To degree or not to degree...

NightOwl, your story is very much like mine.

I will say that if you're going to college, you should stay awake during biology. Being a journalit means you should have a wide range of knowledge.

 

Heck, I came outta college young and green. I built a wide range of knowledge on the job.

Anyone can. Just work hard and pursue knowledge. It helps, though, if you read a lot. Read anything and everything you can. I know I did.

 

i am currently serving as a sports editor at my second paper and i don't have a degree. i started out part time desk, moved up to lead sports/news at a weekly before spending four years at a 5-days a week. i recently took a job at a six days a week. i have learned from several who have mentored me.

i have been asking myself recently, how much experience trumps a degree? i am sure there are a lot of jobs that no amount of experience will do without that degree.

 

Absolutely required.

I know you're not getting an interview with me without one.

 

I am pro-degree. That's just the way things are these days, peeps.

With that said...

If you have been in the business 25+ years without a degree, that's fine by me. Shit was different 25 years ago. If you're young and you think it's going to be all good sans degree for the next 25+ years, I think you're going to be disappointed.

I love hearing degreeless people dis people who have a degree like it's a bad thing.

Never gets old.

 

If you were a "journalist" you would also know how to spell though. Guess you didn't stay awake during English 110. I keed, I keed.

 

So Trifectarich,

  I am running a 100,000 plus sports department every day with no degree, but I couldn't get an interview with you because I don't have a piece of paper and that isn't elitist?

Explain that.

Luckily i don't need an interview!

 

I think the point is that there are lots of vets out there without degrees who have proved they can do the job and they get interviews. In today's world, many papers are adding the degree needed requirement to the job postings.
Sportznut, could you honestly tell an 18-year-old who wants to break into the business to skip college, that it'll all be OK and that in five or 10 years you'll be running this amazing 100,000 circ. sports department?

 

Any argument that denies the value and advantage of a degree is errant, I think. I don't have one, and while it held me back only early in my career, it's something I've left undone. It bothers me.

That said ...

The New York Times doesn't require a degree. I know this because I was upfront with the Times recruiter when I was approached about a job several years ago. "Our concern is whether you can do the job with excellence," she said.

Contrast that with the many smaller newspapers that do require degrees. It doesn't make sense. I hire copy editors, and I would never use the absence of a degree to winnow the field of candidates. Those jobs are so tough to fill, I have to be open-minded about potential hires. When I come across someone with a demonstrated ability to handle the work, I couldn't care less whether he or she has the sheepskin.

 

So, bottom line:

Youngsters should get a degree as they are becoming more and more necessary in the workforce at large.

If someone has earned his/her stripes as an editor or reporter, a degree is not that big of a deal.

I can live with that.

(Though I would caution those who say that only idiots would hold a lack of degree against you. Lots of idiots in upper management, methinks.)

 

My first SE doesn't have a degree. It is a MAJOR sore spot with him that he is surrounded by college grads.
He is a fine writer who knows what constitutes a story and how to write it. He started in this business 30 years ago getting paid by the inch.
Now he's been an SE for about 15 years and he's reached his glass ceiling. He knows it.
He knows he'll never raise any higher than SE. Not to even to news. Yeah, it bothers him.
By and large the guy is top-notch pro, who taught me the ins and outs of the biz, including how to conduct yourself at events. He did it better than a lot of college grad SEs I know.

It seems to me college is almost expected to have any semblance of decent job in the today's world. College is today what high school was 20 or 30 years ago - a neccesity to get a decent job.

Bump, are you talking about just any kind of degree or a journalism, or related socail sciences degree?

 

Any sort of degree. As I said previously, it's not as if I view a degree as meaningless. On the contrary, it tells you something about a job candidate. I think it was Cadet who noted that, at a minimum, a degree speaks to the ability to set goals and follow through. That's highly important.

But if you can see that ability in other ways, along with a demonstrated ability to do the work, you're handcuffing yourself as a hiring editor by disregarding that candidate.