In recent times, there has been a growing debate about whether practical skills and experience is more valuable in securing a job in comparison to a university degree. Although a degree holds importance in certain aspects, in my opinion skills and experience supersedes the value of a degree when securing employment opportunities. This essay will discuss both perspectives and conclude that skills and experience outweigh credentials for employment purposes.
Firstly, employees possessing relevant skills and experience are candidates having performed on-the-job, and are equipped with the mindset and tactics to handle the complexities and expectations associated to deliverables in an organization. Furthermore, such individuals have relevant experience with projects that are ongoing in their industry, and thus have knowledge on the tools and features that are commonly utilized in various companies. For instance, Dave, an HR professional at EY, interviewed a software developer without a relevant undergraduation degree, but he had experience with Apache and Eclipse IDE, tools which were commonly used in projects at EY. Subsequently, he hired the candidate as he had knowledge on tools relevant to the industry. Additionally, experienced candidates have interpersonal skills as they attend meetings and engage in team discussions in their companies. Consequently, such candidates do not require grooming on soft skills, and are equipped to engage in business discussions. Although certain individuals reiterate that a degree separates an eligible individual from an unfit candidate for a job, this fact is refuted by visionary business leaders who state that degrees are useless hiring people with skills and expertise is a wiser decision.
On the other hand, certain people contend that a university degree is pivotal in securing coveted employment opportunities. First of all, most prestigious jobs posted on employment portals mention the minimum requirement of an undergraduation degree as a cut-off. Additionally, university degree shows relevancy to a particular field when applying for opportunities. As an instance, Mark, a manager at ED, stated that for a software developer role in his company, he filtered out the resumes that lacked or had an irrelevant college degree and selected the ones which mentioned computer engineering as a credential, as that was the basic eligibility criteria. Although, there have been instances where talent acquisition professionals possessing a commerce background switched to technical roles due to internal job transfers that opened up at their firm, hence negating such factors.
In conclusion, there are contrasting views on whether a university degree is more beneficial for securing a decent job compared to industry skills and practical experience. There is no doubt that a university degree helps individuals in securing decent employment opportunities, but in my opinion, a degree simply provides an entry for a resume to the desk of human resource professionals in the working sector, whereas practical skills and experience is what matters in performing well at interviews and securing a good job.