Experience vs. college degree

I think Tom Petty and I already covered that one, but thanks for your input.

 

now frank's busting my balls ... WTF?

i'm not a religious sort of person, but some nights i go to bed and thank the baby jesus frank isn't my boss ... i really do.


(jesus fuck frank, i'm just kidding )

 

Hey, if I worked for Frank, I think he would have sent me to divinity school by now.

 

How many of today's really good YOUNG journalists don't have degrees?

Yes, I have worked with a dude or two whose degree meant less than nothing to work ethic or quality of work produced. And I have worked with plenty of dudes whose lack of a degree meant nothing. But I've also worked with dudes who had a degree, and were among the hardest-working and talented people I have known, and I have known dudes who had no degree and maybe could have used a bit of classroom time for things like taking those infernal weekly AP style tests.

It is well-documented that years ago, you didn't need the college degree to become great in this business. You didn't need one to break in, you didn't need one to learn what you needed to know to become a journalist.

But the business, like many others, is changing and has changed. Sometimes the degree can be a tiebreaker for those who hire. It is folly to dismiss a quality candidate just because they don't have a piece of paper that says they managed to pay attention in class for four years and now have a mountain of student loan debt (heck, a youngster without debt might be a better hire, since they won't moan about needing more money to pay off that debt).

Yet . . . . it's also foolhardy to dismiss the value of a degree, not necessarily to quality of work, work ethic or talent. But rather, its value to those HR people and editors who are trying to wade through and weed out a lot of applications in a job market where supply exceeds demand to an obscene level.

 

But the point that we're making, Norrin ... is that if you're weeding out resumes based on the lack of a college degree ... well, to each his own. I wouldn't, that's all.

Personally, I agree with fishwrapper: There is no mold, no Yellow Brick Road for what it takes to be "a good journalist." A degree is important, but it's not any more or less important than about a dozen other factors. That's all anybody's really trying to say here.

A degree can't hurt. Won't necessarily help, but certainly can't hurt.

Then again, in this era, an aspiring journalist is not exactly putting himself ahead of the game just by getting one. Really now, how many millions of 23-year-old, suburban white male, college-paper SEs in polos and khakis are out there nowadays anyway?

Which is why, for me, I value some of those other factors (ideas, experience, attitude, versatility, initiative, etc.) over formal education without any hesitation.

 

Fair enough, buckweaver . . . . . . can't say I disagree in regards to a degree's relative importance to print journalism.

But as the business continues to change for the worst, and more people find themselves leaving the newspaper life . . . . . at that point having that degree becomes a very good idea.

And that's why I would urge everyone who is considering sports journalism as a career to get that degree. To have more options when you decide on a career change.