Having a Degree Vs. Experience?

14 years ago

I have a degree and I can't imagine it has made any difference in my success. It's rare anyone would know I have such, but I value it for it's own sake.

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MoneyMagnetMagnate

14 years ago

It certainly depends on the career path.
Do you need one to be a doctor or lawyer etc.? - certainly, it's required...
But would you rather go to one fresh out of university - or who has been in practice for some time?

Does Bill Gates have one? No. - Richard Branson? No. - they didn't need one -
Nor do many many other successful businessmen and entrepreneurs...

They just had smarts and a little initiative. And took action.

If you come up with a better idea...about anything - there's no limit to how far you could go...

But experience goes a long way....it certainly helps in everything.

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design2convert 14 years ago

Degree is good but experience is excellent, in some cases degree is more important than experience, and in some cases you experience is must with degree. In case of online work Experience is must rather than degree.
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SubUrbanHype

14 years ago

I am asking if you feel that having one has helped you in your online marketing career or interest. I found that I've been running into a good amount of people who feel that you need to have a marketing degree and multiple years of experience in order to be good at this.

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RRG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype

I am asking if you feel that having one has helped you in your online marketing career or interest. I found that I've been running into a good amount of people who feel that you need to have a marketing degree and multiple years of experience in order to be good at this.

A marketing degree? From a university?

If anything, that's a hindrance to being a good direct response marketer.

And you don't need years of experience if you study a lot and take action, get results, etc.

My two cents.

College is a scam to create debt and people conditioned to work for others. Go over to LewRockwell.com and do a search on "college" and you'll see what I mean.

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Baz Smith

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RRG

A marketing degree? From a university?

If anything, that's a hindrance to being a good direct response marketer.

And you don't need years of experience if you study a lot and take action, get results, etc.

My two cents.

College is a scam to create debt and people conditioned to work for others. Go over to LewRockwell.com and do a search on "college" and you'll see what I mean.

I have worked with people who have degrees in marketing before. They have come to me because I have lived marketing. They understood that their degree was black and white ... there is no black and white in marketing, sometimes no right or wrong, often no rhyme or reason ... if it works replicate it!

Degrees have there place, so don't think I am putting them down, because I don't (my wife has oneLOL) everyone in the world has a talent, some have a great talent to learn and recite, others to play golf at the highest level etc We just all need to harness our strengths and use them wisely!

Baz

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Dr Dan

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype

Do you feel like having a degree helps you with your business? As in do you think your clients and potential clients trust you more because you have a degree, or do you think experience and/or past results matter most?

It will only be a problem if you feel it is.

Just have confidence in yourself and others will as well.

Remember that in IM (internet marketing) things move to fast for any college course or book to follow.

Just show them testimonials, results and whatever you come up with and you will crush it!

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DazedandConfused

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Dr Dan

It will only be a problem if you feel it is.

Just have confidence in yourself and others will as well.

Remember that in IM (internet marketing) things move to fast for any college course or book to follow.

Just show them testimonials, results and whatever you come up with and you will crush it!

Dan - are you telling me you're not a REAL Doctor???
Please have your receptionist cancel my appointment asap...

(I was only going for a "medical card" anyway... :rolleyes: )

D&C

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Dr Dan

14 years ago

I forgot to mention that I wrote a blog post on this topic with 3 tips on becoming an instant expert with credibility boosters. You can do these in less than 1 day.

I also included images you can use on your site or business cards etc.

Instant Credibility Boosters | Offline RockStar Academy

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toponewebresult

14 years ago

Its better to have a degree and experience for you business in order to have good sales.. if you have degree but don't have experience, its useless.. and if you have experience but you don't have a degree, its also useless.. You need degree and experience to be an expert for a business.

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tuscan

14 years ago

A degree can be a help or a hindrance, depending on the situation. Many business owners don't have them, as was already pointed out, so throwing around your MBA, for example, might be a turn off. Besides, the only degree that means anything is the degree to which you know your stuff. Everybody respects that degree.

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Jason Dittberner

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype

Do you feel like having a degree helps you with your business? As in do you think your clients and potential clients trust you more because you have a degree, or do you think experience and/or past results matter most?

Clients or prospects don't care if you have a degree. Why would they? They care about what you can do for their business.

Degrees are for 9-5ers, so they can put it at the bottom of their resume (see the significance?). It's a checkbox to use for weeding out people.

