I guess I should’ve put this in my OP: What do you do?
In response to Oakminster: I wasn’t asking if I could get your job without a degree, just if I could do it.
Monkeys could do my job. Monkeys do my job. Can you read? Do you have a shred of common sense? Basic analytical skills? Can you write correspondence that doesn’t read like a text message from dyslexic 11 year old? Then you can do it, and if you’re like everyone else around here, you’ll complain about how difficult it is (even though it isn’t).
What I do: Bank Stuff
I agree with this. I believe almost anybody could learn to do almost anything if given enough time and motivation. To do my job your math skills would need to be excellent.
My job now is being a grad student. Um, I don’t know if you could do it. Sometimes I feel like I’m failing at it. (Especially the parts where they make me take math classes, the bastards.) Can you read a lot and do research and criticize research methodology and write memos on random crap? I suppose it would depend on what you’re good at.
My last normal office job? Hell yeah. A trained monkey could have done it, let alone an intelligent person with half of a degree.
Legally you couldn’t do my job (GC/MS lab technician in a drug testing lab). Federal guidlines state only people with biology or chemistry degrees can perform the test. Practically, you could do it. Most of my day is checking graphs to make sure peaks are clean, ratios are in, and writing down the results. There’s also a lot or maitenance involved, but if you can follow directions it’s not that difficult. About the only time my scientific degrees come in use is if samples are consistently bad, and since there are so many other people with degrees and experience around me that wouldn’t be truly prohibitive.
I don’t have a degree.
But it would take you at least 10 years to achieve a suitable standard of chess so you could teach chess professionally to highly-rated pupils - like what I do. 
**ultrafilter **- I appreciate the spirit of your comment, and in an abstract sense, agree. I think you are an engineer and do pretty tech-heavy stuff, right?
I am a business executive - I run a number of parts of the small company I work for. Could “you” do my job? I think it would be tough, in the way that **ultrafilter **and other folks describe - there is simply a lot of stuff to learn about the business if you don’t already know it, so “you” would likely be years away from having a base-level grasp on the business/medical sector I operate in. But beyond that, there are at least a few “intangible” things that I think would make it even tougher for many folks to play this role:
a Top-Down, conceptual perspective - the ability to pull back a level, see all the crises and moving parts going on a daily basis and use that to understand where you need to take the company to continue to see improving results.
Strategic Planning toolset - okay, maybe you are great at thinking conceptually, but you also need a toolset for framing strategic ideas and translating them into a set of prioritized projects, resource needs, budgets, etc. This is one of those skills that is explicitly taught and can be mastered - but it takes years. A lot of people think that strat planning is esoteric, ivory-tower noodling - it’s not; it is a discipline, like any other business function. But few people get exposure to it outside of business school, or maybe consulting…
Leadership abilities - some / a lot can be trained, but at some level, you have to both *want *to be in that role and able to make hard decisions. I think it is understood that those qualities are harder to come by than we’d all like to think…
Consensus-building amongst leadership - …and also, you may be able to make the hard decisions, but can you function as part of a leadership team with a bunch of high-powered, ego-driven peers and figure out ways to get your agenda moved forward while they are trying to do the same thing…
Architect
With the degree you have now–No. You could do some of the tasks I do, but in my opinion you wouldn’t be able to do my job.
With that degree and 20 years experience—probably yes. But in my opinion you would always feel inferior to the other Architects. I believe some states will still allow you to eventually get a license without a degree but they require a boat-load of experience working under a licensed Architect. The few people I know in my life who had gone that route way back when it was more common, all seemed to have a chip on their shoulder about not having a license, etc.
Currently most states require an architectural degree from an accredited school, 3 year internship and membership in an intern development program (IDP) just to take the exam.
Probably.
The last ‘real’, 9-to-5 job I had was as the Art Director of a printing company. I could teach anyone the basic mechanics of various graphics programs, and setting up pre-press, using various imagesetters and processors and such, but the aesthetic/design portion of the job would take some art background (not necessarily a degree) and quite a bit of experience.
When I got the job my degree was a minor (verrry minor) consideration to the boss; my experience in the field and a strong portfolio is what actually sold him.
Sure, but you would have to learn a lot of chemistry first. An easy way to do that is to get a degree. Then another one. Skip the M.S. though, as they’re not good for much.
It’s interesting though the difference between “doing” a job and “getting and keeping a job”. I’m also a business executive except that I happen to own the company I work for. I agree that Agent Foxtrot couldn’t do either of our jobs. But if he and I literally switched bodies he’d be free to try until he made enough unfortunate mistakes that the business went under, whereas if he switched places with you he’d be fired for making those same mistakes.
I mean, it’s one thing to say “ignore legal requirements that keep one from obtaining a job”, but to really do most jobs I think you’d need to say “and pretend I can’t get fired when I make a bunch of huge mistakes while I’m learning the ropes”.
Yep. I do accounting and admin work and have learned it all on the job. I regret having gone to grad school at all except it did bring me to where I am today, but it was completely unnecessary and unrelated to what I’m doing.
So true - jeez, I keep waiting for the Fraud Police™ to come tap me on the shoulder and tell me that they finally found me out and want to know how I thought I was ever qualified for this job!
I think that is just the nature of the beast when your job requires big decisions in a constantly changing environment…you have to get comfortable - NOT with “knowing the answer” (because you’ve never encountered that situation), but instead, what it means to make a good decision in uncertain times…
I think the question being asked is (or should be) this:
Imagine I was a temporary worker and for the next month asked to fill in at your job while you go on vacation. I have a great work ethic, a good head on my shoulders, and I tend to pick up concepts and techniques efficiently. But I’m do not have your degree/higher training/certificate/license to do what you are legally able to do.
But we’re ignoring what the law would say. Yeah, you can’t go out and sell homes without an A-OK from the board of Realtors. I can’t perform surgery without a medical license. Blah blah blah. Could I come in and do your job? Could I perform it competently?
For me, the answer is yes. I have a law degree and it’s quite helpful but in no way is it a requirement to what I do. I work on city construction contracts, enforcing compliance with various sections.