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Bachelor's Degree: An Unnecessary Path To a Tech Job

Posted by samzenpus on from the just-a-piece-of-paper dept.

dcblogs (1096431) writes "A study of New York City's tech workforce found that 44% of jobs in the city's 'tech ecosystem,' or 128,000 jobs, 'are accessible' to people without a Bachelor's degree. This eco-system includes both tech specific jobs and those jobs supported by tech. For instance, a technology specific job that doesn't require a Bachelor's degree might be a computer user support specialist, earning $28.80 an hour, according to this study. Tech industry jobs that do not require a four-year degree and may only need on-the-job training include customer services representatives, at $18.50 an hour, telecom line installer, $37.60 an hour, and sales representatives, $33.60 an hour. The study did not look at 'who is actually sitting in those jobs and whether people are under-employed,' said Kate Wittels, a director at HR&A Advisors, a real-estate and economic-development consulting firm, and report author.. Many people in the 'accessible' non-degree jobs may indeed have degrees. For instance. About 75% of the 25 employees who work at New York Computer Help in Manhattan have a Bachelor's degree. Of those with Bachelor's degrees, about half have IT-related degrees."

9 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. So basically... by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you want to earn 1/3 as much as an engineer, and barely enough to survive in NYC, then don't get a degree. Otherwise, go and fucking learn something.

    1. Re:So basically... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you want to earn 1/3 as much as an engineer, and barely enough to survive in NYC, then don't get a degree.

      *sigh*

      If someone is looking at college as something that will help them get a job or make more money, then they shouldn't fucking be in college to begin with. Education is meant to better your understanding of the world and everything around you. We need *fewer* people going to college and university, because a lot of them have a "I just want to get a job/make money!" mentality, and that makes colleges and universities lower standards in an effort to get money from the people who want degrees.

      Otherwise, go and fucking learn something.

      You can learn plenty without spending tons of money, especially in the information age. As someone who has a degree, it's absolutely appalling that hordes of people who shouldn't be in college or university are causing standards to drop. This 'Everybody's gotta go to college!' mentality needs to die, and fast.

    2. Re:So basically... by flufythedestroyer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Absolutely true. It makes sense if you want to go in college or university is should be for academic reasons only and not for getting a higher pay. But lets be honest here, people who go to university have a higher chance of getting a higher pay because of their efforts and work they've done to get their diploma at the end. Would you accept working with someone who has the same pay as you do but he don't have a university diploma but has the same knowledge that you do... To be honest and truthful, I don't think a lot of people would accept that.

  2. Misleading title by cultiv8 · · Score: 5, Informative
    From page 43 of the actual report (and not a report of a report of the report):

    While across the ecosystem, 44% of jobs do not require a Bachelor’s degree, the majority of tech jobs in tech industries require some degree of education. With a Bachelor’s degree, and in some cases, an Associate’s degree, many opportunities exist within the New York City tech ecosystem.

    --
    sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
  3. Degree by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I got a Bachelors in Network Administration from a state school. It wasn't required for my current job, but it certainly helped get me noticed and hired. Beyond that, the main advantage of the degree was having hands-on experience with Cisco gear and server OSes in a simulated production environment. Of course, you could find a training course that does that for much cheaper and without the bullshit lib arts requirements. In the end, I'd say it was worth it because I was able to get it at a reputable state school and my ending loans were about 2/3rds of my first year's salary, which wasn't bad at all. I certainly wouldn't have paid private school tuition for it.

  4. So it's the "tech industry", so what? by HeckRuler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What jobs are they looking at here?

    computer user support specialist
    customer services representatives
    telecom line installer
    sales representatives
    (With new york city wages)

    So what you're saying is that people working in the shit-end of the industry don't need the same credentials as the people working the high-paying end of the industry?

    Golly gosh-darn!
    It's like manager at the local McDonalds doesn't need to have the same pedigree as the CEO of McDonalds corporate.

    And maybe... just maybe... that night-shift manager has just about the same chances of rising to CEO of McDonalds as the help-desk wage-slave has of becoming the lead software architect.

  5. Re:Certifications and experience are more importan by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Would you rather hire a support technician with an arm's length list of industry certifications or a 4 year degree?

    Neither, actually. When I interview people, I really don't care about what tickets they've gotten punched. I want them to demonstrate proficiency.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  6. Re:That isn't what a CSci degree is for by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I agree. Using the term "Computer Science" for what most degree programs teach is purely the result of the growth of the industry. 70 years ago you couldn't get a Computer Science degree. 50 years ago, you could get a Computer Science degree without ever having used an actual computer. 30 years ago, the only degree in computing you could get was Computer Science, and it encompassed the whole of the field. 20 years ago, Computer Science began to mean "software" instead of Electrical Engineering's "hardware". 10 years ago, the field was so broad, so diverse, and encompassed so many disparate technologies that required significant specialization that you could get a specialization certificate on your CS degree. Today, you can get a 4 year Bachelor's in any number of fields including Information Technology (sysadmin, netadmin), Information Systems (DBA, Systems Analysis), Information Management (management for IT), Software Engineering (web design, application programming). Computer Science is again a theoretical area of research and development on the theory of computers. All these other fields born from this CS research once again free it to be what it once was: mathematicians and logicians playing with number machines.

    --
    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  7. Re:Modded down? by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Has anyone studied long term survival/performance of businesses that went whole-hog into H1B versus businesses that opted for local workers and paying them to keep high quality?

    That's a truly excellent question. Not as far as I know. It's possible that the phenomenon has not been going on long enough for the effects to be apparent from outside the company. Big corporations tend to have a lot of inertia. I think that's the only reason HP still exists as a company.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.