There's a statistic that stated that everything you learned in your first year of college is obsolete by the time you graduate...and you haven't even started to pay for that loan yet. Nice.

Besides...we have Google now. You can learn anything you want within seconds. No more text books, that either the professor is hawking his book or you are paying too much for books written 5 yrs ago, only to "memorize and purge" the information...all in the same week.

I have a degree in business management...and have found zero benefit to it in my business, nor would I ever mention it to a prospect.

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paigelee

14 years ago

Well having a degree would only be an edge if you want to be an employee for the rest of your life. But for me so long as you have the guts and the determination to become successful then a degree or education really doesn't matter. There are a few who are earning billions, to name one, bill gates, who didn't have a degree but is very successful now.

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IdeaFool

14 years ago

I disagree with #8 above. I don't believe that having experience but no degree is useless. I think most people would prefer a person who is an expert in their field over someone who just last month got a degree from some backwater "university." I do not have a degree. I have had my success as a lobbyist and public relations consultant on pure networking, knowledge of the issues, personality, and experience. When I meet someone who needs help on a political issue and they ask me a question, I give them a well-worded response based on my experience. No B.S., no holding back. Often, this gets me the account. If I told someone to hire me because I just got a B.A. in PoliSci, I would get a polite smile and an even more polite introduction to the exit door. True, a degree AND experience is probably the best possible world, by no means is experience sans degree useless.

As people have stated above, experience without a degree can indeed be a hindrance when applying for a job. These same business people who hire me based on my experience would probably not hire me for another high-paying position because I do not have a degree. In fact, in any job advertisement this business person would probably REQUIRE a degree. It's a ridiculous contradiction in philosophy.

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DazedandConfused

14 years ago

@ IdeaFool - Ok, come clean...is this Karl Rove?

jk

Perhaps #8 is referring to credentials being a credibility factor in his niche -

i.e. : In this corner...Dr. Phil - vs. - In this corner...Tony Robbins -

(also, some of us have been there - ever get passed over for a higher position by a newbie with a degree, only to have to train them to do YOUR job AND their job?)

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IdeaFool

14 years ago

Originally Posted by DazedandConfused

@ IdeaFool - Ok, come clean...is this Karl Rove?

jk

Nope! I personally think Karl Rove is the devil incarnate, but that doesn't stop me from borrowing from his ideas and more ethical tactics. I may be in politics, but even I draw the line at a lot of things!

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Oggyoi 14 years ago

I have said for years, I'd rather take on the person who knows what they are doing through experience rather than a degree holder. This does apply to the job though.

Recruiting say a marketing manager;
If the degree is in marketing for example but they only graduated 6 months ago and the other candidate has 10 years and a contact list to die for... no contest.
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DazedandConfused

14 years ago

Originally Posted by IdeaFool

Nope! I personally think Karl Rove is the devil incarnate, but that doesn't stop me from borrowing from his ideas and more ethical tactics. I may be in politics, but even I draw the line at a lot of things!

I am SO relieved! - Thank God for That! I stand corrected! I was only ribbing you from the description.
He is exactly what you say...but he does prove part of our points - look at the kind of power position he has managed WITHOUT graduating from college!(sure, he went, to many - but he never got a degree) he was just an intern when he started...that is scary in many respects - From punk to pundit -

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sdentrepreneur

14 years ago

For me, its experience and references. Have at least 5 clients that are your biggest cheerleaders and then have your LinkedIn account with references on there as well. Many business owners are on LinkedIn and trust the recommendations.
We also are very Social Media heavy on our Offline Marketing offers, when I show a potential clients I have over 100,000 people in my Social Media following, then its a easy sell.

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Mel White

14 years ago

Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur

We also are very Social Media heavy on our Offline Marketing offers, when I show a potential clients I have over 100,000 people in my Social Media following, then its a easy sell.

There ya go! For all my education, I do NOT have over 100,000 people in my Social Media Following (though I do have a number of very bewildered friends.)

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Mel White

14 years ago

A two-pronged answer:

People don't ask if you have a degree -- and sometimes announcing it may be off-putting to them.

NOW... having said that... I have a Masters' that included some courses in marketing and management and I can safely say that the stuff (very very useful) I learned in those courses has held me in good stead throughout the years. The main degree was in computer science, in an era when they weren't really keen on women being managers, so I never got to use much of what I learned in a business setting. I did in social settings and in my own businesses.

