I've had plenty of experience over the years hiring people to do computer work. Software development, tech support, training... you name it. And I can't count how many times I had someone walk into an interview with a degree in computer science or a wall full of certifications, but when I asked them to actually do something, they froze.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying degrees or certifications are bad. They can absolutely be helpful. They show dedication, discipline, and at least some base level of competency. In some industries, they're essential. And I know a few folks in our community, some of my own moderators included, who have taken the time to get officially certified in Microsoft Access. That's great. It helps validate your skills on paper, especially in the eyes of employers or clients.
But the paper isn't the prize. The skill is.
You see, I don't have any formal education worth mentioning. A couple of years of college in the early 90s, sure. I studied computer science, but honestly, I was bored out of my mind. So I dropped out and started my own business. Everything I know today about databases, Access, VBA, web development, running a company, I taught myself. From books. From tinkering. From breaking things and fixing them again. We didn't have YouTube back in my day - damn I sound so old.
That kind of experience sticks.
This is why I say skills beat degrees. Because once you're in the field, especially in tech, people care more about what you can actually do than where you studied. Lifelong learners, problem solvers, self-taught doers... these are the folks who thrive.
Now, of course, there are definitely fields where formal education is absolutely required. I would not go to a brain surgeon who isn't a certified medical doctor. Some careers need that foundation, and rightly so. But in technology, and especially in software development, you can absolutely learn everything you need on your own with the right books, tutorials, and hacking away.
I actually have a whole other page on my website for people who ask whether I offer certification exams or test prep courses. And the short answer is: I don't. Because I'm not here to teach people how to pass a test. I'm here to teach people how to actually learn the software. If you need a piece of paper for a job requirement, great, go take a test prep course somewhere. But if you're trying to learn Access to build something real, to solve problems, to improve your business or your workflow, then get hands-on experience. Watch my tutorials. Read books. And practice.
Most certification prep courses are like cramming for high school exams. You'll remember just enough to pass the test, and then you'll forget it all. What good is that? The world changes fast. Especially in technology. Degrees are snapshots. Skills evolve. And those who are constantly learning and adapting will always be ahead of the curve.
As Captain Kirk once said, "sometimes the best training is just figuring it out while the ship is on fire." OK, OK, Kirk didn't actually say that... but it sounds like something he would have said. :)
So if you've got a degree or certification, awesome. Be proud of it. But keep sharpening your skills. And if you don't? That's fine too. You can still outwork, outlearn, and outperform.
Never stop learning. Never stop building. Never give up. Never surrender!
I do have to say that AI absolutely nailed that image. Here's what I asked ChatGPT to create for me...
I would like a picture to go with this article, please. I'm imagining Captain Kirk sitting in his captain's chair on the bridge of the original Enterprise, just leaning on his arm like he does with a smile on his face. But yet everyone else on the bridge around him is panicking and while consoles are on fire and stuff like that, but he's just sitting there calm and smiling.
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 8 months ago
I got my first degree in computer science, the second in Business/Accounting and the final in law.
None of them prepared me for anything other than how to think. I think.
In my experience, as a CPA or lawyer, the first five years on the job, in any technical/professional field are where you really learn how to get things done and what the real world is about. I haven't used trig or calculus since I graduated. I have taught and used a lot of statistics.
That all said, the best programmers I've hired all had degrees. They were curious by nature. As an employer, I consider a degree as a foundation and display of persistence. But don't get me wrong, not all that had degrees were able to perform without significant training. And the ones that failed, I think the major factor for it was lack of discipline and curiosity.
In another thread I mentioned my infamous explorer/coconut programmer test. It's sad to say, but 95% of all that applied, degree or no, couldn't think their way through that problem.
Matt Hall
@Reply 8 months ago
When my kids earned their black belts in Taekwondo, they were told they had mastered the basics and were now prepared to start their journey learning Taekwondo.
Working in and around manufacturing, I can tell you that fresh engineering graduates can't do much. They are, however, prepared to learn the job without stopping to learn all of the underlying, fundamental elements of that job. As a result they can learn the job much quicker than someone without the degree. That seems to be the point of the education.
To Richard's point, the skill is the prize. That is what you sell. The path you took to get there largely doesn't matter.
Chris Bezant
@Reply 8 months ago
Hello Rick
This really resonates with me. I left school at 16 with just one O level but in 1967 I was given a break with ICL and a 45 year career in IT followed.
In 1993 I left IBM as a senior prog rammer after 23 years.
Over that time I encountered degree level people who had no application for the work.
Having said that, an IBM manager told me that the only way to get a short list of job applicants was to only consider those with a degree.
Happily, the last 8 years was spent teaching Excel and Access.
As I have told you before my success with Access was largely due to you Mr Rost. For this I will always be grateful.
At the age of 77 I an still getting enormous pleasure learning and using Access.
I am currently developing a database for my English teacher granddaughter in Hong Kong.
So Rick thank you for being part of my story.
Despite having 3 post-graduate degrees, I very much agree with this post. There are a lot of companies out there selling "merit badges" (no disrespect meant toward the Scouts). In the medical field we called it "merit badge medicine." Even though I had been through an emergency medicine residency program and was board-certified (another merit badge), the hospital I was at still wanted me and my partners to certify every 2 years in CPR and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS). I was being "certified" in CPR by people who had never performed CPR! [Can't tell you how many times I've performed CPR...]
