Degree vs Experience

Here is some relevant information on the subject as it relates to Mexico.

 

Academia or not - there is much more to it than the "script kiddie" software equivalent to mr dell plugging together some parts in his dormitory.

many of the successful "disruptors" in the industry do not have done anything disruptive in the actual field of IT (Zuckerberg with Facebook being the prime example - just a big website where people waste each other's time and a place for companies to dump their ads at them, what makes it unique is just the sheer size).

That doesn't mean there aren't people who come up with new stuff technology-wise, who push things forward, in the field of software. Often these are not the people who succeed wildly on the business side of things, as that takes a totally different skill set (which is largely independent of the industry).

For sure there exists this kind of "coding job" that is equivalent to a classic factory job. Sitting in a cubicle and implementing something to a spec somebody else came up with from nine to five doesn't require a university degree. But it still has to be learnt somewhere, and a future employer will want to see proof. at least until this kind of job goes the way of the factory job and is replaced by AI.

However somebody has to come up with the tools these cubicle coders use, and with the specs these coders implement. And with the AI system that replaces them one day. And that is "academia".

 

I did not rent the apartment to the young lady as Fair Housing laws in US are very stringent. When we set forth the criteria for rentals we MUST abide by them.
One of my nephews has a Sociology degree. After working as a counselor in a hospital for several years he went back to school to get an MBA, which he did. He told me there were onlu counseling jobs availabe so he decided to get in another field. He hasn’t done any better with an MBA.

 

Probably a discussion for another thread, but a lot of people are able to skate by quite easily. I'm skeptical of the idea of being "independent" or "self made."

You got all that from a short paragraph description? One of the items in that paragraph was that he went back to school to get his MBA. That's an effort and a bit ballsy since the MBA is expensive and time consuming.

We're way more dependent on luck and surroundings than we believe. Hindsight is 20/20. Explaining why something didn't go well is easy. Much harder is throwing down bets on predictions of the future and consistently coming out ahead. I think most of us get saved because one good bet can carry you for a decade or even an entire career. That good bet may even accidental. A prudent path is to follow solid information for things which are already working (which jobs are paying well right now?) Hopefully you get lucky early and do extraordinarily well. Otherwise, maybe you get saved on a mediocre performance by starting from a higher place.

 

Among the 127 ranked full-time MBA programs that reported these statistics to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average employment rate among 2017 graduates three months after graduation was 84 percent.

https://www.usnews.com/education/be...h-mba-programs-lead-to-the-best-jobs-salaries

The poster doesn't mention which school was attended as not all schools are created equal. Looks like a significant majority from the top 127 schools are pretty successful.

Rule #1 again: The exception does not invalidate the rule.