Mid Career- Do I need a degree?

Hiring manager here, been working in IT for about 20 years, mostly medium to large sized organizations. I've seen this come up a few times. It seems to come up in two broad scenarios. First scenario, there is a job opening and someone has an internal candidate in mind already -- who doesn't have a degree. They will lobby to pull the obligatory college degree requirement in the job description and will usually get their way. If the position is senior and more execs have to sign off on the hire, or possibly a board, it might become a referendum on the value of a degree (have seen that happen once). Second scenario, the position is being competed on the open market and there is not a candidate on the inside track. In that case, a degree is one of the first things that shows up in the minimum qualifications and no one has a reason to take it off the list. The HR people are screening the applicant resumes for minimum qualifications, so if someone applies without a degree, the hiring manager is never going to see that resume. As long as we are getting a sufficient number of quality resumes, this system works fine. The comments made up-thread about progressive-thinking management or the value of experience and reputation just don't come into play because of the "minimum quals" process most organizations use to winnow down the applicants. Summary: you aren't stuck, but there are certainly some caveats. The larger the organization, the more not having a degree will hurt you. For getting (internally) promoted, not having a degree probably won't harm you. Applying for jobs that are being openly competed will be more difficult because of the minimum qual screening I described above. Certain industries value degrees more than others, and there are organizations where you need a Masters or a PhD to progress above a certain level.

As much as I hate to say it, and as valueless as both my BA and MBA are, sometimes you've just got to tic the box. When I was being laid off from AT&T, I thougth I'd return to school to become a CPA. I figured I'd do the 6 courses needed, and then sit the exam. I applied to, and was accepted at a local state university, where they informed me that none of my credits, either from my BA or my MBA would transfer. The idea of doing 4 years of University with a bunch of kids....did not appeal. So I didn't do it. Most corporations have Tutition Aid for folks who want to complete their degrees, about $5650 annually. Apply to the closest state school, and find out how long it would take to complete your degree. You can probably do a combination of night and on-line classes. Georgia State University is now accepting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course as transfer credits. And they may have an on-line degree program. The other thing is that in tech jobs, certifications are nearly as important as degrees. I'm an Admin in Salesforce.com, but I'm not certified. Most people will want to talk to me anyway, but sometimes it's enough to keep me from making the short list. Whatever you do, don't go to DeVry or University of Phoenix. If you're going to invest time and money in this endeavor, go to a real school. Like Arizona State. *wink*

I hit a wall career progression wise recently, which prompted me to (somewhat begrudgingly) go back to finish a degree to prove that I could do the job I've been doing for the last decade. The school I picked allows for a lot of CLEP credits, and I am also in the process of working on getting rid of over a semester's worth of classes via prior work experience credit. It's still going to be two years before I'm done. I think there is definitely a bias if you don't have a degree in a lot of places. However, there are some companies who don't care, but I've found them much harder to find in the last 5 years or so. I can't say definitively if this is changing any time soon. I spent a long time deciding if it was worth it to me to go back, and ultimately settled on yes. I had spent my last few interviews explaining why I didn't have a degree, and I got passed over for a job purely because of my lack of degree. I think the key is whether it's important to you and whether you see it as a problem moving forward.

I work at a digital agency, and it always seems to me that degrees matter less and less as you get more senior. Experience, reputation, portfolio - these are the only things I really see discussed. If you're on the client side, your experience of course may be different. If you do go back to school , upgrade with a professional designation of some sort - I doubt a straight up general degree will get you anywhere.

It really depends on your company. More progressive-thinking management probably sees your experience as more valuable, but there are many companies out there that see a degree as proof that you can succeed, work through the problems that school presents, etc.

Its pretty crazy. I work in IT, and I have had jobs for which "a degree is required". Good thing I've got that unrelated degree in Music! At some places, that's all it seems to take, you can tick a box that says you have a degree. If you personally want to go back and get your degree, then I would say Go For It! If you are doing it just for your career, I would look around, talk to people informally (at the pub after a few beers, if that's your thing) and see what they think about career progression, in your city and field without one. If it is seriously holding you back from where you want to be, then yes you should do it. But as kololo points out, experience, reputation, proven track record ... worth more than a degree in my view (and hopefully those in the organisations you want to progress in).

If I was in your shoes, I'd consider going to a biz school and getting a degree in something like operations management, or maybe one of the social sciences like economics. And I'd try to convince my boss to pay for it. I wouldn't recommend a "tech" degree because you'd learn so little given your level of expertise. I can't imagine anything more tedious than getting a degree in something you already know.

This seems like a situation where one of those "executive MBAs" might be just the ticket.

I would agree with those advising to pick a business-friendly, upper-level-attractive professional designation plan and go for that. As someone also without a degree who was really going places without one, all it took was one shuffle into an organization with more rigid ideas about the importance of a degree to topple me pretty far down the ladder again. After a couple of lengthy bouts of career questioning and re-balancing in that time, I've learned that even though some of us make it very, very far without a degree, it usually works best and longest for people who own and run their own business in addition to already having accrued capital. In order to keep moving upward and having more independence, a degree seems to be a necessary accessory. It can't hurt. congrats, though, on achieving what you have on self-education and diligence alone! I know it's not easy, especially with the self-doubt that kicks in.