Skipping the degree paid off, but not the way people think

Everyone told me I needed a four year degree to get anywhere in IT, so I did a 6 month cert program instead back in 2021. That got me a help desk job in Columbus, and honestly the real win was learning to automate my boring tasks early, not the cert itself. Anyone else find that hands on experience beats credentials when you actually start applying?

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jessica_miller23d ago

...and that's the thing, the cert is just the foot in the door, but people act like it's the whole staircase. I've hired a few folks over the years and honestly, the ones who can show me a script they wrote to fix their own dumb task, that tells me way more than a degree name. The only part I'd gently push back on is the timing, because 2021 was a hiring frenzy where everyone was desperate, so it's easier to skip degrees when companies are throwing jobs at anyone with a pulse. Now you're seeing more folks with degrees and certs fighting for the same help desk spot, so that hands on stuff is still gold, but it's not gonna auto win like it did a few years back. Keep building those automations though, that's the real career insurance, not any piece of paper.