And as a P.S., I've run into several fake "Doctors" in the online entrepreneurial world. Speaking as someone who is getting a PhD (in Information Science, complete with a paper discussing Eigenvectors and social analysis), I would sincerely like to drop-kick each of these frauds through the goal-posts of Utter Fail.

Yeah, I know... snarky and unkind. The thing is, you won't believe how MUCH you can learn about marketing at the weird, "trip to another universe", brain-wrenching knowledge exploration you have to do for a full PhD. (Masters' level is basically "I can suffer and write long research papers" kind of deal.)

(wow. topic drift!)

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SubUrbanHype

14 years ago

Thanks for all the opinons. I've been running into a few potential clients who all give me crap about I am too young (I'm 20) and inexperienced to be able to be in charge of somebody's marketing. Even though I have been doing IM for about 3 years, 2 years professionally, and have a long track record of success. And for some reason they still think I am too young and inexperienced, no matter what my rebuttal is. I think I just might not be selling myself right or positioning myself wrong or something.

These are the more high end potential clients that have been pressing me a little bit more, like the $1,000+ a month kind. Usually I can get the $200 a month type clients with not so much of a problem. But I am noticing what others have been saying about them being a major pain and not worth the headache.

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DazedandConfused

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype

Thanks for all the opinons. I've been running into a few potential clients who all give me crap about I am too young (I'm 20) and inexperienced to be able to be in charge of somebody's marketing. Even though I have been doing IM for about 3 years, 2 years professionally, and have a long track record of success. And for some reason they still think I am too young and inexperienced, no matter what my rebuttal is. I think I just might not be selling myself right or positioning myself wrong or something.

These are the more high end potential clients that have been pressing me a little bit more, like the $1,000+ a month kind. Usually I can get the $200 a month type clients with not so much of a problem. But I am noticing what others have been saying about them being a major pain and not worth the headache.

Definitely don't sell yourself short. I worked in the Silicon Valley for many years as an Engineer, and some of the most surprising computer guys were whizkids who had been sleeping with a computer since they were 8-10yrs old...oddly, one of the brightest computer geeks I knew was 18, completely unworldly for the most part (he still had not bothered to learn how to drive, and we literally had to remind him to tie his shoes from time to time), A lot of people viewed him as "just a kid"...until he solved their problem they had been scratching their heads over. That kid knew computers like an Indy racing team knows cars...
And - he never graduated from high school, and was in constant fear he would get fired if the company found out he lied to get the job.

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IdeaFool

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype

Thanks for all the opinons. I've been running into a few potential clients who all give me crap about I am too young (I'm 20) and inexperienced to be able to be in charge of somebody's marketing. Even though I have been doing IM for about 3 years, 2 years professionally, and have a long track record of success. And for some reason they still think I am too young and inexperienced, no matter what my rebuttal is. I think I just might not be selling myself right or positioning myself wrong or something.

These are the more high end potential clients that have been pressing me a little bit more, like the $1,000+ a month kind. Usually I can get the $200 a month type clients with not so much of a problem. But I am noticing what others have been saying about them being a major pain and not worth the headache.

I have read this post over and over debating whether or not I should answer, as I tend to be overly honest sometimes which can be offensive to some. What I'll do is give general pointers that I would give to any business and let you cherry pick what you think may be useful.

1. What's the "image" of your company? Does the name command respect? Do the promotional materials look professional or do they look "trendy"? Are you incorporated or not? Little things like this can make a difference upon first glance.

2. What is YOUR image? This one is always a touchy subject and is one I usually have to approach with some delicacy and diplomacy. Folks tend not to like criticism of personal appearance or behavior. You mentioned that you are 20 y/o. Do you act 20? Or do you act 40 when you're in the presence of these higher end clients? How do you dress? Do you wear at least a conservative jacket and tie? Or do you dress like some Emo kid with piercings in his lip? I exaggerate, of course, but I do so to illustrate my point. Please understand that I mean no offense, however I believe that these are questions that must be asked.

On a side note regarding personal image, I was once counseling a friend who was looking for a job. She dressed like a Goth, had numerous piercings and visible tattoos, and could not understand why she wasn't getting hired after numerous interviews. I delicately let her know that appearance more than likely had something to do with it. She let me know that in her opinion people shouldn't judge a person's work abilities by that person's appearance. I informed her that although she was correct, in the REAL world things don't work like that, and perhaps she should find a job where her appearance would be of no concern. She ended up working at Hot Topic and was perfectly happy.

