bzzzzt!
Absolutely, entirely, unequivocally, (and in every other way), Wrong!
I am willing to grant that some employers put too much emphasis on hiring people with letters after their names rather than seeking people who are qualified for their jobs,
However,
In every job I have ever had, the best employees were the ones who had the most unrelated experience prior to their hiring. I am not saying that experience in the particular field is not a plus, it certainly is. But in addition, the better employees have additional experiences beyond that. College provides that “extra” experience without having to go hold down seven extra jobs in four years.
The worst employees I have encountered were those Computer Science graduates who had managed to find four year trade schools where they could take almost nothing but Computer Science throughout their school career. They could describe aspects of the operating system that I did not know existed, but they could not deliver a simple report to a user without having their hands held all the way through. Or they would deliver exactly what the user ordered without ever finding out what the user needed. (And I am talking about ones that I met who had been out of school for several years.)
It is not even being able to think outside the box (which college only gives the few who look for it, anyway). It is the issue of dealing with multiple conflicting demands simultaneously, (like having four profs each assign 120 pages of reading per night), of “reading” the boss or the customer to provide the best work that will be acceptable, (like having papers due to one prof who demands that the college stylebook be revered above Scripture and another prof who will throw anything from the college stylebook in the trash and demand that all work follow the Chicago Manual of Style), all the while discovering that one prof (boss) will take off points for style of clothing while another prof (supervisor) will reduce one’s grade for not using (or for using) PC language.
In the midst of all this valuable preparation for how the real world acts, you get to lounge around reading Shakespeare, Moliere, Aeschylus, Milton, and a hundred authors that you will never have the time to read once you’re out.
Now, the joke that has been making the rounds in recent years has an all too real sting to it:
Q. “What’s the most important thing to learn in college?”
A. “How to say ‘Would you like fries with that?’”
What the degree says to an employer, however, is that the individual had the gumption to put in four years (and a lot of money), persevering through all kinds of bullshit, and putting in enough effort to get decent grades. The potential employee, then, is rather less likely to be a quitter, they are more likely to be able to exchange information without confusing themselves or their correspondent, they are less likely to be flummoxed by new words or new meanings to old words. Are any of these things absolute? Of course, not. There are lots of kids who find ways to get through school on a bluff. But college still acts like a filter to a certain number of twits, so employers still like to see it on the resumé.
On the other hand, for a great many careers, there are ways to snag summer intern positions that will let one find out whether that career is “right” for the individual while adding actual “experience” to the resumé.
. Though your first line seems at odds with the last.
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