Can people who don't have a Degree or have the intelligence to gain one be successful?

[UrbanMan27]

Hi,

Im just wondering does not having a Degree or having high enough intelligence to get one make you a failure? As I feel like Society makes people feel without a Degree like a failure and that they'll be working jobs and not having a career in such jobs as working on minimum wage or just above for the rest of their lives.

What's your thoughts?

I don't think that personally at all! Will someone without a degree fail at being a doctor? Yes because you need a degree. But plenty of ways to be successful and positively contribute to society (if that's how we are measuring it without). A degree really is just a measure of one type of intelligence- my DB is awful academically but he has a successful plumbing business and I couldn't do what he does in a million years! He also earns more than I do and I have a degree (he works harder though).

Some people aren't very academic but are still intelligent in general, I think you need that kind of general intelligence plus an aptitude for whatever career you go into to be successful.

Some people have the intelligence to realise that getting into tens of thousands of pounds of debt, supporting the student loans company is a dumb way to start your adult life unless you're going into a professional training undergraduate route like medicine, law or suchlike.

When I was postgrad student, I came across a lot of people with 'degrees' in subjects like hospitality, tourism, media, event planning and marketing, but with very little genuine intelligence or even general knowledge.

There was a massive expansion in HE with the introduction of student loans and lots of lower course providers upped their qualifications to soak up all that cash. All of a sudden, everyone who was prepared to pay, could get themselves a degree in something or other. And employers started demanding degrees for non-graduate jobs because they thought it would save them effort in assessing prospective employees.

Naked emperors all over the place.

A number of professional jobs state that you need a degree, when actually you don’t and you could instead demonstrate the level of technical knowledge developed through an apprentice route or just working your way but it’s just an arbitrary way of filtering candidates. In that sense, people with degrees have more opportunity.

However, it doesn’t mean they are more successful or that you can’t be successful without a degree. I have a masters and I earn just above the average salary. I earn about the same as my friend’s DH who left school with no GCSEs and no academic interest at all. He’s not in the trades but he’s funny and charming and can make people like him. He’s talked his way into a good wage! Both DH and I have degrees but we are both working with people at the same level as us who don’t have degrees.

None of the CEOs at my previous work place had a degree. Years ago a degree meant something, they are so commonplace now, that meaning has been degraded in many cases.

Does anyone think you have to be very intelligent to get a degree? I have 1 "proper" and 1 foundation due to an interest I have and in wouldn't consider myself particularly intelligent.

I can pass exams, I have learnt strategies to get reasonable marks. It's not that difficult to get a degree.

There are different kinds of “intelligence”. I am a lawyer and as you would expect, the majority of lawyers I have previously worked with have all been very academic / largely got high 2:1s or firsts from top universities. In the workplace… some of them have not done particularly well in terms of progression because they have a complete lack of commercial / social awareness and although their brains are wired for understanding complex concepts etc, this is only going to get them so far in the real world (outside of academia).
Some of the most successful people I know are not university grads. Being commercially savvy / entrepreneurial (and not necessarily “booksmart”) is key. Some of the wealthiest people I know are tradespeople who run their own businesses and left school at 16.

Growing up I always wanted to be a hairdresser but my parents refused. My mother's grand plan was that I could work in a solicitor's office.

I drifted off to a RG uni to read my favourite subject and got a first. It didn't really translate to doing the job I wanted without a masters which my mother made a huge fuss about. Due to the fuss she caused I ended up in a very boring yet well paying job until I had children.

I now work super part time in an entry level job having had 10 years off. I can't get hours to suit doing anything else. I wish I had been a hairdresser.

Sometimes degrees aren't the best thing for everyone. I can't help thinking I could have done better not going. I could have left school at 16 and been in my own place at 22. I would still have been able to read about my degree subject and maybe been able to study further as a mature student for fun.

I don't have a degree.
I currently don't even have a (paid) job.
Does this mean my life isn't a success?
I hope not. I have my talents, skills, interests etc that are unique to me. They are who makes me 'me'.
I am married (so someone likes me enough to want to be legally connected to me). I have a child with the most amazing personality who I take care of.
I think my life is successful so far....

@Changingthegame I wasn't comparing a degree in the same subject with the same grade from different universities though was I.

I've achieved a degree but am happy with the role I have, it's for a great cause and keeps me healthy.

Overall you can still not get a degree and be good at what you do, mainly as long as you know your passions and want to learn and improve your skills then degree or no degree we can improve ourselves.

Absolutely, I know of someone who was knighted due to the business he set up providing jobs for thousands of people.
He was very successful financially but I know for a fact he's class success as his achievements not the fact he is now a multi millionaire.
The majority of people in my peer group who left school to take up apprenticeships now all have their own business and earn more than some of those who went to uni.

Especially with Google and Wikipedia most subjects can be studied

They've become a bit devalued now, even from the better universities. I can honestly say I haven't found mine of any use and could have done just as well stopping after A'Levels.

So, of course.

How are you defining intelligence?

I'm intelligent enough to have a degree, but I don't because I'm not great at studying. I'm successful in my work, but there are definitely jobs I can't even get near because I won't be shortlisted even in first sift without a degree. And yet I could do them easily and well.

So I do think not having a degree can hold you back in some areas for some roles, but also that you really don't need one to be successful in many other areas.

Wtf am I reading? Did not think this one through, OP? Just one of the many, many successful people I know, sold his company for £8 mil, no degree. Another earns more from running a side business than his actual job.

A degree was a good way to push out FT work for me. Same with the gap year; both a long time ago sadly! I got a 2.1 and was on a top grad scheme but just stayed a year as I didn't find the work at all interesting or engaging. Was well paid though and that's what funded the travel.

One of my friends left school & started working in an office with just school qualifications.

Shes now senior management in her field & hugely successful. Wins regular awards & is forever going away on a weekend bream or holiday she's won. She also earns a substantial wage

Shes the best example I know of someone who's been hugely successful without a degree

What's your definition of successful though OP? Are you measuring success as a monetary value? Or happiness? Personal achievements? What exactly do you mean? I don't have a degree but am highly intelligent, have a very interesting career easily earning 6 figures and alongside that have also raised a large, happy family with no practical help apart from a great DH working as a team. Do I fit your idea of successful or would I need a degree for that? I'm happy and proud of my family but I've sacrificed a lot on a personal level - it hasn't all been the bed of roses it seems, we've had our struggles and challenges along the way like everybody else and we haven't got or had the charmed life it may seem on paper either.

It doesn't mean you're intelligent because you have a degree.

My partner has no qualifications he's successful if you think money equals success , I have a degree and he knows plenty of things that I don't.

It's not what you know...its who you know. I've worked for many stupid bosses. (Arrogant bastards)

So many different types of intelligence. How about leaving school at 16 with a poor academic performance and then becoming a millionaire by 30? Richard Branson, I'm looking at you.

It depends what field you are talking about this ‘success’ being in. I have four degrees, but you would need a minimum of two in my field to even get started.