Remember that YOU are the expert in your field, and YOU must convince the prospect of that fact. Additionally, a good tactic is to sell yourself as a member of your prospect's team. To do that, you must fit in with the prospect's environment. I have found that it is often better to OVERdress for the initial sales talk, because it's easier to dress down for the 2nd talk than it is to convince someone you can dress up. First impressions mean a lot, to coin a cliche.

I hope I haven't offended, as doing so was not my goal. I am 40 y/o and will hire a 20 y/o who shows up at my office with a strong appearance, knowledge of subject and is willing to show me enough respect to dress professionally when asking ME for MY business. This reminds me of going to traffic court. I have always been appalled at how many people show up in front of a judge wearing cut-off shorts, flip-flops and wife beaters. They don't get much play, believe me. I have gone to court (and I go wearing a suit that makes me look like a lawyer) and have had my traffic citation dismissed simply because the judge appreciated that I showed him and his court enough respect to dress appropriately. Believe me: This made a life-long impression on me!

I hope this has been helpful, and I hope you have incredible success.

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brett301005

14 years ago

It's pretty much:

Formal Education v's Informal Education (As long as you keep learning)

I know some others doing "Teaching Degree's" that once they graduate only 50% of them will get jobs as they are mostly Governement positions.

The Collage is happy to take their money and provide the training knowing that many will not work in that field.

I know some pretty smart people that dropped out of collage and still do courses on a regular basis to learnt what they need to get to their next goal.

I had a friend drop out as he was doing a Business Degree, he said they were not teaching him how to build a business, only work in someone elses. He got himself a Business Coach and started his own business. He figured if it cost the same at least he would own the business at the end of the 3 years.

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suitdoor

14 years ago

I prefer experience rather than a degree. If you know how to do work then you don't need a degree.

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r2r

14 years ago

Its important to have degree, but its more important to have experience in life. degree is just a theory base, but experience is practical base. There are many famous person who don't have degree but they are the king, because of experience. So experience is most.

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Seantrepreneur

14 years ago

@IdeaFool although your post count is low I would be willing to say you've contributed more helpful information in the small amount of post than ppl with 100s of posts. Keep up the good work!

I think what IdeaFool is 100% correct. I'm 26 now, but I still look young. I can tell you tho once I start talking to prospective clients about marketing they perk right up and forget about how young I look. That's also because I always dress and act professional. I've never been asked what degree I have (Bachelors in Finance) because they are confident after I tell them how they will benefit from working with me.

Don't worry about your age and instead just command respect from your words, actions and attire.

Good luck!!

Sean

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ephame

14 years ago

I know far too many that do a degree without checking to see if it will actually help them get into the career they want. Furthermore so many people just do a degree/ study at university because they haven't really worked out what to do yet and choose something quickly and continue the school life for a few more years.

I come from the "experience" side of these two groups and i wouldn't change my choice if i could, i wish i had found online marketing and advertising sooner but better late then never.

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Goldenboy

14 years ago

I'll go for both, since having a degree without experience is still useless. Why? What we have learned in school are mostly theories and knowledge. We apply these theories and knowledge to action becomes our experience. And experience without degree, although with an advantage, but employers nowadays are looking for that degree holder.
But then again, it is not the yardstick to be use for people to be successful since there are those who don't have their degree and lacks experience. But they have the determination and hard work, eventually some of them became more successful than degree holders.
I could still remember one of my college professors when he said, "We gained information, we acquired theories, the next question will be, how you will use them to prove these information and theories really says what they stated." (Although that is not the exact words that he stated, but the idea is something like that).

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Mutiny

14 years ago

I've been running my offline marketing business for 4 years, and never once have I ever had a client or prospect inquire about my education. I have a degree and 20 years experience in my profession, but the only people who care about that piece of paper are people who want you to be their 9-5 (or 9-9 or 6a-9p like my last job) slave. I'm not knocking day jobs by any means, as some people are more suited to them and more comfortable with the stability.

It's been my experience that clients are only interested in the results you can provide. The qualifications you have only help you to sell your service. When you deliver, they don't care if you were raised by wolves let alone if you ever went to college. It's much more important that you know what you're doing and can actually perform.