I Don't Have a Degree....

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Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Way to go, Wayne! The degree is overrated. What you know and who knows that you know that are far more important.

[Rosa Say]

Gotta say, I wanna learn from you Wayne! Wit and wisdom in some of the best writing around. No one lets us have it plain and simple and delicious like you do!

[John Richardson]

Just how much does that piece of paper cost these days? Heck... When I was in college the degree for the current field I'm in didn't exist. They didn't even have calculators... much less computers back in the 70's. Go figure.

[Chris]

Go Wayne
I was a latecomer to the university thing and even as I took part I knew it really didn't actually mean much in the end. Lifelong learning will do it every time.
BTW I love your style. A little bit tongue-in-cheek and right up my alley!
Congratulations

[Dave]

Wayne, As a dad, some of the most memorable times spent with my daughter were during her college years...so I fully support the "because I said so" statement.

I've often thought about hiring personnel's position on folks with degree's. "Those people invested their time and obtained a degree." Ok. But have they kept current or pursued additional education? How many books do they read? How many trade journals, magazines, cd's, online courses, blogs, podcasts, etc?

[Leah Maclean]

In my area of technology degrees these days seem to be madatory. But the best technicians and engineers that I know don't have them - that have common-sense, the ability to tweak and tinker and ability to know what to leave alone.

A degree in many of the technical disciplines doesn't teach you how to problem-solve, deal with ambiguities or how to communicate with the lay-person about what is happening.

In my time managing young engineers straight out of university I had to take all the great knowledge they had learnt (more about being rewarded for being right than anything else) and "mold" it into something that was really useful to the company and our clients. I wish they had taught them that as part of the degree.

Great post!!

[toni]

Thank you Wayne for tackling the great behemoth of college/university degrees. You are absolutely correct about the over-valuing of college degrees. One of the smartest people I know never even went to college, and he is one of my most treasured teachers!

I believe that self-motivated learning is the most effective learning that instills the qualities and skills in a person. It is these qualities that employers should look for in a potential employee instead of reading a resume.

I love the quotes and I will most definitely use your last one! Mahalo for this great article.

[Maria Palma]

Wayne,

I have a degree, but everything I learned in life I learned either in high school or after college! Oh, ok, I learned one thing in college - beer and liquor don't mix! ;)

I will have to use your quote one day! What an inspiring post...

[Ellen Weber]

What an inspirational post! Thanks Rosa! Your insights about learning are powerful and what you say here her backed in the latest research about how brains works best! Thanks for these questions which have me already pondering another post. In the meantime you have so much we all need -- so my advide is to GO LEARN 'EM ROSA! Many of us are in the frey with you and are glad you are here!

[Carol]

I always say that the most important thing to know is to "know what you don't know". So many people with a degree in tech think they know everything, at least at first. I don't have a degree, and our best employee doesn't have one, either. The one with the degree and the most certs under his belt - well, I remember the day he realized that his training and certs didn't prepare him for the acutal job, and he was angry - down right angry to the point of needing to calm down, that he'd spent all that money and time, and still couldn't 'do the job', without a whole lot of learning and experience.

[Rosa Say]

Thank you Ellen, however I must give the credit to Wayne for this post... wish I could write like he does!

You have a wonderful blog Ellen, and we'll be clicking in to see what you write, for you're right about us being in this learning together.

(I'm glad I'm here too!)

[Dan Ward]

Great stuff, Wayne!

Last October, the crack (cracked?) team at RogueProjectLeader.com put together something we call the "Rogue University Masters Curriculum." It's basically a list of books to read and DIY projects designed to actually prepare someone for the work of leading projects. The link is below - I think you'll get a kick out of it.

http://www.rogueprojectleader.com/4master.htm

[Rosa Say]

Love it Dan! Thank you for sharing that link. We need to steal -I mean benchmark- your idea for a Ho‘ohana Community Masters Curriculum.