To degree, or NOT to degree.......

In My Humble Opinion
1

…that is the question.

I’m usually pretty good at working these things out. But I could really use any sorts of opinions right now. I have a decent career, one I’ve been in for around 20 years, and it pays fairly well. However, I had to take a very painful cut in pay to move to the “lower 48”. Typically, in Alaska, expertise in one’s field goes a hell of a long way further in getting you raises, promotions and more job experience and responsibility. Not as much here in the states. A degree is what a HS dip used to be. But even there, having a degree would have furthered my career financially and prestige-wise.

I just can NOT seem to figure this out. I’m 51, so (if all goes right), I’ll be retiring in approximately 15-20 years. Is it worth it to take 4-6 of those years and subject myself to killing lack of sleep, stress, financial servitude and all that completing a degree (at my age) entails?

That is, will the boost in pay/bennies/kudos/prestige make up for the misery of the lost 4-6 years while I kill myself working fulltime and going back to school? Yes, I did the draw out the pros and cons on a sheet of paper thing, but it’s still chasing around in my head like a hamster on a wheel.

What would/DID you do? I’d be especially interested in hearing from my fellow gray hairs, who will understand the extreme decreptitude under which we labor! :smiley:

Thanks in advance

2

The answer would depend on what field you work in, I think. You are being too vague for anyone to give a good answer.

3

I was just having this discussion with my son, who’s 27 and who just barely got out of high school, although he’s very smart. I’ve told him and told him that he should get a degree, some kind of degree, from somewhere.

But, now that he’s making three times as much money as I am (and has been since he was 24), I just don’t think he’s going to believe me.

My financial advisor says a college degree will be worth approximately $400,000 to its possessor over the working life of said individual. Obviously, there is some kind of averaging going on, with me on the low end, because if I’d made $400,000 less I’d be living on the street right now. BUT…

For most people, on average, the working life starts either right after college, if you go, or right after high school. So you have cut off a goodly portion of your working life, even assuming the $400,000 figure would have applied. I don’t think you’re going to make it up before retirement age.

But, if it would put you someplace where you want to be, then go for it. There is a thing called CLEP that can speed things up somewhat if you do it, and sometimes life experience helps with that sort of thing. So on the one hand there’s the lost years, there’s the cost–people seem to be graduating with the most astounding student debts these days, I can’t believe it–versus whether you can make it up during the next 15-20 years and whether it will be worth it.

I’m all for lifelong learning, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t pay off financially. It might be worth it anyway if it’s something you really want to do.

The field is important, too. In some of them, education just doesn’t matter.

4

I have several friends who are in the same position you are… edging toward 40 with a ton of experience in their fields, but unable to switch jobs because they don’t have any degree at all.

Whatever you do, DON’T do what they’re doing–quitting working entirely to go to an extremely expensive university to get garbage liberal arts degrees, racking up tens of thousands in debt in the process.

If you decide to get “any old degree” just to have one (and it makes me mad that people have to do this, too), really do just get any old degree from any old cheap college. If you decide to get a specific degree that leads directly to a job in a competitive field, then start contemplating the more expensive options.

5

Lots of good state schools have online degrees where you work on it nights and weekends, no need to quit your job for that.

6

Your chances of getting a higher paying job in the degreed field you are looking for are slim to none at age 56 or over. Regardless of age discrimination laws, most companies aren’t going to hire an entry level professional that is over 40.

7

CanvasShoes, I’m fighting the same battle you are, tossing around the same “what ifs”, and with only a couple more years under my belt.

I agree you that a degree today carries the same weight that a high school diploma used to hold. It doesn’t always make a lot of sense, but quite often, human resource departments will not even look at a resume unless it contains some sort of post-secondary education. I constantly see examples of people with degrees that seem to have little knowledge whatsoever in their heads beyond shopping, getting drunk and “OMG, LOL, etc.” — and with no work ethic or visible common sense — and yet they have managed to get into careers rivalling or exceeding my own.

I’ve given this a lot of thought and made a number of inquiries. I even took a few university courses towards a B.A. In the end, I realized that, by the time I finished, nobody would hire me anyway — due to my nearing retirement age — so I decided I’d forgo the degree and aim for a certificate.

I’m taking distance ed courses towards a college certificate, but I deliberately chose a college that’s not too far away, so that the “distance ed” part isn’t so obvious. I figure a brick-and-mortar school would carry more weight on my resume.

My certificate requires six courses. I have finished two, will finish another one this weekend, and am registered for two more that will begin in January. I am hoping to take my final course in the spring.

There are frustrations. I find many of the policies quite idiotic. For example, I have a certificate in Microsoft Office software from 2000, use the software every day and am pretty much considered the “Microsoft Office expert” in my office. But my course requires participants to take “basic” Microsoft Office 2007, and the program director has determined that my certificate is outdated, so I must take the course again. I will have to pay $400 to demonstrate that I know how to use italics and can indent a paragraph.

I have a relative who has heard about similar programs and is convinced that the school will see how smart I am (“life experience”) and simply grant me a masters degree on the spot.

From my investigations, it’s not as simple as it sounds. You may be an expert at English Lit, but unless you’ve recently studied all the ins-and-outs of each character and the plot theories about whatever heavy novel a specific course is studying, you won’t necessarily do well on the exam.

There is also the “skills experience” route, but it’s not like someone will look at your resume and read a list of your skills and just hand you course credits. You often have to prepare a detailed portfolio along specific guidelines in order to get credit for a single course — a very structured task that would likely take as much time and effort as simply taking the course like everyone else, from what I’ve seen.

This is true, but I have found that it’s a lot harder to work full-time and take courses part-time than it was even a decade ago. My stamina and patience simply don’t go as far.

