Yes, it teaches us not to lie on our resume, not to leave a
misimpression or omission about our credentials.
But why did
Walmart’s former
Vice President of Communications David Tovar feel the need to demonstrate
he graduated from college?
I can’t
speak for him but we know the answer… it’s because he needed the degree.
You
need to graduate from college if you want to make a living wage working for
someone else. Like most employers, Walmart will not hire you for salaried sales or management without a college degree (
example).
 |
| Want a living wage? Want to be a VP someday? Finish college. |
I’ve been reading Michael Ellsberg’s
The
Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won’t Learn in College About How to
Be Successful and other anti-college writing. The common position is that people do not need a college degree, pointing to many rich, entrepreneurial
people as examples (High-tech company founders, information sales people, etc).
And while I found I agreed with Ellsberg on many practical things
that are wrong with higher education (and he has some great networking tips), the anti-college argument ultimately fails
as a good career planning approach.
First, a college degree or postsecondary training credential
is necessary for most living-wage employment in this country;
the
statistics about unemployment and salaries do not lie. One reason employers require a
college degree or post-secondary training credential in hiring is because it’s an
easy way to screen people out, to narrow the hiring pool.
So many people are looking for jobs;
employers can afford to be picky. Also, minimum job qualifications like an
educational degree are legally necessary in a world where equal rights laws
guard against discrimination. So does it really make sense to voluntarily cut
yourself off from millions of jobs?
The anti-college crowd argues that you can creatively sell
yourself into a job and if that doesn’t work (that employer must be an
unimaginative boob), then start your own business. Having been happily
self-employed myself at one time, I get the freedom, flexibility and success that
can give you.
But self-employment and entrepreneurship is not for
everyone. Not everyone has a strong
Enterprising
Holland personality type, someone who likes to and is good at persuading,
leading, and selling things or ideas. Or is an
extrovert.
And while I agree with Dan Pink and many others that sales skills are needed in
nearly every job now, to advise young people that a college degree is
unnecessary, substituting sales and marketing skills through self-employment,
is a naïve oversimplification of our work world. That's as bad as saying a college degree = a high-paying job.
Self-employment
should always be a fallback option, if not a promising option for some. Having
practiced labor and employment law for 10 years, I think people should be
prepared, as a matter of emotional and financial survival, to be out of a job
at any time, for any reason. But being prepared also means having proof of skills and education to support a job search.
If Mr. Tovar was so good at his job (it sounds like he was, given his planned promotion), he should not have needed a degree. I believe that it’s what people do, not their credentials, that matter most. But that’s not the economy and human resources legal reality we’re in.
I hope and suspect Mr.
Tovar will successfully bounce back from his mistake. Tellingly, it sounds like
he will start by completing his degree.
