College Degree vs Experience

[RWTM]

Wondering what your opinions were for 2022

 

[Black Sheep 214]

It depends on the person, but as a general rule, a college degree will get your foot in the door, but for actually performing the job, work experience is much more valuable, at least in my experience. The college degree shows that you have the ability to learn and the determination to finish a difficult task, but unless you get a job in your own or a closely related field the actual mastered curriculum likely won’t be of much help on the job, particularly for some of the more esoteric or less job related majors. The skills learned through work experience in another field may not transfer well either, but with work experience at least you have already learned the basics of having a job, how to get along with co-workers, dealing with supervisors or subordinates and schedules, and all the other details that someone just entering the workforce will have to learn along with the skills necessary to do the job. Work experience puts you ahead of that learning curve, and with good work references proves that you have the ability to do the job on day one.

However, there are exceptions. Some people with degrees will do better than some with work experience and vice versa, a lot depends on how dedicated the student was to studying or worker was to getting the job done. A strong work ethic, maturity, and desire to be successful can beat a degree or work experience for someone determined to succeed.

Having worked with ETLs hired just out of college has definitely influenced this opinion.😁

 

[Florida Dawg]

It depends on the person, but as a general rule, a college degree will get your foot in the door, but for actually performing the job, work experience is much more valuable, at least in my experience. The college degree shows that you have the ability to learn and the determination to finish a difficult task, but unless you get a job in your own or a closely related field the actual mastered curriculum likely won’t be of much help on the job, particularly for some of the more esoteric or less job related majors. The skills learned through work experience in another field may not transfer well either, but with work experience at least you have already learned the basics of having a job, how to get along with co-workers, dealing with supervisors or subordinates and schedules, and all the other details that someone just entering the workforce will have to learn along with the skills necessary to do the job. Work experience puts you ahead of that learning curve, and with good work references proves that you have the ability to do the job on day one.

However, there are exceptions. Some people with degrees will do better than some with work experience and vice versa, a lot depends on how dedicated the student was to studying or worker was to getting the job done. A strong work ethic, maturity, and desire to be successful can beat a degree or work experience for someone determined to succeed.

Having worked with ETLs hired just out of college has definitely influenced this opinion.😁

Couldn’t have said it any better, That’s exactly what I was gonna say.

 

[Florida Dawg]

I meant to vote yes and not no on the poll by the way, I think Job experience matters just as much as someone with a college degree.

 

[Hal]

What was the reason for making this poll? Did you get denied a position because you don't have a degree?

Target no longer requires a degree for most of its positions and the handful that do, you can go to college for free to get it.

 

[dannyy315]

What was the reason for making this poll? Did you get denied a position because you don't have a degree?

Target no longer requires a degree for most of its positions and the handful that do, you can go to college for free to get it.

I'm guessing OP doesn't have a degree, but has experience at Target and wants to move on to something else. I could be wrong.

 

[BackupTL]

I think it depends on what you're talking about when you say "more important". Getting the role you want? A degree will shoot you straight in pretty often (ex. ETL roles). Performing the job or going for a Sr. role? Experience is important there.

 

[RWTM]

What was the reason for making this poll? Did you get denied a position because you don't have a degree?

Target no longer requires a degree for most of its positions and the handful that do, you can go to college for free to get it.

Was talking to another TM about how in today’s society job experience is more valuable.

 

[Unleashed Dog]

Experience will always be more valuable, even if society wants to pretend otherwise. School is still important because it can widen your knowledge. Retail is really more about the practice and execution. A good education is just the cherry on top for a retail worker. There’s actually some interesting things you can learn in school pertaining this field. But most of what you need comes from doing it.

Because school is more valued by our societies is why we have so many shitty leaders that are so disconnected from what is actually happening and needed.

 

[Fluttervale]

A degree gets you into consideration and experience gets you the job. They’re both important IF your goal is to get promoted quickly.

 

[Stocker]

Not sure were the company stands on the degree being that important now. I can say though over the years I have worked with ETLs that have a nice college degree but hardly any retail experience so yeah, I am going with the experience vote.

 

[RWTM]

Experience wins haha

 

[Sparkle5]

It's not what you know but who you know. And who you know gets you in the door so I go with Experience.

 

[Luck]

I would go as far as to say in Targets current mindset initiative is even more important than job knowledge.

They dont want the guys that have been sitting around doing the bare minimum for the last 15 years and know everything about everything.
They want the guy who has been there 3 years and knows most but not all, but has actively bene pushing for that further training and wanting to try new things etc.
Thats been my experience at least.

 

[RWTM]

Received my official enrollment for school today through Guild 😁

 

[No I in Team]

Go back to school. You never know what pitch is thrown next.

Experience and education go a long way to opening a lot of doors.

 

[RWTM]

Experience and education go a long way to opening a lot of doors.

I agree. I don’t want to be a WW for the rest of my life! Went straight to D1 after high school but didn’t finish. Right now I chose to get a certification just because I havnt been a student for sometime. Getting a BA in Business will probably easier than pursuing my original BA in CIS ha

 

[Hope4Future]

I wanted to bump this thread because this is something I've always been interested in. In the jobs that I applied to that didn't work out before I came back to Target, job experience/ability to perform the job was much more important than whether you had a degree or not.

That's not to say that a degree doesn't open up other avenues or possibilities though. If the degree is in something you are passionate about, I would go for it.

 

[buliSBI]

In regards to Target, Brown nosing wins

I have known many TL (no degree or working toward one) would have better leadership skills than Exec leadership

 

[Dream Baby]

In regards to Target, Brown nosing wins

I have known many TL (no degree or working toward one) would have better leadership skills than Exec leadership

I thought in another thread they were changing this.

TL Process

Side note: I’m a TL but still don’t understand this process so asking for information that people may have on this. So in recent myDay communication in stated mid-February that there would be process changes in the process to bring on a PG45 and it would lean more heavily on the Talent...

www.thebreakroom.org

It might just be the "brown-nosers" are willing to just bide their time and wait because of Target's convoluted process.

A college degree is something Target might want just for optics since they can tell the world that "x% of our leadership has college degrees".

I have seen companies hire a new college graduate (with zero experience) so they can show them the "company way" of doing things.

 

[allnew2]

I thought in another thread they were changing this.

TL Process

Side note: I’m a TL but still don’t understand this process so asking for information that people may have on this. So in recent myDay communication in stated mid-February that there would be process changes in the process to bring on a PG45 and it would lean more heavily on the Talent...

www.thebreakroom.org

It might just be the "brown-nosers" are willing to just bide their time and wait because of Target's convoluted process.

A college degree is something Target might want just for optics since they can tell the world that "x% of our leadership has college degrees".

I have seen companies hire a new college graduate (with zero experience) so they can show them the "company way" of doing things.

In my years at Target I’ve seen many external with degrees and barely lasted a year opposed to those like me who did 2 years overnight logistic to then Etl’s and stayed for 10-20years