To degree up or not to degree up for an IT career: What’s your New Year’s resolution?

By Michael Goul  |  Chairman, Department of Information Systems

On January 14, 2015, Computerworld ran a feature story by Mary K. Pratt titled, “Degree-free IT: Can college-skippers thrive in tech?” One week later, ASU’s President Michael Crow made a public presentation on the topic, “A Community Conversation — Is College Worth It?” If you think I am about to set up an interesting juxtaposition of positions of the two, you are exactly right. Should you include earning a degree in preparation for an IT career as one of your 2015 New Year’s resolutions? If you’ve already included advancing your education as a resolution for this new year, statistics show that you are among the 47 percent who have similar aspirations. Computerworld’s article cites a 2013 poll of a mix of IT workers from across many industries, including degree holders and those who don’t have degrees.

The poll found that 45 percent say college isn’t worth the cost and effort, and 41 percent say it is (14 percent are undecided). Some analysts say the perception that college isn’t worth it is rooted in the fact that IT is currently a high demand field, and that the experiences of role models such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg suggest that dropping out of college is acceptable. Finally, if one bypasses college, gets hot certifications, takes online classes and studies alone, all of that comes at a lower cost than a four-year or even two-year degree. The Thiel Fellowship goes even further: it financially supports young people who possess the best entrepreneurial prospects and abilities while they forego higher education. This logic examines the value of a higher education from an individualistic, personal cost/benefit optimization perspective, concluding that a college degree is being thought of as a "private good.” Some in IT without degrees don’t want to move into management, which many recruiters believe would require a degree. Recruiters often target both degreed and non-degreed candidates, and such hiring decisions depend on the nature of the position.

However, Computerworld quoted Darin Matuzic, senior technical recruiter at Riveria Partners, that “companies will say they’re open to those without degrees, but they’ll always (hire) the person from the good school first.” Other recruiters apparently indicate they will relax the requirement of a degree for lower and middle level positions, but for higher-level positions, there isn’t so much leeway. So what’s at play, here? The degree matters some of the time, not others? And if the degree doesn’t matter so much, why is it that university quality perceptions are a key recruiter consideration? In Michael Crow’s analysis, there are different levels of abstraction for contemplating the value of a higher education. There is an individual perspective where one key is to ensure a degree prepares a person to be a ‘master learner.’ In a society where the specifics of what one has learned might soon become obsolete, learning how to learn has, by contrast, turned into an imperative.

Crow often greets new faculty by explaining, “We are here to create an environment for (our students) to be successful and to become master learners. We are here to create an environment where (our students) can become better citizens, more creative and entrepreneurial and more engaged in making the world a better place.” Clearly, Michael Crow sees the value of higher education from both a private and public good perspective. In his recent community conversation, he pointed out that for those without a college education, the recovery from the Great Recession has not occurred. He cites that as of March, 2013, the economy has 14.1 percent fewer jobs than in December of 2007, and employment for those with only a high school education has fallen even while it has grown for degree holders.

This underscores the fact that the level of college attainment is important to a nation’s or region’s competitiveness. For example, 207,000 Arizona State University graduates working in the state of Arizona in 2012 earned an aggregate $11.4 billion. These graduates contribute $819 million in taxes, and they raise Arizona’s gross state product by an estimated 3.5 percent. Advanced higher education degrees, including those in IT, are increasingly important. Sean Gallagher writes in Forbes, “increasingly, employers value the problem solving, critical thinking and technical skills that graduate-level education provides. According to job market information system firms that index and analyze millions of job openings such as Burning Glass Technologies, more than 20 percent of open positions in the U.S. economy today prefer or require graduate-level education — while only about 11 percent of the population holds an advanced degree.”

Michael Crow’s take is that earning a higher education degree pays at all levels of abstraction, and that a degree is both a private and public good. He cites convincing evidence. But does what is true of higher education in general translate to the information technology discipline specifically? One "Debbie-Downer" take is that technology itself is to blame for the fact we are having this discussion in the first place. Nobel Prize winner Robert Shiller claims there is widespread fear of technology and what it will mean to future generations and jobs. Shiller notes, "There's this increasing fear of technology, information technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printers, the Internet and all these different forms.

Technology seems to be changing life in such a fundamental way and what it's leaving people thinking is 'where will I be in 30 years? Look how fast everything is changing now. Where will my children be?” It’s not all gloom and doom according to futurist Thomas Frey. Frey lists 14 new skills employees will need, but what I find interesting is his next to the last statement: “It will, however, require a whole new level of system thinking to unleash these pent up ambitions.” Systems thinking has been at the heart of higher education in the information technology fields since their very beginning. It is a defining reference point.

IT is relevant to “our 100 trillion sensor future, 3D printing, Internet of things, big data, crypto currencies, driverless everything and extreme innovation.” The latter includes jobs such as, “avatar designers, global system architects, etc.” What’s interesting is that they feature information technology skills, knowledge and experience as front and center requirements. They are also hotbeds of rapid change, where possessing the mindset of a master learner will be the key differentiator. Maybe it is time to take another look at your New Year resolutions for 2015. Maybe you’ve already stumbled on some of them, but there is still time to act on others, especially if your aspirations include higher education. Check out your options at the undergraduate and graduate levels here. Start on your path to be a master learner in preparation for an IT-rich economic future.