I’m finding that the courses aren’t difficult at all. Some of the exercises are downright stupid, IMHO. But you have to do them and they can be time-consuming. And it takes a long, long time to build a degree part-time and on weekends.

I apologize if I am painting the whole concept of going back to school with a dirty, dark brush. It’s just that I’ve found it to be less of an adventure than I’d originally hoped and expensive to boot. For what it’s worth, “I feel your pain”.

8

Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that may be useful. Let us say the degree takes you five years, and you will work for 10 years after graduating. Simply considering lost wages while in school, your post-graduation salary will have to increase by 50% to breakeven. For example, 15 years x $50,000/year = $750,000 vs. 10 years x $75,000 = $750,000.

If you will work for 15 years after graduating, the increase will have to be 33.3%. For example, 20 years x $50,000/year = $1,000,000 vs. 15 years x $66,667/year = $1,000,000.

This is a admittedly simple calculation as it does not consider things such as tuition costs, inflation, wage increases, etc. Even so, the 50% / 33.3% wage increases can give you a starting point for your analysis.

Whatever you decide, best of luck. I applaud your initiative. :slight_smile:

9

This is exactly the information I needed. I don’t honestly think it matters what field I’m in (unless it’s Quantum Rocket Surgery or something :D), but for those who are curious, I’m a mid-level science tech in the environmental field. A BS in Biology, or perhaps a geology degree would be the trick to move me up the ladder.

The thing is, at least from my past positions, I still get raises and interesting projects and responsibilities added on as I gain knowledge in my field (at least in my previous companies, I’ve only been at this one slightly over 2 months, and I’ve gotten a raise already). The thing I’m primarily denied is a promotion. At my last company, I was hired on at the highest level in my category, so there was nowhere to promote me to. However, I still hadn’t topped out wage-wise, so I was still getting raises.

I think you’re right and I just needed someone “in the know” to give the mathematical facts. And the primary reason I would think about doing it would be for the financial gain. I AM thinking however, since I do have some college under my belt, that I might have enough energy and money to at least finish an Associates.

Hmmm…food for thought, thanks so much!

10

THIS!

You’ve got another really good point. I’ve gotten hired because of reputation and expertise in my field, almost all of my knowledge is directly specific to the industry, very little is from any sort of college courses.

And I’m already in the industry and job I want to be in, so really, I guess it’s just a case of I want to make a little more money. (who doesn’t!). With college, as** HnSuze**, brings up above, would do the opposite, I’d be spending money and put myself even more into debt, and not have enough time left in my career to recover.

11

Sorry to multi post here, but this too is super good information. Yes, the pain and expense does seem to outweigh the dubious benefits. And YES, you’ve described exactly the stupidity of some of the courses. Easy and dumb, but huge time wasters. And you’ve also hit the nail on the old " I don’t have the energy for this anymore".

I forgot to mention it, but thanks to the poster who suggested CLEP, I’ll look into it. I also forgot to mention, I do have an industry cert which was a (whole!) year’s worth of college at an actual university requiring real stuff like college algebra. And I have a ton of industry specific training and certificates. And I’m constantly adding on to those.

Thanks again everyone, this is all excellent help, commiseration, and advice! :slight_smile:

12

Argh sorry I’m going to make even more of a multipost mess at the bottom of this thread! I was amiss in not making it clear that I didn’t plan on quitting my job, IF I did decide to do this, I’d be doing it while I work full time. To tell you the truth, it’d never even occurred to me that quitting my job would even be an option. Where would I live? How would I pay basic bills? How would I buy Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream!?:eek: :smiley:

I also didn’t mention (I suck at this asking for advice stuff obviously), was that I do have some college under my belt, the 4-6 years would be if I had to do this around my job schedule. IIRC from the last time I talked to my advisor at my previous college (early 2010), if I did full time school no job, I think it was around 6 semesters? Probably including summer semesters though.

13

Does your job offer tuition assistance at all?

One advantage I can see to getting a degree is that some jobs/companies have a hard and fast minimum educational requirement. I think it stinks—my husband has no college degree and outearns masters-degreed me—but the online applications will simply exclude you from the running if you don’t have the credential.

14

The older you are, in most cases, a degree isn’t going to matter. Companies are going to want to know what you DID with your career. Technical degrees and certifications are another story, but most hiring managers want to know what you did.

The thing is in this economy it’s a different game. Now your competing against others that are going to be exactly qualified as you. The days of the best candidate are over, at least for the short term. A hiring manager has lots of candidates equal or better than you.

Here’s what you do. Get a Google Voice number and make up a resume. Make this resume similar but not the same as your own. The only difference is add a degree to the resume. Then send this fake resume out. Then also send your own resume. See if you are going to get any more job interviews with the resume with the degree.

I’ve been in accounting and H/R, so I know hiring budgets have a scale for a job. So you’re not gonna get any more money than the budget dictates. Now there are some jobs with a policy of “no degree = no hire” and that’s something that is policy and you can’t change it.

I am all for degrees if you like the subject. If you love learning than it is so worth it. But if you’re just getting it to get more money, you need to sit down and do a hard think on the matter. And I wouldn’t take any loans out to finance it. You can’t default on a student loan as a credit card or mortgage, so they’ll be with you till you die.

So you need to figure out the cost of your degree. Then send out your fake resumes and see if how much more money you’d get. Then assign a value to the loss of your free time.

Then take your net and figure out how long it’d take you to pay it off.

As for the fake resumes, obviously you don’t go on the interviews, you don’t want to waste anyone’s time, you want to see if it’s gonna drive them to call you any more than with a real resume

15

You’re overthinking this. People get degrees at any age all the time. You know it will provide greater opportunities for professional and financial benefits over the next 15-20 years. The only question is whether you want to put in the work.

16

Yes, starting at 6 months, so I’ve got another 3 and a half months to get things really figured out.