[dingaling]

> Just sign up for a degree at a degree mill

That's the advice I was given when looking at NZ. At the time I had about 15 years experience in IT but that couldn't be considered as I didn't have a relevant degree.

"Do night classes for a couple of years and get a degree"

Instead I decided to forget about NZ even as a tourist.

[fimbulvetr]

My wife and I considered moving to NZ as well; I'm a cloud engineer with 10 years experience (20 total in software/sys admin) in the US, I've worked for startups and enterprises. NZ won't even acknowledge me because I don't have a silly bachelors degree. Too bad I spent those 4 years getting experience instead of university.

Definitely worth a visit, I'd suggest. It's really a beautiful country.

[dvtv75]

I have a Bachelor's degree in CS. Nobody will hire me because I don't have experience.

Funny thing is, before I got my degree, they were happy enough with my experience but wouldn't hire me because I didn't have a degree. Even had the same interviewer tell me one of those things on either side of my graduation.

"Get a degree and we'd love to hire you for your experience!" "Oh, sorry, you're qualified but don't have any experience."

It's like my degree reset me to zero.

[madaxe_again]

I do have a bachelors, but it’s in physics, so I get the same “well, you don’t know computers, but you do know how to contact spirits. We don’t need spiritualists - rejected”

Jesus, if I had a penny for every time I’ve had to explain that physics and psychics aren’t the same thing I’d be a rich man.

I’m more or less at the point of just giving up on being gainfully productive.

[dvtv75]

I'm not sure if that's really sad, or very funny, but you made me smile and I appreciate that.