[randomdata]

> Don't be a moron. Get a degree.

According to the stats for my region, 56% of women and 45% of men start into a degree program, yet the degree attainment rate is only 25%. I find this attitude a little bit troubling when such a large percentage of the population are already trying and failing.

Given the costs – actual and opportunity – involved, unless you are certain you are in the top ~25% of students and can derive value from that expense, it seems rather foolish to follow said advice. Do what feels right for you and your situation. You know yourself better than anyone else and if you are truly doing what you want to do, there should be no regrets either way.

[robomartin]

So long as you are willing to work way down the pay scale, sure. I am merely describing what I think is important in technical fields based on what I have seen around me over the years. I know a guy with enough college credit for four degrees. Never completed the requirements for any one degree. It was incredibly difficult for him to get a job as he got older. A degree would have opened a lot of doors. You go from having to explain and prove yourself to people assuming you are well qualified at a certain level.

Look, I've also seen the opposite. I've seen PhD's who are just about worthless. I mean, not a clue. Can't connect the dots. I've seen enough of this to be absolutely biased against PhD's (sorry). Great for academic research but stay the fuck away from work where anything has to be done in the real world.

[randomdata]

> I know a guy with enough college credit for four degrees. It was incredibly difficult for him to get a job as he got older.

There has been a lot of research gone into what makes someone financially successful and the current line of thinking seems to be that soft-skills, like stick-to-itiveness, are the primary factors. Someone who matches the description of your acquaintance doesn't exactly remind me of someone who is has a predisposition for success. Perhaps that has been his failing in the job marketplace and not the lack of a degree at all?

[robomartin]

He held an excellent engineering job for twenty nine years while earning well in excess of $100K. Got laid off during the economic downturn. At >50 years of age no doors opened wherever a degree was required. He ended-up going back to school to finish one of the degrees. Regrettably he disappeared while swimming in the ocean and is presumed dead. Rung against the no-degree firewall really did a number on him. Some think he committed suicide. We'll never know.

[tracker1]

That's odd, I have no degree, and other than my first few jobs doing programming work, I don't think I've had much issue at all finding work... Generally at very senior developer roles for the past decade. I spend a lot of time reading, and learning... constantly picking up new things.

Then again, I always feel like I don't know enough, though I know far more than a lot of my peers... It just depends. I tried running my own business for a while, and failed. I also worked at a director level for a while, didn't like the stress. It really depends on what you are looking for.