What makes a college degree more important than practical knowledge and experience?

Question:

I have been offered a position as a manufacturing engineer. The origional offer was on par with the value of my knowledge and experience. I have been in the buisness for fifteen years now and am at the point of running the shop where I work now. I design the parts, assemblies, and make detailed blueprints of them using solidworks. I program all of the CNC machines in the building and set up the process sheets and system information. I also solve a majority of the day to day problems in the manufacturing department. The next day I recieved a second offer that was 11,000 less becouse they realized that I never finnished college. They still want me to take the same job, same responsibilities, and at the same time have no question of my ability to handle the position. Why should I accept less from a potential employer becouse I don't have a flashy piece of parchment with some fancy caligriphy etched on its surface. Besides college is suposed to prepare you for what I already do.

Answer:
To be quite honest I am not sure why, but I was in a similar situation, until I recently graduated college. I have not been assigned any other duties at work
nor was I given a raise until I asked for one and threatened to leave. I have asked several others in my field this same question and one supervisor told me that getting the degree proves that you are committed and have the drive to fulfill your goals (although I do not necessarily agree with that I do some some valid points in it). I think with the extensive experience that you have I would respectfully decline unless they could give me a real reason as to why they are now offering you less. Good Luck and my well wishes are with you.

Piece of Paper

Supply and demand. There are other people out there that they could hire that do have a degree.

While you may indeed have the practical knowledge and experience, college (at any level) provides you with a well rounded educational background. It increases wages because it is soooooooo expensive. Most of us are still paying off debts within 10 yrs of graduation.

The only benefit I have found that a degree offers is the increased (supposedly) ability to develop solutions and be more involved in problem solving. I really think my degrees prepared me to think in a different and more efficient way. They didn't teach me very practical day-to-day aspects. I think it better prepares some of us for critical thinking and wide view thinking.

The college degree just shows an employer that you are trainable and can finish what you start. Most people don't use a lot of the knowledge they learned in college, but instead learn by on the job training. In your case since your experience it so great, there is no reason why they should offer you less than you're worth...and no reason for you to take it. How badly do you want this job? Renegotiate with them.

it's not the same though, because even though you have the practical knowledge and experience, you don't have the college background to back it up. education matters so much more now than it did way back when. my fiance is having a similar problem. he's into computer science, has had many years of experience, and big companies are interested in him and give him interviews, but once they find someone with a degree to back it up, they choose that person over him. many companies are also not going to continue to let people work for them if they don't have a diploma or GED by the time they're 21 or 22. You have to have a GED to work at McDonald's now, unless you're still in highschool. or at least around here you do.

What makes a college degree more important than practical knowledge and experience?

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