Degree vs Experience

I cannot answer for the hypothetical but I can talk about applying to IBM for an ENGINEER/SCIENTIST position and I can tell you that the person with a degree will be given an application to fill out and MAY get an interview while the other, with 5 years experience in the college of hard knocks will be not even be given an application form to fill out. This is partially due to selectivity, however, it also has a lot to do with labor laws. An engineer will be paid a salary as a professional and thus is what they call an “exempt” employee. Such employees are not required to be paid overtime. “Exempt from overtime” to be sure. The government will require a sound basis for IBM or any company to classify an employee “exempt” and not have to pay overtime, the most important being that the employee is paid to make decisions if high potential impact to the company and a 4 year degree us a must without otherwise having to go through an entire maze of justifications that never gets accepted. This is to protect those folks who have all this lab experience but can’t do calculus and chemistry and who get hired on to a company who calls them an “engineer” because they can handle a soldering iron, making the employee happy and feeling important on the cheap and not having to pay them overtime. You might “think” you are a professional or call yourself a “professional” or are just perceived to be a professional but the government in the USA will not let you be PAID as a professional unless you have a degree. Many a senior electronics lab technician has claimed not to went the degree and be called an engineer because they can earn more if working a lot of overtime. True. But they are usually comparing against engineers fresh out of college with no experience.


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Wrye, my retirement is quite recent so we aren’t talking about ancient times. You are speaking in far too general terms. If you are applying for an exempt position, then the company must be in a position to classify you as exempt without getting into trouble with the Department of Labor. This is based on US laws, however, EU laws may even be more onerous. Of course, no one can require a person to have a degree as long as the company’s legal department is satisfied that you can be justified as “exempt” but normally that means, in this case, NOT JUST ANY DEGREE but a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical, mechanical, or civil engineering from a USA accredited university. Interestingly, Philippine engineering degrees are not normally accepted in the USA although nursing BSRN degrees are for some reason. Russian and former east bloc degrees may be accepted if properly investigated. But you can look at your ads or whatever, I was in a hiring position there before I retired and the IBM legal department requirements must be followed for “real” engineer positions, ie, legally exempt from overtime.