The final straw was going through an ATLS recertification when the person testing me (a trauma resident) handed me an x-ray and asked me if I could "clear" the person from having a cervical spine injury. He was puzzled when I told him I could not; I had to explain to him how the x-ray had not been adequately positioned. He mumbled, "well, just pretend it's ok."
Sami Shamma
@Reply 8 months ago
Oh @Michael, what have you done? You've been a member for over two years. You should know by now that if you disrespect badges of any kind, you are going to get yourself into trouble with at least Adam and perhaps myself. As the two of us are the badge queens, competing for who is going to get more badges next to his name in these posts. lol
That reminds me about a time, years ago, when I was playing bar trivia. One of the questions that came up had to do with Excel. I knew the answer, but one of the other guys on the team (a friend of a friend that someone else brought - I didn't know the dude) thought it was something different. I can't remember the exact question - we're talking like 15 years ago now. But he was all boastful like, "I've got a degree in computer science..." blah blah blah. So I told the team go ahead... use his answer.
You can see where this is going. He was obviously wrong. I was right. I just looked at him and said, "dude, you may have a CS degree, but I LITERALLY wrote a book on Excel. Google me."
LOL :)
Sami Shamma
@Reply 8 months ago
And then Richard proceeded to drop the mic. lol
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 8 months ago
What the hell is a question about Excel doing in bar trivia?
I guess it's better than asking me about Roman emperors or English kings. Zzzzz
But then again, I never played bar trivia.
This is one of those Bar Trivia games I used to play back in Buffalo. I really liked the format. It was four rounds, and each round had four questions followed by a bonus question. The questions were from random topics; it could be mathematics, history, literature, song lyrics... one of my favorites was world flags - they'd put a flag up on the screen, and you had to guess what country it was from.
In the bonus round, you could wager whatever points you earned from answering the questions. If you earned, say, 100 points that round, once they told you what the topic was, you could wager up to however many points you had, and you could possibly double up. Kinda like Jeopardy.
If memory serves, this was one of the double-up round questions. Not the final question because there's a final double-up question too at the very end. The topic was computers, I think, and it just happened to be an Excel question. So we could have taken a huge lead if it wasn't for that bonehead. Anyhow... Bar Trivia was just an excuse to meet up with friends, have a few drinks, and do something once a week. I enjoyed it. Mostly. You'd win random prizes - usually a bar tab towards your NEXT visit (that way the house gets you back).
One thing that used to piss me off the most was the final questions a lot of the time were the one topic that I know nothing about - professional sports. I like sports, I enjoy watching most sports, I've played sports my whole life (baseball & softball mostly) up until my eye injury. But I'm just not into professional sports like a lot of guys are. I just don't really get watching it on TV and remembering stats and fantasy football. I'm just not into all that. Sebastian Maniscalco says it best.
It's like every time I meet someone (either travelling or here in Florida) who finds out I'm from Buffalo. "Oh, you must be a Bills fan! They're gonna be great next year!" Yeah, OK buddy. That's the Bills' fans motto: gonna be great next year.
I know just enough to pretend to know what I'm talking about. Kinda like the first time I had to teach a live PowerPoint class.
Anyway... I digress...
Many, many games I played a solid game, was in first place going into that final double-up bonus round, and it was a... (yeah, it's my Captain's Log, I can say it)... fucking sports question. And I'd lose to some idiots.
That's one of the reasons I stopped playing bar trivia.
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 8 months ago
I used to have to explain, I play tennis. I don't watch it.
Maybe it was me or the TV resolution back then. One could see the blurry people moving, but never the ball.
Likewise, I never understood golf on TV. Wide panoramic views of nothing but blue sky. And then people clapping.
When I lived in Buffalo, I used to put golf on sometimes just in the background so that I could see green because in Buffalo, you can go six, seven months without ever seeing the sun or green grass. That's one of the reasons I moved to Florida.
The one sport I can't watch on TV is hockey. Not only is there a bright white background and you can't really see the puck, but all that camera panning back and forth left and right makes me dizzy. I love to go to hockey games, they're fun to watch live, but I absolutely cannot watch it on TV.
Matt Hall
@Reply 8 months ago
At first, I thought you were going for the Jerry Seinfeld angle.
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 8 months ago
Richard Hmmm, what could be worse? Six months in Buffalo without green that's going to melt and fill a river, or Southern California brown weeds that are going to burn down a whole town?
I'm quite happy here in SW Florida. Palm trees and sun 350 days a year. Gentle winters. Sure it gets hot in the summer, but I have a pool and AC. I'd rather have 3 months of hot sticky weather (which I really don't mind) over 9 months of gray Buffalo winter. And hurricanes don't bother me. You can see them coming a week away. My house is new and nowhere near a flood zone. I've got a generator and plenty of supplies (and firearms). I'm good.
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 8 months ago
The only thing I miss, here in Colombia, is a good tennis court nearby. In less than an hour I'm up 3,000' in the mountains for some paragliding. In 30 minutes I'm at the kart track. In the mornings, I'm five minutes from the stadium where I can fly a variety of R/C aircraft. My annual property taxes are less than $500 for two houses and the big garage.
Oh, I guess that I miss the requirement that other drivers have liability insurance. And that Colombians don't have to pass a driving test to get their license.
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