To think just because you have a degree does not make you superior to those who don't?

[carocaro]

Two ladies I know, one lawyer and one scientist.

I am also a PROFESSIONAL in the creative field, with no degree, a route I chose on purpose.

We are all professional, but is one automatically better than the other? They seem to think so and have said as much. Of course you can only get to be the above via Uni.

In my mind, you can't compare most jobs, like chalk and cheese eg: truck driver V nurse, creative director V charity worker, we all have our own sills set and talent for jobs, but why do SOME think a degree makes them better?

Your thoughts ladies?

Not these days, no. Everyone seems to have a degree now....

YANBU.

I have a degree, and when I worked as a department secretary at a university, my boss there also had a degree and was in an administrative role.

The attitude we got off some of the students!

This was in a humanities area, too.

They were so much better, of course.

I can't tell you the number of shops I'd walk into after so many of them graduated that I'd see them on the other side of the till. Or in the fitting room.

Or how many former students we had sending us begging letters for money years later to fund postgraduate education, tales of waiting tables.

I can't say I didn't have a private smirk from time to time if they were the condescending sort whilst there.

Mumblechum, do you think these SAHMs who 'earn nothing' feel superior to you?

People with or without degrees can find themselves in a position where they find themselves effectively outside the job market - could happen to anyone.

Value judgements are unpleaseant whichever direction they come from.

YANBU - Dh went to Uni, I didn't. The first (and last!) time I met a couple who were Uni friends of his, the knob man waited until dh had gone to the bar and then proceeded to ask me if I realised that when he got a job he was qualified for, he would be earning more than I would ever see in my life.

The best bit was, that shortly after this he was working in Tesco at the time as he failed the Bar exam.

There are a lot of different things conflated in the thread title and OP:

1. Do degrees make people better? No of course they don't. Otherwise they would be available on prescription

1. Do degrees a professional make? No, of course not. There are a lot of jobs that are only open to graduates, but these are not professions. Although possibly it's not possible to be a professional without a degree.

1. Can you compare jobs? No. All jobs are different. Some careers which are not restricted to graduate entry are highly lucrative. Formal education has little relevance to entrepreneurs

i have never me anyone iwth a degree who thinks they are superior.

i think you work with ill mannered people and you should tell them so

I didn't say the scientist wasn't a professional, just that she mightn't be. I'm a member of a professional body too but it isn't mandatory, so in old-fashioned, strict terms I'm not a professional (although I call myself one of course!).

all a degree shows is that you are teachable.

learning starts when you step out of school and start to work.

whether or not you have a degree.

You have been fortunate then Custardo, as a teacher I come across fellow "professionals" who treat staff without a degree as shit.

I don't really care if I am a professional or not either. I like my job and can afford to live - I am happy.

I agree, I was just splitting hairs really.

sorry, that last comment was in response to gaelicsheep.

I do a pointless, ridiculously well paid job. I have two degrees from Cambridge.
I am just out of hospital having had a breakdown
I think my breakdown is of a higher value than other breakdowns and is incredibly high achieving....

YANBU. A degree is only a way of testing certain skill-sets. If you already have the skills you need, why bother?

Hmm people with degree are automatically better.... let me see
-There are lots of people with degree running the country.
-Harold shipman had a degree,
-most of the bankers that helped get us into this mess have a degree

• I believe Nick Griffin may have a degree in law your friends will probably discount this as it is ironically a 'desmond' if I remember correctly

.......tell your friends, having a degree clearly makes one superior

I have a degree btw and am not knocking them. Just think it ridiculous to dismiss someone because they dont have one.

YANBU. I work somewhere where there is a huge cut-off if you don't have a degree. Public sector pay scales and all...

It can mean you're intelligent as hell, but not deemed worthy of a pay rise because you don't have an MSc.

But at the same time I work for lots of people with PhD's. can't pretend to ever be on the same page as them

Maybe the snobbery is a public sector one, most of us can't judge people on their pay as most of us earn a decent but unremarkable salary, so we move onto qualifications.

I always do have a great admiration for very clever people, they often have a degree but not always.

I couldn't care less if a person has one, tbh.

I come from a place where a bachelor's degree is devalued beyond belief, so many have them.

But I have encountered plenty of sadly deluded students here who believed their degree was going to quickly land them a well-paying job.

It's a rather sad legacy, tbh, because many hadn't twigged that it's better to work your arse off whilst getting it, so that way a) you show an employer you can work well b) you don't have so much debt.

It must seriously suck nowadays to graduate with a humanities degree and £20,000+ worth of debt.

I had a temp once who was about to start university, going for a degree in business admin. I kept trying to tell her the best thing she could do was get a permanent job somewhere, a shop, what have you, because the best way to get a good job now when you are young is to have a degree AND plenty of work experience, but I was too old for her to listen.

There was another secretary for our college. She was close to retirement and she was proper Edinburgh sensible and middle class.

But she'd gone back to work so they could send her girls to private schools.

Her one daughter had gone to work retail at 16 and done so whilst doing her degree and MBA, at the same time working herself up to management levels for Dorothy Perkins.

It was enough to where when she got that MBA she landed a pretty sweet job in purchasing down in London.

But if she'd been a snob about the whole degree thing she'd not have been there, I can promise you.

A degree or degrees doesn't make anyone superior, but I'm not going to let anyone devalue my hard work and loss of earnings while I studied. My profession requires a degree, but studying for my MA was a great experience where I really for the first time loved learning. If you haven't had that experience, then that would be sad, but again I don't think being attached to a university necessarily guarantees that.

I agree I worked very hard to get a good degree, it's especially hard when you have children. But I'm not "better" than cleaners dustbin men or anyone else. Sometimes I wish I was more practical than academic, I can't pass a driving test or put a sodding guinea pig hutch together FFS. And I don't know how HGV drivers do it that's one scary job!

YANBU...my sister is guilty of this, she has a degree and I don't, and she regularly looks down her nose at me intellectually.

Although she is now a SAHM and I am a single parent with three children who just beat 4 other graduates to a job, two with masters, I think experience counts for more in the eyes of most sensible employers...even now.

I have met a couple of people with degrees who think they are superior and manage to mention it a lot. Neither of them work in a professional 'role.' One of them also bangs on a lot about having gone to grammar school. However most people don't mention it at all. It's only a qualification. It's not a medal.

Academically someone who has a DPhil from Oxford is 'superior' to someone with GCSEs. There's no getting over that.

Also, I agree with your friends that you're not really a professional in the strictest sense of the word. I'm not saying this to be mean because I also work in the creative field, to a very high standard (I hope)! Although I have a degree from a very well-regarded university I'm not a professional in the same way as my friend, a GP, is.

haven't got time to read the whole thread, but YANBU

DH did a catering course equivalent to a degree. He wanted to do a cosmology degree but couldn't afford it He's now a retail manager and a damn good one! While he was working his way up there were others who had academic degrees, but goodness knows how they got them. Two short planks etc. DH might not have academic qualifications but intellectually he could run rings round them.

I really disagree with the govt target of getting 50% of young people into uni, it's ridiculous. It's devaluing the degree, and some people just aren't academically built and would be better off on the vocational route - there's nothing wrong with that!