To degree or not to degree...

i'll never say a degree doesn't help, because it does. but i've never thinned down the (resume) herd by looking to see if someone had one or not ... ever.

 

I wound up getting a job at a bumfuck 3,300 circulation biweekly while on break from college and haven't gone back yet in almost four years. I've worked my way up to a slightly less bumfuck daily since then.

 

I'd tell a kid to go to college, study philosophy or something as esoteric and shotgun as much Milwaukee's Best as your liver can stand. But make damned sure you're at the student-run daily by spring of your freshman year, and make damned sure they know you at the local daily.

A J-degree is not necessary, is all I'm sayin'.

 

what?

 

Most important thing I learned in college was how much I don't know.

 

i think they stopped teaching that several years ago.

 

I have a degree, but it certainly isn't in journalism. I am where I am because of my level of experience within the business, beginning doing Friday night football and working up.

 

I was joking, tp.

 

One of our part-timers is also a college student. He finished his associate's degree and is now at a four-year school. At some point during the transfer process he asked if we could hire him full-time. He was flat-out told by the sports editor and managing editor that he wouldn't be considered for full-time employment without a four-year degree.

The kid's wearing himself out trying to work (more than) 20 hours for us, plus go to school full-time... and we likely won't have a full-time opening to offer him when he finally graduates.

 

so what does that mean?

 

We've had other discussions on this in the past. I don't have a degree and it's never stopped me from getting a job, and I've changed jobs four times in the past eight years (moving to increasingly bigger papers).

 

A college degree is a formality. It means you finished that geography class, you survived Spanish and you somehow woke up enough times for that stupid-ass biology lab to get a C out of it.

How does waking up in time to learn about fungi going to make you better at putting out a good sports section?

One of my SEs is by far the brightest guy on our staff. Super worker, super intelligent. The only one who doesn't have a degree. He was hired full-time before his last semester and didn't go back. Judging by some people on this thread, you'd be surprised that he actually gets to use the same water fountains as the rest of us.

A degree is only good to have in the eyes of interviewers too lazy to look deeper.