I got a degree in Electrical Engineering. That got me in the door of companies who wanted engineers. Would I have gotten in that door without a degree? Absolutely no way.
Then I went to work. Well, not much work. They didn't have much for me to do. At that time (late 70's) companies were just hiring as many engineers as they could so some other company didn't get them first. I had my choice of a bunch of jobs all over the US. I chose Western Electric (part of AT&T along with Bell Labs) in Colorado. Ironically, that was my lowest paid job offer. But I liked the place and the location.
Because I didn't have much to do besides just sit there getting paid, I spent a lot of time in the company library. Randomly, I picked up a book with a white cover and a very large letter "C" on it.
It started off with:
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf("Hello World!\n");
}
"Hmm, that doesn't sound too difficult. I guess I should read more about why someone would want to do something bizarre like that." And I was off to the races! I became a software engineer (and a local instructor in programming) not because I was trained to do that in college, but because I randomly picked up that book in the library out of boredom one day. I also defined my career at that point. "Find something good to do, and do it!" I can't think of a time in my 40+ year career where someone actually gave me a job assignment. I just kind of wandered around the manufacturing factory floor, in computer labs, and other places looking for something that needed inventing or improving. I became one of the few, select, "Yahoos" inside the company. We were known as mostly uncontrollable by management, general purpose "learners and appliers".
At this point, my engineering degree moved to "mostly useless" status. Everything was learn on the job. Lots of times I would go off and learn something new, just because I wanted to, with no planned application for it, and then after learning it I'd find a way to use it for something. This made for a largely stress free and productive work environment throughout my entire career. In my earlier career years, I mostly did work corralling workers and machines on a factory floor. In my later career years, it was more about corralling different computer systems around the globe and making them work together and automatically monitoring them to assure they stayed in line.
So I can say this: "Did I really need my engineering degree for most of what I did in my job?" - NO. "Would I have had a chance to do all that I did without this degree however?" - NO. So in my case - absolutely, no room for disagreement - I needed my college degree. But this was back in the late 70's. I think things have changed now. There are still jobs that require a college degree to get your foot in the door. Without a degree, you're simply "not an acceptable candidate". However, it seems like many degree paths these days are more of a dead end than a key. Pretty worthless to pursue those. Decades ago, some of these degrees were a key, and necessary. But now they are an anchor around your neck (financially) and really gain you nothing in employment.
If someone came up to me now and asked "I don't really know what I want to do in life, should I go to college?" I would respond with "probably not". The things college teaches these days ... I'm not sure that learning "Men can cut of their ****s and become women" is worthwhile knowledge (or experience!) to have when searching for employment. Neither are news videos of you on campus waving around a Hamas flag. College is a different animal now than it was "back in the day".
